My grandfather had a coat and it was completely destroyed,
holes on it and just frayed and beat to hell.
And I saw it, and I was like: "That's beautiful."
It was his tool. It helped us build our home.
It put all these hours and time and love into this home
and I feel like when I look at something that's old
I feel it in my bones it just gets my creative juices flowing.
And that's when I realized that I just see things differently.
I started seeing my grandparents' floorboards, the way that they looked
and I'm like: "Every scratch or ding, laugh, cry, is recorded in that"
and then I started feeling like I just see art in a different way.
That's why we want to make this show.
- Are you on ? - Rolling.
Alright, so at this point we've brought things back to life,
we've changed things over, we've gathered the knowledge.
Now, let's do something really special.
Let's find the Holy Grail.
Man...
I wanted to do something after we've done everything on this show.
I wanted to do an homage to the holy grails.
For me, holy grail is the rarest of all these finds.
It's the piece that has traveled the furthest.
People don't part with these lightly.
I put it out there in the universe and next day, on Instagram,
I saw the Blessing Burst.
I was blown away. I was like: "Let's get it."
This looks not only from the outside, but from the inside
like a Les Paul from 1960.
It's shown by the zero as the first digit.
The finish was pure sunburst on these guitars.
They sit in the window or exposed to light for very long,
the red fades out and you get this beautiful sort of yellow burst finish.
Blessing has been appraised a number of times
and its value just keeps going up,
especially as original guitars from this era become more and more rare.
So, let's take a look first at the pickups.
Yeah, a little decal that says "Patent applied for",
that could make a difference of thousands of dollars
in the value of the guitar,
and not only does it say "patent applied for" in the cavity,
where the sun never shines,
you can see still the bright cherry red of the original finish.
All the solder joints look clean as a whistle.
So, the story of this guitar is, in the 1960s,
an aspiring young rock and roller named Richard Head
found it in a music store in the Cleveland area,
bought it, and thought that it might be a blessing to his career
and his music and it turned out to be.
And, after everything I have learned about Les Paul guitars,
from Slash to Billy Gibbons, to Murphy, Cesar,
I knew I had to see this guitar.
And how long did you have this guitar for, roughly ?
56 years. I bought it in 1967.
I flew to Orlando to meet Richard and get to see this guitar in person.
- A pleasure. - Absolutely.
- A pleasure to meet you, Chris. - My pleasure.
- Tom, nice to meet you. - A pleasure.
- Look at you ! - There you go !
Can you believe that ?
Let's put it up here.
There you go.
Wanna do something there. I'll have this on my camera at least a bit.
Go on, tell me ! Tell me a little bit about it first.
Former rock and roller in my teens and so forth.
Blessing and I were many hours on stage,
playing every club you could imagine.
The Midwest and down to Florida and back.
It was always my main instrument that I was just in love with
and going to keep, no matter what.
We opened for Golden Earring, Rush, Dr Hook and the Medicine Show
and all these groups, and every time I would be playing it,
the guy, the guitar player would ask me if I wanted to sell it,
and I said "no", of course.
And it went from 2,500 to 5,000, you know, to 7,500.
Believe me, back then, my friend, I could have used the money.
But no, I just went:
"No, this is my friend. I want to, I want to hold onto it."
So, at this stage in life, I came up with the idea
that what I'd like to do is to sell the Blessing
and donate the proceeds to Homes for our Troops.
It just seemed like the right thing to do.
We purchased the guitar, donated all of it to this cause
and then we're gonna take this guitar.
It's the Blessing Burst called the Roamers Burst too,
because it's gonna go on the road,
and it's gonna stay on the road and hopefully inspire many artists
and it gets to go on tour.
And I don't want it to sit in some safe or whatever,
I want it to be like, if Markus Keen wants to take this thing on tour
or someone that's up and coming, like someone that we just literally:
"Go, record an album." And let it just wander, let it go...
I can't tell you how excited I am about that.
You having it, and you telling me that,
I don't normally cry, but it almost brings tears to my eyes.
It was perfect how it all lined up and so I think it's wonderful
that our show's designed around this, you're designed around this,
and so now let it go, let this thing go wander and bless people,
and then I'm excited for people, I'm excited for it to play on albums,
to go and play for live audiences and go just tour.
Damon, how are you doing ? Are you studying ?
Alright, Daddio.
- You do the honors. - My last time.
And you are looking at a lot of blessing and a lot of me,
because this is me, this is me, you know ?
The wear and tear on it is me.
Alright, there we go. Man ! It's light.
Bro !
I haven't been able to see too many real ones.
I got the pleasure of seeing Slash's and it's just art.
That's the thing you were just telling me,
where it's you, everything along here is you and that's such a special.
Why I love these things so much is it takes on,
everyone's got their energy, it takes these pieces of wood soak that up,
and when you get to see something that's a musician
that you really love playing it, you just feel that energy.
I'm excited for my best friend to see this
and then watch him just wail away on that and we'll get on stage,
and I'd love it if you got up there too and sing something.
I'm at your service.
Yeah. It's gonna be an amazing night.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you.
It's just a massive honor, it's meant to be passed on
and meant to share the love and aloha, so.
That's pretty cool. And I also love a good story,
and I don't know anyone else that would take it and put it on the road,
and I'm like: "My ass will."
Next stop is tracking down a bike as rare as the Blessing Burst.
