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0:00
there's a lot of bills that i never got
0:02
to do i feel like there's unfinished
0:04
businesses
0:06
hey man this guy is legendary have to be
0:09
especially if you live on the west coast
0:11
he's a long beach native you know and
0:13
you know he got us fired up way back in
0:15
the early 90s man he made a lot of
0:17
people want to
0:18
put their lives in jeopardy and buy
0:20
bikes
0:20
[Applause]
0:21
but we did it anyway db give that man
0:24
this intro he deserves
0:26
all right well sway i've never ridden a
0:29
motorcycle in my
0:30
life but i was always fascinated uh by
0:32
the construction and the art form that
0:34
went into building these custom
0:35
motorcycles and
0:36
i remember seeing paul walker when he
0:38
was wearing the west coast chopper shirt
0:39
and too fast too furious
0:41
uh i watched him build a chopper for one
0:42
of our our good friends
0:44
shaquille o'neal on motorcycle mania
0:46
when shaq won the championship
0:48
uh i watched him ride cross country with
0:49
the late great indian larry shout out to
0:51
paul cox and kano
0:53
um he did an apprenticeship to learn
0:55
blacksmithing with yuri hoffey and
0:56
israel just so he could stay ahead of
0:58
the game and ahead of the competition
1:00
and uh learn metal shaping and
1:01
fabrication and things of that nature
1:03
and
1:03
uh please welcome him to the show for
1:05
the first time jesse james the host of
1:07
monster garage on discovery plus
1:09
jesse aj
1:13
how you doing bro i'm doing all right
1:16
how are you guys doing
1:18
man uh come on man
1:21
done a lot of stuff
1:24
you didn't know we were talking about
1:26
you huh yeah
1:28
i don't like that i've been busy
1:31
yeah i mean what did it all start for
1:34
you in terms of motorcycles and building
1:36
bikes
1:38
oh man it started when i was a kid you
1:40
know my dad was like an antique dealer
1:43
and so i started when i was eight nine
1:45
ten years old buying vintage
1:47
like balloon tire gas tank twins
1:50
and like shelby bicycles and then i
1:53
would paint them and have everything
1:55
re-chromed and like
1:56
kind of have my this old dude pinstripe
1:59
it and then i sold it and i sold one
2:01
when i was nine
2:02
for like 900 bucks and i think i had
2:05
like
2:06
a hundred dollars in it and i'm like hmm
2:08
maybe i should do this
2:09
over and over and over again because
2:11
like when you're nine years old
2:14
and you get 900 bucks that's all yours
2:18
nine when you thirty thirty
2:24
but shout out to your parents because
2:26
they obviously stood by your side and
2:28
let this crazy kid
2:29
build bikes i don't know about that they
2:36
were
2:36
more that 1970s early 80s like hands-off
2:41
parenting
2:42
like just leave me by myself 24 7 and
2:45
let me figure it out you know
2:49
i didn't like it and i still don't like
2:51
it but i'm thankful because it made me
2:54
like self-sufficient and you know you
2:57
know just
2:57
just work every day you know that's it
3:00
yeah
3:01
that's the magic that's the magic trick
3:03
you know it's just work
3:05
it's just work uh man i gotta i gotta
3:08
tell you i'm i i never i
3:09
i used to ride swim bikes and huffy
3:12
bikes um when i was a kid and
3:14
the only time i ever been on a moto the
3:17
first time i was on a motorcycle
3:19
i had to learn i had to get licensed and
3:22
um
3:23
somewhere near tarzana california so i
3:25
can interview tom cruise for
3:26
mtv and i can't think of what was the
3:29
movie
3:29
mission impossible it was the mission
3:32
impossible movie
3:33
and he and he asked me to learn how to
3:34
ride a bike in one day
3:36
and i wrote a suzuki 750
3:39
and we did this interview and i'm riding
3:41
on the bike and they put a camera
3:43
on the tank so that threw the
3:44
equilibrium off and i end up
3:46
wrecking tom cruise's bike bro and it
3:48
was like the scariest thing i
3:51
went to work that's the worst bike to
3:54
like for your first bike because
3:56
