Lists

Autoimmune disease; Lost father in 2020; Raise $100k – How is Brandi Passante doing today?

Published

5 months ago

November 13, 2023

Brandi Passante is one of the most recognized faces in the reality television series “Storage Wars.” She’s undergone a series of challenges in her personal life these past few years, that some fans thought would drive her to end her participation in the show. Fans wouldn’t hold it against her if she indeed took some time off to rejuvenate, since it was devastating to deal with problems publicly such as the death of a loved one, domestic abuse, single motherhood, and an autoimmune disease. She bravely faced these misfortunes head-on, while inspiring others to maintain a positive outlook on life, by continuing to set goals and striving to achieve them.

Contents

1 Get to know Brandi Passante before “Storage Wars”
2 When Brandi met Jarrod
3 What was “Storage Wars” all about?
4 Her journey with “Storage Wars”
5 Controversies Brandi dealt with while in “Storage Wars”
6 Her life after the split

Get to know Brandi Passante before “Storage Wars”

Brandi Leigh Passante was a Texas native, who was born on 16 May 1980, in the most populous county in the US, Harris County, to parents Joe Passante and Cheryl Gibson Begandy; she has two brothers, Alexander and Bruce. In the rare times that she mentioned her upbringing, it was to say that she had a tumultuous childhood. In one podcast guest appearance, she never refuted what the host said about her home – that it was unstable, unpredictable, and erratic at times. Brandi also agreed when the host said that she probably felt that she never stood on solid ground and that she just skated around to get by.

Image source

Her family was from a long line of coal-mining hillbillies. However, her father worked on cars, and his specialization was installing windows and windshields. In an interview, it was insinuated that she underwent mother-daughter challenges but never went into details. Fans then surmised that the reason why she didn’t like to talk about it was that she had a not-so-happy childhood, and it was somehow confirmed when she said, ‘I was constantly questioning if I was adopted or something, because I just felt that I never belonged.’ Be that as it may, Brandi had fond memories of her “Papaw,” her grandfather on her mom’s side named Robert Gene Gibson, who passed away in May 2013. He was the star of her first post on her Facebook account.

When Brandi met Jarrod

Aside from very rare photos and stories shared on her social media pages, nobody really knew anything about her until she joined a reality TV show with her boyfriend, Jarrod Schulz. Fans loved to hear how Brandi and Jarrod first met – it was back in 1999 when she started working at a carpet cleaning business, and he was her direct supervisor. Initially, he would jokingly tell everyone that she stalked him after their first meeting, but he confessed later on that he relentlessly pursued her. He knew that she was way out of his league, so he became creative as his friends would remind him to be extra careful and nice in dealing with her. Brandi said that he wore her down as he followed her wherever she went. His persistence won her over, and a few years later, they had two kids, Cameron and Payton.

What was “Storage Wars” all about?

In the 21^st century, reality shows redefined the TV format. People from all walks of life not only in the US but around the globe were hooked on these types of shows; they even dominated social media and streaming platforms. When “Storage Wars” was launched in 2010, the TV industry was shocked that something as banal or trivial as abandoned storage lockers would generate so much interest from viewers. Even some of the A&E executives thought that the idea would never work, but it did – in its first season, it averaged close to 2.5 million viewers weekly, and became one of the most viewed non-scripted shows on the cable channel. Its popularity started the whole storage auction craze on the entire reality TV programming, and has since enjoyed high viewership ratings, now approaching its 15^th season this 2023.

“Storage Wars” featured a group of business entrepreneurs who purchased abandoned storage lockers or units by bidding on them during an auction at storage facilities. In most states in the US, a storage unit on which the rent hadn’t been paid for the past three months, the storage facility owners had the right to put it up for auction. Valuables such as artwork, machinery, antiques, and jewelry were reported to have been found in them; it had become a form of treasure hunting, but in storage facilities instead of going to exotic islands.

During the first season, Brandi Passante along with her fiancé Jarrod Schulz was joined by other storage buyers such as Dave Hester, Barry Weiss, Darrell Sheets and Brandon Sheets with resident auctioneers Dan and Laura Dotson.

