Folks Of Interest An Interview With Von Dutch

Thank you Ryan for putting that out there. We need to help bring the respect back to the name.

 

I had the good fortune meeting the man at Lead East in '83.He was hanging out behind the grandstand having a refreshment when I happened along.I stoped and had a nice chat with him and went on my way.I thought it was pretty cool meeting him at the time.He was quite a interesting guy.It's all good!

 

Joe L Bachs

Now that is funny!

Thanks, I too feel somehow comforted.

RF

 

Very cool vid!!

 

Thanks for the look into the man. Great video.

 

Emerson said....to be great, is to be misunderstood.

I wish I could have met him, and just hung out watching him work his artistry...

 

Thanks, Ryan, for posting a different light on a different kind of guy.

 

That was charming.

 

"Painted 4,000 cars, and only got one right"

It seems that people with extreme talents, are often extreme themselves.

Interesting to see Ken Howard, and not that Von Dutch guy. I'm sure he got tired of trying to live up to his legend.

 

I am reading a book by Matt Stone about the cars and bikes of Steve McQueen. There is a car Von Dutch built pretty much from scratch in that book. Steve contracted him to build a replica of a 1908 Winton for a movie he was doing. Seems an original wouldnt have held up to the abuse even if he could have found one to rent. Von Dutch did a recreation from scrap aluminum, a 4 cyl. engine from a Mini and a bunch of other parts repurposed. McQueen was really impressed and ended up buying the thing after the movie wrapped. Now owned by the guy that brought back the name for his clothing company. Thats were it goes down hill....

 

What a great video! He was an amazing man with incredible talent, but sadly drugs and alcohol diminished his life and eventually ended it prematurely. We have lost so many talented people because of those addictions.

 

He seems approachable and somewhat unimpressed with himself.Great interview.

 

Loved the video, especially the last bit where he was talking about brakes.

 

Holy shit I'm laughing my ass off. He's a pisser!

 

I wasnt the only HAMBER there that day. Chopolds was there too.

 

that was cool!

 

Thanks to both yourself and Terry Cook for sharing this short piece of car culture history. Since the first time I heard the name and saw the artistry of this man I was taken by it. Can't explain it, I don't even try. I guess it's one of those just 'cuz' things. I don't know about you people but most artisitic people are a little different (that's not such a bad thing). The world would probably be pretty boring without their creativity and their willing to share it! Random thoughts, Cat

 

Exellent clip. One of the best!

 

I always marveled at people who would say something like "artists aren't normal"....if artists were "normal" they wouldn't make great unique art...because all "normal" people would be doing it....... so it wouldn't be unique!..... He was unique!

 

I too have never seen an interview or even pictures of him that recent,& thanks for putting it up.

Heres a story I remember reading in Street Rodder or DRIVE! magazine.
Some guy took his new,or freshly painted Hot Rod to Dutch for stripes.They discussed the details of the job & the guy left the car with Dutch.
A day or so goes by & this cat goes to pick his car up,& all is good *until* the guy gets home.
He's looking the car over & notices a tiny but perfectly painted Lady Bug on the A-Pillar (or somewhere).
The guy takes the car back to Dutch & says" I didnt ask you to put a Lady Bug on my car",,bla bla.
Dutch calmly stops what he's doing,goes & gets a big hammer & whacks the shit out of this Lady Bug (and the the guys car),,,Dutch says "There ya go!,,no more Lady Bug now get the fuck outta here".
From what remember in the article,the guy didnt say a word,got in his ride,& drove off.
The guy definitley had the mystique goin on and thanks again for posting the interview,,the accident in the background is priceless!
Troy

 

Fuel Roadster...Thats a great story! The video was awesome too. Ever since I saw the Dutch and Ed Roth video I wondered how much footage is out there. The Sundays with Von Dutch book paints a very different picture of the man than what has been portrayed by the myth, and a whole lot more like the person I saw in the video. Thanks very much for posting this Ryan.

 

Very cool. that car wreck was classic.

 

Thanks Ryan and Terry for that wonderful bit of history...!

 

My wifes an artist and truly gifted but an absolute perfectionist so nothing is good enough to the point of OCD type behavior. I've seen her remove work from a juried show because lighting wasn't right. Can easily alienate those who don't understand. These type of personalities just need someone to let them know when to take a break and sometimes be a lightning rod when all hell breaks loose. I thrive on chaos so I find it entertaining where others would find it taxing.

 

Whenever I at a car show or see someone with either a Von Dutch hat or tee shirt I always tell them I will give them 5 bucks if they can tell me his real name and so far not one of them knows his real name or much else about the guy.

Kenny Howard is the stuff legends are made of.

Jimbo

 

What a laid back interview, really cool to hear Kenneth speaking. A dude that was his own man and I think he was terrific. Thanx for the glimpse at "Von Dutch" ~sololobo~

 

We all have our own demons to deal with....good video.....

 

Von Dutch being interviewed by Ed Roth...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruf4QQuBEmM&NR=1

 

Very cool video, thanks for sharing it!

What is just as cool is spotting Dean Jeffries' old Merc. Convertible in the video at 2:07!!

When a few of us visited Jeffries in 2009 he had mentioned that he'd like to find out where his old Merc. is.

There are even a couple photos of it in his book.
I hope the car is still around somewhere today, 28 years after this video was shot.











Malcolm

 

Good stuff, now Ryan should interview Terry Cook.