In the eight or nine years that I've been writing columns for Monster Jam Online, this is a first. If you look back at every one of the hundreds of pieces that I've written for this site you won't see another column like this, so let me start by quickly explaining how this all came about.

Last weekend in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, following the first drivers meeting of a four-event weekend Batman driver John Seasock approached me and said that he'd like to give me an idea for a column. "OK, what is it?" I asked. The reigning and two-time defending World Racing Champion wanted to be the interviewer instead of the interviewee, he wanted to ask me the questions and have me post a transcript of that interview in this space for this week's column. Now I'm not very comfortable with this since I'm used to controlling the interviews, being the person asking the questions, not answering. Well, we all should step outside of our comfort zone once in a while, and since John is the world champ after all, we'll try this his way. So John, you're on! Just push the record button.

John: This is John Seasock, driver of the Batman Monster Truck. I've said this a lot of times in the past, and I mean this from my heart, there's a lot more to Monster Jam than just us drivers. I get all the glory and all the credit but I don't deserve it all. There's lots of people involved: crew guys, dirt guys, the guys back in the shop, body guys, marketing, sales, there are so many people to pull this whole production off. One of the key parts, I feel and a lot of people feel, is the announcer. Scott, you are the voice of Monster Jam. Over the years we've been in so many places where I've seen people walk up and want your autograph. I know you don't like to look at it that way but you're just as much of a star as we are. So let's start with how long have you been doing Monster Jam?

Scott: In Monster Jam this is my 21st year. I did my first show in 1988 at the Louisville Speedway, the famous figure-8 races. I was working for the Speedway for that one but there I met the folks at TNT and they started using me as an announcer that fall, first in Freedom Hall and then in Charlotte. I had the great fortune of being trained by one of the best announcers ever in motor sports, Butch Krieger, and then the incredible good luck of being paired with Army Armstrong on the early TV shows. So I started my career working with a true legend and I benefitted greatly from my years along side Army. From there I've been doing events every year.

John: I know a good announcer can make a show and save one where things aren't working out right. And I know some guys are tough interviews, hard to pull things out of. So how do you get ready for a show, do you have to do much in advance?

Scott: Yeah, I do. There's a lot more prep than people might expect or maybe even care to know about. Especially where we are at today with all the shows, but with the events that end up on Speed those events have developed kind of a higher profile. There really is a lot more prep these days. For example when I show up I know the drivers and it used to be that was enough. In many racing circuits announcers just know names and car numbers. It is not that way in what we do. First of all you've got to do your research before you get into each event city. We now have established traditions in places so it's important for me to look back before I get to say, Reliant Stadium, and know what happened there last year and in previous years. Who won there last year? Were you there last year, John? What happened to you the last time there? Then I need to spend time with all of the teams in the pits, hotel lobby, wherever, so I can get the stories that people want to know about. That's the cool thing about Monster Jam. That relationship you guys have with the fans. The fans care so much and they want to know what's going on with you guys. So it's not all just about how hard you're going to come out and run your truck. They care about what happened last weekend, they care about you going to the Children's Hospital earlier that day, they care about the interesting things in your life, what's going on both on the track and off of it. So if you are a good announcer you've got to be able to get all of those stories. Maybe you won't be able to use them all, but you are constantly looking for the places where you can add that information into the event.

John: We always call Dennis Anderson the icon of the sport. And a lot of us look at Scott Douglass as the icon of the announcers. Do you feel pressure being the top dog?

Scott: You know, first off I'd have to question the top dog part. We have some awfully good announcers in Monster Jam these days. I have the great blessing of working so many high profile events and being the play-by-play man on Speed has a lot to do with it. But announcing this sport is a real niche that not a lot of people get to do. I can't think of anything better to do. Those of us who get the bigger shows, the announcers that you might consider at the top of the game, I think we all know how blessed we are to be able to do this. I mean we have the most fun, and we're employed to do it. But the thing is, regarding your question, I will say - and I think whether you're talking about a great veteran announcer like Joe Lowe, or a talent who's rising up the ranks like a Greg Whitacre - there is a pressure in that we as announcers have a certain degree of ownership in our shows. Because if a show goes bad you guys look bad and we look bad. Now the behind the scenes personnel may get beat up in the office but to the 60,000 fans in the seats it's John Seasock didn't deliver and Scott Douglass didn't deliver. That's the pressure that motivates me to make sure that we do everything we can, just like you guys do, to give the fans everything they want. So in that regard, yes, there is a pressure to perform and make sure that these fans get everything they wanted and hopefully more. We've always tried to over deliver. I've always looked at it this way - what ever craziness is going on behind the scenes, as long as we have the fans standing and cheering at the end of the event then you, me, and everyone involved have done our jobs and what ever else we need to work on we'll work on for next week. Because we've never done the perfect show. That's not going to happen. But we are always going to strive for that.

John: How does it feel with, on Speed, with all the new technology and the HD and all that, how does it feel to be a part of that whole thing?