All new #StorageWars tonight pic.twitter.com/WgxckdwZ7y

— Brandi Passante (@Brandipassante) April 21, 2021

Her journey with “Storage Wars”

One of the reasons that the reality series industry became a huge hit was mainly due to the interesting and controversial characters who were introduced to the public. In “Storage Wars,” Brandi easily became a fan favorite along with Jarrod, as they were the underdogs in a group of veteran storage auction buyers.

How did Brandi join “Storage Wars”

The producers of “Storage Wars” were on the lookout for people who were buying abandoned storage lockers in California. Brandi said that they were included in the cast mainly by chance – they were attending an auction in a storage facility center, and people from the production crew were filming for the pilot episode of the TV show. They initially talked to Jarrod, but when they saw Brandi, they immediately asked him if she would be interested in appearing on TV. It wasn’t as if the couple ever thought they would be on TV someday, but they agreed, as it could be good for their business, and at the same time bet paid for it. She said, ‘We really didn’t think it would go anywhere, but it became a big deal.’

Brandi Passante’s first appearance in the series

When viewers first saw her, they thought that she was from the stereotypical mold of those gorgeous blondes who were unfairly described as vain, dumb, and immensely superficial, but she wasn’t like that. During the first episode, she was introduced as Jarrod’s wife and business partner, who managed their second-hand thrift store called Now and Then located in Orange, California. Since she was the one who handled the accounting books, she knew if the store was making money out of Jarrod’s auction purchase. One day, he bought a unit with a car in it, but Brandi was still wary about the purchase, since their store still had the dirt bikes that turned out to be broken when he got them from an auction. This time around, he brought some great news, as he had someone appraise the car and said that it was worth around $2400. Brandi was happy that for once Jarrod was right; they were lucky. since he never had a chance to know if the car was running when placing a bid on the abandoned storage locker, for which he later paid $700.

She started to take a larger role in storage hunting

It didn’t take long before Jarrod took Brandi to the auctions – normally, she would stay in the store while Jarrod hunted for the storage unit, but they decided to change their strategy and have her accompany him, to have another set of eyes and ears. She planned to stay in the background, look around, but make sure that the other buyers didn’t realize if Jarrod was interested in a unit or not, and their plan worked. Brandi kept on bidding during the auction and the others never realized that they had been played because at the end of the bidding process, Jarrod even asked the auctioneer who won the bidding. Some of the veteran buyers said that if they knew that she was Jarrod’s wife, they would have aggressively joined the bidding. Brandi said, ‘I’m not usually a bidder on the units so I think it kind of threw them off’; the other buyers said it wouldn’t happen again. She scored big, as most of the things inside the unit were unopened boxes with brand-new electronic gadgets. They earned $2300 from the unit, for which they paid just $800.

Started in a spin-off series called “Married to the Job”

Brandi and Jarrod became a favorite couple in the original series, and their popularity led the production team to give them a special. It was a test run, and the executives then gave the green light to produce the spin-off series, “Brandi and Jarrod: Married to the Job.” Viewers were curious about how the couple managed two thrift stores in California while raising their two kids at the same time; it was launched in August 2014 and had eight episodes, mostly about how Jarrod proposed to Brandi and their wedding plans, because apparently, they hadn’t officially exchanged wedding vows yet, even if they treated each other as husband and wife. For some reason, it never went past that first season, but they just continued filming for the original series.

Controversies Brandi dealt with while in “Storage Wars”

“Storage Wars” was supposed to be a reality TV series, but it didn’t mean that the stars could talk about their private lives in front of the camera if they wanted to. The cast had certain rules to follow, and the executive producers insisted on this requirement to maintain the stability of the show. Here are some of the controversies that Brandi was embroiled in but were never discussed on the show:

Brandi sued the Internet’s Most Hated Man

In October 2012, the reality TV star filed a lawsuit against Hunter Moore, also known as “Internet’s Most Hated Man” – he published unauthorized pornographic photos of men and women on his site, IsAnyoneUp.com. He claimed that he started it as a form of ‘revenge porn’ for those who had been jilted or wronged in a relationship. Many people submitted photos to him, and Hunter made money out of it. Brandi received many disturbing messages through Twitter such as ‘Love the pics’ and ‘Can’t wait for the video.’ She found out that Hunter posted nude photos, which he claimed were hers but were actually fake. She won the case as the judge ruled in her favor in June 2013 except for the actual damages that she was seeking. Brandi asked for $2.5 million, but the judge only awarded her $750, and payment for attorney fees. The court said that she was unable to provide pieces of evidence for the estimated calculation of damages, but Hunter’s site was shut down after it received a cease and desist order.

