Ride with Norman Reedus (2016) s01e04 Episode Script
Texas: Twisted Sisters
1 Look at this turn.
That's a 45-degree angle right there.
Lamagno: Oh, we're twisting the sisters? - Welcome to "From Dusk Till Dawn.
" - No way.
This is a 30-acre film studio here.
So I kind of shoot the movies here, dream them up here.
Yeah! It seems like Texas has its own independence.
You can sort of smell gasoline in the air, but it still has, like, a super artsy vibe to it.
Holy [bleep.]
! Alamo.
Lamagno: It's home on the range, baby.
(theme music playing) Reedus: You know, I remember seeing Texas in the movies.
I was around 14, 15 and just waiting for something to happen.
There was James Dean in "Giant" standing 15 feet tall and looking badass as hell against this epic landscape.
So I watched every Western I could get my hands on, just dreaming about Texas.
Everyone knows Texas is unlike anywhere else.
There's a reason it's been the home of outlaws and renegades.
It's got an independent spirit that's still drawing in artists, musicians, and people who just don't play by the rules.
Austin really is like a home away from home for me.
I really like the city's thriving art and the tech and the music scenes.
One of my favorite bands, The Well, they're gonna play tonight.
So I'm in town and I'm gonna check them out.
With a couple days off, I'm jumping at the chance to take a short ride to somewhere I've never been before.
I invited Jake Lamagno, a friend and New York-based artist to meet me down here so we can ride some of these Texas back roads.
We'll start our ride here in Austin, then head west through the Hill Country to ride the legendary Twisted Sisters before ending up in San Antonio.
I got a tip about a rising star on the custom bike scene out there and I'm excited to go check him out.
Austin's easy riding, but Hill Country, that's a whole other story.
So I'm riding my custom Triumph Tiger 800 XCx.
With traction control and a triple engine, it's the perfect bike for twisty roads.
Jake just got in from New York and I'm meeting him at Pump Project, a local gallery and art collective.
("Hollywood" playing on radio) - Yo.
- Yo.
- Where are you? - Over here.
(laughs) What's up, buddy? - Hey, brother.
- Nice to see you, man.
Reedus: Jake's a super talented mixed media artist from New York.
His art explores themes of death and decay through the use of reclaimed wood, old hardware, and precious metals.
Jake's also a former pro skater who just recently got into biking.
He hasn't ridden much outside New York, so I'm looking forward to getting him out on that open road.
What are you working on? I decided to make some targets and bring some vintage targets to play around with.
You know, we're in Texas.
Why not shoot some guns? You're making these so we can go shoot guns at them? Yeah, see what kind of designs we can make in them, then stretch them.
Reedus: Shooting up homemade targets, I love it.
See, that's one of the reasons we're friends.
This is kind of your thing, like gold and silver.
Gold, yeah.
This is sterling silver.
And then this is 24 well, 23-and-a-half-karat gold.
Is this like when you eat chocolates that have gold on them? Yeah, to be honest, it's the same [bleep.]
.
- Eat it.
- Yeah, I mean, I'll eat it.
Egyptians ate it.
They lived forever.
And we've never actually been on a ride together.
We haven't.
That's what's special about this.
(blows) I'm excited to be just riding.
Just to get out on the open road, you know? New York City is a bit confined, so - All right, finish up here so we can roll.
- Let's do it.
Reedus: There's one place here in Austin I keep hearing about Limey Bikes.
They only work on vintage Japanese bikes, which are known for their groundbreaking design and build quality.
Take care.
Reedus: So I ask one of the owners to meet us here and take us to his shop.
- Hey, Elijah.
- Hey.
Where are you? How's it going, dude? How's it going? Elijah, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Is this your bike out front? - Yeah.
- Show us your bike.
It's an old XS 850 race engine punched out to a 666 motor just 'cause it's kind of a fun number.
- It looks cool.
- Thanks, man.
- Show us Limey Bikes.
- Yeah, yeah, you guys want to check out the shop? I would love to see it.
Show it to us.
- Yeah, let's go, man.
- Yeah, let's go.
Let's go.
- (laughs) - I love your laugh.
- Thanks, man.
- How far away is it? It's like 10 minutes up the road.
It's getting there.
Reedus: Jake's riding a vintage 1977 Sportster that he just finished fixing up.
Since he's only ridden it on city streets, this will be a great way for him to open it up and see how it rides.
(horns honking) (laughs) That sounds like a car.
Welcome to my shop.
Wow, I like it.
I like this El Camino.
Reedus: Are these all your bikes right here that you work on? - Elijah: Yeah.
- I like this guy right here.
Awesome.
Dude, you hear this from cafe racer a lot, man.
This is like 750 kit, shell race cam, race carbs.
We just retuned it.
It's a friggin' beast.
It's probably the only XS that'll, you know, top 130.
- Really? - Yeah, they're not really built for it, but this thing is a squirrelly power monster.
- It's really pretty, this bike.
- Chris: Good morning.
- Yeah, so this is Chris.
- Don't worry about that thing.
- This is the Limey.
- How are you, Dude? Norman.
- Fine, thank you.
- Nice to meet you.
Reedus: Chris Kelland is a British motorcycle guru who teamed up with Elijah four years ago.
And their exclusively vintage approach is a huge hit here in Austin.
- Show us your bike.
- Elijah: Yeah, check it out.
We pretty much resurrect the dead most of the time.
There's a lot of people in Austin that love the look and the feel of these old vintage bikes and they try and well, they usually buy them for way too much money and then we have to fix them.
- How old is this guy right here? - That one's a '66.
Chris: It's a 305 Dream.
We're doing a partial restoration on that one.
Elijah: That's why it's in so many pieces.
They're terrible to ride.
No suspension, they bounce, there's no dampening or anything.
They just flop around the road.
The oldest Japanese bike we've ever worked on is a 1954 Maruichi, which was actually really difficult because you cannot for love nor money buy parts for it.
We had to make a drive belt out of basically a fan belt.
- Yeah, a fan belt.
- That's like Cuba.
Like, if they need a spark plug, they'll build a spark plug.
- Absolutely.
- Are you unique to having a shop in Austin that's doing this? Kind of the only people that just do Japanese.
Yeah, we are the only shop that specializes specifically in vintage Japanese.
We cut off at '83.
So nothing past 1983.
Shops that try to do everything generally don't do anything well.
So I've always been a big advocate of specialization.
Honestly, I love the vintage stuff for a number of reasons.
I think, well, first of all, they look cool.
Secondly, there's a lot you can do to them to make them your own.
It's just a labor of love most of the time.
There's something really satisfying about bringing a bike back from the dead.
A lot of the stuff we deal with hasn't run in, like, 20, 30 years.
We do it all the time.
You see these things at the airport - like, "Keep Austin Weird.
" - Elijah: Yeah.
Austin's Texas, but it's like its own little thing.
- Yeah.
- Explain that to me.
Uh, it's a weird dichotomy of, like you know, you see, like, very left-wing political stickers on someone's lifted truck with a shotgun in the back.
- I have to say, Austin is pretty unique.
- It is, yeah.
Elijah: It's why everyone's moving here, man.
You can sort of smell gasoline in the air, but it still has, like, a super artsy vibe to it.
Honestly, before I came to Texas, generally, I really thought everyone just rode a horse and had a shotgun strapped to them.
But, yeah, Austin is quite a surprise, I suppose.
Reedus: I'm really impressed with the artistic edge to what Chris and Elijah do.
The whole process from scavenging for rare parts to Frankensteining bikes.
- Thank you, guys.
- Oh! - Thanks, man.
- It was a pleasure, man.
Reedus: When they can't find what they need, what do they do? They figure it out.
I love that kind of guerilla attitude.
It's not often you find people working on Japanese bikes anyway.
It's a niche that they're passionate about and they've made it a success.
Lamagno: Thank you, I apprec oh! Reedus: And they're also really good to have around when your battery dies.
Let me get a picture of you fixing your motorcycle so I can, like, give you [bleep.]
.
(laughs) (motor running) ("Rock Boots" playing) That should do it.
It's a little jittery.
Is it in there? Staying in there? Thank you, brother.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, my man.
Rock and roll to the very early morning All right, let's do it.
Yo, thanks, bro.
Rock and roll, got a dollar in my pocket Reedus: Now that Jake's bike is up and running, we're headed across town to Troublemaker Studios to meet Robert Rodriguez, director of two of my favorite films "El Mariachi" and "Sin City.
" Coming through.
Rock and roll, 'cause I'm sleeping with my boots on On the floor of Wonder Woman's place Rock and roll, spinning round and round my pistol Save my soul, save my song, yeah, yeah, yeah Reedus: I met Robert through Greg Nicotero, an executive producer on "The Walking Dead.
