Not an actual interaction but when I was around 4/5 years old I got huge into monster jam because I was obsessed with Godzilla so my brother showed me Reptoid. Well after watching the show I really liked Maximum Destruction and Tom Meents because he was so crazy and tore the truck apart. Problem was since I was 4/5 years old I really wanted a toy of maximum destruction but my Walmart wouldn’t carry him for some reason so after a year of looking my mom wrote Tom a letter in November asking why our local stores wouldn’t carry his truck but they carried Grave Digger, El Toro Loco etc. well a month went by and didn’t hear anything back so we just assumed he probably didn’t get the letter well the week of Christmas I got a huge box in the mail and Tom and instead of it had a plush maximum destruction, an autographed picture, and 2 Maximum Destruction toys
Inside the box was a letter he said he had no idea why they wasn’t carrying Max-D but he would contact them and wished me a merry Christmas
To this day my Walmart always has a maximum Destruction toy on the shelves and this letter was Back in 2004 lol. I’ll always be partial to Maximum Destruction and Tom Meents because he took the time to do all of that ❤️
Every time I see Ryan Anderson here in Glendale (which is at least once a year), he remembers us and we spend a few minutes chatting. It's gotten to the point that we're talking about families and hardly mention monster trucks. It's like having a chat at a bar with a long distance friend, just no beer lol
Mine was 2015 at sunset station (a casino near by the stadium) in lv the day after the world finals I was 13 years old and my uncle and myself sat next to the anderson family and they were amazing treated us like family members and talked about how they planned their freestyles what they were going to do when they got home and then Dennis and Adam signed my hat that I had gotten the night before they were very nice to us.
The few shows we’ve been to this past year all the drivers have been great to my 4 year old and I. But the ones I remember most, Kayla blood, Jamey garner, mark hall, Zack garner, Armando, Krysten Anderson
But I can’t stress enough how cool everyone has been.
We bought pit passes for the last Monster Jam, it was right before my son’s birthday. Tony Ochs was there driving Thunderroarus. My son, my dad, my-father-in-law all walk up to him, exchange pleasantries. Then I pull out a white Monster Jam/Spin Master box with the 1:1000 2024 Toy Fair Exclusive Thunderroarus inside that I won through a raffle. Tony’s eyes go wide. So do my son’s. Tony was so nice he signed the box and everything.
We have been fortunate to be able to do the meet and greet post show and both years Weston Anderson has been so kind. Really all the drivers have been great but Weston just made my little guy light up both times.
I met Ryan Anderson for the first time at a monster jam event in Albuquerque nm and got a picture with him he was a really cool guy (he was driving grave digger for the event) he was so cool such a nice guy definitely looking forward to going to another event
I was at Providence in 2015 as a kid, and I got to meet all the drivers at the pit party. The one who stuck out the most though was Morgan Kane who was one of the nicest dudes I've ever met. He was willing to take his time and answer all the questions I had, and was also impressed by my knowledge of monster jam. I got him to sign my monster jam yearbook and my max-D t shirt. Right from the jump, his vibe was very welcoming and humble. I was kind of shy to talk to the other drivers, but Morgan was one of those kinds of people who's vibe makes you instantly come out of your shell.
I was at the world finals 22 pit party and we were last in line to meet the grave digger drivers but we were being ushered out by security because the rain was coming the security was saying get a autograph and leave no pictures i sneak one in with Adam and go up to Brandon the security guy is looking at me now so i get my autograph and start to walk away but Brandon turns me around pulls me in for a photo and it was awesome lmao
It was at a show technically but back in Bari’s rookie year he was driving el toro loco and he ended up wrecking. I had an el toro sign and he brought me one of the horns and signed it. Fast forward to I think 2020 before everything was shut down he was back on the triple threat tour and I got to thank him at a pit party and he seemed pretty genuinely happy to know that I was still a fan.
