After six Capri Retreat truck campers, Larry Pancake takes a different approach to building rigs and chasing the limelight. As a musician, producer, and former professional cowboy, his goal isn’t to take the stage, but to set it. Saddle up. This cowboy turns heads.
It’s hard not to admire someone relentlessly pursuing their passion. I’m talking about real passion—the thing that you fell in love with early in life that you still hold close to your heart decades later. Some of us pursue our passion as a hobby, while others fight to keep them alive through life’s challenges.
Larry Pancake lives a life centered around his passions. After being introduced to truck campers, rodeo, and music at an early age, he has found a way to combine those passions into both a career and a lifestyle.
When he hung up his cowboy hat and retired from professional rodeo, Larry traded a saddle for his guitar. He now spends over 200 nights a year truck camping and producing concerts from rodeo arenas to music venues—the trifecta of Larry’s passions. His Capri Retreat serves as his home, office, and reset button all-in-one.
What drives Larry is simple. He’s focused on the things that matter most. The Western lifestyle, the tight-knit rodeo community, and the country music that ties it all together. His rigs are built loud and proud, designed to turn heads and start conversations before he even shakes hands.
Don’t let the shiny truck and custom builds fool you. There are many sides to this Pancake.
What is your earliest truck camping memory?
In the early 1980s, when I was in my teens, my grandparents sold their Airstream and bought their first truck camper. Once they switched to a pickup camper, that became their way of life. They drove from Amarillo, Texas all the way to Alaska on the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Highway and spent three and a half months up there.
Larry Pancake in a Capri Retreat camper on the set of Yellowstone
They’d travel back east to visit family, taking their time on a drive most people just power through. I didn’t understand why they took so long at the time. I get it now.
On their ranch, I would help my grandparents get their camper ready before trips. They were always traveling in a truck camper. That was just how they lived.
It stuck with me more than I realized at the time. Watching them traveling for months at a time, completely self-contained, became normal to me. That’s exactly how I live now.
“Watching them traveling for months at a time, completely self-contained, became normal to me. That’s exactly how I live now.”
How did you get into rodeo?
I’m a fifth-generation Texan, born and raised in Amarillo. Nobody in my family was a cowboy, but it’s how God made me. When I was in seventh grade, my PE coach would walk around and rope our feet if we were just standing there. One day, I picked up his rope and started messing with it.
Larry Pancake and his rig at Mortenson’s Eaves Movie Ranch
Coach recognized that I had some natural ability and started teaching me on the sidelines. While everybody else was doing jumping jacks, I was practicing how to rope. I took to it like a fish to water.
My grandparents bought me a pony, and we had horses from the time I was five, so ranching and riding horses were always part of my life. By thirteen, I was roping horseback, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I eventually made my way up from amateur to competing at professional levels.
Were you first introduced to Capri Campers through rodeo?
Absolutely. I remember noticing as a kid that if you were a somebody in rodeo, you had a Capri Camper. A single cab dually with a Capri in the back meant you’d made it.
Larry’s rig at the Chief Joseph Ranch featured in the television series, Yellowstone
Rodeo is more than a sport. Everyone is there to help each other, whether you personally like each other or not. Rodeo originated from real ranch work with spring roundups, sorting cattle, roping, and breaking horses. Cowboys naturally started competing against each other, and over time, that turned into rodeo. Most competitions today trace directly back to those traditional cowboy tasks. It’s more American than apple pie, and Capri fits right in.
How did you first get into music?
My dad played seven or eight instruments and my mom loved live music. I tried playing trumpet when I was young. I didn’t take to it, but I’ve always loved music.
In my early 20s, I picked up a guitar and taught myself how to play. I’m not out there trying to be a rock star, but I enjoy it.
Who are some artists that influenced you?
I’ve been lucky to have some incredibly talented friends. Trent Willmon is a dear friend and an exceptional producer and songwriter. He’s one of the reasons I got into playing guitar. Kevin Fowler is a phenomenal human being. We graduated from the same high school and got close over the years. The Cross Canadian Ragweed guys are the same way. Great human beings, every one of them.
They all feed my love of music. I’m a lyrics guy. I need a song to mean something. I once joked that if I ever get Alzheimer’s, I might not remember my kids’ names, but I’ll remember the lyrics to every Ragweed song they ever wrote.
Larry Pancake on stage, featured in The Daily Independent
I don’t have much use for the mainstream pop side of country music. Give me songs with real lyrics that stick with you. Robert Earl Keen is one of my all-time favorites. Chris LeDoux is up there, too. I also love Jimmy Buffett. He was mainstream, sure, but he built his own world and his songs meant something to me. I have the tattoo to prove it.
I’d rather listen to an acoustic songwriter than fill a stadium seat most nights.
What is Bronc Stomper Productions?
Bronc Stomper Productions grew out of my event world, which really started with rodeo. I’ve always been interested in music. Somewhere along the way, I started putting concerts together alongside rodeos. That turned into full-scale events.
Now it’s how I tie everything together—rodeo, music, sponsors, and storytelling. My camper plays a big role in that because it’s where I live, and how I travel while doing it all.
What projects are you most proud of?