" He told me that I had to get down here and check out Robert's place.
I got to have it Rock and roll.
Oh, look at this road.
Did you start making films in Texas - and just stay here? - Yes.
Yeah.
That's "Sin City" and "Sin City 2.
" (music playing) Holy [bleep.]
! So beautiful.
The thing about it here is you look like you're in some little warehouse district that's just businesses, and then there's some, like, hip restaurant or some hip coffee shop.
This looks like a prison.
Reedus: We're at Troublemaker Studios, home base of cinematic mastermind Robert Rodriguez.
1,300 miles away from Hollywood, Robert is the ultimate renegade and he's got a rep as a one-man film crew.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Welcome to Troublemaker Studios.
This is crazy.
Let me take this off.
- Good to see you, dude.
- Good to see you, brother.
- Yeah, man.
- Finally.
Finally we get to meet up in Austin.
Yeah, dude.
Robert, this is Jake.
- Hey, how are you? Good to meet you, man.
- How you doing, man? Reedus: How cool is this? Oh, my God.
This is my green screen I've had since about 15 years.
I've done "Sin City.
" These green things here, the stairs - Yeah? - That's "Sin City" and "Sin City 2.
" Those are the sets.
The whole movie was shot right here.
It would just be a couple of actors, maybe one prop, and everything else was just imagined.
Reedus: It's crazy that I can see it in my head now.
- Yeah, it's weird.
- You know what I mean? It's wild.
What was this, an airplane hangar? This was the old airport.
This was a hangar where they kept the governor's plane back in the day.
This is a 30-acre film studio here.
So I kind of shoot the movies here, dream them up here.
You got everything that you need to kind of make a movie happen.
Everybody's been telling me to come here and check like Greg.
Oh, yeah, our mutual friend Greg Nicotero.
Did you start making films in Texas and just stay here? Yeah, I didn't think I'd ever make money at this.
I've been here 30 years.
I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, then came up here to go to the university to go to the film school.
And, you know, during my first year of film school, I actually went and made "El Mariachi.
" And so I was just in the business right away.
So I've been in the business a long time 'cause I started really young.
I was like 21.
We're beyond stuff being done in Hollywood 'cause we were first to shoot digital, to shoot green screen type movies.
3-D.
We were the first digital 3-D movie back in 2002.
We started shooting.
So, you know, we're always thinking outside of the box - 'cause you live outside of the box.
- Yeah, exactly.
No one watching what you're doing.
I love that you're so creative and you're the king.
You're, like, the boss.
- (laughs) Right, right.
- You know what I mean? It's great.
It's like, you know, "It's good to be the king.
" - You're the king.
- Yeah, yeah.
This is the Jesse James bike he built me for "Grindhouse.
" He's always trying to buy it back from me 'cause it's an amazing piece of work.
And it's a sweet, sweet ride.
- Reedus: Wow.
- Really, really well done.
- Can I sit on this? - Sure, absolutely.
It runs.
This is crazy, bro.
- God, it's just - It's I'm too short for this.
- This is a stretch for me.
- It's a yeah.
I mean, that's kind of how they do it.
It's even a stretch for me and they built it for me.
Oh, this one is an El Camino that we gave to Jesse James to turn into a I had seen these pictures of cartels and drug dealers in Mexico - that would armor their cars.
- Yeah.
So we had him armor it.
So this is real.
Jesse didn't know it's like a movie prop.
So be careful 'cause you can cut your hands on this thing.
- Does this run? - Yeah, we use it.
We jump it in "Machete Kills.
" Wow.
Dude, this is like I understand why you would never leave.
This is a fun place.
- Oh, no way.
No way.
- Welcome to "From Dusk Till Dawn.
" Wow.
Dude.
So this was an amazing set we built in LA for the original film.
So when we did the television series, we had to rebuild the bar.
We rebuilt it 'cause we just like it.
- Yeah.
- And we always use it.
Hey, I got some chow.
Reedus: Dang, man, thanks for the hospitality.
Rodriguez: Absolutely, man.
It's what we're all about.
Mm.
Wow.
You guys do taco everythings out here, right? - Breakfast tacos.
- Oh, yeah, love breakfast tacos.
- I just got the pepper.
- Mmm.
- Pepper just hit me.
- It hits you.
Where you headed in Texas of all the places? Yeah, we're going to San Antonio.
- My hometown.
- Yeah, tell us some things to see in San Antonio.
San Antonio has its own thing, I think, from the rest of Texas.
I mean, it's one of the biggest cities in the country, but it's very different from, say, Houston and Dallas.
And I find it just very homey.
It's partly because my family's still there, my parents are still there, but there's something really kind of just very peaceful and tranquil about it and just kind of beautiful.
What about the Alamo? Do people Oh, the Alamo.
Yeah, it's a cool place, but you can see why everybody got slaughtered in there.
The walls are so small.
You can hop over them.
Reedus: It's tiny.
Like, a tiny little place.
There's no way that's gonna fortify anything.
Anyway, thanks, dude.
Thanks for the food and the hospitality.
- You're so awesome.
- Absolutely.
- Thanks, guys.
See you soon, hopefully.
- Really appreciate it.
- I want to be you when I grow up.
- (laughs) Did I tell you I have a baby? It's weird.
Looks just like [bleep.]
Danny Trejo.
Oh, my God! [bleep.]
, dude! That is adorable.
He's got, like, the full tattoos.
Can I take a picture just for myself? Oh, my God, this is messed up, dude.
(laughs) On that note, wow.
Dude, thank you again.
I can't say it enough, dude.
Awesome, man.
(motors start) See you, dude.
Reedus: Robert's passion for film is contagious and I love that he's figured out a way to do his own thing so far from Hollywood.
That independence gives his film that extra edge and that's one of the things that makes him so special.
All right, let's go see some bands.
Go hear some music.
(people laughing, chatting) Reedus: Austin is definitely known for its music scene.
And tonight one of my favorite bands, The Well, are playing.
I heard about these guys a few years back.
Their music is super raw and electric.
Now I get to finally meet them.
Can I get a Jack and Coke? - Yeah.
- Thank you.
What's up? Hi.
I got Jack and Coke all over my hands, - but hi, I'm Norman.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Lisa.
- Hey, I'm Norman.
Nice to meet you, dude.
- Ian.
Nice to meet you.
- Jason.
Pleasure to meet you, man.
- Nice to meet you, man.
Wow, this is a cool spot.
- Jake, nice to meet you.
- We'll sit right here.
- I'm excited.
- So what's up? Just touring through Austin.
We came to Austin.
We're going to San Antonio, I think, tomorrow.
Is this like a local spot you guys play all the time? Yeah, this is probably one of my favorite places to play.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Is it? Oh, right on.
Your song, "Mortal Bones," I love that song.
- Well, we might play it tonight.
- Yeah! Lisa: All right, y'all, we're The Well.
We're from Austin, Texas.
Thanks for coming out.
Yeah! ("Mortal Bones" playing) Dance through the sky Destiny unfolds Seated on a mountaintop Reedus: They really put their heart and their soul on the line when they play live.
And I know that's not easy.
Putting your work out there in the world, you're baring your soul.
And I respect anyone who's willing to do that.
(cheering) Ian: Thank you.
Oh, dude, good morning.
Good morning.
The Well was killer.
Seriously, though, they were awesome.
Yeah, they were great.
They were unbelievable.
Reedus: Day two it's time to head west.
Loved being in Austin.
The creativity of that city really inspires me.
But now we're headed to San Antonio and we'll probably get lost along the way.
- Look at this turn.
- Oh, we're twisting the sisters? This looks like "Down by Law" or something.
Dude, we're in San Antonio.
- (gunshot) - Man: Nicely done.
I'm trying to make a smiley face.
Wow, look to the right.
How pretty that is.
So beautiful.
Reedus: This area has some of the most famous roads in America.
I always think of Texas as flat, you know what I mean? But, like, there's hills here.
Beautiful, man.
- Reedus: Wow, look at this, dude.
- Breathtaking.
This road, it's so good.
("Hawk Nightingale" playing) Reedus: After riding 150 miles west of Austin, we're in Texas' famous Hill Country on Ranch Road 336, one of the three stretches that makes up the Twisted Sisters.
Look at this turn.
That's a 45-degree angle right there.
Oh, we're twisting the sisters? Reedus: Three roads famous for twisting and turning and incredible, untarnished views.
Lamagno: This is home on the range, baby.
rest your weary heart Reedus: Texas Hill Country is a vast, 31,000-square-mile chunk of land west of Austin and north of San Antonio that sits on the Edwards Plateau.