you're in like all on the front wheel
3:59
your nuts are on the
4:00
tank and it's like you don't have any
4:02
room for air you know what i mean like
4:04
you twitch a little bit and you're gonna
4:05
high side or go down like they should
4:07
put you on like a
4:08
like a honda scooter or something first
4:10
just so you could get
4:11
your balance you know you so you saying
4:14
tom cruise set me up
4:16
i think so no he's fighting
4:22
look how badass i am this guy
4:24
interviewing me can't even ride a 750
4:26
but i'm tom cruise look at me
4:29
okay i see what you say
4:33
i get it man i think i was hoodwinked
4:35
right there has anyone ever wrecked any
4:37
celebrity ever wrecked
4:39
one of your bikes oh man uh
4:42
i shouldn't throw him under the bus like
4:44
this but you know tony martin from the
4:46
atlanta falcons a wide receiver
4:48
yeah he was like
4:53
i guess he was doing some mtv cribs
4:55
episode
4:56
and he like got this brand new cl600
4:59
like v12 and had a custom painted green
5:01
and green interior a big sound system
5:03
and he's like i want to all chrome bike
5:06
like everything chrome and engraved i'm
5:08
like all right done let's do it
5:10
and then i'm like the day we got it done
5:12
i go have you
5:13
are you cool riding this because it has
5:15
like a big giant motor i mean it's like
5:17
a big power bike and i guess he filmed
5:20
the mtv
5:21
crib segment with him sitting on it in
5:23
his garage
5:24
and here's tony martin from the falcons
5:26
blah blah blah
5:28
and then he jumped on it after that he
5:30
went right to the corner of the street
5:32
turned too sharp on the right turn
5:34
clipped the curb high sided it and like
5:36
got
5:37
every single part on the whole bike like
5:39
rip
5:42
damn like not even a mile on it like
5:44
maybe
5:45
80 feet and you know
5:48
but wow i think at the top like the
5:51
early 2000s
5:52
like you it was like kind of like having
5:55
like a richard miller watch or something
5:57
like that having one of my bikes was
5:58
like
5:58
some kind of like og status symbol or
6:02
something
6:03
especially for wrestlers man you
6:05
couldn't be an
6:06
official wwe wrestler unless you had a
6:10
bike that i feel
6:11
like i believe yeah
6:14
those crazy times that's what you know
6:17
it's crazy too jesse here you say that
6:18
because
6:19
when i think of your occupation i'm just
6:22
like this is
6:23
a man's man you know what i mean with
6:25
all of this
6:26
adrenaline and using your hands to
6:28
create and
6:29
empower so do you have a soft side
6:32
like valentine's day is coming up would
6:34
you ever like lay on a bed with
6:36
rose petals like what's what's your soft
6:38
side like if it's there
6:41
i don't know about all that i'm in a bad
6:43
mood today
6:45
my goddamn coffee maker broke this
6:47
morning i have this new espresso machine
6:48
i have for a week and i love it it makes
6:50
the best strongest espresso ever and now
6:52
it won't work
6:53
and so i'm on the text chat help with
6:56
amazon trying to get it returned for the
6:58
last 45 minutes before i talk to you so
7:01
i'm not that great of a mechanic
7:06
he's like them roses
7:08
[Laughter]
7:12
getting back to what were you talking
7:14
about edible panties for valentine's
7:16
day
7:19
if you want to take it there
7:23
whose idea was that that wasn't
7:27
that that was actually what to eat
7:30
panties i mean yo
7:32
i'm not gonna get in that conversation
7:33
with you jesse james
7:36
i'm not gonna i'm not gonna talk eating
7:38
panties with you but i do wanna know
7:39
uh because i follow your career and you
7:42
know i know
7:44
a lot of the fame the celebrity it could
7:46
take a toll on people and i know you
7:47
stepped away from the spotlight for a
7:49
while
7:50
what led you to the decision to return
7:51
to tv and bring back this show
7:55
yeah well we kind of ended monster
7:57
garage early you know i went
7:59
the discovery at the time was in like a
8:02
weird place and they had this
8:03