I’m not really one to wave my own flag. I’ve done some big things over the years, like helping start a major NFR watch party in Las Vegas and having a TV show for a few years. I’d honestly rather help somebody else get pushed forward. I’m just happy to be a part of it.
Rodeo and music life must be nonstop. How does a truck camper change the way you operate?
It changes everything. I’ve spent most of my adult life on the road. Some years, I spend over 200 days a year on the road. My camper is my home, my office, and my personal space.
“Some years, I spend over 200 days a year on the road. My camper is my home, my office, and my personal space.”
I don’t have to haul bags in and out of hotels. When I get tired, I can easily pull over and rest. It saves me time, money, and a lot of hassle. It keeps me comfortable. I can’t operate without my rig.
How many Capri Campers have you owned?
I’m on my sixth one now. They’ve all been eight-foot Capri Retreat models. They have everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Capri fits my lifestyle, and I can take them anywhere. If I have a show downtown, I can park right outside the venue and crash when I need to. The same goes for the mountains or a hunting camp.
One of Larry’s previous Capri Retreat truck campers at camp
Solar has been a game-changer. I can run almost everything without ever touching a generator. I’ve stayed comfortably in zero-degree weather and 115-degree heat, so I know what it can handle.
I’ve had big fancy tour-bus rigs. Try parking a forty-foot rig at the rodeo while you’re towing a horse trailer. The only thing I miss is a full indoor bathroom, but that’s about it. I always come back to Capri because it just works for me.
Larry’s fourth Capri Retreat truck camper on the road
I go wherever I want, whenever I want, and I always have my own space. That’s hard to beat.
We love that feeling of having home anywhere we go, too. Walk me through your current Capri Retreat setup. How do you use the space?
My current truck is a 2025 Ford F-350, single cab, dually, with four-wheel drive. It’s my modern-day version of my previous 1977 Chevy C30 Bronc Stomper.
Larry’s current Capri Retreat pictured at Mortenson’s Eaves Movie Ranch
The inside of my Capri Retreat has fun neon signs and my guitar mounted on the wall. I used to just throw my guitar on the bed while driving and move it around the camper whenever it got in my way. Now it’s mounted, but still easy to grab. The neon signs are just my personality. If they make people laugh, they’ve done their job.
The interior of Larry’s Capri Retreat
Tell me about your previous 1977 Chevy C30 “Bronc Stomper.”
A dear family friend owned the 1977 Chevy C30 first. He tracked it down in Canada, imported it, and restored it. It was one of the nicest restorations I’d ever seen. It reminded me of the trucks all the rodeo guys had when I was a kid. When he eventually listed it for sale, I had to have it, even though I hadn’t figured out what I’d do with it yet.
The infamous Bronc Stomper parked outside the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada
Then one night, I woke up at 3 a.m. with an idea: put a Capri on it and build out the story of the legendary—and entirely fictitious—Bronc Stomper. The storyline followed a rodeo rig straight out of the 70s that came back to life, rolling from rodeo to rodeo. Whoever was behind the wheel must have been a top-tier cowboy, someone who’d ridden the biggest broncs in the country. A rig like that doesn’t just belong to anyone. It belongs to someone who earned it.
The Bronc Stomper set up at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas
Pete at Capri Campers helped me make it happen. I created a whole story around it, culminating in a road trip to Wrangler’s National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Along the way, I stopped at iconic spots along I-40 to take photos. I decked the sides out with my sponsors, just like the rodeo rigs back in the day. The finished product absolutely looked the part.
It became a very photographed rig. I hauled it to events, photo shoots, and music videos long after the first National Finals Rodeo run.
Sounds like you created a legend. What inspired you to put a Capri camper on a semi truck?
That rig turned heads and started conversations. It was a 1994 Freightliner with a Cummins 12 valve. I thought it was the coolest truck in the world. A friend of mine is a fabricator, and we welded up some framework and skirts that went around the Capri Retreat to tie everything together. I drove that around all summer, pulling the Bronc Stomper to different events. It was just a cool rig.
Larry’s Freightliner Capri Retreat rig towing the Bronc Stomper
When people see something different, they ask questions. That gives me the chance to tell them who I am, what I do, and shine light on the great people I work with.
I mean, my last name is Pancake. I live my life marching to the beat of a different drum.
What would you tell someone considering a truck camper?
Do it. It’s one of the easiest ways to have real freedom with a manageable setup. Most people can get comfortable driving and using one in just a few days.
Truck campers changed my life. They make everything I do easier. I’d tell anybody, even if they’re just thinking about it, to try it. It really does open up a whole new way of traveling.
If you had to describe your life around a campfire, what would you say?
I’ve worked twice as hard to avoid having a normal job. The Western lifestyle is who I am. I make a living doing what I love, and I’ll do it until the day I die.
“The Western lifestyle is who I am. I make a living doing what I love, and I’ll do it until the day I die.”
I always joke with my kids that I want the last check I write to bounce. I may not take a lot of money with me when I go, but I’ll be ten times as rich in other ways.
Larry’s Rig:
Truck: 2025 Ford F-350
Camper: 2025 Capri Retreat