She had plastic surgery as required by the A&E network

Dave Hester once filed a complaint against the producers of “Storage Wars” calling it fake, and that the producers staged most of the scenarios in the show. He also mentioned that the A&E network required Brandi to undergo plastic surgery to enhance her looks, and make her face more pleasing to the audience. Nobody believed it since there were many in the cast who weren’t asked to have a procedure done, but continued to be in the show. A few childhood and teen photos that were posted on her social media looked just like her adult self, so fans assumed that Dave was trying to be controversial and attract attention to his legal complaint.

Brandi and Jarrod quietly split up in 2018

The funny and sometimes spicy banter between Brandi and Jarrod was one of the reasons why fans fell in love with them. It was found out later on that the couple broke up in 2018, but they kept it a secret partly because of the TV show, and mainly for their children. It happened just after filming the 12^th season of the show; there were times that some fans thought that the two separated since they were seen with a different person on their social media pages, but since neither officially confirmed it, it was just treated as a rumor. They never addressed it until the premiere of the 13^th season. Jarrod said that just because they weren’t together anymore, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t work in the same business.

Her life after the split

Many people were surprised by the shocking revelations that unfolded after Brandi broke-up from her longtime partner. She became a little bit more open about herself, saying that for many years, she was forbidden to have an identity. ‘And so these last couple of years, I’m kind of coming into my own, and figuring out who I am.’

Lost her father in 2020

After the split-up became public, she lost her father, Baldassare Joseph Passante, on 26 October 2020 from lung cancer. Apparently, her father had been sick most of her life, as he suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) for about 35 years. He also had arthritis, osteoporosis, and liver cancer. She paid tribute to her father on her Facebook account, with a photo of her sleeping on his father’s lap when she was still a baby. Brandi recalled that her father never once yelled or got mad at her.

Auto-immune disease

Some fans could sometimes be rudely vulgar on social media. Brandi was called names due to her raspy voice. She addressed it by telling everyone that she had been suffering from an auto-immune disorder, Hashimoto’s Disease., which specifically targeted the thyroid glands, and that made her voice raspy at times.

Single motherhood

The transition in her life was a little harder than she thought it would be. She said that being a single mother would have been easier if her children were still young kids instead of teens, because they could be rebellious at times. Brandi shared, ‘Teenagers are tough, especially when you’re doing it by yourself.’ However, it seemed that they’ve adjusted pretty well now, based on her Instagram post, which showed her son matriculating from high school. She wrote, ‘So proud, & so fortunate to have these 2 beautiful, kind, & loving souls. I don’t know what I did to deserve them.’

Domestic violence charges

When Brandi and Jarrod revealed publicly that they’d broken up, everyone thought that everything was already resolved between them, since it had happened two years before they announced it. In April 2021, Brandi was out with friends in a bar in California; when Jarrod arrived at the place, the two talked but things got heated and she told him to go home. He refused and was getting physical by pushing her hard twice while yelling at her. Someone in the bar called the police, but when they arrived, he was long gone. However, after a report was filed, he was arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence battery.

https://www.instagram.com/p/rp3krriSZQ/

People weren’t surprised anymore to see Brandi offering her services to fund-raising events such as the Women’s Own Worth in Arkansas – the organization helped abused women by empowering them with opportunities. She hosted the event, and raised about $100,000 for its cause. She said, ‘I’ve experienced some things in my life, and it’s a really wonderful cause.’ Brandi was still shy in sharing details of her misfortunes, and some people felt that it was because of her children.