this president named billy campbell who
8:06
was kind of like
8:07
hollywood douche dude you know and like
8:10
and
8:11
he i wanted to go and do the season or
8:13
the the season finale in iraq i got this
8:16
letter from these kids in iraq that were
8:18
up
8:18
armoring vehicles and they sent me this
8:20
letter like man jesse james look at what
8:22
we did
8:23
the government doesn't armor these
8:25
vehicles yet so we set up a whole shop
8:27
in baghdad
8:28
and it had a monster garage sign and i
8:29
was just like we got to go there let's
8:31
go
8:32
you know let's go let's go build a
8:34
hummer and at the time i had full dod
8:37
clearance so i could go and do anything
8:38
i want in like a hot zone
8:41
and so got all ready to go and like a
8:44
couple days before i went the president
8:45
of discovery sent me like a really
8:47
crappy letter and it's just like man
8:51
so i went and did it and then i just i
8:53
don't know i was in a weird time and
8:55
everything was chaotic at the shop and i
8:57
just
8:57
decided to not renew my contract but
9:00
i did it knowing that like hey we're
9:03
leaving a lot on the table here people
9:04
love this show
9:05
and there's a lot of build ideas and i
9:07
knew i would eventually come back and
9:09
now
9:10
you know i just waited you know just
9:12
timing
9:13
like at the time of doing the show too i
9:15
was i had 200 people working in long
9:18
beach with a shot
9:19
monster garage was like five or six
9:21
blocks away so like
9:22
i always felt this tug of like the shop
9:25
and my business
9:26
being more important than tv you know
9:29
and
9:30
and now i'm in a place where i could
9:33
take
9:34
just about a full year often do eight
9:36
episodes and then really
9:38
give the show a hundred percent and i
9:40
think the builds and all that stuff
9:42
kind of reflect that like i nev in eight
9:44
episodes
9:45
i left the garage four times and no more
9:48
than ten minutes each just to run to my
9:50
shop and get a tool or material or
9:52
something and
9:53
you know i don't know tv is a funny
9:55
thing
9:57
yeah i don't know it's a little bit hard
10:00
especially when you have a business and
10:02
successful businesses and all this stuff
10:04
that's occupying your time and skills
10:06
and all that
10:07
it's hard to like take time off and make
10:10
tv important
10:11
you know like this let's do television
10:13
show you know
10:14
and it kind of just waited till the time
10:18
he was right and we just did it
10:19
you know yeah jesse james is here and
10:22
we're talking about monster garage you
10:24
find on discovery
10:25
um plus each episode they're gonna have
10:27
five builders
10:28
different backgrounds they're gonna give
10:30
five days to transform a street vehicle
10:33
into a monster machine
10:35
and they leave the garage for five
10:37
thousand dollars worth of tools
10:38
man your show to me like you know in
10:41
hip-hop you
10:42
you came up in l.a so you i know you
10:44
grew up you know some rap
10:45
i know you're a hip-hop head down down
10:47
deep jesse james
10:48
that one of the cardinal sins is biting
10:51
you know what i mean you cannot steal
10:53
somebody's flow
10:54
you can't steal an image you can't take
10:56
a song
10:57
since your show came out man it's been
10:59
so many shows that have been biters bro
11:01
they done
11:02
been really gimmicky they don't really
11:04
kind of stole the concept
11:06
um from what it is that you created uh
11:08
number one does that get under your skin
11:10
and then number two can you tell us what
11:12
separates monster garage
11:14
from those other gimmicky shows uh
11:17
i don't know i think i don't think
11:20
i think it used to bother me but i
11:22
didn't realize like my power and what i
11:24
bring to the table
11:25
until all these other shows that came
11:28
out after me and still come out
11:30
like four dudes with their hair slicked
11:32
back and wearing dickies and
11:34
chucks and all this stuff and i didn't
11:36
