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‘American Chopper’ Update: Paul Tuetul Jr. Says Being Fired ‘One Of The Best Things’ That Ever Happened To Him

By Georgia Makitalo
Published on: 07:23 PST, Nov 20, 2017

American Choppers is returning to the Discovery Channel in 2018 with Paul Teutul Sr. and his talented son, Paul Jr., and presumably his other son, the hysterical Mikey. While there is a lot of fanfare that the guys from Orange County Choppers are returning to television, there is likely to be some apprehension as well.

Paul Tuetul Jr. who recently penned the book The Build: Designing My Life Of Choppers, Family, and Faith, also wrote an opinion piece for Fox News. In the essay, he told of his mercurial relationship with his father and how being fired was “one of the best things” that ever happened to the talented bike designer. What did Paulie have to say?

Paul Jr. was a young gun at 27 when American Chopper first aired on the Discovery Channel from 2003-2012. After a few years, it was clear that the pressures of being on television put a bit of a toll on the relationships between the brothers and their father.

Junior would come into the shop late, dealing with personal business issues, and Senior would blow his top. This caused a lot of friction within the shop and fractured the family. Paul Jr. said their “combustible, dysfunctional relationship” was on television “for the world to see.”

Junior admits that he lost his creativity. He lost the passion for this job he once loved.

As Paulie explained about that fateful day that changed his life, he was not only fired from the reality show, he was fired from a business that he was a part-owner.

“On Sept. 28, 2008, in a scene that millions of viewers of the American Chopper reality TV show watched on Discovery Channel, my father booted me from the Orange County Choppers custom motorcycle-building company, of which I was part-owner.”

Paul then explained that he had to take a year off from building bikes before he started his own business, Paul Jr. Designs. Paul revealed that he had no idea how “oppressive of an environment” it was working with his father. He just did not realize what a blessing this firing really was.

“And that turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to me at the time. It just took a while to realize that.”

The saddest news is that the relationship remained fractured and Senior did not attend Paulie’s wedding to model Rachael Biester in 2010, although Save the Necklace reports that he was invited to the nuptials.

The couple have one son, Hudson Seven Teutul, who will turn three in February. Now a father, Paulie is looking at life with a little more experience.

Time has the gift of perspective, and it is clear that Paulie now sees the gift behind being fired. It freed him to discover who he was. Perhaps most of all, to once again love his father.

“I love my father. I always have. The business risks he took created the path for me to discover my God-given gift of custom-building cool motorcycles. I owe much of my success to that opportunity he gave me before the world discovered Orange County Choppers – and, without doubt, his firing me.”

Have the two men repaired their relationship. Based on Twitter, it appears so, but American Chopper fans should surely get all of the details when the show returns in 2018.

[Featured Image by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images]

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