"Don't jack around with this sport unless you're really, really serious about it," he said.

A veteran of 30 years who started his career as a protection athlete, the American's days of throwing himself between a hurt cowboy and a bull are over.

Instead, as he is doing at this year's Mount Isa Rodeo, he entertains the crowd with jokes, anecdotes and dancing.

"I've been hit enough that I don't miss it at all," Mr Harris told AAP.

"One of the worst wrecks of my life, a bull hooked me off the fence. I was hung to his head by my feet for 50 seconds.

"He kicked both shoulders out of joint and snapped my leg.

"It's very dangerous. You can be telling a joke and someone accidentally turns a bull out."

The Texan has passed on his love of clowning to his son, Brinson James "The Entertainer", now respected in the industry in his own right after taking to the arena with his dad from the age of two.

But while a successful cowboy can rake in millions, Mr Harris' motivation is far from financial.

"I wanted to be a bull rider so bad but I sucked at it," Mr Harris said.

"If I could tell you why we want to do this our whole lives, broke - it's not like we're getting rich - it beats working, is all I can say.

"There is a really big adrenaline rush from standing there waiting on a bull and giving him a fake one-way, then going around his horn within inches while he's going 30 miles an hour.

"A lot of people think it's just brawn and guts, but there's science around how the bull moves. There's things they can do and there's places you need to be."

But when things go wrong, Mr Harris is often first on the scene.

And that can take its toll, as it did when a friend's bull rider son died in the arena in the US.

"He was 22 years old and died right in front of me. He was in my arms," he said.

"That ain't no place to be. I hadn't cried in years and I was bawling out back."

The Mount Isa Rodeo continues to Sunday.

Australian Associated Press