realize like oh wait they're trying to
11:37
be like me
11:38
and then i realized like oh wait oh it's
11:41
only me that can do what i do i'm like
11:43
only me will crack the whip on people
11:44
and make them like hey let's get
11:46
to work and get stuff done you know and
11:49
it
11:49
it sucks because like discovery plus is
11:53
cool because
11:54
i it's uncensored
11:57
and like man i cuss a lot when i get
11:58
pissed
12:02
f-logs are flying but that's the way it
12:04
is in the shop man you can't be
12:06
i can't be everybody's friend and be mr
12:08
nice guy and achieve
12:10
this stuff you know and and
12:13
i don't know what was the second part of
12:15
the question i forgot
12:18
[Laughter]
12:22
uh
12:24
the second part has something to do with
12:25
edible panties but man i'ma go ahead and
12:27
skip the second part
12:30
wait wait choc chocolate or strawberry
12:34
uh come on man you gotta do the combo
12:36
chocolate chocolate strawberry
12:41
yeah man okay
12:44
hey listen we got jesse james here i
12:46
want to take a phone call
12:47
we got uh jose jose from miami grand
12:50
rises what up jose what's up jose
12:54
grand rising family how y'all doing this
12:56
morning this afternoon
12:59
yo i had a quick question for jesse so
13:01
uh where your show has it ever been or
13:04
like does this work like this with your
13:05
show i've read like an article with a
13:07
bunch of stories from like
13:08
exhibits pimp my ride where they would
13:10
say that like these people
13:12
got uh got their cars quote-unquote
13:14
pimped but it only really looked that
13:16
way like they would send them home and
13:17
like they'd have some crappy engines
13:19
like they really really
13:20
wouldn't do anything to the actual
13:22
problems with the cars they would just
13:23
make them look
13:24
like really dope and then they would
13:26
take out a lot of the stuff they put in
13:28
after the show was over and people would
13:29
like sign up for it knowing that that
13:31
was the case
13:32
so i was wondering like uh you know just
13:34
for tv type of deal like does any of
13:35
that stuff ever happen behind the scenes
13:38
uh well for starters you know i did the
13:41
first two episodes of pimp my ride
13:44
i was they like started tried to start
13:46
that whole series with me
13:48
and i did it was like a part of the back
13:50
to school thing on trl
13:52
and they had me do like a jetta and one
13:55
other car for someone and then
13:56
then i kind of realized like mtv doesn't
13:58
have any money
14:00
i'm like
14:06
i know ryan from west coast customs i
14:08
don't know exhibit but
14:10
i know he did one truck for me where he
14:12
did a lift kit and some wheels and stuff
14:14
that was okay
14:15
but then he took a truck that i had for
14:17
like 20 years
14:19
and like absolutely destroyed it you
14:21
know
14:22
and i have no problem telling them to
14:24
his face either like they just
14:26
just not there's like speaker wire and
14:28
stuff on the to use for the engine
14:30
electronics
14:32
and all the warning lights were off on
14:34
the dash
14:35
like going off so they pulled the dash
14:36
panel out and put cardboard in between
14:38
the lights and the dash panel so i
14:40
couldn't see the warning lights going on
14:42
like just stuff like that and you know
14:46
i'm not trying to say monster garage
14:47
cars we build them in five days
14:49
so five working days the quality isn't
14:52
going to be
14:54
the same as a car that i build and spend
14:56
five years on
14:57
but i'm not trying to pawn them off
15:00
on a show as some kind of show vehicle
15:03
that's perfect
15:04
like they're built to perform a function
15:05
either like cut wood
15:07
or hovercraft or something like that and
15:10
i just think you know your reputation is
15:12
everything that's what lasts forever
15:14
you know money and interviews
15:19
and everything else in between doesn't
15:21
mean
15:22
unless your quality is there you know
15:24
you gotta have the quality's got to be
