Jesse James

Jesse Gregory James (born April 19, 1969, Long Beach, California) is an American entrepreneur, automotive mechanic, and television personality. He is the founder of West Coast Choppers, ex-partner of Austin Speed Shop, and CEO of Jesse James Firearms Unlimited, also based in Austin, Texas.

James rose to fame as the host of the reality TV shows Monster Garage on the Discovery Channel and Jesse James Is a Dead Man on Spike TV. He also appeared in the 2004 skateboarding video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2.

Born in Long Beach California in 1969 James played as an outside linebacker at Riverside City College in Riverside, but two injuries forced him to end his playing career.

At age 19, he became a bouncer and then a bodyguard, notably for Slayer, Glenn Danzig, and Soundgarden.

In 1992, James founded West Coast Choppers in his mother's garage. In addition to his work with the company, he has built and is actively racing both an off-road Trophy Truck and a Figure-8 race car.

James was the owner of the Cisco Burger restaurant, which opened on April 28, 2006, across the street from West Coast Choppers which has officially closed. James also had partial ownership in Austin Speed Shop in Austin, Texas, which he left in 2013 to focus on the re-opening of West Coast Choppers in Austin.

Other business ventures include the fan club Chopperdogs and Jesse's Girl clothing line. James published the now-defunct custom-car magazine Garage.

In 2000, the Discovery Channel made the documentary Motorcycle Mania, which chronicled James' everyday life. Following the success of the documentary, the Discovery Channel approached James with an offer to host a new show called Monster Garage where James and a crew of mechanics modified vehicles under a short deadline. James later established Payupsucker Productions, under which he produced shows like History of the Chopper, Iraq Confidential with Jesse James and Green Scream, in which James plans to break the land speed record with an eco-friendly hydrogen car.

Through James' show "History of the Chopper" there are also glimpses of his involvement with the Hells Angels.

He also made an appearance on the Discovery Channel's Sons of Guns. He appeared on the second season of Celebrity Apprentice. Each celebrity played to raise money for a favorite charity; James selected to play for the Long Beach Education Foundation. Due to his poor performance in raising funds, James was eliminated by Donald Trump on the second-to-last show (ultimately placing third) which aired May 3, 2009. Trump repeatedly cited James' stoic refusal to contact then-wife Sandra Bullock to raise funds for the show's challenges, though other celebrities had no problem tapping high-rolling contacts for cash.

His show Jesse James Is a Dead Man premiered on Spike TV on May 31, 2009. The show features James doing death-defying stunts. The first episode set a rating record for Spike, drawing the largest audience ever for an unscripted series on the network, with 2 million viewers. The show is produced by Spike TV, BASE Productions and James' company, PayupSucker Productions. In conjunction with that appearance Marvel Comics created a special one-shot comic book where he evades death once again after considering retirement, and made it available in comic book stores for free distribution.

James appeared on an episode of Street Customs where he had his pickup truck customized by West Coast Customs.

James' Discovery Channel website states that his great-great-grandfather was the eponymous notorious outlaw's cousin. However, Eric James, president of the James Preservation Trust, which tracks claims of being a relative of the outlaw, says it cannot find a record of him in the family tree and has asked him to provide a family genealogy and DNA sample for the trust to review; he has not provided the requested information.

James has four children: a daughter and a son with his first wife, Karla James, to whom he was married from 1991 to 2002; a daughter with his second wife, stripper/adult actress Janine Lindemulder, to whom he was married from 2002 to 2004; and a son with his fifth wife, former porn actress and model Bonnie Rotten, whom he married in 2022.