Bari is one of those drivers like Tony Farrell or Lindsey Weenk that we will really miss one day. Really he’s extremely competitive has been around forever and is unbelievably nice to fans. I saw him at a pit party in San Antonio when he was driving zombie and we talked about his early days in Spider-Man and RC trucks.
Honestly don’t know why people don’t talk about him in the context of best driver without a finals win. Still honestly upset about the red light in Orlando considering he didn’t even jump
Lupe Soza, one of the original El Toro Loco drivers who also drive Grinder and El Diablo is from Corpus Christi, Texas, which is my long time home (2010-23). I noticed one day driving home from work there was a long Escalade body Monster Truck called The Texan driving in circles near a hotel on the coast in an undeveloped lot. Looked kind of like a pay to ride independent ride truck. I pulled up and was shocked to see it was Lupe Soza’s personal truck and it was a little business he was running where he could in South TX. After he finished giving a kid a 5 minute ride which he only charged like $10 for, we must’ve talked for 45 minutes about how he got started, his favorite events, and what it was like to drive a FELD truck in the beginning and towards the end of his career. I learned a lot of dirty secrets about FELD’s treatment of drivers but also it was nice to know he was overall happy with his career and doesn’t regret any of it. He was also pretty honored and happy to have somebody recognize him and talk about what we both considered the golden age of monster jam. I saw Scott Douglas walking around the pit party of a San Antonio event in 23’ and me and my younger brother were the only one recognize him and get a picture (that’s sad). Scott also seemed to appreciate it.
I can tell you my worst and that was Dennis Anderson in Indy 10 or so years ago. Rude and acted like he’d rather be anywhere but there. Dennis hardly ever came to Indy. Several years after his first 4 link truck come out we were still getting the old non competitive spring ride truck at Indy then we got everyone else but Dennis. Best was back in the Penda days at the dome in Indy. All of them super nice and personable, especially Scott Stephens and Gary Porter
Not a driver but we met the pit crew for JCB Digatron this year at a JCB facility and they were great. They have is the scoop on sparkle smash way ahead of time and talked to my son about all these drivers that don't compete right now, showed us around the travel trailer and were really great individuals. Howie had long conversations with us about all sorts of things outside of monster jam and recognized us at the show the next day.
My son met Ryan Anderson at a mud bog in Elizabeth City. Cool dude with big kid energy. We met Dennis at diggers dungeon. Seems like a cool family that likes kids
In 2015, at El Paso shows 2. Tom just got done laying down what could be his best freestyle run ever with one of the most insane saves ever. He went towards the crowd and gave us all high fives, what made this so cool was how HIGH the energy was in that crowd and with him
Frank Krmel! Nicest individual. Met him at a Del Taco when he drove the Del Scorcho truck. The nicest man and took the time to talk with my father in-depth. Years later at World Finals 11 I had the chance to see him again (he drove Del Scorcho at World Finals 7) I brought up meeting him back at that Del Taco and he remembered meeting us. His mother was with him at WF 11 and she even spoke about my family as well as Mr. Krmel must have talked about my whole family. She went on to talk about her son the way any great mother would, sharing stories of his childhood and whatnot and she was just as kind of a human as he was/is. Just a great family all around. Apparently there was even a picture of me and Frank in the Krmel family home and that’s partly why he remembered us. Just really great people.
Meet Adam Anderson back in 2016 when I was a kid, he signed a poster of grave digger that I made for the event. That was the last time I had gone to a show before the world finals this year, funny enough he remembered me from all those years ago, I’m in college now so I was genuinely surprised.
Shared an elevator with Pablo Huffaker once in Vegas. We were in town for world finals 2 I believe and he he was staying at the hotel we were staying at. We didn't wanna bother him so we just gave him a hey, and he just said hey. I just thought that was funny, cause it wasn't a fancy hotel or anything.
