Land use warrior Matt Westrich brings his Army experience to the battlefields of organizational combat. Matt has great experience and knowledge to share with all of us. It’s a great listen, be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
4:04 – Al Bundy is modeled after me
8:30 – Utah, where the heck is Utah?
22:36 – I get into announcing because nobody else in the club wanted to pick up a microphone
26:54 – Craig goes to push me and I’m like, what are you doing?
39:27 – in the land use community, we have had to fight heavily to keep the area from being developed
45:39 – Land use is a fickle thing; nobody wants to talk about it
53:17 – I did $19,000 worth of body damage to my PowerWagon
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:39.780] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I get to talk to an old friend, Matt Westrich. Matt or, as he is known in the Four x Four industry. Big Sarge has been an announcer for various rock crawling events along with other types of events. We’ll get into that. He has been involved with Red Rock Four Wheelers, Utah Four x Four association. Been a board member of Blue Ribbon coalition. All sorts of different things on land use. So I want to say, Matt, thank you so much for coming on and spending some time and talking about your history.
[00:02:15.440] – Matt Westrich
Well, thanks, rich. I appreciate you reaching out to me and inviting me on the show today.
[00:02:20.080] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, let’s get started. Where I get started with everybody. And where were you born and raised?
[00:02:26.420] – Matt Westrich
I was born and raised in St. Louis County, back in St. Louis, Missouri.
[00:02:30.780] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:02:33.400] – Matt Westrich
In fact, couldn’t probably spell jeep or truck until I went in the army in 1979.
[00:02:43.630] – Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:02:45.000] – Matt Westrich
I didn’t know anybody with a truck. My one buddy in high school had a 53 chevy five window. That was a POS. In fact, if you took a turn too hard, it was all you could do to stop it, and you had to move the cab back off the brake pedal.
[00:03:03.520] – Big Rich Klein
That midwest rust.
[00:03:05.840] – Matt Westrich
Midwest rust. And it is still to this day in pieces in his garage in St. Charles, Missouri.
[00:03:13.050] – Big Rich Klein
Wow. So you were there through high school, then all the way until you went into the service?
[00:03:21.300] – Matt Westrich
Yep, all the way till the time I went in the service. And my first tour of duty was in Hawaii. And I got my hands on my first four x four. It was actually a six by six truck. And I thought, hey, this is kind of fun, bouncing through the lava fields. And I bought a four x four wagoneer that was rusted POS, fixed it up and sold it, and then we left.
[00:03:43.280] – Big Rich Klein
Okay, so let’s backtrack a little bit to those early days there in Missouri. You said St. Charles was the town.
[00:03:55.360] – Matt Westrich
St. Louis was where I was born and raised. St. Louis county.
[00:03:58.140] – Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:03:58.530] – Matt Westrich
On north side.
[00:03:59.430] – Big Rich Klein
All right, northside. And what were your interests back then, say as a young kid, were you in Scouting or anything like that?
[00:04:09.540] – Matt Westrich
I was in the Boy Scouts. The Cub Scouts? The Webelos. The Boy Scouts was a scout master over in Europe for the army.
[00:04:17.280] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, wow.
[00:04:17.850] – Matt Westrich
And yeah, so I’ve done some good stuff with the Scouting and went to work for a company my dad was an executive for called Brown Shoe Company back in St. Louis and worked at a few shoe stores and decided that stinky feet was not a life for me. And I went down the street and saw the army recruiter.
[00:04:41.200] – Big Rich Klein
So you didn’t want to become an Al Bundy?
[00:04:44.800] – Matt Westrich
No, I was Al Bundy. Bundy’s modeled after me, let me tell you. In fact, I worked for a while in a women’s shoe store, the same as Al Bundy. READ MORE
