TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/959544
07. Have you ever been racing outside the US? When I was on tour with my band 'Rich- mond Fontaine,' I would go to foreign tracks whenever I could. Like in Australia, the UK, Ireland, or wherever. I went to the Galway Races in Ireland with my girlfriend and it was so much fun. I had never really been to racing where people dressed up. Most of the tracks I went to were full of tired old betting men. But in Galway it was different. Even at the place we were staying I was looking at the racing paper and the lady who made us breakfast knew the form. I was in heaven. Another time in Ireland, we were driving around and saw a paper sign for races. So we went and it was in a field, with a bunch of caravans, and all they had was a rope around the track. And there were all these young boys and one girl riding. It was so fun and reminded me of the fair circuit back home, but I kind of wanted to stop these kids and say, "What are you doing? You can get really hurt, you know." It's obviously real risky, but they want to prove them- selves and love the buzz, which I can under- stand. It's the same in a lot of sports. 08. The movie version of Lean On Pete will be released soon. What role did you play in the making of the movie? Are you satisfied with it? I think it's great. Andrew Haigh wrote and directed it and I didn't have much input. Just visited the set a few times and chatted with people. My focus was that it would be real and true to racing. I do wonder how it will be received by racing people, because peo- ple who have only been to big tracks might think some of it's not true. And there are a couple of errors in there related to racing. I won't tell you where, though. They shot some of it at Portland Mead- ows, which was cool, and also in Burns, Ore- gon, at a fair circuit race. Then they did two fake races and the funny story from that is that all the jockeys in Oregon were occu- pied during the summer when they shot so they had no riders. In the end they had two jockeys, one apprentice, and one ex-jockey who had just got out of prison and hadn't been on a horse in three years. Everything went okay, though, and no one got hurt, which was a relief for me!