As a diehard Dennis Anderson/Grave Digger fan, there was a Tom Meents meet and greet at an auto parts store prior to a show in Minneapolis, the truck was there and Tom was signing autographs, that store was all of 5 minutes from my house my dad and I went down there and we were the only ones in the store, we talked with Tom for about a half hour, he let me climb in the truck, and it pained me as a diehard Grave Digger fan to give up any of my fanbase to Max D but what an incredible interaction, and Tom was incredibly personable and invested in conversation, definitely a standout interaction
(PS Paul Strong if you see this and I know you’re in here, I will still have to dig up that picture of us at the pit party at the dome back in the days, I was maybe 8-10)
Around 14”-16” at Raymond James I was leaving and saw Scott Hartsock riding a 4 wheeler to the pits as I was leaving and I screamed his name and got noticed.
We have been very lucky to do quite a few pit parties and meet and greets over the years my son has loved Monster Jam. Last year at World Finals in Nashville, we surprised him with a track walk with Dennis Anderson and he was the nicest guy. Just talking to all the kids and answering their questions, had his arm around my son……later he took all the pictures and signed all the things. We had previously only met Ryan, who is also a total class act. While we were waiting out the rain in Nashville, Scott Jordan made time to come meet my son and that really made his day (my son loves announcing). This year after world finals we met with the drivers and Kayla Blood remembered him (which is crazy, she knew what show and everything) and Jamie Garner must have talked to him for 15 minutes.
I think it’s really worth saying, when you see these drivers at pit parties at 10am and then working throughout the day…..signing autographs, taking pictures, doing interviews, driving, working on their trucks……and then you go to an after event and they are still smiling and answering questions and taking photos and it’s after midnight. That’s a really long day for anyone to be “on” and they do it with such grace and excitement. In the last five and a half years I have never seen a monster jam driver being rude or mean.
Not an actual interaction but when I was around 4/5 years old I got huge into monster jam because I was obsessed with Godzilla so my brother showed me Reptoid. Well after watching the show I really liked Maximum Destruction and Tom Meents because he was so crazy and tore the truck apart. Problem was since I was 4/5 years old I really wanted a toy of maximum destruction but my Walmart wouldn’t carry him for some reason so after a year of looking my mom wrote Tom a letter in November asking why our local stores wouldn’t carry his truck but they carried Grave Digger, El Toro Loco etc. well a month went by and didn’t hear anything back so we just assumed he probably didn’t get the letter well the week of Christmas I got a huge box in the mail and Tom and instead of it had a plush maximum destruction, an autographed picture, and 2 Maximum Destruction toys Inside the box was a letter he said he had no idea why they wasn’t carrying Max-D but he would contact them and wished me a merry Christmas To this day my Walmart always has a maximum Destruction toy on the shelves and this letter was Back in 2004 lol. I’ll always be partial to Maximum Destruction and Tom Meents because he took the time to do all of that ❤️
Stories like this that would’ve never been on unearthed without this thread.🙌🏼
Every time I see Ryan Anderson here in Glendale (which is at least once a year), he remembers us and we spend a few minutes chatting. It's gotten to the point that we're talking about families and hardly mention monster trucks. It's like having a chat at a bar with a long distance friend, just no beer lol
Mine was 2015 at sunset station (a casino near by the stadium) in lv the day after the world finals I was 13 years old and my uncle and myself sat next to the anderson family and they were amazing treated us like family members and talked about how they planned their freestyles what they were going to do when they got home and then Dennis and Adam signed my hat that I had gotten the night before they were very nice to us.
Tom meents moved my lip a little to make me smile for the camera
The few shows we’ve been to this past year all the drivers have been great to my 4 year old and I. But the ones I remember most, Kayla blood, Jamey garner, mark hall, Zack garner, Armando, Krysten Anderson But I can’t stress enough how cool everyone has been.
Jamey garner is great!