15:26
number one and my
15:27
the stuff that i do in my shop i'll lose
15:30
money
15:31
to make sure the customers are happy you
15:34
know
15:34
that's just the way i've always done it
15:36
and it's where i mean
15:37
especially like you know spending the
15:40
majority of my life in south central and
15:42
long beach and south gate linwood
15:44
crenshaw
15:45
man like i don't know i can remember
15:48
building a bike for a dude
15:50
from the rare rare breed and like easter
15:54
sunday
15:54
he called me pissed they went up to some
15:56
ride in ventura
15:58
and like got to where they were like the
16:01
bar like a big group of them and his
16:03
brand new bike i built for him
16:05
it like it wouldn't start it just
16:07
nothing hit the starter button
16:09
everything comes on i drove an hour and
16:12
a half to ventura
16:13
on easter sunday and walked right up to
16:15
his bike and pushed the little
16:17
wire back on the starter solenoid and
16:19
started it and then left but that's the
16:21
hoops you have to jump through for that
16:23
kind of customer you know you don't
16:25
that guy paid good money he doesn't want
16:26
to have problems he's paying good money
16:28
for you to do
16:29
quality stuff you know jose great
16:32
question man you're a citizen
16:34
i swear in the morning what's good money
16:38
like when you say he paid good money
16:40
like what's the most
16:41
you know if what's a good budget to get
16:44
a let's say i wanted a 750 what's a good
16:46
budget to get a good bike like is that a
16:49
six figure thing is that
16:51
i don't i don't build sport bikes too
16:53
much like i'll build them for myself
16:54
like high abusos and i have an
16:56
h2 and and stuff like that but our bikes
16:59
to get like a handbuild bike you're not
17:01
very minimum of like 200 grand
17:05
damn the little nine-year-old the
17:07
little nine-year-old graduated huh
17:14
i mean you could throw that big number
17:16
out there but if you really figure all
17:18
the hours and time i have i'm probably
17:20
making like eight dollars an hour
17:22
like it's probably not really done over
17:24
the course of a couple years
17:26
okay uh jesse james is here this is mad
17:29
interesting man
17:29
um i'm from oakland california and
17:33
in oakland california you got uh you
17:35
know you got some um
17:37
one of my what my best friend's a guy
17:40
named cmac
17:41
is from oakland but but i'm kind of
17:44
bummed because we're not really friends
17:46
anymore during the whole like
17:49
trump election and all that stuff he got
17:51
real mad at me because i know trump and
17:53
like stop talking to me
17:55
i wish you i wish we could reconnect i
17:57
hate that that stuff got between us
17:59
because
17:59
i don't you know i don't know it's crazy
18:02
times
18:03
reach out to him you know y'all should
18:05
be having y'all should be having
18:06
conversation
18:07
not separation you know if you're your
18:10
best friend man
18:11
it's worth reaching out you know he
18:12
might be in a better mood
18:15
it's a different year
18:19
yeah jesse james reach out to him and
18:21
let us know how that go but i was going
18:22
to ask you
18:23
since you brought that up cmac black
18:26
yes sir okay okay so you got the east
18:29
bay dragons
18:30
in oakland which is like one of the uh
18:33
uh
18:33
biggest um bike clubs that came out of
18:36
oakland wise guys so on and so forth
18:39
and they worked really well with the
18:41
hell's angels and you know so you got
18:42
black and white
18:44
um bike crews that work really well
18:46
there's a stigma about
18:47
bike culture that is very divided and it
18:50
you know it's a lot of
18:51
racist undertones to bike culture it
18:53
depends on what part of the country
18:55
you're in can you speak to that
18:57
well did you see ever see that
18:59
documentary i make called history of the
19:01
chopper
19:02
yes i made a final discovery in
19:05
like 2008 or nine and i have the
19:10
motorcycle that yeah