She might have undergone many tragic events in her life, but she’d moved on, and there were rumors about her happily dating a new guy recently, but never sharing his identity.

Lists

Who is Paul from FabRats? Meet who stands behind

Published

3 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Daniel Wanburg

One of the greatest things about the internet is being able to connect with people who have similar interests and passions, regardless of how niche these might be. YouTube is one of the platforms which have made it possible for channels such as Fab Rats could find their right audience, also putting their stars under the internet’s stardom.

While everyone in the Fab Rats team makes what happens on screen possible, there’s no discussion about Paul being the show’s lead man. His hands-on and hard-working attitude make him the right one to convey Fab Rats’ mission, by turning every concept into real fabrication projects.

So who is Paul, and what is the story behind his channel? Stay here to know all about him and everything he does to make FabRats possible.

Contents

1 Who Is Paul?
2 His Beginnings
3 How Did He Start The Channel?
4 What Did Paul Do For A Living?
5 His Family, Friends & The Channel

Who Is Paul?

Ever since Fab Rats started sharing videos on YouTube in 2019, the channel has become wildly popular for people who want some entertaining but also educational insights into car building, restorations, and a fair share of adrenaline-inducing burnouts in the American style.

In front of the cameras, you can find Paul Cox, though he mostly introduces himself by his name alone. Based in Glendale, Utah, Paul turned his house’s garage into his workshop, and the rest of his property’s free space is used for automotive storage. Working at home also means that Paul is more than just a guy on his YouTube channel, as his family and friends are deeply involved with much of the work done at the garage, turning Fab Rats into more than just a regular channel.

Image source

That being said, Paul is one YouTuber of a kind as well. By stepping away from the usual scripted content and too-polished looks for the camera, Paul’s videos have fully conveyed simple and homely feelings which have only served him to connect further with his viewers.

His Beginnings

Given how vastly talented and knowledgeable Paul is in trades, it’s surprising to find out that he doesn’t have any type of certification or official training in the field. For starters, Paul was inspired to learn his craft by his father Sherman, who knew how to do ‘everything’, and passed down that knowledge to his son.

As Paul affirmed in a question and answer season on his channel, he progressively became knowledgeable with tool and machine usage throughout his childhood and teens, but welding was specifically a skill he learned just because he wanted to: ‘(it has) been just self-taught. I just wanted to weld so I started welding then’, he said, recalling that he was around nine years old the first time he used a welding machine.

While part of his knowledge also came from some school courses he attended, the experience he got by working at a machine shop from the time he was 15 years old clearly served him well in learning everything he knows nowadays. All in all, Paul’s story is impressive and inspiring, making it not a wonder why his audience feels so compelled to follow in his steps.

How Did He Start The Channel?

Building an audience while also creating interesting and content worth watching is no easy task, yet Fab Rats was able to achieve that in only a couple of years without even planning to.

To talk about Fab Rats’ beginnings, it’s necessary to talk about Paul’s passion for demolition derby and his long-standing friendship with Matt Wetzel, better known for his YouTube channel Matt’s Off Road Recovery.

As Paul said in an interview with Decent Garage on YouTube, he met Matt at a Washington County Fair competition many years ago, though it was a tense encounter in which Paul was placed second to Matt, and that stopped them from becoming friends right away. Later, they met at a demolition derby field again, but this time Paul crashed against Matt’s side so badly that he regrettably thought he had fatally hurt him. Luckily, that incident fortunately didn’t take Matt’s life, and the two and their families became good friends afterwards.

It was that same friendship which led Matt to hire Paul’s wife Michelle as his video editor when he started his channel Matt’s Off-Road Recovery in early 2019. After noticing how greatly talented Michelle was at making Matt’s content shine, and knowing how good Paul was at what he did, Matt advised the couple to start their own channel as well.

Though it took Paul and Michelle several months to follow Matt’s advice, they can now thank him for giving them such a great idea.

What Did Paul Do For A Living?

While Paul is nowadays known for his amazing welding, restoring, and everything-automotive related, things were quite different for him before Fab Rats became as popular as it is today.

