Sean Curtis: Singer, Songwriter and Wild Horse Rider

Sean Curtis…singer, songwriter, and wild horse racer.

There are some rather interesting things I learned when I got the chance to interview Sean Curtis this past December.  To set the scene, I had listened to some of Sean’s songs, got the stamp of approval from my friend and bareback bronc rider, AJ Colletti, and read up a bit on Sean thru his website bio…. but I was not prepared that in our interview he would state he was also a wild horse racer at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo!

We agreed to meet at the Thomas and Mack in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo because they (Sean Curtis & The Divide) were playing the after party at the Cowboy Corral several nights. For those of you familiar with the sport of rodeo, you know that entering the National Finals arena is almost like walking on hallowed ground, and we were lucky enough to find time before sound check to do our interview there.  

Born and raised in Wyoming, Sean cut his musical teeth on the country legends that his dad had in the music box.  He recalls, “Willie Nelson…my dad had a lot of Willie Nelson albums.” George Strait and Merle Haggard also factored heavily as influences from his dad’s collection.  Playing guitar a bit in college and doing some karaoke bars morphed Sean into a style all his own, loosely called Rocky Mountain country. He knows just how to make that country style work too.  

People in the Rocky Mountains really started taking notice when Sean competed in a few music contests and won!  One of these was a version of “The Voice” at the 2012 Cheyenne Frontier Days. He also competed in Cheyenne’s Got Talent and won.  So when American Idol came through Casper, Wyoming that same year there wasn’t any hesitation to try put for the famous competition. And good thing because he made the cut. Sean kept advancing and finally finished in the Hollywood rounds in the top 80.

Fast forward a couple years to Sean honing his skills and assembling a band called The Divide. They put out some great tracks on their first album, Kind of Like Wyoming, including a great single “I Take This Beer”  that hit #8 on the new artist top 40 countdown and their other song “Nowhere Road” that is continuing to be Sean’s biggest hit. The album debut earned him Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year at the 2016 Rocky Mountain Country Music Awards.

Fast forward again to the 2018 National Finals Rodeo and our interview when Sean mentions he is a wild horse racer at Frontier Days. My mind immediately deleted everything I knew about Sean and I needed to know more about how he got into one of, what I feel, is a supremely dangerous sport.  If you have never seen wild horse racing, here is a clip. You will see “a shank” and “muggers” on the ground to hold the horse and a rider, all of them working together to get a makeshift saddle on the horse and get the rider across the finish line first.

I have witnessed guys lose teeth, break limbs, and be stomped on all for the fame and recognition of being able to ride across that finish line. It is entertaining no doubt. I asked Sean how he got into the extreme sport and he replied “my buddies got me into it, growing up watching it and always wanting to do that, we put a team together to do just that.”  He followed it up by a little chuckle saying “my wife’s not so hot on it, but it’s a blast. 

Well, no matter what Sean is doing in or out of the arena we are looking forward to more like his latest album called Livin’ and his newest release from that October album called “Big on Leavin’”. Check out the latest of Sean Curtis and The Divide’s Rocky Mountain sound right here, and make sure to watch for more country music and artist coverage every Monday on Cowboy Lifestyle Network. You can calso check out his Facebook or his www.scdivide.com for more information!