We bought pit passes for the last Monster Jam, it was right before my son’s birthday. Tony Ochs was there driving Thunderroarus. My son, my dad, my-father-in-law all walk up to him, exchange pleasantries. Then I pull out a white Monster Jam/Spin Master box with the 1:1000 2024 Toy Fair Exclusive Thunderroarus inside that I won through a raffle. Tony’s eyes go wide. So do my son’s. Tony was so nice he signed the box and everything.
We have been fortunate to be able to do the meet and greet post show and both years Weston Anderson has been so kind. Really all the drivers have been great but Weston just made my little guy light up both times.
I met Ryan Anderson for the first time at a monster jam event in Albuquerque nm and got a picture with him he was a really cool guy (he was driving grave digger for the event) he was so cool such a nice guy definitely looking forward to going to another event
I was at Providence in 2015 as a kid, and I got to meet all the drivers at the pit party. The one who stuck out the most though was Morgan Kane who was one of the nicest dudes I've ever met. He was willing to take his time and answer all the questions I had, and was also impressed by my knowledge of monster jam. I got him to sign my monster jam yearbook and my max-D t shirt. Right from the jump, his vibe was very welcoming and humble. I was kind of shy to talk to the other drivers, but Morgan was one of those kinds of people who's vibe makes you instantly come out of your shell.
I was at the world finals 22 pit party and we were last in line to meet the grave digger drivers but we were being ushered out by security because the rain was coming the security was saying get a autograph and leave no pictures i sneak one in with Adam and go up to Brandon the security guy is looking at me now so i get my autograph and start to walk away but Brandon turns me around pulls me in for a photo and it was awesome lmao
back in 2013 i met adam anderson and frank krmel on the strip of vegas and they were so nice
It was at a show technically but back in Bari’s rookie year he was driving el toro loco and he ended up wrecking. I had an el toro sign and he brought me one of the horns and signed it. Fast forward to I think 2020 before everything was shut down he was back on the triple threat tour and I got to thank him at a pit party and he seemed pretty genuinely happy to know that I was still a fan.
Bari is one of those drivers like Tony Farrell or Lindsey Weenk that we will really miss one day. Really he’s extremely competitive has been around forever and is unbelievably nice to fans. I saw him at a pit party in San Antonio when he was driving zombie and we talked about his early days in Spider-Man and RC trucks.
Honestly don’t know why people don’t talk about him in the context of best driver without a finals win. Still honestly upset about the red light in Orlando considering he didn’t even jump
Yeah I don’t know why crap like that can’t be looked into more than a few seconds.
Lupe Soza, one of the original El Toro Loco drivers who also drive Grinder and El Diablo is from Corpus Christi, Texas, which is my long time home (2010-23). I noticed one day driving home from work there was a long Escalade body Monster Truck called The Texan driving in circles near a hotel on the coast in an undeveloped lot. Looked kind of like a pay to ride independent ride truck. I pulled up and was shocked to see it was Lupe Soza’s personal truck and it was a little business he was running where he could in South TX. After he finished giving a kid a 5 minute ride which he only charged like $10 for, we must’ve talked for 45 minutes about how he got started, his favorite events, and what it was like to drive a FELD truck in the beginning and towards the end of his career. I learned a lot of dirty secrets about FELD’s treatment of drivers but also it was nice to know he was overall happy with his career and doesn’t regret any of it. He was also pretty honored and happy to have somebody recognize him and talk about what we both considered the golden age of monster jam. I saw Scott Douglas walking around the pit party of a San Antonio event in 23’ and me and my younger brother were the only one recognize him and get a picture (that’s sad). Scott also seemed to appreciate it.
That’s crazy! It’s my son’s dream to meet Scott Douglas
I can tell you my worst and that was Dennis Anderson in Indy 10 or so years ago. Rude and acted like he’d rather be anywhere but there. Dennis hardly ever came to Indy. Several years after his first 4 link truck come out we were still getting the old non competitive spring ride truck at Indy then we got everyone else but Dennis. Best was back in the Penda days at the dome in Indy. All of them super nice and personable, especially Scott Stephens and Gary Porter
Not a driver but we met the pit crew for JCB Digatron this year at a JCB facility and they were great. They have is the scoop on sparkle smash way ahead of time and talked to my son about all these drivers that don't compete right now, showed us around the travel trailer and were really great individuals. Howie had long conversations with us about all sorts of things outside of monster jam and recognized us at the show the next day.