For over two decades, Paul was a construction worker at a telephone company, a job which took him away from home for around four or five days a week, but that he kept even after starting Fab Rats and gaining thousands of followers, using as much free time he had at the time to work on his projects.

It wasn’t the most comfortable situation, but the goal of leaving his nine-to-five job to have more time to share with his family and work on his content was clear in Paul’s mind, finally becoming a reality between late 2021 and early 2022, when Paul resigned from his job: ‘For me, it wasn’t a hard decision. I’d done that other job for 20 years, I was done with it, the challenge was done’, he said in an interview with Decent Garage in 2022, also admitting that his wife Michelle was nervous about the decision.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTp8b0pV_A/

Despite how risky it was to leave a stable job to live the YouTube dream of creating content for a living, these days Paul can pride himself on having a job which allows him to do what he loves, and spend time at home with his family.

His Family, Friends & The Channel

Any good fan of Fab Rats knows well that Paul’s content not only focuses on his trade and projects, but shows a lot of what his everyday life and family are like. For starters, his wife Michelle is in charge of the production aspects of the show, on top of also appearing regularly in Fab Rats’ videos, either taking part in some projects, as an interviewer, or simply having fun.

Other regular family members in Paul’s videos are his four kids, brother, mother, and his father Sherman, who unfortunately passed away in late November 2022. While the family usually keeps the most private aspects of their life away from cameras, Paul didn’t shy away from paying his late father a tribute by sharing the fixing process of his old truck in his channel, though not before confessing to his audience about losing his ‘best friend’.

Besides his family, it’s not unusual to see Paul’s friends in his videos, either lending him a helping hand or learning from him. All of it makes it clear that Fab Rats is about so much more than just entertaining videos and gearhead passion, but is also about learning and spending precious time with our loved ones.

Lists

Environmentalists prevailed in the ‘Diesel Brothers’ lawsuit

Published

17 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Daniel Wanburg

Truck customization has never been the same since “Diesel Brothers” debuted on TV in 2016. Featuring a wide variety of diesel-fueled trucks and a talented group of friends, “Diesel Brothers” did a great job at giving motorheads everything they wanted out of a show, including big powerful off-roading cars, and a lot of funny experiments and pranks.

Nevertheless, not everyone was happy about seeing what the “Diesel Brothers” did for a living, resulting in a long and enduring legal battle against them which to this day still causes a bit of confusion among his fans.

So what was the lawsuit filed against “Diesel Brothers” about? Who else was involved in it, and what consequences did the case have for the show and its stars? Stay here to know it all!

Contents

1 What was the lawsuit about?
2 What Did It Result Into?
3 Are Their Businesses Still Active?
4 What Happened To Their YouTube Channel?
5 Was The Show Canceled?

What was the lawsuit about?

Even before hitting TV screens in 2016, “Diesel Brothers” hosts, Dave Sparks and David Kiley, were already well-known on the internet for their fantastic truck customization featured on their popular YouTube channel. Nevertheless, not everyone had warmed up to them the same way, including an organization called Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE), which sued Sparks and his co-associates for violating the Clean Air Act through their business Sparks Motors.

The issues started in 2016, when the UPHE bought a $43,000 Ford F-250 truck and tested its smoke emissions, finding that the truck emitted 36 times more pollutants than a common would, on top of removing the equipment necessary for diesel emission control. They filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction, directed at those in charge of the businesses behind “Diesel Brothers”, to stop them from selling trucks with these modified systems.

Some of the arguments stated in the lawsuit were the fact that Sparks, Kiley and associates had been encouraging others to follow in their steps through their TV shows and social media. As well, the UPHE argued that the trucks modified by the business were ‘disease-generating machines’, as the pollution of Utah’s air was considered a public health concern.

What Did It Result Into?

Following the lawsuit filed against them in 2016, the “Diesel Brothers” faced a long and hard legal battle which finally saw its end in 2021.

Some of the case’s highlights include a 2018 injunction which stopped them from modifying the diesel control systems on the cars modified by Sparks Motors. The injunction was granted regardless of David Sparks’ claims that his trucks were meant for off-road conditions, given that these regulations applied to all types of vehicles despite their intended use..