Scott: I love it. I think that right now, and this is going to sound cocky, but I think this new season of TV shows on Speed are the best shows that we've ever done. It's the whole package. It's not that I got better all of a sudden. Hopefully I do every show. But it's because Mark Schroeder's another year better and he and I are working together better than ever. Now we have added a great new pit reporter in Sara Dayley who has studied the sport and covered Monster Jam for a year before joining the Speed team instead of just jumping in at the start of the season with little prep. She's in this to be on Monster Jam, not just to get a TV job. But then everything else that goes into it is better than ever. The story lines have been amazing this year. We've had so much emotion right from the start, and great racing, and off the chart freestyle performances. Then on top of all that you add in this amazing new technology. That's what really takes it over the top. The new graphics, the new music, all the things that I actually wouldn't know how to operate, but I know when I see the end result that they make for phenomenal television. That's what keeps it fresh, keeps it exciting, keeps it new. This whole HD thing has been amazing. You see stuff on the shows now that would have been just a blur in the past. I used to think 'ah, so what, it's HD'. Until I saw that first show in HD. Then I just said "Wow."

John: Yeah now you can see, like, a water bottle on the floor.

Scott: Absolutely.

John: I think it's cool, and I'm proud to be a part of this whole organization, and I've had a chance to work with a lot of announcers. I do a lot of interviews. I've had a chance to work with a lot of reporters on TV, newspapers, radio. I know myself that when I go to a venue I look at the pre show stuff, and I know who the other trucks are going to be, who the event director is, who the announcer is and then I can just tell that it's going to be a good weekend. We have some good guys who make it easy to work with them and I feel that Monster Jam has some of the best announcers in the world. I mean that on any level, whether it's radio, TV, any media. So are there people that you look forward to being at a show? Do you sit down and say this is going to be a good weekend, or I'm going to have to work harder on this one or do I need to do a little extra homework to see if I can pull something out of this guy or that guy?

Scott: Maybe a little bit in the back of your mind you know, for instance, if Dennis and Tom are there you know you are going to have something right off the bat that the fans are going to feed off of. Now part of that is because the sport has become so popular and there are so many big shows that those two aren't in the same show all that often. So maybe when I see that I think that way. But when I look pre-show I start just looking at exactly what we have going into the event. I'm like 'OK, I've got John in this show, so that's cool. And I've got this driver and that driver who are great to work with, and that's cool, but this guy I haven't worked with before so let me find out more about him'. A few years ago, and I'll use his name because he became a real success story, but a few years ago I'd say "hmmm, I've got Neil Elliot this week." Because Neil, when he first started, he didn't want to talk. He'll tell you that. He didn't want to do the interviews, Neil wanted to just drive the truck. And what an amazing talent he is inside a truck. You could always see that. But he got it pretty quickly that if he wanted to be completely what Tom needed for that second Max-D truck then he had to do the interviews. So he would, I think, just kind of bite his tongue and force himself to do it. So I committed to spending some extra time with him before the show just to make him more comfortable with me when it came time for interviews. Becky McDonough is another one. She's such a great story - a young, hard working, and attractive Crew Chief. But when she started she was so afraid of the mic that she would run away - I mean seriously run the other way when she saw me. I've just tried to work with her away from the spotlight, getting her more comfortable with the questions I'm going to ask, thinking about the answers she wants the fans to hear. Now she actually will come up to me before a show to ask if there's a time I know for sure that I'll want to interview her. John you know as well as anyone that a lot of the interviewing process is your comfort zone. That's why probably you and I, or when you're working with Joe Lowe, we know how to ask the questions to get good answers out of you, and because you are comfortable with us you give excellent interviews. But if you have to work with an announcer you don't know very well or haven't worked with before and he comes out of left field with a strange question, well that's going to make you uncomfortable and the interview's not going to be as good. It's going to be awkward. So when I look ahead, I go in thinking every show is going to be great. That's just part of our job. But I just point toward who I know I'll need to work a little more with in advance of the show and what stories I know I want to develop. For an example, take Steve Simms. This guy has just been exploding up the ladder over the last year, so I know going in that the next time I have Steve at an event we're going to develop that story for the fans live. Every show has many great stories. It's going to be different everywhere but every show has great stories that the fans are interested in and the announcer has to look for them, find them, and relate them to the fans. I mean take what we're doing here in Edmonton. Coming up here I had plenty to go with before I ever got off the plane. I knew we'd work with stories about having the world champ here, but I also know that we have so much more to work with. We've got maybe the fastest rising star in the game in Alex Blackwell, the sport's most improved driver in Candice Jolly, and Rod Schmidt who has kind of become the face of Team Grave Digger in Canada. I had all of that just to start with. Right off the bat I've got this great mix of the top of the line, and whether you like it or not, that's where you're at now, plus these rising stars who are headed for the same level. That's a lot to work with and I've tried to develop that story line all weekend.

As you can see this conversation was getting quite lengthy and I was actually enjoying being on the other end of the questions. And John had plenty more questions for me so next week in this space it will be part two of "The Champ ASKS The Questions".