‘Gold Rush’: Rick Ness Opens Up About Season 15 Bombshell & Personal Struggles

A comeback isn’t a comeback without setbacks, and Rick Ness has had more than his share as documented on Gold Rush. The miner has faced personal issues including depression and drug addiction. On the brink of financial ruin, the 43-year-old battled back last year as he rebuilt his operation at Duncan Creek from the ground up. The stage was set at the start of Season 15 to strike big at Rally Valley. 

Just as he was securing his future by owning the Duncan Creek claim outright, Ness was dealt a devastating blow by the land owner Troy Taylor. He told him they had not secured the approval for the water license for next year, which put everything Ness had worked for in jeopardy.

Here the miner gets candid about the season bombshell and how he looks to move past it. 

How do you reflect on last season and how it set up what we’re seeing this season? 

Rick Ness: Last season was a big break for me. I got the opportunity to give it another shot. Last season was just thankfulness. I was thankful for every day I had and did everything I could to not waste that opportunity. It turned out well. We did good. This season it allowed me to come in with the mindset that I prove I can be here and belong here. Now it’s time to amp it up and really get going. It was all about improving what we did last year and in general. We wanted to put up a big number with a small crew. 

What are your feelings about receiving that bad news from Troy about the uncertainty of a water license looking back on it today? 

That was pretty rough. The water license was something on my radar. Water licenses can be finicky. It’s a long process and people move slowly on them. I knew it was delayed. When Troy told me that it was worse than delayed and we might not get it the next year, that was a shock. I didn’t think for once second that could happen. That really let the air out of the balloon. That was one thing I knew was important and put the right people on it. I wanted to make sure that went through and wouldn’t be a problem. The fact it was still a problem was a real shot. I’ll be honest with you. The news hung with me all year. I’m not going to lie. It was in my head all year. It’s not a fun thing when your future is unknown like that. 

Rick Ness, Ryan Kent and Kyle Lawson on 750 Excavator during build. (Discovery Channel)

It seems going into the next episode you’re wrestling with what to do next. What can you tease for viewers as you deal with such a big decision? 

That was the thing with the water license. There really was no good decision. Every decision was a bad one. I had already paid 90 percent of the cost for everything, the whole land package. If the water license didn’t come through, it would all be useless. There is nothing you can do about that. What was I going to do? Was I going to pay that last 10 percent? Potentially pay it all and get nothing. Or was I going to say, “Screw it, I’m not going to pay that last payment.” Then lose that 90 percent I already paid. It was not a good gamble. I had to think about things. It seemed like throwing money away at one point. What would I do? My crew is already up there. I leaned on them quite a bit. They were still ready to go. We had to make a decision. The guys I got are so good. They are so calm and smart. I’m so glad I have the crew I have now. I couldn’t do it without them. It goes on. That decision had to be made at a certain point. It goes on pretty much all season. It’s a pretty big topic out there. You can’t plan for anything with that over your head. All you can do is try to live in the moment.

Did this add more fire under you knowing it might potentially be the last season? 

It puts a fire under you one day where you want to get up and go and give it all you got. Then the next day it puts the fire out because you realize you realize you’ve been working all these years for something and it could all disappear. It does both really, so trying to find the balance between the two is tough. Some days are better than others. 

You’ve been very open about your struggles. How do you compare dealing with these setbacks nowadays compared to in the past?

The big thing that I used to do when I dealt with tough situations is I wouldn’t do anything. I would swallow it down and try to move on. After a while, it becomes harder to ignore and dismiss and you look for new ways to do that. Then when you come back to deal with it, things could feel 10 times worse. I finally wrapped my head around that and did my best not to walk away from things. When a problem is staring me in the face, I’m making myself stand there and deal with it. I lost my path for a while, but it’s about facing these struggles head-on. Don’t put it aside or ignore it, but it then gets tougher and tougher. I’m still a work in progress, but I’m doing my best to face everything head-on and plow through it. It’s what I did then and do now. 