19:13
i had this whole motorcycle that i
19:14
restored but while i was restoring it i
19:17
kind of attacked because
19:18
i've seen it forever like i've always
19:20
been had a harley since i was 15
19:23
and always been around the culture but
19:25
you go to like
19:26
bike shows and stuff and there's like
19:29
guys with big swastika flags
19:32
and things like that and like i just
19:34
don't
19:35
think well the whole documentary i found
19:38
out
19:39
like with research and all the stuff in
19:41
the course of documentary i found out
19:42
the two bikes for easy riders
19:44
the biggest biker movie in the history
19:46
of the world ever
19:48
both those bikes were built by a guy
19:51
named benny hardy who was the black man
19:53
in the south bay
19:54
and a guy named cliff vaz that was black
19:57
gorilla family
19:58
those two guys built the bikes for easy
20:00
riders but
20:01
and dennis hopper directed it but in the
20:04
time of 1969
20:06
that was only uh you know
20:10
four years off the civil rights movement
20:12
so they couldn't
20:14
say you know hey they didn't even
20:15
mention the dude's name and nobody
20:17
until i did the documentary knew that
20:19
they built it and
20:20
cliff vaz was the ex do you ever
20:23
remember so
20:24
uh civil rights movement life magazine
20:27
did a story on it and they i think it
20:30
was in kentucky
20:30
on the cover of life magazine they
20:32
showed this guy
20:34
like the police holding him by his arms
20:36
and legs and the guy was like getting
20:38
ready to stab him with the bayonet
20:40
do you ever remember that photo real
20:42
famous civil rights photo
20:43
oh um no but i'm about to look that
20:46
up yeah deep jess
20:48
but the dude in that photo was cliff voz
20:51
he
20:52
that was in 64 65 he's the guy that
20:54
built the easy rider bikes he was from
20:56
california and like
20:58
and these guys it all started
21:01
in the late 1990s business was doing
21:04
good and i'm like yeah i'm gonna put an
21:06
ad in easywriters magazine
21:07
they wouldn't let me do it they said
21:11
because i used my friend from richie
21:13
from long beach that i rode with that
21:14
was part of our crew
21:16
he happened to be black and they said
21:18
yeah we can run an ad but you have to do
21:20
a different photo because we can't run
21:22
this down like hey
21:23
what the you know why not and i'm like
21:26
i'm going to cancel my thing
21:28
they sent me a letter saying that 90
21:31
of their subscriptions were going to
21:33
prison to white boys
21:35
and they would complain or cancel if
21:37
they showed a black man in the magazine
21:39
and at the time
21:40
you could buy like gloves with swastikas
21:43
and all this stuff on it in the back of
21:44
the magazine so they really played into
21:46
that clientele i'm like
21:47
hey fu you either send me my money back
21:50
for your
21:51
worth of ads which was like probably
21:53
seven or eight thousand dollars or you
21:55
run my ad
21:56
they ran the ad and so
21:59
i got probably i knew i got probably i
22:03
don't know
22:04
50 hate mail from like you're a white
22:07
boy and you're denying your aryan roots
22:09
and you should be
22:10
you should have this black guy and
22:12
n-word and all this stuff on your bikes
22:15
and blah blah blah
22:16
and you're and just saying all this
22:18
stuff so at the time
22:19
from when i used to be a bodyguard i
22:21
knew a dude that worked at flint
22:22
publications
22:24
and so i bought a bulk subscription
22:27
to the all black like x-rated magazine
22:30
called hot chocolate
22:32
so everybody in prison that sent me one
22:34
of those hate mail
22:36
letters
22:42
[Music]
22:42
[Laughter]
22:49
that whole thing in the 90s like made me
22:52
think like and
22:53
some really good stuff came out of the
22:55
documentary because sugar bear
22:57
who had never been to daytona or sturgis
23:00
or never been in easy riders that all
23:01
changed and he's like a superstar
23:03
in the motorcycle like custom industry