As the case went on, Sparks Motors’ defense didn’t deny that the vehicles modified by the business had altered emission systems but argued that the vehicles were sold mostly to clients out of Utah. As well, court reports show that the company offered to fix the emission control systems of the cars already sold, along with trying to prevent being hit by a big fine under the argument that their earnings weren’t as massive as thought

Nonetheless, the judge determined that Sparks and his co-associates had earned over $400,000 from their TV show “Diesel Brothers” alone, without including earnings from their business activities. In the end, all the businesses behind “Diesel Brothers” were fined over $848,000, and paid another $800,000 in court fees to UPHE.

Are Their Businesses Still Active?

Knowing all the legal issues that the stars of “Diesel Brothers” have gone through in recent years, the question of how much these affected their businesses and lives is very common.

Dave “Heavy D” Sparks and David “Diesel Dave” Kiley are the owners of several businesses which are still up and running, despite the difficulties. For starters, their main business Sparks Motors is active, as seen on their social media. Though it’s unclear how much they were affected by the big fine and legal expenses they had to pay after losing their emission control case, it’s clear that they’re still big fans of truck customization. In late 2022, the business moved to a new and seemingly larger location, the eighth one since the business opened.

On the other hand, the pair’s online business, Diesel Sellerz is active as well. Though its social media accounts haven’t been updated since 2021, the marketplace’s website is often updated with the newest models for sale. However, “Diesel Brothers” clothing brand Diesel Power Brand has seemingly moved to Sparks Motors’ website, on top of stopping their giveaways system by announcing the last one in November 2022.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmt-flLBx66/

What Happened To Their YouTube Channel?

Long before Heavy D and Diesel Dave made it to TV in their Discovery Channel show “Diesel Brothers”, the pair was already well known for their truck-centered content on social media.

Featuring pranks between friends and showcasing entire and detailed truck customization processes, the two Daves turned their YouTube channels DieselSellerz and Sparks Motors into the perfect platforms for promoting their business, and also inspiring other Diesel fans out there who either want to follow their steps of pursuing their dreams. Word got around, and sooner rather than later, both friends were featured in “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno”, inevitably taking the attention of Discovery producers.

That being said, the debut of Heavy D and Diesel Dave on TV also marked the end of an era for their YouTube channel, as DieselSellerz stopped sharing videos in March 2016. At that point, the pair focused on sharing content on the channels Sparks Motors and on their then-newly created HeavyDSparks, which to this day is close to hitting the three million subscribers mark.

These days, both Diesel lovers keep active on a variety of platforms, on which they aren’t limited to truck customization and personal vlogging only, but also to bringing help to communities and people in need.

Was The Show Canceled?

All of their hard work has lead to this moment…

Watch a new #DieselBrothers tonight at 10p ET on @Discovery. pic.twitter.com/nyTGBObN6a

— Diesel Brothers (@DieselBrosTV) December 28, 2022

It’s been a wild and long ride for “Diesel Brothers”, but all great things have to end at some point. After seven years and over 50 episodes aired, “Diesel Brothers” was announced to be airing its 8th and final season in December 2022.

This cancellation comes after the show spent several months off-air, with the last episode of the 7th season aired in 2020. Despite fans’ speculations pointing out the legal issues faced by Dave Sparks and David Kiley as the reasons for the cancellation, it’s unclear what exactly led to the end of “Diesel Brothers”.

So what’s in store for Heavy D and Diesel Dave? Both men still actively work in their businesses, while also creating content for their social media platforms, but other than that it’s unclear if they have any plans of returning to TV, or if this means the end of that chapter of their lives.

All in all, between the high price they had to pay in their lost legal battle against an environmental group, and the subsequent cancellation of “Diesel Brothers”, nevertheless, this isn’t the end for Dave Sparks and Diesel Dave, as surely great things are still awaiting them.