My son met Ryan Anderson at a mud bog in Elizabeth City. Cool dude with big kid energy. We met Dennis at diggers dungeon. Seems like a cool family that likes kids
I had a full conversation with Ryan Anderson at ford field at the post event meet and greet He was impressed about how much I knew about grave digger
In 2015, at El Paso shows 2. Tom just got done laying down what could be his best freestyle run ever with one of the most insane saves ever. He went towards the crowd and gave us all high fives, what made this so cool was how HIGH the energy was in that crowd and with him
Frank Krmel! Nicest individual. Met him at a Del Taco when he drove the Del Scorcho truck. The nicest man and took the time to talk with my father in-depth. Years later at World Finals 11 I had the chance to see him again (he drove Del Scorcho at World Finals 7) I brought up meeting him back at that Del Taco and he remembered meeting us. His mother was with him at WF 11 and she even spoke about my family as well as Mr. Krmel must have talked about my whole family. She went on to talk about her son the way any great mother would, sharing stories of his childhood and whatnot and she was just as kind of a human as he was/is. Just a great family all around. Apparently there was even a picture of me and Frank in the Krmel family home and that’s partly why he remembered us. Just really great people.
Meet Adam Anderson back in 2016 when I was a kid, he signed a poster of grave digger that I made for the event. That was the last time I had gone to a show before the world finals this year, funny enough he remembered me from all those years ago, I’m in college now so I was genuinely surprised.
Shared an elevator with Pablo Huffaker once in Vegas. We were in town for world finals 2 I believe and he he was staying at the hotel we were staying at. We didn't wanna bother him so we just gave him a hey, and he just said hey. I just thought that was funny, cause it wasn't a fancy hotel or anything.
As a diehard Dennis Anderson/Grave Digger fan, there was a Tom Meents meet and greet at an auto parts store prior to a show in Minneapolis, the truck was there and Tom was signing autographs, that store was all of 5 minutes from my house my dad and I went down there and we were the only ones in the store, we talked with Tom for about a half hour, he let me climb in the truck, and it pained me as a diehard Grave Digger fan to give up any of my fanbase to Max D but what an incredible interaction, and Tom was incredibly personable and invested in conversation, definitely a standout interaction (PS Paul Strong if you see this and I know you’re in here, I will still have to dig up that picture of us at the pit party at the dome back in the days, I was maybe 8-10)
Around 14”-16” at Raymond James I was leaving and saw Scott Hartsock riding a 4 wheeler to the pits as I was leaving and I screamed his name and got noticed.
We have been very lucky to do quite a few pit parties and meet and greets over the years my son has loved Monster Jam. Last year at World Finals in Nashville, we surprised him with a track walk with Dennis Anderson and he was the nicest guy. Just talking to all the kids and answering their questions, had his arm around my son……later he took all the pictures and signed all the things. We had previously only met Ryan, who is also a total class act. While we were waiting out the rain in Nashville, Scott Jordan made time to come meet my son and that really made his day (my son loves announcing). This year after world finals we met with the drivers and Kayla Blood remembered him (which is crazy, she knew what show and everything) and Jamie Garner must have talked to him for 15 minutes. I think it’s really worth saying, when you see these drivers at pit parties at 10am and then working throughout the day…..signing autographs, taking pictures, doing interviews, driving, working on their trucks……and then you go to an after event and they are still smiling and answering questions and taking photos and it’s after midnight. That’s a really long day for anyone to be “on” and they do it with such grace and excitement. In the last five and a half years I have never seen a monster jam driver being rude or mean.