The rocks here are some of the oldest in Texas and the area is home to rare plants and animals you won't find anywhere else on the planet.
Look to the right.
- Ooh.
- Wow.
Reedus: After being in the city, being out here in the middle of nowhere is a welcome change.
Now this is Texas.
Whoo.
I like it right here, wherever this is.
Lamagno: Beautiful, man.
Look at the cows.
Oh! Hi, cows.
Moo.
We stopping at this gas station? Yeah! Oh, look at this road.
Look at this place.
Doesn't even look real.
Could go for some lunch soon.
- Yeah, I'm a little hungry.
- Look at these places.
We could find some cool [bleep.]
over here.
Reedus: Life is being lived at a different pace out here.
Feels like movie sets.
This is why I wanted to ride in Texas.
Taking detours on long, empty stretches of road.
No-frills food.
Some of the most down-to-earth people you'll ever come across.
Want to grab some food? Let's grab this brisket.
Oh, let's do that.
- Hey, hi.
- How are you? - Jake.
How are you? Nice to meet you.
- Bill.
Glad to meet you.
Reedus: So we were told the brisket is what we want to grab.
What's your most popular? We sell more brisket than anything else.
Okay, I think I want the brisket.
And you do a sandwich or just You can have either a sandwich or you can have a plate with potato salad and beans.
- I think I'll do that.
- And I'll do the sandwich.
- Okay.
- Thank you, man.
Reedus: Can I take a photo? I'm sort of I'm sort of documenting my trip.
- Yeah, that's good.
- Yeah.
I got this cool lens going.
I got this crazy filter on you.
Make really cool black-and-white photos.
It's cool.
That's cool, right? It's so big Texas is so big.
Like, you go from one area to the next and it's completely it's the same, but it's way different.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's in this little shop right here? I'm gonna check it out.
My name is Norman.
- Norman, Forrest.
- Nice to meet you, Forrest.
Pleasure, man.
All right, I'm gonna check it out.
Nice T-shirts and hats.
Ah.
Ooh, is this for sale? Is this real? "Sailors make good neighbors.
" I wonder if this is for sale or not.
- Lamagno: It's got to be.
- It's pretty dusty, bro.
Ooh, I think I like the blue.
[bleep.]
Twisted Sisters.
That's what we just did.
Did you see this tiny little Harley right here? So cool, right? That's an AMF Aermacchi.
- Yeah, crazy.
- They made those in Italy.
I was wondering if I could get a picture with you? - Of course.
- It's my birthday.
Sunglasses off so everybody knows it's for real.
Oh, my God, yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
- Yeah.
Happy birthday.
- Oh, my God, thank you.
Dude, this looks like "Down by Law" or something.
- Reedus: What's up? - Man: Hey, brother.
How are you? - I'm good, dude.
Nice to meet you.
- [bleep.]
, you, too.
She's all, "You got the 'Aequitas' tattoo.
You have to stop.
" Oh, you do? Show it to me.
- What? - Yeah, my brother's got the other one.
He's locked up right now, but he's got the other one.
Same tattoo? Right on.
I've got "Aequitas" and he's got "Veritas.
" - Yeah, man, yeah.
- All right, brother, it was very nice meeting you.
Nice to meet you.
Later, gator.
Y'all take it easy, you guys.
- So should we just jump on our bikes? - Yeah.
Let's do it.
Let's do that.
We'll cruise.
You know, this kind of reminds me of, like, some sort of safari park.
You know? I honestly feel like I'm about to see a zebra.
Reedus: Riding the Twisted Sisters is more beautiful than I ever expected it would be.
I totally see why everyone's been telling me it's one of the best rides in America.
See the mountain range? What a perfect place to ride bikes.
There's a lot of vultures out here.
Reedus: We've got miles to cover before we crash tonight.
Tomorrow it's the final stretch to San Antonio.
Lamagno: Texas, baby.
- Hey, Norman.
- Yeah, bro? High five, bro.
My bike just stalled.
Dude, we're in San Antonio! - Smells like barbecue.
- (gunshots) You can dress up your stock parts, and that's what I've done.
Want to see chicken [bleep.]
bingo? - You got a lot of hair going on.
- Dude, I do.
And it's a pain in the butt every time I put on a helmet.
- Does it just blow in the breeze? - Basically, yeah.
You'd think it would do that.
No, it just weighs too much.
It just hangs straight down unless you get on the highway.
And then I look ridiculous 'cause it's just one Can I weigh your hair? I just want to see what this would be like.
Dude, you're not even the first person to ask.
Wow, you got a whole thing going on right here.
Yeah.
(laughs) - Wow.
Good laugh, by the way.
- Thanks, man.
Where did you get this laugh from? Yeah, I don't know.
When I was a kid, I never laughed, like, out loud.
But somewhere around 15 or 16, we were imbibing in something and I just started laughing and couldn't stop.
- And like ever since then, it just stuck.
- It's awesome.
Yeah, my laugh is kind of like (snickers) - (laughs) - You know what I mean? Like the opposite.
- (both laugh) - Thanks, man.
Reedus: Morning in Hill Country.
We're riding 75 miles south to San Antonio where I found a gun range that specializes in vintage guns.
So we can get that full Old West experience.
That's my horn.
- Horn check.
- (horn beeps) Oh, did you see that skeleton back there? Should we go get it? A full, intact ribcage of a deer.
Dead armadillo.
- Armadillo? - Yeah.
I just want to stretch my legs for a second.
(groans) Norman, Texas gas stations are supposed to be good, right? I'm loving this motorcycle right now.
I would do a cross-country trip on that bike so fast.
I hope we get on another ride like we were on yesterday.
- We find a stretch of road like that.
- That was so fun.
Yeah, look.
Schott's Meat Market.
Schott's Taxidermy right there.
I've been taking crazy awesome photos on this trip.
You have.
You want me to hang from that Schott Taxidermy sign? - Hang from it? - Yeah.
Yeah, go hang from it.
I'll take a picture.
- Can you reach that high? - I don't know.
I know you're a tall guy and all, but What's that say? No, there's nothing to hang from.
- Yeah.
- (camera clicks) Stay right there.
- (camera clicks) - (laughs) Right on.
This is an artsy-fartsy trip.
Lamagno: This is great.
Reedus: Yeah, this is awesome.
- Hey, Norman.
- Yeah, bro? High five, bro.
No one will even get this.
Deep in the heart of Texas.
(motor sputtering) My bike just stalled.
- What the [bleep.]
? - Does it have gas in it? Reedus: You know, when you're riding, stalling out, it's just part of the deal.
Things happen and you just go with the flow.
It's funny, though, when it happens right before you get to your destination.
Good, good.
Let's go.
Reedus: We're in San Antonio.
Dude, we're in San Antonio.
- We're in San Antonio? - We made it, yeah.
- Say welcome to San Antonio.
- San Antonio! Reedus: Now we finally made it to San Antonio.
Announcer: All roads lead to San Antonio, one of the most interesting and historic cities in the United States and home of the immortal Alamo.
Here in 1836 in a battle against thousands of Mexican soldiers, a handful of men refused to surrender and fought and died to the last man for the Republic of Texas.
Reedus: While we may have lost that battle, it continues to represent the independent spirit of Texas, which we've definitely found on this trip.
Lamagno: Yeah, this looks like we're getting somewhere you can shoot [bleep.]
.
- Reedus: Yeah, right? - What's the name of the place? - Is there a sign? - Right here.
Left.
All right.
All right, we're going.
- Ready? - Yup.
Reedus: Next stop, San Antonio Western Shooting.
Before we start shooting, we need to finish those targets Jake and I started back in Austin.
- Pop, pop.
- (gunshots) What do you do when you hear that in New York? (gunshots) ("Make Your Move" playing) Reedus: I'm a huge fan of graffiti art.
When I first moved to New York, I was friends with a bunch of graffiti artists and I've always loved it ever since.
Tell me what you're gonna do When the sun goes down Close your eyes, - Ooh! - (rattling) Garbage.
Oh, make a move, oh, make a move Sculpting, dude.
Gonna make this mother [bleep.]
the devil.
Oh, make your move, oh, make your move Reedus: Can't say I've ever shot anything I've tagged before.
First time for everything, I guess.
All right, let's go learn about guns.
Wow.
How's it going over here? What's happening? - You guys look awesome, by the way.
- Thank you.
- I'm Norman.
Nice to meet you.
- I'm Bill.
- Pleased to meet you, sir.
- Nice to meet you, Bill.
Hi.
- Jake.
How are you? - Jake, pleasure to meet you, sir.
- How are you, sir? Nice to meet you.
- How you doing, Norman? You know, we made these targets.