Lists

Paul Teutul Sr’s Legal Battles and Financial Troubles

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

Daniel Wanburg

For years, Paul Teutul Sr. graced the screens of motorcycle enthusiasts who followed his show religiously, watching him create custom bikes for fellow enthusiasts. Paul Teutul Sr. served in the Vietnam War as a member of the US Merchant Marine, and returned home from the war with a dream, which inspired him to start his first business, a fabrication shop in Orange County, New York State. That first business and his passion for bikes catapulted Paul to fame, after he earned several opportunities to build custom bikes on television, enter his creations in competitions, and earn awards for sharing his passion with the world. Unfortunately, financial troubles and a barrage of legal battles threatened Paul’s livelihood and ability to keep pursuing his passion. Here’s an update on all Paul Teutul Sr’s battles and problems.

Image source

Contents

1 “The Ride of a Lifetime”
2 “Orange County Choppers”
3 “American Chopper”
4 “Senior Vs Junior” and “The Last Ride”
5 Legal Battle: Father against Son
6 Legal Battle: Fraud
7 Bankruptcy

“The Ride of a Lifetime”

In his memoir “The Ride of a Lifetime: Doing Business the Orange County Choppers Way,” Paul Sr. credits the positive turn in his life that brought him all the success he’s enjoyed to a promise he made to his wife. When Paul returned home from the Vietnam War, he fell into a drinking problem – at 35, he spent most of his time drinking, and would often wake up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. Naturally, his body was falling apart from over two decades of excessive drinking – he would often cough up blood, and knew that he had to stop drinking or he wouldn’t live long; he made a promise to his wife to sober up., which saved his life. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous, got sober, and started his fabrication business.

“Orange County Choppers”

Paul Sr. actually started his first business, “Orange County Ironworks,” long before he became sober. All he owned at the time was a welding machine and a pick-up truck he used for transport. In the mid-1980s, when Paul sobered up and started to recover from his alcoholism, the business began to expand. He opened a larger shop in Rock Tavern, New York, shortened his business name to “Orange County Iron,” and expanded his customer base exponentially over the next 15 years,. By 1998, Paul had acquired a 10,000-square-foot steel framed facility to supplement the 7,000-square-foot shop he’d been operating out of since 1986. After this expansion, Paul left it in the capable hands of his son, Dan Teutul, and moved on to pursue his passion for motorcycles.

Paul founded “Orange County Choppers” in 1999, capitalizing on his knowledge and extensive experience as a fabricator, his long-held passion for bikes, and the expertise of the engineers and designers he brought on board to create custom bikes. His passion and expertise as well as that of his team shone in his work, earning him a spot on the hit reality television series “American Chopper.” The company has withstood several legal battles seeking to use Paul’s shares to recover some of his debts. However, a quick review of the operations of “Orange County Choppers” reveals a thriving company, that sells branded gear such as t-shirts and hoodies, organizes, and has its bikes featured in events such as the upcoming “Show at the Shed” in May.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpicd6WukEa/

“American Chopper”

Four years after leaving his fabrication business to start “Orange County Choppers,” Paul’s decision to pursue his passion paid off, when he caught the attention of executives at Pilgrim Films & Television, and secured a spot for a show on the Discovery Channel. The first episode of “American Chopper” aired in March 2003, and over four years, Paul Teutul Sr., his son Paul Jr., and their team entertained their audience of bike enthusiasts with their antics, as they worked in their garage to build custom bikes, before their show was moved to TLC in 2007. Since its premiere, the show cultivated a niche among the Discovery Channel’s loyal audience base, gradually growing its own audience base that remained loyal, and stuck with Paul Sr. and his team when the show was moved to TLC, averaging over three million viewers per episode. Two years after its move to TLC, the show lost its spot despite the large viewership it had cultivated. Fortunately, fans and fellow bike enthusiasts didn’t wait long since TLC picked up the show again albeit with a twist in its premise since it pitted Paul Sr. against Paul Jr.

“Senior Vs Junior” and “The Last Ride”

One of the dynamics that defined “American Chopper” was constant disagreements between father and son. From the beginning, it became evident to the audience that despite sharing a passion for making custom bikes, Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. had different approaches to their work, which led to the infamous showdown of 2008; t he fight between the two had been brewing for a while.