23:06
now and he
23:07
was friends with the dudes of the easy
23:08
rider bikes that built it and it's just
23:11
you know i think times are getting
23:13
better like
23:14
you know and it's not so
23:17
i don't know i just used to go to
23:19
daytona and daytona
23:21
like for 20 years i went and it's boring
23:23
but if you go four
23:24
streets east of downtown daytona they
23:27
have they had their own black bike week
23:29
and it's like this is in the 90s so it's
23:32
like kind of pre-donk era but it was
23:34
like low riders and trucks with big
23:35
systems and barbecue on the street and
23:38
just like
23:38
it's a way funner time than a bunch of
23:41
bikers with leather trying to
23:42
mad dog each other you know
23:45
that's usually the case with us jesse uh
23:48
well better time you gotta admit that
23:50
brother hey listen i think it's
23:51
important
23:52
too and thank you for that doc in
23:54
bringing this up um and even speaking
23:56
transparently on it
23:58
and i think it's important that you and
23:59
see mac
24:01
connecting and and find a conversation
24:03
that you guys could have a
24:04
common thread on moving forward uh db
24:08
like two really good friends because of
24:10
all the election stuff
24:12
and you know uh like him and uh
24:15
that uh we were like an inseparable trio
24:19
like him and the model dude tyson
24:21
beckford and he like
24:23
went all in for hillary hillary and like
24:26
started
24:26
saying you're racist because you support
24:28
trump and all this stuff i'm like man
24:29
what do you
24:30
i don't care if you support who you
24:31
support like you're my friend
24:33
i got your back no matter what and those
24:34
guys got really bummed about it
24:37
and i got i got to reach out and try to
24:40
try to make it good because
24:41
i miss having them in my life you know
24:44
oh yes please do
24:45
hey db you want to jump in yeah yeah
24:48
thank you sway um
24:49
jesse really quickly um back in the
24:51
early 2000s when you had
24:53
you know every show had some sort of a
24:55
you know biker build-off or
24:57
customization show of some sort and then
24:59
the economy tanked and even people who
25:01
were making a lot of money guys like
25:03
billy lane russ mitchell
25:04
uh travelling a lot of these guys who
25:06
were doing really great and being
25:07
successful
25:08
a lot of them had to figure out how to
25:10
overcome that recession
25:12
and um now we're sort of seeing the same
25:14
thing happen again because the economy's
25:16
you know in the toilet and now you have
25:19
to deal with this virus as well so
25:21
what would your advice be to people who
25:22
want to get into this line of work
25:24
but you have to constantly deal with the
25:27
ups and downs
25:28
of the economy where people might not be
25:30
able to afford custom bikes and
25:32
and and the work that you put into this
25:36
uh yeah it was let go seven the
25:38
financial crisis i think a lot of people
25:40
were taking using their
25:42
mortgage and their home and stuff as a
25:44
ready teller to buy expensive stuff like
25:47
motorcycles and things like that
25:49
and i kind of saw it coming and i was
25:52
like
25:52
we i started downsizing and streamlining
25:55
things and moving
25:56
more vertical we instead of sending
25:58
stuff out you know do more stuff
26:00
in-house but
26:01
for people i think society
26:05
like kids that are coming up i think
26:07
there's with the
26:09
rise of youtube and you can like i
26:12
probably could have went on youtube and
26:14
figured out how to fix my coffee maker
26:15
this morning but i didn't
26:17
but you can go on there for anything you
26:19
get a little baseline knowledge
26:21
it's never going to be as good as
26:23
hands-on
26:24
and working with someone that really
26:27
knows and watching them do it
26:29
youtube will never replace that but
26:32
i think lots of guys
26:35
like want to do what i do i mean i get
26:38
letters everybody wants to come and work
26:39
