Stories With Stewman EP 16: I Saw More Violence at a Car Wash Than in Prison

Before Ryan Stewman ever became the Hardcore Closer, some of the wildest stories of his life happened in a place you'd probably never expect — a car wash.

In Episode 16 of Stories with Stewman, Ryan takes us back to the 1990s for The Car Wash Chronicles.

Ryan started working around car washes when he was just 8 years old. What started with mowing grass and riding a minibike eventually put him in the middle of a world filled with hustlers, drug dealers, convicted felons, robberies, stabbings, police raids, and people who seemed larger than life.

And somehow, to Ryan, it all felt normal.

He tells stories about witnessing brutal violence as a kid, accidentally finding himself connected to the Dallas drug world, the characters who shaped his early years, friends who didn't make it out alive, getting arrested for something he says he didn't do, and even a teenage road trip in a stolen car that ended inside a tiny New Mexico police station.

Some of these stories are hilarious.

Some are insane.

Others hit very differently looking back 30 years later.

Because underneath all the chaos is a realization: your definition of "normal" is shaped by the environment you survive.

Ryan experienced things as a kid and young man that he didn't fully process until much later in life. Those experiences — good, bad, dangerous, and completely ridiculous — helped shape the man and entrepreneur he eventually became.

This is The Car Wash Chronicles.

And somehow… this is only part of the story.