Is it possible to put them up and blow some holes in them? - Is that all right? - You can just staple them up there and ptth.
- Oh, that would be great.
That'd be awesome.
- We shoot it with white powder.
Do you only have older guns here? Is that the specialty? Yeah, we only use Old West style guns here.
All right.
All right.
- And that stays right there.
- You got it.
Let's come on down here and we'll get you guys started.
You look like the bad guy.
Are you the bad guy? I am the easiest going good guy you'll ever meet, partner.
- I'm usually the bad guy.
- I know.
Big fan, by the way.
- Oh, thanks, man.
- My wife is going to be - she's gonna be pissed that she wasn't here.
- (laughs) It was real typical in the Old West that they would load five.
So I loaded one, skipped one.
And finished loading it on out.
And I pull the hammer on back to do a full cock.
Rotated the cylinder one time.
Flush this way and centered in the little notch.
- Okay.
- And you build an ice cream cone.
Whatever you want to shoot sits on top.
This is your cone.
- (pings) - Oop, missed the head.
If you anticipate, you may drop it a little bit.
Just a gentle squeeze.
Let it be a surprise.
- (pings) - Nicely done.
I'm trying to make a smiley face.
- You ready to do that quick demo? - Bill: Yes.
The proper way's been demonstrated to hold the pistol is two hands here.
We don't want you treating it like a telephoto lens.
And I'm gonna show you why here real quick.
Range is going hot.
(gunshot) That's why you don't want your fingers up front.
Because in order for this cylinder to turn, there has to be a gap.
Well, hot gasses, powder, and bits of lead come out there and it'll be damn hard to hold a cold margarita with this hand for two weeks.
I'm gonna try to hit that yellow bottle way back there.
- (gunshot) - Hit it! - Got it! - I hit it! Yeah, you got that on camera, right? I'm just checking.
Man: What we can do here, if you'd like, we can put your art up.
Usually we use Pierre here.
If you want the art, we can go ahead and put the art there.
Yeah, let's do it.
- Here we go.
- (stapler clicks) - All right, partner, I think we are in business.
- All right.
(gunshots) - Reedus: Right in her cheek.
- [bleep.]
her! Lamagno: Holy [bleep.]
! Son of a bitch.
I'll do a side thing.
- See what that looks like.
You know what I mean? - Yeah.
Reedus: There's something I really like about destroying something you just made.
In the end, it becomes part of it.
- Very nice.
- Arts and crafts with bullets.
Straight out of Compton, homie.
Now, did y'all want to go ahead and shoot these other targets, too? Yeah.
Let's see how badly I messed this guy up.
I want to come back and just spend a week here and just blow things up.
- It is a very unusual business.
- Yeah? - That's all you can say about it.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Reedus: This place is straight out of those old Westerns.
- Thank you, guys, so much.
- Our pleasure.
Pleasure, man.
Thank you so much, sir.
- Yeah, thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
- Our pleasure.
Pleasure, man.
Reedus: Just looking around, you can tell that these guys are self-reliant Texans and proud of it.
- That was fun.
- That was great.
- (laughs) - Released a little steam.
Reedus: We're headed downtown to drop in on Colt Wrangler.
His place is the hub of the San Antonio custom bike scene and the perfect place to end this trip.
- Wrangler: Jalapeño salt right there.
- Is that what that is? Reedus: What's going on right here? What is this? - This is my mom over here, actually.
- No way! Dude, your mom is a badass.
She's a [bleep.]
badass, dude.
Reedus: Last stop.
We're headed across town to meet up with young bike builder Colt Wrangler, who makes custom bikes from salvaged parts.
Look it.
It's the downtown.
- Smells like barbecue.
- Yeah, I smell that.
- Alamo! - Alamo! Wow, it's so little.
Tell 'em Large Marge sent you.
Reedus: Yeah.
(laughs) It really was super tiny.
("Been Away So Long" playing) I woke up this morning With some bloodshot eyes Whiskey on my breath Some tequila on my mind And this low-down man Says I'm gonna do some time Gonna do some time Reedus: After a long day, Jake and I are looking forward to kicking back and just meeting some new friends.
Wow, what is this place? What's going on? - Hi, Norman.
Nice to meet you, man.
- Colt Wrangler.
- Nice to meet you, dude.
- It's my place.
- Oh, right on.
- Glad you came, man.
Reedus: Colt Wrangler is best known for his stripped-down and fast bikes and his pride in his work totally comes through.
- Cool spot.
- Yeah, yeah.
You want to see it? - Yeah, show me around.
- Yeah, let's check it out.
Oh, you're so sweet.
Thank you.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
What's going on right here? What is this? Jalapeño salt right there.
- Is that what that is? - San Antonio thing.
Nice.
Wow, this is delicious.
Thank you.
All right, show me around.
So, like, when I got this place, it was, like, knee-high with the weeds.
Reedus: Cool.
Why are there chickens right here? Well, 'cause of chicken [bleep.]
bingo.
Show me chicken [bleep.]
bingo.
You want to see chicken [bleep.]
bingo? (clucking) So you pick a number and you wait for the chickens to [bleep.]
on the square.
- That number, I guess, is, like, the winner.
- Oh, wow.
But what if the one's constipated and it takes forever? - Yeah, do we feed them? - I fed them a lot of corn and pork.
- Chickens eat pork? - They're carnivores.
Anything, man.
I didn't even know that.
Wow.
But if you throw, like, five chickens on there, you get a lot of [bleep.]
.
But if you do one, are we doing one chicken at a time? We may be just sitting here twiddling our thumbs.
This is one of my buddy's trucks.
And this is where I work on bikes.
- Now, do you have partners? - No.
Just me.
- It's just you? - Dude, I was like I've been on tuna and saltines for, like, several months, dude.
- I've done that.
- Yeah.
This is my mom over here, actually.
- She used to ride bulls.
- No way.
Get out of here.
She's a legend, dude.
She got on her first bull when she was 30 years old.
She rode bulls and bareback horses.
Didn't know nothing about it.
Grew up on a farm.
So I grew up on the pro rodeo circuit.
So I started riding when I was like eight.
Dude, your mom is a badass.
She's a badass, dude.
What's the difference between riding a horse and a bull? Horse is a little safer because a horse will jump over you.
Bulls, though, they're not gonna jump over you.
They're just gonna plow over you.
Are bulls out to [bleep.]
you up from the start? No, it just depends on the bull.
You know? But some of these ones they have these days are like they're just rowdy.
Unreal.
I've never met a bull rider in my life.
- No way in hell.
- Shoot, I used to pay to get on, man.
That's how crazy it was.
- No way, Jose.
- Yeah, there's the shop.
- Wow.
- Very nice.
- This is my Sportster.
- This is awesome.
Yeah, show me.
You know those cube lights everybody's putting on their trucks? - Right, right.
- So I stripped it down, I tinted it yellow, and this screen I actually found in the yard.
This is a stock cover that I just chopped down.
And I opened it up and I put the screen here.
That's something out of nothing.
So if you can't spend $100-200 on an intake, like, you can dress up your stock parts.
And that's what I've done.
You know, I can't really afford paint.
And I really started really liking the raw metal, - so I just stripped it all down.
- I like the whole design of it.
I get a lot of parts, like, wrecks and stuff.
And a lot of the shops will throw their stuff out by the Dumpsters and you can just go there and get stuff.
Reuse, like, wrecked fenders, wrecked tanks.
They make awesome, like, cafe seat cowls.
Reedus: Dude, you're super fascinating.
I'll be glad when fascinating turns into steak dinners instead of tuna, so I'm getting there, man.
If you really want something, your actions will follow.
You know? Then you just do and you do and you do and the next thing you know, you end up with something that you really like.
- Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- You know? - It sort of has been the theme of Texas.
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
- Individuals become their own bosses and do it their way and think outside the box.
- You can here.
It's great.
- It's super interesting.
We got room to grow.
One, two, three.
Chicken [bleep.]
! Reedus: Colt is just starting out, but he's already proving that he's doing it the right way, using his surroundings to do what he wants the way he wants.
He's pulling himself up by his bootstraps and creating something unique and memorable.
And you know what? You got to wonder if he'd be able to do this anywhere else.
Look at mine.
It's, like, all weird.
I got me a girl.
Yee-haw! - That was fun, huh? - That was killer.
- Thank you, Norman.
- Yeah, buddy.
Reedus: The Texas I found on this ride really is the one I always dreamed of.
A breeding ground of rebels and artists.
There's an energy and vitality here in Texas that's unlike anything else.
From the creative hubs of Austin and San Antonio to the back roads of the Hill Country, this is one of those places in America that gives people the freedom to be whoever they want to be.
Texas is beautiful.