One morning, Teutul Sr. was fed up with his son’s lateness to work, and expressed his anger over Junior’s tardiness, noting that Jr. had been making a lot of excuses lately, and adding that he wouldn’t let his son get away with it any longer. When Jr. eventually came to work, Paul Sr. confronted him for being forty-five minutes late, adding that he was tired of babysitting him. Jr. defended himself saying it didn’t matter what time he got to work, as long as all the work would get done at the end of the day. Besides, Jr. added, the business would collapse without his input. An angry Paul Sr. responded by firing his son.

Anyone who thought that Paul Jr’s termination from “Orange County Choppers” (OCC) would be the end of his infamous rivalry with his father was wrong. Paul Jr. opened a rival custom motorcycle business, capitalizing on the experience he’d gained after years of working with his father, the client base he’d cultivated, and the skills that had made him an invaluable member of OCC’s team.

Fans got to watch the rivalry between father and son play out on screen again, when TLC premiered “American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior.” Four seasons later, the show ended with father and son standing proudly next to the bike they’d collaborated on building for a client. The feuding yet incredibly talented duo showed off its complementary skills again in 2020, when Paul Sr. and Jr. collaborated on another bike in a special entitled “American Chopper: The Last Ride.”

Legal Battle: Father against Son

Paul Sr.’s rivalry with his son began on television and ended up in the courtroom. When Paul Sr. and Jr. started working together, they both had shares in “Orange County Choppers.” They had contract, including a clause that allowed Paul Sr. to buy out his son’s stock in the business, if Paul Jr. decided to leave the jointly-owned custom bike manufacturer. Paul Sr. decided to exercise his option after their infamous fight, but his son refused to part with the shares, prompting Paul Sr. to sue his son. According to court documents, Paul Sr. claimed that his son brought harm to their business by starting a competing business, and misappropriating business assets. Furthermore, Junior was unresponsive to any attempts by his father to value his shares and interests in the business, in preparation for the buyout. Paul Jr. won the lawsuit following the court’s decision that Paul Teutul Sr. couldn’t force his son to sell his shares in OCC.

Legal Battle: Fraud

Paul Sr. wound up in court again a few years later – this time on the other side of a court case. He’d been sued by another business partner, Thomas Derbyshire, for allegedly spending the capital the plaintiff had injected into OCC for personal expenses. According to Thomas, he invested $3 million into a spin-off entitled “Orange County Choppers: American Made” but Paul Sr. used the money to go on a fishing trip. Furthermore, Paul paid his son a significant amount of money from Derbyshire’s investment, and failed to consult Thomas before accepting sponsorships for the show. More people sued the veteran and bike enthusiast for similar cases of fraud, claiming that he misappropriated the millions of dollars they invested in a TV project, leading them to lose their investment.

In addition to the lawsuits launched against him for fraud, Paul Sr. has been sued for copyright infringement, filed by a photographer who claimed that he’d taken and owned the copyright to a picture of Paul Sr., which the veteran used on his reality television show and on his merchandise. Finally, Paul Sr. is in trouble with the state of New York, for failing to pay state taxes amounting to $22,364.60.

Bankruptcy

Financial woes have accompanied Paul’s legal troubles. Despite raking in millions in endorsements, sponsorships, income from his businesses, payment from TLC for his television programs, and the proceeds from the sale of branded merchandise, Paul Sr. has been buried in debt since 2018. He owed $1,070,893.44 to over 50 creditors, and was about to lose his home in Montgomery, New York. Paul responded to his financial crisis by filing for bankruptcy in 2018, hoping that the move would help him secure his assets.

Paul’s legal and financial woes stripped him of the fortune he had worked hard to acquire since he started his first fabrication business in the 70s. Fortunately, Paul isn’t afraid of starting over and rebuilding. He’s since moved to Florida, and relocated “Orange County Choppers” to the state from New York. In addition to the motorcycle business, he’s opened the “Orange County Choppers Roadhouse and Museum,” a restaurant he runs when he’s not building custom bikes, organizing competitions, and selling merchandise.

With Paul Teutul Sr., there’s never a dull moment!