Here's Where Jesse James From West Coast Choppers Is Today

Before becoming a household name as a reality TV star, Jesse James toiled as a bodyguard for heavy metal bands like Danzig and Slayer. He and his custom motorcycle shop, West Coast Choppers, became instantly famous with the debut of the wildly popular Discovery Channel series Monster Garage in 2002. A whirlwind marriage with Oscar winner Sandra Bullock came in 2005, followed by several public affairs and a controversy involving violations of California emissions laws in 2007. 

The Simi Valley School District banned the West Coast Choppers logo in 2004 over concerns that it was too similar to iconography in use by white power groups, and a photo of James wearing a Nazi hat and raising his right arm surfaced in 2010. The combination of controversies led James to close his Long Beach West Coast Choppers shop later in 2010, but where is he now?

James has settled in Austin, where he mainly focuses on his firearms business, Jesse James Firearms Unlimited. In 2020 there were reports that Monster Garage was slated for a reboot, but those rumors never came to fruition. Around that time, James sat down for an interview with Graham Bensinger and said the COVID pandemic had interrupted the show's revival. "We filmed one episode, but we're on hold now until people can congregate more," James told Bensinger. "As soon as they give the green light, we've got seven more builds ready to go." 

In the interview, James also revealed he was building a custom motorcycle for UFC president Dana White. 

"He gave me free rein to do whatever I want," James said. He described how the design of White's bike incorporated a firearm motif, allowing James to incorporate the expertise and passion from his other current enterprise. "I'm gonna hand-form the bodywork on it," James continued. "It'll probably take about two years because probably every single part is hand-made, you know — nothing's off the shelf."

In a 2018 interview with Autostrada, James said the move to Texas had allowed him to slow down and get back to more hands-on shop work, which he very much appreciated. "We're doing three of four bikes a year and I don't really want to do more than that," he said. "The shop in California got so big, there were 200 people there at one time and it got to the point where I didn't work anymore, I was just managing. Now I've got rid of everything that's a distraction, so all I do is work." Although the COVID pandemic has subsided, the Monster Garage revival remains on hold, giving James further time to focus on his family and his two Austin-based businesses.