- Reedus: It's much better on a bike.
- Absolutely.
That's a 45-degree angle right there.
Lamagno: Oh, we're twisting the sisters? - Welcome to "From Dusk Till Dawn.
" - No way.
This is a 30-acre film studio here.
So I kind of shoot the movies here, dream them up here.
Yeah! It seems like Texas has its own independence.
You can sort of smell gasoline in the air, but it still has, like, a super artsy vibe to it.
Holy [bleep.]
! Alamo.
Lamagno: It's home on the range, baby.
(theme music playing) Reedus: You know, I remember seeing Texas in the movies.
I was around 14, 15 and just waiting for something to happen.
There was James Dean in "Giant" standing 15 feet tall and looking badass as hell against this epic landscape.
So I watched every Western I could get my hands on, just dreaming about Texas.
Everyone knows Texas is unlike anywhere else.
There's a reason it's been the home of outlaws and renegades.
It's got an independent spirit that's still drawing in artists, musicians, and people who just don't play by the rules.
Austin really is like a home away from home for me.
I really like the city's thriving art and the tech and the music scenes.
One of my favorite bands, The Well, they're gonna play tonight.
So I'm in town and I'm gonna check them out.
With a couple days off, I'm jumping at the chance to take a short ride to somewhere I've never been before.
I invited Jake Lamagno, a friend and New York-based artist to meet me down here so we can ride some of these Texas back roads.
We'll start our ride here in Austin, then head west through the Hill Country to ride the legendary Twisted Sisters before ending up in San Antonio.
I got a tip about a rising star on the custom bike scene out there and I'm excited to go check him out.
Austin's easy riding, but Hill Country, that's a whole other story.
So I'm riding my custom Triumph Tiger 800 XCx.
With traction control and a triple engine, it's the perfect bike for twisty roads.
Jake just got in from New York and I'm meeting him at Pump Project, a local gallery and art collective.
("Hollywood" playing on radio) - Yo.
- Yo.
- Where are you? - Over here.
(laughs) What's up, buddy? - Hey, brother.
- Nice to see you, man.
Reedus: Jake's a super talented mixed media artist from New York.
His art explores themes of death and decay through the use of reclaimed wood, old hardware, and precious metals.
Jake's also a former pro skater who just recently got into biking.
He hasn't ridden much outside New York, so I'm looking forward to getting him out on that open road.
What are you working on? I decided to make some targets and bring some vintage targets to play around with.
You know, we're in Texas.
Why not shoot some guns? You're making these so we can go shoot guns at them? Yeah, see what kind of designs we can make in them, then stretch them.
Reedus: Shooting up homemade targets, I love it.
See, that's one of the reasons we're friends.
This is kind of your thing, like gold and silver.
Gold, yeah.
This is sterling silver.
And then this is 24 well, 23-and-a-half-karat gold.
Is this like when you eat chocolates that have gold on them? Yeah, to be honest, it's the same [bleep.]
.
- Eat it.
- Yeah, I mean, I'll eat it.
Egyptians ate it.
They lived forever.
And we've never actually been on a ride together.
We haven't.
That's what's special about this.
(blows) I'm excited to be just riding.
Just to get out on the open road, you know? New York City is a bit confined, so - All right, finish up here so we can roll.
- Let's do it.
Reedus: There's one place here in Austin I keep hearing about Limey Bikes.
They only work on vintage Japanese bikes, which are known for their groundbreaking design and build quality.
Take care.
Reedus: So I ask one of the owners to meet us here and take us to his shop.
- Hey, Elijah.
- Hey.
Where are you? How's it going, dude? How's it going? Elijah, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Is this your bike out front? - Yeah.
- Show us your bike.
It's an old XS 850 race engine punched out to a 666 motor just 'cause it's kind of a fun number.
- It looks cool.
- Thanks, man.
- Show us Limey Bikes.
- Yeah, yeah, you guys want to check out the shop? I would love to see it.
Show it to us.
- Yeah, let's go, man.
- Yeah, let's go.
Let's go.
- (laughs) - I love your laugh.
- Thanks, man.
- How far away is it? It's like 10 minutes up the road.
It's getting there.
Reedus: Jake's riding a vintage 1977 Sportster that he just finished fixing up.
Since he's only ridden it on city streets, this will be a great way for him to open it up and see how it rides.
(horns honking) (laughs) That sounds like a car.
Welcome to my shop.
Wow, I like it.
I like this El Camino.
Reedus: Are these all your bikes right here that you work on? - Elijah: Yeah.
- I like this guy right here.
Awesome.
Dude, you hear this from cafe racer a lot, man.
This is like 750 kit, shell race cam, race carbs.
We just retuned it.
It's a friggin' beast.
It's probably the only XS that'll, you know, top 130.
- Really? - Yeah, they're not really built for it, but this thing is a squirrelly power monster.
- It's really pretty, this bike.
- Chris: Good morning.
- Yeah, so this is Chris.
- Don't worry about that thing.
- This is the Limey.
- How are you, Dude? Norman.
- Fine, thank you.
- Nice to meet you.
Reedus: Chris Kelland is a British motorcycle guru who teamed up with Elijah four years ago.
And their exclusively vintage approach is a huge hit here in Austin.
- Show us your bike.
- Elijah: Yeah, check it out.
We pretty much resurrect the dead most of the time.
There's a lot of people in Austin that love the look and the feel of these old vintage bikes and they try and well, they usually buy them for way too much money and then we have to fix them.
- How old is this guy right here? - That one's a '66.
Chris: It's a 305 Dream.
We're doing a partial restoration on that one.
Elijah: That's why it's in so many pieces.
They're terrible to ride.
No suspension, they bounce, there's no dampening or anything.
They just flop around the road.
The oldest Japanese bike we've ever worked on is a 1954 Maruichi, which was actually really difficult because you cannot for love nor money buy parts for it.
We had to make a drive belt out of basically a fan belt.
- Yeah, a fan belt.
- That's like Cuba.
Like, if they need a spark plug, they'll build a spark plug.
- Absolutely.
- Are you unique to having a shop in Austin that's doing this? Kind of the only people that just do Japanese.
Yeah, we are the only shop that specializes specifically in vintage Japanese.
We cut off at '83.
So nothing past 1983.
Shops that try to do everything generally don't do anything well.
So I've always been a big advocate of specialization.
Honestly, I love the vintage stuff for a number of reasons.
I think, well, first of all, they look cool.
Secondly, there's a lot you can do to them to make them your own.
It's just a labor of love most of the time.
There's something really satisfying about bringing a bike back from the dead.
A lot of the stuff we deal with hasn't run in, like, 20, 30 years.
We do it all the time.
You see these things at the airport - like, "Keep Austin Weird.
" - Elijah: Yeah.
Austin's Texas, but it's like its own little thing.
- Yeah.
- Explain that to me.
Uh, it's a weird dichotomy of, like you know, you see, like, very left-wing political stickers on someone's lifted truck with a shotgun in the back.
- I have to say, Austin is pretty unique.
- It is, yeah.
Elijah: It's why everyone's moving here, man.
You can sort of smell gasoline in the air, but it still has, like, a super artsy vibe to it.
Honestly, before I came to Texas, generally, I really thought everyone just rode a horse and had a shotgun strapped to them.
But, yeah, Austin is quite a surprise, I suppose.
Reedus: I'm really impressed with the artistic edge to what Chris and Elijah do.
The whole process from scavenging for rare parts to Frankensteining bikes.
- Thank you, guys.
- Oh! - Thanks, man.
- It was a pleasure, man.
Reedus: When they can't find what they need, what do they do? They figure it out.
I love that kind of guerilla attitude.
It's not often you find people working on Japanese bikes anyway.
It's a niche that they're passionate about and they've made it a success.
Lamagno: Thank you, I apprec oh! Reedus: And they're also really good to have around when your battery dies.
Let me get a picture of you fixing your motorcycle so I can, like, give you [bleep.]
.
(laughs) (motor running) ("Rock Boots" playing) That should do it.
It's a little jittery.
Is it in there? Staying in there? Thank you, brother.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, my man.
Rock and roll to the very early morning All right, let's do it.
Yo, thanks, bro.
Rock and roll, got a dollar in my pocket Reedus: Now that Jake's bike is up and running, we're headed across town to Troublemaker Studios to meet Robert Rodriguez, director of two of my favorite films "El Mariachi" and "Sin City.
" Coming through.
Rock and roll, 'cause I'm sleeping with my boots on On the floor of Wonder Woman's place Rock and roll, spinning round and round my pistol Save my soul, save my song, yeah, yeah, yeah Reedus: I met Robert through Greg Nicotero, an executive producer on "The Walking Dead.
