SELLERSBURG, Ind. (WDRB) -- You may have seen him in a random parking lot or at an obscure local festival. He's the guy in the cowboy hat and boots with the mouth-watering food.
Didn't catch his name? He doesn't give it out. He's just known as the BBQ Cowboy.
He serves up pulled pork, brisket and ribs. The allure rounds up just as many customers as the grub.
"Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the chase," he said.
Just like John Wayne, you never know where he's going to be. You just know he's going to take care of business.
"Just awesome, awesome food," said Darrell Lay, a BBQ lover.
"It's always tender," added James Warth, another customer. "It's always fresh It's always good."
His beginnings are nothing like a Western. The BBQ Cowboy started selling something else.
"Thirteen years ago, the real estate market tanked," he said. "I was in real estate."
He eventually bought a smoker and thought he'd open a BBQ business called Holy Smokes in an old church, but a trip to Sam's Club changed things. For once, it didn't have anything to do with those samples.
"This woman was absolutely stunning, beautiful, beautiful," the BBQ Cowboy said. "She walks right up and says 'Are you the BBQ Cowboy?'"
He wasn't — at the time.
"I'm like no more Holy Smokes, I'm the BBQ Cowboy," he said with a laugh. "That's how it started, and I haven't seen her since. I don't know if she was an angel."
It seemed to work out for him. He was kind of the original food truck all those years ago, and today, his food is the only source of income he needs.
The old dusty trail may not be too far away though, with his son opting for a baseball cap instead of the family cowboy hat. He's apparently pretty good.
"Hopefully, Matthew gets drafted by the Rangers or the Astros, and then I'm gone," BBQ Cowboy said.
This town ain't big enough for that career. So, this master of the smoker will hang his hat on the years of intrigue and good food here until the sun officially sets on the BBQ Cowboy.
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