You’ve clearly invested a lot into this year with a new excavator. What are the challenges we’ll see you face at the site this season? 

I pretty much threw everything and the kitchen sink at that new excavator. I’m betting on that thing to change everything for us because I have a very small crew. I’ve got a fraction of the people that Tony [Beets] and Parker [Schnabel] have. Ironically, we have a lot of dirt to move. Tony and Parker are going 30, maybe 40 feet deep. We’re going 150 to 200 feet with just seven people. So we needed big machines. We needed to do things right. We needed to be as efficient as possible. That was what we needed to focus on. That machine could change everything. It’s brand new, so we know it will be reliable. It has the weight to do the job. We face big problems for such a small crew. The ability to rely on them, because everyone is doing two or three jobs, is what matters. If I didn’t have the crew I have, none of this would happen. 

Tony Beets, Parker Schnabel, Rick Ness posing together (Discovery Channel)

Fans were excited to see this photo of you, Parker, and Tony as part of promos for the show this season. What was it like getting together? Where do you stand with them? 

I’ve known them since I started this 13 years ago. Parker was the first one to even talk to me about gold mining. You know what it is, but who would have thought about doing it? When he offered me a job, I jumped at it. That’s where I cut my teeth. We had our ups and downs. There is no denying that. At the end of the day, we have a lot of history. When I see them, it is nice to let out my frustrations and what I’m dealing with to him. The thing about Parker is he is very calculated and intelligent. He is a lot of things I’m not when it comes to mining. My head is out in the dirt. I just want to dig. He is on teh other end of it. He has control over things. He is a good one to bounce ideas off of. Sometimes he has some good answers.

Tony Beets is Tony Beets. We get along really well for some reason. I think it’s because he doesn’t bullsh*t me and I don’t bullsh*t him. We have a good relationship. They even come to visit me, which as far as I know, is something they do ever. I’m pretty fortunate there. Tony is not only a fun guy to be around, but he is fun to talk to as well. I’m not too proud to say those guys have much more mining time than me. I’d be silly not to take advantage of listening to guys like that who can help me out. 

You created quite a stir with your past relationship updates with Leese. You even called her the future Mrs. Ness in an Instagram post. What kind of update can you provide us on that end? 

I’ve got enough going on in the summertime mining. Right now, I’m in the middle of moving to Arizona. My private life is my private life at the moment. I have some things coming up I’ll be sharing. My social media sucks. I do admit that. I do a terrible job of keeping people updated, but I’m trying to focus on that this year. I have someone helping me. I think there will be a lot more to share. I know a lot of people follow and appreciate that, so I’ll try to be better with that. We’ll see what get up to. Let’s just put it that way. 

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How would you say you juggle the work-life balance with such a stressful and demanding job? 

I moved to Arizona so I can start getting some warm weather. Before that, for the previous 13 years, I was living in Wisconsin where I didn’t get the summers anymore. I was up mining during the summer and then you have winter in Wisconsin. You lived there for the seasons, and I didn’t get the good ones. I don’t know why it took so long. Now that I moved down to the desert and got the ability to go out and do stuff, it has really changed everything. I’ve been focusing on Baja [off-road] racing in the winter. I’ve met a lot of cool people doing that. It has been a really good release for me. I’m pretty high-strung, so racing actually calms me down. It’s good for me to do that. It’s nice to have time off in teh wintertime because I need it to recover from teh work. You also have to have something new to focus on because if you don’t who knows where you’ll end up. 

How would you sum up this season as it airs? 

I think it will be really fun to see my crew come together. I really think that I’ve got a group of guys that is tough to beat. They worked so hard. That’s a big motivator for me to make sure it pays off for them. It will be the usual for me. Running for the finish line in the midst of chaos and panic and all that sh*t. It always ends up liek that, but we always manage to find a way to make it work. Hopefully, we do it this year. I think people are going to like it. 

Gold Rush, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel