Catching up with Long Beach's most wanted...
Jesse James is working on becoming an icon in the automotive aftermarket. Forget that he has built what can only be described as a motorcycle empire. Forget that he is a world class fabricator and that he could teach a lot of us a thing or two about metal shaping. Jesse James did something that will have a ripple effect on this industry for generations to come. He went on television and showed the world that it is cool to work with your hands again. There are kids who Tuned into Monster Garage and discovered that there is this whole world of creativity inside their own garage. There are kids who have signed up for wood shop, metal shop and auto mechanics classes in high school who wouldn?t have even considered it ten years ago in the days before Jesse made his television debut.
So now there is an entire generation of mechanics and metal fabricators graduating from places like Wyo-Tech who have basically grown up with Jesse coming into their living rooms every week reminding them that it is okay to be a mechanic. It?s okay to want to be a welder. It is okay to aspire to be a car customizer, or a chopper builder, or a car painter. The term ?grease monkey? doesn?t seem to feel derogatory anymore because Jesse and the five guest builders who appeared with him every week brought respect back to being blue-collar. And it made a difference in a lot of peoples lives weather they?re ready to admit it or not.
Recently, TEN had the opportunity to head down to Long Beach, California and spend the afternoon doing something that not many people get the chance to do ? wandering around the sprawling west Coast Choppers facility with a camera. 
We started by shooting photos of the trucks that the west Coast Choppers crew use for hauling parts, trade show displays, motorcycles and even a Monster Garage car or two. The photos of all of the trucks will appear in a special feature section, so you?ll just have to stay Tuned for those.
We spent a lot of time touring the motorcycle shop, the car shop and even the new building that is going to be used as a television production facility. Jesse and the entire staff at west Coast Choppers were really accommodating, providing us with anything we needed and even helping push the trophy truck around in circles inside of the car shop?s storage facility. Some of the long-time employees were surprised that we were turned loose, camera in hand with a big handful of keys to all of the trucks on the premises. There wasn?t a single thing that was off limits, including the inside of Jesse?s office where we sat down with him to talk about his departure from Monster Garage, future plans, trucks, bikes, influences and his new passion for off-road racing.
But things couldn?t have gone that easily for us could it? Well no because when we sat down with Jesse in his office/workshop we couldn?t get our digital recorder to work. We handed it off to Jesse and in a couple of minutes he had it fixed ? guess he really is a jack of all trades. And this is finally where we got everything started.
TEN: What sparked your interest in cars and trucks?
JJ: Well I got into recorder repair? (laughter). I don?t know I always say that I was good at Legos when I was a kid. So you know it kinda all starts from there. I guess that I just love the mechanical stuff about it. I think Hot Wheels and Legos where what it was all about when I was a kid. Tonka Trucks were our toys because we were the generation before Sony PlayStation. Instead, we were outside digging holes and playing and stuff like that.
TEN: Lots of Tonka trucks and Erecter Sets and all that kind of stuff?
JJ: Yeah. Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs real hands-on toys.
TEN: Not a lot of people know, but you have pretty much owned trucks for as long as I can remember?
JJ: I have never had a mini-truck though (more laughter).
TEN: Awww, thanks for that. On a side-note I can?t believe you bought Simo?s old truck. (It is a truck that Jesse?s long-time friend Simo owned and it was stolen and stripped. Jesse bought what was left of it.)
JJ: Which one?
TEN: The theft recovery.
JJ: I couldn?t? Well, I kinda felt bad. I rear ended two people in a week in that truck back before I sold it to Simo. So I got pissed and sold it to him the day I got into the second accident.
TEN: A lot of people remember your air bagged black Silverado that had the real fire flames on it. Since you sold that, what other truck projects have you been involved with?
JJ: I had an SS Silverado? a new one, for a little while. But now I have that red 2002 Silverado that I bought from some kid on E-bay who needed the money. After I got it we did a bunch of stuff to it and I have just been flogging it. I have been racing off-road and I needed something I could pre-run in. I mean you can?t really do serious pre-running in that truck but it is definitely cool for carrying dirt bikes and kids and dogs and all of that stuff.
TEN: Now that you have ventured into off-road racing and running in the SCORE Baja 1000, do you see yourself taking some of the time you would have devoted to running your late-model stock car and running more off-road races?
JJ: Well, yeah because racing NASCAR and The Craftsman Truck Series and all of that stuff I was doing was cool, but after a while it got kind of boring. You?re going around in a circle. I mean it is exciting, but going that same speed, off jumps and trying not to hit trees? I mean I?ll always Race Figure-8, but racing off-road is like racing Figure-8 with jumps.
TEN: I could see where that would be a little more exciting.
JJ: And to me Trophy Trucks and off-road racing is the ultimate form of fabrication. Because not only are you building something that?s fast and handles good, but it also has to have 30-inches of wheel travel in the back and 28-inches of travel in the front and it has to hold together when you go off of a six-foot jump at 100 (mph).
TEN: Now the green truck, (the truck Jesse ran in The Baja 1000) are you going to continue to run that truck or are you planning to replace it?
JJ: No, I think that truck is pretty beat. That truck was never meant to be a trophy truck. It was a Pro-Truck frame that Donahoe built probably 10 or 15 years ago and I pushed it to turn it into a trophy truck. I drove it in the Baja 1000 and in the Laughlin Challenge and it?s pretty hammered. I had like the slowest truck on the track and my foot was on the floor the whole time.
TEN: So it?s pretty much ready for retirement?
JJ: Yeah. I think that it?ll make a good pre-runner or something but its racing days are over.
TEN: Of the high-profile vehicles that have been built here at west Coast Choppers for different customers, are there any that you are particularly proud of?
JJ: I don?t know. I really like to do things first. I don?t follow people too well. I like to build Shaq his first bitchin? bike and stuff like that. Everything I?ve done going back to El Diablo has been about pushing myself. I mean you were around when I used to build bikes in my garage and you remember me telling everybody that I was going to start building my own frames. It was a big step. And a lot of people were telling me ?you?re not going to be able to build your own frame.? And I just started doing it and six months or a year later we had the baddest frame that?s ever been made. A lot of people couldn?t believe that I had actually done it. And in the bike industry, I still have a lot of ideas and there is a lot of stuff I still want to do?but there?s also a lot of other things I want to do.
TEN: So all of this really cool stuff sitting around here in your office is all of the neat stuff we dreamed about being able to buy at the hot rod Swap Meet when we were younger.
JJ: Well I was always wheeling and dealing and trading. I never liked paying full price for stuff. I love getting a deal. You can ask Robbie, (Rob Fortier from Classic Trucks Magazine is one of Jesse?s lifelong friends) when I was a kid my room looked just like my shop and office does now. It was full of crap. Just BMX bikes and vintage beach cruisers and crap all over the walls. There was punk rock posters, fireworks and somewhere in there, like a catacomb, I used to sleep. That?s kind of the way it is now. I just like being surrounded by all this cool stuff to inspire me.
TEN: You think that might have something to do with the fact that your dad was an antique dealer when you were growing up? It just kind of carried over to you?
JJ: I think so. My dad being an antiques dealer had so much influence, because I was exposed to so much vintage and old stuff when I was growing up. I was into vintage surf music at the age of 10, like The Ventures and The Safaris and Dick Dale and all of these great bands. And it?s because my dad had these big boxes of records that I would just go through them and pull out cool albums that I like. By having that stuff around it?s how I introduced myself to music. The same thing happened with cars and bikes and antique furniture and all this stuff that most kids don?t get to be around. And I think that definitely had a big influence.
TEN: So now that you have taped your last episode of Monster Garage, are you going to take a break from television or are you going to jump right back into it?
JJ: I think I need a break for a while. I think I pretty much beat my inspiration to death. I was very passionate about the show, especially this last season. I worked harder and finished off with episodes that are better than any of the early ones. I feel like we finished off with a bang and now it is time to recharge a little bit and stick around west Coast Choppers more and get inspired again. Plus it gives me a chance to work with my guys here and teach them some stuff. I mean I have been gone for 6 years from my shop so now it?s time to be back here and focus on this place.