" He told me that I had to get down here and check out Robert's place.
I got to have it Rock and roll.
Oh, look at this road.
Did you start making films in Texas - and just stay here? - Yes.
Yeah.
That's "Sin City" and "Sin City 2.
" (music playing) Holy [bleep.]
! So beautiful.
The thing about it here is you look like you're in some little warehouse district that's just businesses, and then there's some, like, hip restaurant or some hip coffee shop.
This looks like a prison.
Reedus: We're at Troublemaker Studios, home base of cinematic mastermind Robert Rodriguez.
1,300 miles away from Hollywood, Robert is the ultimate renegade and he's got a rep as a one-man film crew.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Welcome to Troublemaker Studios.
This is crazy.
Let me take this off.
- Good to see you, dude.
- Good to see you, brother.
- Yeah, man.
- Finally.
Finally we get to meet up in Austin.
Yeah, dude.
Robert, this is Jake.
- Hey, how are you? Good to meet you, man.
- How you doing, man? Reedus: How cool is this? Oh, my God.
This is my green screen I've had since about 15 years.
I've done "Sin City.
" These green things here, the stairs - Yeah? - That's "Sin City" and "Sin City 2.
" Those are the sets.
The whole movie was shot right here.
It would just be a couple of actors, maybe one prop, and everything else was just imagined.
Reedus: It's crazy that I can see it in my head now.
- Yeah, it's weird.
- You know what I mean? It's wild.
What was this, an airplane hangar? This was the old airport.
This was a hangar where they kept the governor's plane back in the day.
This is a 30-acre film studio here.
So I kind of shoot the movies here, dream them up here.
You got everything that you need to kind of make a movie happen.
Everybody's been telling me to come here and check like Greg.
Oh, yeah, our mutual friend Greg Nicotero.
Did you start making films in Texas and just stay here? Yeah, I didn't think I'd ever make money at this.
I've been here 30 years.
I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, then came up here to go to the university to go to the film school.
And, you know, during my first year of film school, I actually went and made "El Mariachi.
" And so I was just in the business right away.
So I've been in the business a long time 'cause I started really young.
I was like 21.
We're beyond stuff being done in Hollywood 'cause we were first to shoot digital, to shoot green screen type movies.
3-D.
We were the first digital 3-D movie back in 2002.
We started shooting.
So, you know, we're always thinking outside of the box - 'cause you live outside of the box.
- Yeah, exactly.
No one watching what you're doing.
I love that you're so creative and you're the king.
You're, like, the boss.
- (laughs) Right, right.
- You know what I mean? It's great.
It's like, you know, "It's good to be the king.
" - You're the king.
- Yeah, yeah.
This is the Jesse James bike he built me for "Grindhouse.
" He's always trying to buy it back from me 'cause it's an amazing piece of work.
And it's a sweet, sweet ride.
- Reedus: Wow.
- Really, really well done.
- Can I sit on this? - Sure, absolutely.
It runs.
This is crazy, bro.
- God, it's just - It's I'm too short for this.
- This is a stretch for me.
- It's a yeah.
I mean, that's kind of how they do it.
It's even a stretch for me and they built it for me.
Oh, this one is an El Camino that we gave to Jesse James to turn into a I had seen these pictures of cartels and drug dealers in Mexico - that would armor their cars.
- Yeah.
So we had him armor it.
So this is real.
Jesse didn't know it's like a movie prop.
So be careful 'cause you can cut your hands on this thing.
- Does this run? - Yeah, we use it.
We jump it in "Machete Kills.
" Wow.
Dude, this is like I understand why you would never leave.
This is a fun place.
- Oh, no way.
No way.
- Welcome to "From Dusk Till Dawn.
" Wow.
Dude.
So this was an amazing set we built in LA for the original film.
So when we did the television series, we had to rebuild the bar.
We rebuilt it 'cause we just like it.
- Yeah.
- And we always use it.
Hey, I got some chow.
Reedus: Dang, man, thanks for the hospitality.
Rodriguez: Absolutely, man.
It's what we're all about.
Mm.
Wow.
You guys do taco everythings out here, right? - Breakfast tacos.
- Oh, yeah, love breakfast tacos.
- I just got the pepper.
- Mmm.
- Pepper just hit me.
- It hits you.
Where you headed in Texas of all the places? Yeah, we're going to San Antonio.
- My hometown.
- Yeah, tell us some things to see in San Antonio.
San Antonio has its own thing, I think, from the rest of Texas.
I mean, it's one of the biggest cities in the country, but it's very different from, say, Houston and Dallas.
And I find it just very homey.
It's partly because my family's still there, my parents are still there, but there's something really kind of just very peaceful and tranquil about it and just kind of beautiful.
What about the Alamo? Do people Oh, the Alamo.
Yeah, it's a cool place, but you can see why everybody got slaughtered in there.
The walls are so small.
You can hop over them.
Reedus: It's tiny.
Like, a tiny little place.
There's no way that's gonna fortify anything.
Anyway, thanks, dude.
Thanks for the food and the hospitality.
- You're so awesome.
- Absolutely.
- Thanks, guys.
See you soon, hopefully.
- Really appreciate it.
- I want to be you when I grow up.
- (laughs) Did I tell you I have a baby? It's weird.
Looks just like [bleep.]
Danny Trejo.
Oh, my God! [bleep.]
, dude! That is adorable.
He's got, like, the full tattoos.
Can I take a picture just for myself? Oh, my God, this is messed up, dude.
(laughs) On that note, wow.
Dude, thank you again.
I can't say it enough, dude.
Awesome, man.
(motors start) See you, dude.
Reedus: Robert's passion for film is contagious and I love that he's figured out a way to do his own thing so far from Hollywood.
That independence gives his film that extra edge and that's one of the things that makes him so special.
All right, let's go see some bands.
Go hear some music.
(people laughing, chatting) Reedus: Austin is definitely known for its music scene.
And tonight one of my favorite bands, The Well, are playing.
I heard about these guys a few years back.
Their music is super raw and electric.
Now I get to finally meet them.
Can I get a Jack and Coke? - Yeah.
- Thank you.
What's up? Hi.
I got Jack and Coke all over my hands, - but hi, I'm Norman.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Lisa.
- Hey, I'm Norman.
Nice to meet you, dude.
- Ian.
Nice to meet you.
- Jason.
Pleasure to meet you, man.
- Nice to meet you, man.
Wow, this is a cool spot.
- Jake, nice to meet you.
- We'll sit right here.
- I'm excited.
- So what's up? Just touring through Austin.
We came to Austin.
We're going to San Antonio, I think, tomorrow.
Is this like a local spot you guys play all the time? Yeah, this is probably one of my favorite places to play.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Is it? Oh, right on.
Your song, "Mortal Bones," I love that song.
- Well, we might play it tonight.
- Yeah! Lisa: All right, y'all, we're The Well.
We're from Austin, Texas.
Thanks for coming out.
Yeah! ("Mortal Bones" playing) Dance through the sky Destiny unfolds Seated on a mountaintop Reedus: They really put their heart and their soul on the line when they play live.
And I know that's not easy.
Putting your work out there in the world, you're baring your soul.
And I respect anyone who's willing to do that.
(cheering) Ian: Thank you.
Oh, dude, good morning.
Good morning.
The Well was killer.
Seriously, though, they were awesome.
Yeah, they were great.
They were unbelievable.
Reedus: Day two it's time to head west.
Loved being in Austin.
The creativity of that city really inspires me.
But now we're headed to San Antonio and we'll probably get lost along the way.
- Look at this turn.
- Oh, we're twisting the sisters? This looks like "Down by Law" or something.
Dude, we're in San Antonio.
- (gunshot) - Man: Nicely done.
I'm trying to make a smiley face.
Wow, look to the right.
How pretty that is.
So beautiful.
Reedus: This area has some of the most famous roads in America.
I always think of Texas as flat, you know what I mean? But, like, there's hills here.
Beautiful, man.
- Reedus: Wow, look at this, dude.
- Breathtaking.
This road, it's so good.
("Hawk Nightingale" playing) Reedus: After riding 150 miles west of Austin, we're in Texas' famous Hill Country on Ranch Road 336, one of the three stretches that makes up the Twisted Sisters.
Look at this turn.
That's a 45-degree angle right there.
Oh, we're twisting the sisters? Reedus: Three roads famous for twisting and turning and incredible, untarnished views.
Lamagno: This is home on the range, baby.
rest your weary heart Reedus: Texas Hill Country is a vast, 31,000-square-mile chunk of land west of Austin and north of San Antonio that sits on the Edwards Plateau.
The rocks here are some of the oldest in Texas and the area is home to rare plants and animals you won't find anywhere else on the planet.
Look to the right.
- Ooh.
- Wow.
Reedus: After being in the city, being out here in the middle of nowhere is a welcome change.
Now this is Texas.
Whoo.
I like it right here, wherever this is.
Lamagno: Beautiful, man.
Look at the cows.
Oh! Hi, cows.
Moo.
We stopping at this gas station? Yeah! Oh, look at this road.
Look at this place.
Doesn't even look real.
Could go for some lunch soon.
- Yeah, I'm a little hungry.
- Look at these places.
We could find some cool [bleep.]
over here.
Reedus: Life is being lived at a different pace out here.
Feels like movie sets.
This is why I wanted to ride in Texas.
Taking detours on long, empty stretches of road.
No-frills food.
Some of the most down-to-earth people you'll ever come across.
Want to grab some food? Let's grab this brisket.
Oh, let's do that.
- Hey, hi.
- How are you? - Jake.
How are you? Nice to meet you.
- Bill.
Glad to meet you.
Reedus: So we were told the brisket is what we want to grab.
What's your most popular? We sell more brisket than anything else.
Okay, I think I want the brisket.
And you do a sandwich or just You can have either a sandwich or you can have a plate with potato salad and beans.
- I think I'll do that.
- And I'll do the sandwich.
- Okay.
- Thank you, man.
Reedus: Can I take a photo? I'm sort of I'm sort of documenting my trip.
- Yeah, that's good.
- Yeah.
I got this cool lens going.
I got this crazy filter on you.
Make really cool black-and-white photos.
It's cool.
That's cool, right? It's so big Texas is so big.
Like, you go from one area to the next and it's completely it's the same, but it's way different.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's in this little shop right here? I'm gonna check it out.
My name is Norman.
- Norman, Forrest.
- Nice to meet you, Forrest.
Pleasure, man.
All right, I'm gonna check it out.
Nice T-shirts and hats.
Ah.
Ooh, is this for sale? Is this real? "Sailors make good neighbors.
" I wonder if this is for sale or not.
- Lamagno: It's got to be.
- It's pretty dusty, bro.
Ooh, I think I like the blue.
[bleep.]
Twisted Sisters.
That's what we just did.
Did you see this tiny little Harley right here? So cool, right? That's an AMF Aermacchi.
- Yeah, crazy.
- They made those in Italy.
I was wondering if I could get a picture with you? - Of course.
- It's my birthday.
Sunglasses off so everybody knows it's for real.
Oh, my God, yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
- Yeah.
Happy birthday.
- Oh, my God, thank you.
Dude, this looks like "Down by Law" or something.
- Reedus: What's up? - Man: Hey, brother.
How are you? - I'm good, dude.
Nice to meet you.
- [bleep.]
, you, too.
She's all, "You got the 'Aequitas' tattoo.
You have to stop.
" Oh, you do? Show it to me.
- What? - Yeah, my brother's got the other one.
He's locked up right now, but he's got the other one.
Same tattoo? Right on.
I've got "Aequitas" and he's got "Veritas.
" - Yeah, man, yeah.
- All right, brother, it was very nice meeting you.
Nice to meet you.
Later, gator.
Y'all take it easy, you guys.
- So should we just jump on our bikes? - Yeah.
Let's do it.
Let's do that.
We'll cruise.
You know, this kind of reminds me of, like, some sort of safari park.
You know? I honestly feel like I'm about to see a zebra.
Reedus: Riding the Twisted Sisters is more beautiful than I ever expected it would be.
I totally see why everyone's been telling me it's one of the best rides in America.
See the mountain range? What a perfect place to ride bikes.
There's a lot of vultures out here.
Reedus: We've got miles to cover before we crash tonight.
Tomorrow it's the final stretch to San Antonio.
Lamagno: Texas, baby.
- Hey, Norman.
- Yeah, bro? High five, bro.
My bike just stalled.
Dude, we're in San Antonio! - Smells like barbecue.
- (gunshots) You can dress up your stock parts, and that's what I've done.
Want to see chicken [bleep.]
bingo? - You got a lot of hair going on.
- Dude, I do.
And it's a pain in the butt every time I put on a helmet.
- Does it just blow in the breeze? - Basically, yeah.
You'd think it would do that.
No, it just weighs too much.
It just hangs straight down unless you get on the highway.
And then I look ridiculous 'cause it's just one Can I weigh your hair? I just want to see what this would be like.
Dude, you're not even the first person to ask.
Wow, you got a whole thing going on right here.
Yeah.
(laughs) - Wow.
Good laugh, by the way.
- Thanks, man.
Where did you get this laugh from? Yeah, I don't know.
When I was a kid, I never laughed, like, out loud.
But somewhere around 15 or 16, we were imbibing in something and I just started laughing and couldn't stop.
- And like ever since then, it just stuck.
- It's awesome.
Yeah, my laugh is kind of like (snickers) - (laughs) - You know what I mean? Like the opposite.
- (both laugh) - Thanks, man.
Reedus: Morning in Hill Country.
We're riding 75 miles south to San Antonio where I found a gun range that specializes in vintage guns.
So we can get that full Old West experience.
That's my horn.
- Horn check.
- (horn beeps) Oh, did you see that skeleton back there? Should we go get it? A full, intact ribcage of a deer.
Dead armadillo.
- Armadillo? - Yeah.
I just want to stretch my legs for a second.
(groans) Norman, Texas gas stations are supposed to be good, right? I'm loving this motorcycle right now.
I would do a cross-country trip on that bike so fast.
I hope we get on another ride like we were on yesterday.
- We find a stretch of road like that.
- That was so fun.
Yeah, look.
Schott's Meat Market.
Schott's Taxidermy right there.
I've been taking crazy awesome photos on this trip.
You have.
You want me to hang from that Schott Taxidermy sign? - Hang from it? - Yeah.
Yeah, go hang from it.
I'll take a picture.
- Can you reach that high? - I don't know.
I know you're a tall guy and all, but What's that say? No, there's nothing to hang from.
- Yeah.
- (camera clicks) Stay right there.
- (camera clicks) - (laughs) Right on.
This is an artsy-fartsy trip.
Lamagno: This is great.
Reedus: Yeah, this is awesome.
- Hey, Norman.
- Yeah, bro? High five, bro.
No one will even get this.
Deep in the heart of Texas.
(motor sputtering) My bike just stalled.
- What the [bleep.]
? - Does it have gas in it? Reedus: You know, when you're riding, stalling out, it's just part of the deal.
Things happen and you just go with the flow.
It's funny, though, when it happens right before you get to your destination.
Good, good.
Let's go.
Reedus: We're in San Antonio.
Dude, we're in San Antonio.
- We're in San Antonio? - We made it, yeah.
- Say welcome to San Antonio.
- San Antonio! Reedus: Now we finally made it to San Antonio.
Announcer: All roads lead to San Antonio, one of the most interesting and historic cities in the United States and home of the immortal Alamo.
Here in 1836 in a battle against thousands of Mexican soldiers, a handful of men refused to surrender and fought and died to the last man for the Republic of Texas.
Reedus: While we may have lost that battle, it continues to represent the independent spirit of Texas, which we've definitely found on this trip.
Lamagno: Yeah, this looks like we're getting somewhere you can shoot [bleep.]
.
- Reedus: Yeah, right? - What's the name of the place? - Is there a sign? - Right here.
Left.
All right.
All right, we're going.
- Ready? - Yup.
Reedus: Next stop, San Antonio Western Shooting.
Before we start shooting, we need to finish those targets Jake and I started back in Austin.
- Pop, pop.
- (gunshots) What do you do when you hear that in New York? (gunshots) ("Make Your Move" playing) Reedus: I'm a huge fan of graffiti art.
When I first moved to New York, I was friends with a bunch of graffiti artists and I've always loved it ever since.
Tell me what you're gonna do When the sun goes down Close your eyes, - Ooh! - (rattling) Garbage.
Oh, make a move, oh, make a move Sculpting, dude.
Gonna make this mother [bleep.]
the devil.
Oh, make your move, oh, make your move Reedus: Can't say I've ever shot anything I've tagged before.
First time for everything, I guess.
All right, let's go learn about guns.
Wow.
How's it going over here? What's happening? - You guys look awesome, by the way.
- Thank you.
- I'm Norman.
Nice to meet you.
- I'm Bill.
- Pleased to meet you, sir.
- Nice to meet you, Bill.
Hi.
- Jake.
How are you? - Jake, pleasure to meet you, sir.
- How are you, sir? Nice to meet you.
- How you doing, Norman? You know, we made these targets.
Is it possible to put them up and blow some holes in them? - Is that all right? - You can just staple them up there and ptth.