with me and
26:41
and learn from me an apprentice but i
26:44
think
26:45
the simple fact of asking
26:48
that's trying to take the easy way like
26:51
oh i'm gonna
26:52
find this dude that mastered this craft
26:54
craft
26:55
and ask if i can come for a week and
26:58
spend some time with him and then i'll
27:00
learn everything he knows and then i'll
27:02
go back and i'll be a master of my craft
27:04
that's not that's not a that's not a
27:07
real
27:07
realistic point of view because to learn
27:10
what i know
27:12
in a week or two weeks or a month or a
27:14
year
27:15
it's never going to happen i've been
27:16
doing it for 30 plus years
27:18
and it's like you have to really
27:22
really apprentice and really know the
27:24
skills the right ways i mean that's what
27:25
i did i went
27:26
and i picked stuff and like hey just
27:29
like i wanted to learn how to machine
27:32
stuff so i went to this place called
27:33
ultimate machine and this is in like
27:35
1989
27:37
and this guy named jim pittner who's
27:40
this old
27:40
angry guy and i just picked up a broom
27:43
and started sweeping i'm like hey i want
27:45
to hang out and learn how to
27:46
i had this one part i wanted to make i
27:48
want to make this billet aluminum
27:50
bar for one of my bikes
27:51
can i can you show me how to do it he's
27:53
like oh get out of here
27:55
and so i just started sleeping i'd go
27:57
over there after work every day or after
28:00
and i work nights at a bar so i would go
28:03
before a couple hours to start sleeping
28:05
and eventually after like
28:06
a couple days like well you know you
28:08
gotta bolt this thing down and
28:11
that's what you got i think the
28:12
knowledge that people that want to do
28:14
this that you have to
28:16
earn it you can't just just because it's
28:18
easy to contact someone like me
28:20
or someone else that's a chef or a or a
28:23
diesel mechanic or someone that does
28:25
turbos or sound systems or whatever just
28:27
because you can
28:28
have access to them doesn't qualify you
28:32
to have the knowledge i think all the
28:34
knowledge that you gain
28:36
and you want to gain you need to earn it
28:39
you know you have to
28:40
that has to be earned and you have to
28:43
earn the right
28:44
to receive that knowledge you know
28:47
i don't know if you understand what i
28:48
mean but you can't just
28:50
uh yeah i saw jesse on instagram so i'm
28:53
just going to send him a message and
28:54
he'll show me how to do everything he
28:55
does done
28:56
in the end of earning you know like
29:00
and i think you know people have to
29:02
realize that
29:04
that it's not it's not that easy man
29:07
they don't work like that sometimes you
29:09
got to pick up a broom
29:12
yeah and like germany has a really good
29:14
apprenticeship program so like
29:16
bosh and all these daimler bands they
29:19
have
29:19
they take kids really young and it's
29:22
seven years they got to go in and do an
29:23
apprenticeship but it's been
29:25
of the seven years they're making a six
29:27
figure year
29:28
job making six figure money and they're
29:31
a master of their craft after for seven
29:33
years
29:34
so you know if a kid's 20 and you tell
29:37
them hey
29:39
by 27 you'll be a master of this
29:42
that's a pretty good prospect i think
29:44
and you'll be making money you could
29:46
support your family you could buy a
29:47
house you could get a new car every five
29:49
years you know that's
29:50
that's very i think enticing
29:54
like we need to do that kind of program
29:57
you know where we could
29:57
teach kids skills again you know yeah
30:00
yeah
30:01
of jesse james is here and host of
30:03
monster garage hearing on discovery man
30:05
good to have you on the show
30:07
check them out on monster garage on
30:09
discovery plus thank you for calling in
30:11
jesse all right and good luck to
30:13
everything
30:14
yeah thanks guys have a good day all
30:20
right
30:23
[Music]
30:30
[Music]
30:32
you
#Arts & Entertainment