TEN: There have been a lot of talented guys who worked with you on Monster Garage. Guys who are the best at what they do and you were able to put them on TV and expose them to a national audience. Was there anybody in particular who really shocked you as to how much skill they possessed?
JJ: Oh man, you figure there is what, 90 episodes multiplied by five builders, that?s 450 builders that have been on the show. To pick just one as a stand out is impossible. I can sure as hell tell you who the worst builders were. (laughter) I can rattle those names off like my own. But there were so many talented people and great builders and the ones that didn?t want to be on TV but were. And just put their heads down and worked and were quiet but made beautiful stuff. I mean some of them even work here now, you know? I?ve hired a lot of people who worked on the show.
TEN: It just seemed like a lot of the guys who were reluctant to play up to the camera, like Wink Eller for example were the builders who ended up being the real heroes at the end of the build.
JJ: Totally! Wink is awesome. I have actually known Wink since the late 1980s. I used to see him at all of the motorcycle swap meets. He was selling parts and I rolled in on my first bike. Well my first cool one anyway. And we both had these bad ass drag racing looking Harleys. I remember just checking out his work even back then, and I was blown away. And he was just one of the guys on the show I learned something from. I think that was the best part of the show for me, was being surrounded by a different group of five talented builders every week. It sharpened my skills and gave me the opportunity to learn. Every week it seemed like I was learning a new skill because this guy builds ice racers and this guy builds trophy trucks and this guy builds dragsters and this guy builds robotic pasta makers. So there is all this stuff coming at me and there is all this sensory input. And now that I have all of this information what do I do with it? And I think that?s the most important question of my life. What do I do after Monster Garage? What?s my follow-up act? Now I have this head full of knowledge and this shop full of tools, now what am I going to do next? I want to move forward. That?s what?s going to make all the difference. I already did the show for 6 years, so now it is time to take what I learned from that experience into the next project.
TEN: Being on the outside of Monster Garage it was pretty easy to tell which of the builders coming into the show had been watching it and paying attention to what went on before they even walked in the door.
JJ: Yeah, there were always people who didn?t want to be ?that guy?, there was definitely a pattern. They were either like ?I am going to show what a kick-ass Dude I am? and spend the week yelling at everybody. Or they would put their head down and work. And the experience was great. I loved it. In fact I am kind of sad that it is over. But it was so weird to be on TV every week when I didn?t even really want to be on TV. Honestly, if I wasn?t on TV working I wouldn?t have been able to do it. Because I love to work and I love to make stuff, so it was kind of like the best of both worlds to me.
TEN: So you have the bike shop, then across the street you have the car shop and now there is a new production company. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
JJ: Yeah, sure. It?s like one of those deals where I am making these TV shows. And I am the host and the executive producer and the build team leader. And so there I was doing all of this stuff, and I am kind of doing everything for the production company anyway, why don?t I just do it for myself. It?s kind of like when I started building bikes I would buy a frame from Daytec and would cut it up and work on it for a week making it how I wanted it to look. When for the same amount of effort I could have just made my own frame. And with the production company it is the same deal where when you?re working with another production company they have their vision and I have mine and it?s always like this fight to meet somewhere in the middle.
I want great bands like Fu Manchu and Slayer and Social Distortion that fit my mood in that particular time, in that section of the documentary. And trying to teach these other guys that when they don?t want to spend the money to license the music is impossible. But when it?s my own production company, I get the vision, I write the check for it and boom, put it on camera and it airs. It?s way more creative and it makes more sense.
TEN: Do you think it is going to make for a better end product?
JJ: Oh yeah. I think you?ll notice the difference March 6th when the History of the Chopper documentary comes out (on the Discovery Channel) and we restore that old bike that Simo and I found at the swap meet. And it is kind of my version of the history of the chopper with all of these guys who inspired me, the guys who have made a huge impact on the motorcycle industry as a whole. I don?t know, maybe it?ll suck, but I think it?s cool.
Check out the trailer below for Jesse's History Of The Chopper Documentary
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