He’s already turned cars into lawn mowers on
Monster Garage, matched wits with the Donald on
Celebrity Apprentice and somehow landed Sandra Bullock as his wife. Next up? Jesse James is trying to get himself killed. We caught up with the tattooed bike-builder to talk about
Jesse James Is a Dead Man (Sunday, 10/9c, SPIKE), the insane new series that has him taking on daredevil (and yes, death-defying) stunts.
Congrats on having the most badass series name on television.A guy pitched us a show that was like a glorified
Monster Garage, but with the title
Jesse James Is a Dead Man. I was like, well, that show idea sucks and we’re never going to do that, but I’ll give you five grand for that name right now. Once we had the title, my mind went, “Cool, I know some stuff that might get me killed!”
Were you an Evel Knievel fan growing up?Oh, totally. I have my original scrapbook when I was 7 years old and it’s all Snake River Canyon jump pictures. I loved that stuff.
Did you get injured much during filming?I busted some ribs, chipped a bone on the back of my pelvis and bruised a lung. The body, to me, is just like a tool: I’m going to use it until it breaks and then I’ll fix it or get a new part.
So how does Sandra feel about you putting your life on the line?Most of the really crazy stuff I didn’t tell her about. Because I knew it’d be like when someone comes in my shop and says, “I want to get a bike for $100,000.” And then they say they’re going home to talk to their wife about it. Those guys
never come back. Asking her if I could go 1,000 mph in a jet? It’s just gonna make her nervous and worry. And it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Celebrity Apprentice seems so out of character for you. Why’d you agree to it?I say no to everything. They offered me pretty close to seven figures to do
Dancing with the Stars and I’d never f---ing do that. I only have like one move, kind of the white-boy lowrider dance. [
Laughs] But I know what I’m good at. I always watched the regular
Apprentice and thought I’d kick ass, because it’s what I do everyday anyway.
How’d you feel when Trump and Piers Morgan kept pushing you about not calling on your wife for help?Well, it’s obvious that those guys don’t have any idea what I do for a living. If I wore a suit, loafers with no socks and a man purse, they’d be like, “oh, yeah, that guy must be successful!” But since I’m kind of dirty and wear work clothes, they don’t get it. I’m like the janitor to them. And that’s kind of their respect level. I think the only thing they could connect with is my wife.
With the Apprentice, your clothing line and now your new show, do you still have time to do much hands-on work?I’m sitting at my table right now, welding. I’m trying to finish up a bike for a customer so I can get it out the door. People are paying a premium price to have my hands doing the stuff, and I love doing it. All the other stuff is kind of superficial to what I’m really supposed to be doing.