- Oh, that would be great.
That'd be awesome.
- We shoot it with white powder.
Do you only have older guns here? Is that the specialty? Yeah, we only use Old West style guns here.
All right.
All right.
- And that stays right there.
- You got it.
Let's come on down here and we'll get you guys started.
You look like the bad guy.
Are you the bad guy? I am the easiest going good guy you'll ever meet, partner.
- I'm usually the bad guy.
- I know.
Big fan, by the way.
- Oh, thanks, man.
- My wife is going to be - she's gonna be pissed that she wasn't here.
- (laughs) It was real typical in the Old West that they would load five.
So I loaded one, skipped one.
And finished loading it on out.
And I pull the hammer on back to do a full cock.
Rotated the cylinder one time.
Flush this way and centered in the little notch.
- Okay.
- And you build an ice cream cone.
Whatever you want to shoot sits on top.
This is your cone.
- (pings) - Oop, missed the head.
If you anticipate, you may drop it a little bit.
Just a gentle squeeze.
Let it be a surprise.
- (pings) - Nicely done.
I'm trying to make a smiley face.
- You ready to do that quick demo? - Bill: Yes.
The proper way's been demonstrated to hold the pistol is two hands here.
We don't want you treating it like a telephoto lens.
And I'm gonna show you why here real quick.
Range is going hot.
(gunshot) That's why you don't want your fingers up front.
Because in order for this cylinder to turn, there has to be a gap.
Well, hot gasses, powder, and bits of lead come out there and it'll be damn hard to hold a cold margarita with this hand for two weeks.
I'm gonna try to hit that yellow bottle way back there.
- (gunshot) - Hit it! - Got it! - I hit it! Yeah, you got that on camera, right? I'm just checking.
Man: What we can do here, if you'd like, we can put your art up.
Usually we use Pierre here.
If you want the art, we can go ahead and put the art there.
Yeah, let's do it.
- Here we go.
- (stapler clicks) - All right, partner, I think we are in business.
- All right.
(gunshots) - Reedus: Right in her cheek.
- [bleep.]
her! Lamagno: Holy [bleep.]
! Son of a bitch.
I'll do a side thing.
- See what that looks like.
You know what I mean? - Yeah.
Reedus: There's something I really like about destroying something you just made.
In the end, it becomes part of it.
- Very nice.
- Arts and crafts with bullets.
Straight out of Compton, homie.
Now, did y'all want to go ahead and shoot these other targets, too? Yeah.
Let's see how badly I messed this guy up.
I want to come back and just spend a week here and just blow things up.
- It is a very unusual business.
- Yeah? - That's all you can say about it.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Reedus: This place is straight out of those old Westerns.
- Thank you, guys, so much.
- Our pleasure.
Pleasure, man.
Thank you so much, sir.
- Yeah, thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
- Our pleasure.
Pleasure, man.
Reedus: Just looking around, you can tell that these guys are self-reliant Texans and proud of it.
- That was fun.
- That was great.
- (laughs) - Released a little steam.
Reedus: We're headed downtown to drop in on Colt Wrangler.
His place is the hub of the San Antonio custom bike scene and the perfect place to end this trip.
- Wrangler: Jalapeño salt right there.
- Is that what that is? Reedus: What's going on right here? What is this? - This is my mom over here, actually.
- No way! Dude, your mom is a badass.
She's a [bleep.]
badass, dude.
Reedus: Last stop.
We're headed across town to meet up with young bike builder Colt Wrangler, who makes custom bikes from salvaged parts.
Look it.
It's the downtown.
- Smells like barbecue.
- Yeah, I smell that.
- Alamo! - Alamo! Wow, it's so little.
Tell 'em Large Marge sent you.
Reedus: Yeah.
(laughs) It really was super tiny.
("Been Away So Long" playing) I woke up this morning With some bloodshot eyes Whiskey on my breath Some tequila on my mind And this low-down man Says I'm gonna do some time Gonna do some time Reedus: After a long day, Jake and I are looking forward to kicking back and just meeting some new friends.
Wow, what is this place? What's going on? - Hi, Norman.
Nice to meet you, man.
- Colt Wrangler.
- Nice to meet you, dude.
- It's my place.
- Oh, right on.
- Glad you came, man.
Reedus: Colt Wrangler is best known for his stripped-down and fast bikes and his pride in his work totally comes through.
- Cool spot.
- Yeah, yeah.
You want to see it? - Yeah, show me around.
- Yeah, let's check it out.
Oh, you're so sweet.
Thank you.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Cheers.
What's going on right here? What is this? Jalapeño salt right there.
- Is that what that is? - San Antonio thing.
Nice.
Wow, this is delicious.
Thank you.
All right, show me around.
So, like, when I got this place, it was, like, knee-high with the weeds.
Reedus: Cool.
Why are there chickens right here? Well, 'cause of chicken [bleep.]
bingo.
Show me chicken [bleep.]
bingo.
You want to see chicken [bleep.]
bingo? (clucking) So you pick a number and you wait for the chickens to [bleep.]
on the square.
- That number, I guess, is, like, the winner.
- Oh, wow.
But what if the one's constipated and it takes forever? - Yeah, do we feed them? - I fed them a lot of corn and pork.
- Chickens eat pork? - They're carnivores.
Anything, man.
I didn't even know that.
Wow.
But if you throw, like, five chickens on there, you get a lot of [bleep.]
.
But if you do one, are we doing one chicken at a time? We may be just sitting here twiddling our thumbs.
This is one of my buddy's trucks.
And this is where I work on bikes.
- Now, do you have partners? - No.
Just me.
- It's just you? - Dude, I was like I've been on tuna and saltines for, like, several months, dude.
- I've done that.
- Yeah.
This is my mom over here, actually.
- She used to ride bulls.
- No way.
Get out of here.
She's a legend, dude.
She got on her first bull when she was 30 years old.
She rode bulls and bareback horses.
Didn't know nothing about it.
Grew up on a farm.
So I grew up on the pro rodeo circuit.
So I started riding when I was like eight.
Dude, your mom is a badass.
She's a badass, dude.
What's the difference between riding a horse and a bull? Horse is a little safer because a horse will jump over you.
Bulls, though, they're not gonna jump over you.
They're just gonna plow over you.
Are bulls out to [bleep.]
you up from the start? No, it just depends on the bull.
You know? But some of these ones they have these days are like they're just rowdy.
Unreal.
I've never met a bull rider in my life.
- No way in hell.
- Shoot, I used to pay to get on, man.
That's how crazy it was.
- No way, Jose.
- Yeah, there's the shop.
- Wow.
- Very nice.
- This is my Sportster.
- This is awesome.
Yeah, show me.
You know those cube lights everybody's putting on their trucks? - Right, right.
- So I stripped it down, I tinted it yellow, and this screen I actually found in the yard.
This is a stock cover that I just chopped down.
And I opened it up and I put the screen here.
That's something out of nothing.
So if you can't spend $100-200 on an intake, like, you can dress up your stock parts.
And that's what I've done.
You know, I can't really afford paint.
And I really started really liking the raw metal, - so I just stripped it all down.
- I like the whole design of it.
I get a lot of parts, like, wrecks and stuff.
And a lot of the shops will throw their stuff out by the Dumpsters and you can just go there and get stuff.
Reuse, like, wrecked fenders, wrecked tanks.
They make awesome, like, cafe seat cowls.
Reedus: Dude, you're super fascinating.
I'll be glad when fascinating turns into steak dinners instead of tuna, so I'm getting there, man.
If you really want something, your actions will follow.
You know? Then you just do and you do and you do and the next thing you know, you end up with something that you really like.
- Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- You know? - It sort of has been the theme of Texas.
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
- Individuals become their own bosses and do it their way and think outside the box.
- You can here.
It's great.
- It's super interesting.
We got room to grow.
One, two, three.
Chicken [bleep.]
! Reedus: Colt is just starting out, but he's already proving that he's doing it the right way, using his surroundings to do what he wants the way he wants.
He's pulling himself up by his bootstraps and creating something unique and memorable.
And you know what? You got to wonder if he'd be able to do this anywhere else.
Look at mine.
It's, like, all weird.
I got me a girl.
Yee-haw! - That was fun, huh? - That was killer.
- Thank you, Norman.
- Yeah, buddy.
Reedus: The Texas I found on this ride really is the one I always dreamed of.
A breeding ground of rebels and artists.
There's an energy and vitality here in Texas that's unlike anything else.
From the creative hubs of Austin and San Antonio to the back roads of the Hill Country, this is one of those places in America that gives people the freedom to be whoever they want to be.
Texas is beautiful.
- Reedus: It's much better on a bike.
- Absolutely.