An off-road enthusiast turned competitor, Aaron Armstrong is the man responsible for the WE Rock event site in Bagdad, Arizona. He is a man with a vision. Join WE Rock March 1 and 2, 2025, at the best cul-de-sac in Arizona. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
6:48 – I was always trying to find dirt in California to make jumps on
11:13– my first car was a 1987 Toyota 4-runner, since then I’ve had five 4-runners
19:53 – I went down the wrong path, got wrapped up into drugs and alcohol and quickly found myself homeless and out of a job hanging out with the wrong kids – something in my head said, “This is not your life.”
29:56 – One night we were talking, and I was like, “you know what? I Think we should move back home to Arizona.”
39:29 – We went to the Put Up or Shut Up in Congress in 2007, stood out in the rain all day and could not take my eyes off what those vehicles were doing!
56:49 –I hit up the General Manager at the mine, and said, Have you ever seen a rockcrawl? No, what’s that, so I took him out and showed him my vision.
1:09:11 – One of the things that I believe in and that the mine believes in is continuous improvement. That’s what we’re doing to the event site.
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:40.260] – Big Rich Klein
On this week’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich is an Arizona guy who loves off Road, lives in the mining town of Bagdad, Arizona, and who happens to be the guy that makes our We Rock event in Bagdad work. That’s Aaron Armstrong. Aaron, how are you doing today?
[00:01:57.310] – Aaron Armstrong
Good. How about yourself, Big?
[00:01:58.770] – Big Rich Klein
I am doing phenomenal. I just got parked up there, which you saw, I guess. And yeah, I’m pretty much ready. As soon as Shelley shows up this week, it flies in and we’ll be heading that way.
[00:02:12.760] – Aaron Armstrong
Perfect. Well, we’re ready for this year’s We Rock competition, and I’m super stoked about it.
[00:02:19.860] – Big Rich Klein
Let’s talk about your life, and that’ll lead us into how you got into off-road. Where are you born and I was born in Prescott, Arizona, and I lived in Prescott for a couple of years of my life.
[00:02:40.350] – Aaron Armstrong
But then my family, my dad got a job out in Southern California, and he moved us out to Laguna Nogal, California, where I grew up and went to school and found my love for off-road.
[00:02:59.600] – Big Rich Klein
Okay. You found it in California, in SoCal?
[00:03:02.960] – Aaron Armstrong
Yes. Okay. Yes.
[00:03:05.070] – Big Rich Klein
How old were you when they moved out there?
[00:03:08.790] – Aaron Armstrong
So I was in the second grade when we moved out there, and I went to grade school through high school there, and always had a dotted line to Prescott, Arizona, because my grandparents had moved there in the ’70s. And We’d go out to Prescott, Arizona for vacations and see family and stuff like that. I always loved Arizona because I’m more of an outdoors guy, and I always love to be out in the hills and exploring and looking for old ruins and mines and stuff that. So I always had a love for Arizona.
[00:04:05.260] – Big Rich Klein
And so going to school there in Laguna Nagal. I’m not sure where exactly that is. I don’t know if… I’m sure I’ve been through it. There’s not much of Southern California I haven’t driven through, at least. Where’s that located?
[00:04:23.240] – Aaron Armstrong
So Laguna Nagal is located over the hill from Laguna Beach. We’re about 7 miles away from Laguna Beach inland, and about, I want to say 10 miles north of Dana Point.
[00:04:39.860] – Big Rich Klein
Okay, that makes sense. And did you… Were you That’s more of the rolling hills then?
[00:04:48.290] – Aaron Armstrong
Yeah. I mean, everything used to be rolling hills. Yeah.
[00:04:53.380] – Big Rich Klein
Not anymore.
[00:04:54.420] – Aaron Armstrong
Now it’s rolling houses. But yeah, When we moved there in ’19, I want to say it was ’88 or ’89 that we moved there. It was the ’70s houses and a beachy vibe. But that’s where my parents wanted to go, so I obviously had to follow them when I was in second grade.
[00:05:27.960] – Big Rich Klein
Were they chasing Was your dad or mom chasing a job at that point?
[00:05:33.900] – Aaron Armstrong
Yeah, my dad’s been in road construction all his life. He started as an operating engineer and worked on the 5 Freeway and the widening project down by San Juan Capistrano. He actually built or helped build the 241 and the 133 that we know as the toll roads today that take you from Riverside over to the Beach cities. He’s been involved in road construction his whole life, and his job has changed a little bit. They started doing fire cleanup for the state of California, and so he’s been doing that. And we all know that that’s a pretty plentiful job nowadays. READ MORE
