SOLO caught up with Dustin Dollin and Steve Olson for a few beers and stories in Paris. Steve was in town for an art show, and Dustin lives there with his wife. As you can probably imagine, the equation makes for quite an entertaining interview. Never one to mince words, Dollin goes in on a variety of subjects. The most notable is his commentary on J Strickland, and the whole Baker / Bootleg situation in the  early aughts. While there’s two sides to every story, Dollin doesn’t paint J in the best light.

Strickland was the one who negotiated Reynolds’s bullshit deal. He ripped Reynolds off, that’s why he got fired. Then he started Bootleg with a different distribution, which is kinda the weakest thing you can do after running Baker, earning yourself 7,000 dollars a month, more than any of the riders, then start a sister company called Bootleg through NHS in San Francisco, and try to run both companies and pay yourself double. Strickland called me and was like, “You and Trainwreck gotta be the main dudes for Bootleg,” and I call Reynolds, “Is this guy serious?” J Strickland was like, “You don’t know what goes on in Hollywood. Reynolds is on crack, Ellington is on crack. Everyone’s fucked up. Jim is on heroin. You gotta start a new company. Bootleg is yours. You and Trainwreck and Elissa.” I was doing really well skating at that time and had a bunch of footage saved up, and Reynolds was like, “Whose bedroom did you sleep in? Whose floor did you sleep on? Who bought you food?” and I was like, “You did boss, I’m with Baker. Fuck J.”

Head over to SOLO to read the entire piece, and check out the accompanying video below.

Image Via SOLO