Alright.
So, I found a collector in Louisiana
who specializes in the most unique vintage motorcycles.
This is awesome !
Brian has all these pristine, one-of-a-kind bikes.
It was honestly overwhelming.
Grip the ears.
That's one of the only two Grindlay Peerless Speed Chiefs in the world.
It has a Rudge Python engine. They only made them for two years.
But it takes somebody as weird as me to want one like that.
I'm just glad I'm here.
I'm so happy I found it. It's such weird, esoteric.
- I like weird shit. - Look at that !
Things were just built differently in the past and I love that.
I feel like I'm in a past life. I feel like I'm riding on a time capsule,
the way they sound, the way it feels.
This bike was commissioned by a man, he hunted big game.
He knew that wildebeest and giraffes and the like wouldn't run
on the sound of honk, they wouldn't run.
If you're trying to get 100 giraffes to run...
That's how you get 10.000 zebra to run.
Look at that one ! My gosh, this one is amazing.
Suddenly I see this one and I just knew it was the one:
an original paint Brough Superior.
The thing about these bikes is, once you paint over them, that's it.
There's no going back to the original. Finding one like this,
beat up but the real deal, it's almost unheard of.
It is so rare.
Man ! Shit !
I don't know everything this bike has seen,
but I know it has been on this earth for almost 100 years,
and when you touch something with that much history, you can feel it.
I remember my first time seeing a Brough. Do you say Brough ?
- Brough. - Brough Superior.
They were all bespoke,
you decided what you wanted, he built the bike to fit you.
So I wanna be the first Hawaiian to ride a Brough !
I want to be the first Hawaiian to ride a Brough
at the first Cannonball and win it.
I fell in love with that Brough, so I brought it back to LA
to see if my friend, Nick, could get it running again.
You've brought back to life the impossibles.
- The DAH, the 1930, right ? - Yeah.
And then we had you bring back the bike from 1927
that's been sitting for, like, 70 years.
This is a 1929 Brough Superior 680 overhead valve
and it's just been sitting to stare at and I just can't stand it,
I want to set it free, bring it back to life.
Broughs are English bikes from the '20s and '30s,
and they were extremely fast and extremely luxurious.
Only about 1.000 still exist.
Have you ever worked on anything that's like...
Nothing, no, never worked on an English bike.
It's weird, but you know, anything that has a motor,
I can get it running. I'm very confident this'll run.
It's pretty rare because it's an original paint
and most people won't touch it.
If you guys just look at the seat, it's like everything is just,
it's a museum piece, but it needs to be ridden.
- You feel confident ? - Want to make a bet ?
I'll make a bet.
You've got to bet on how many kicks.
- Okay. Under three. - Under three.
Under three kicks I'll give you five grand and donate it...
- Not including prime kicks. - Not including prime kicks.
Three and under, that's pretty good.
- For three and over you owe 10.000. - Sounds good.
This is kind of the point of the show.
It's really about all the things that I love
that I can't do, and it's just a real honor to watch
everyone in this show that's just making artwork.
While I was in LA, I got hit up by a friend, Max Hazen,
about another Brough engine for sale.
This one was an SS100,
the first ever stock engine to go over 100 mph.
I knew we had to do something special with it.
It's pretty cool.
Max takes vintage pieces and gives them a new life.
Okay. That's gonna be fucking sick.
Mark adores work. It's something that I've never seen before.
He builds every piece on these bikes.
People ask me, like:
"How long does it take you to build a custom motorcycle ?"
And honestly, the building of it isn't the hard part,
it's getting that perfect line.
It's big.
Creating a bike with an engine from a century ago,
to do it justice and then to make it my size, that's a lot to ask.
They're extremely expensive bikes and to find just the engine,
especially the one that you want, in decent shape,
was a challenge, and we got lucky.
Yeah, now you're gonna see, it's pretty cool.
Everything is so analog on these old engines.
So, this spins at cam speed right here,
they're actually two single fire magnetos.
As these gears turn, shoot a spark to each cylinder at the exact time.
Right now, we've set up 30 degrees,
but it's pretty cool to see how you set all this stuff.
It's pretty cool hearing a motor breathe, too.
These things were just totally decrepit when I got it.
This was, like, so tarnished,
and I just kind of shined them up and cleaned them.
Some of this old stuff has just got a cool quality you can't replicate.
It's like the casting and everything,
it's that certain amount of imperfect that makes it have a bit of soul.
I don't think people can comprehend
how difficult it is to do what Max does.
To have a vision in your head and then get the whole machine
to function correctly and completely handmade
in this little studio in the city is magic.
Every detail, every thing on this bike is hand built.
I'll never be able to do this in multiple lifetimes,
what he does, so I'm excited for everybody to see that
and really create a really custom Brough Superior.
- Good ? - Yep.
There you go.
Right, making history. We did one 27, original paint...
Did the Hill Climber, brought it back to life,
I was gonna do this in England, but this is my special weapon right here.
Never worked on an English bike before.
Gonna try to bring an original paint Brough Superior to life.
There's a lot going on, especially in such a early motor and bike.
This is like Rolls Royce in the motorcycle for that time.
Alright, so I cleaned the tanks out. We've got spark, we've got fuel,
we've got air, and it should light right up.
A little ticklish.
Let's see, full choke.
Alright. I'll hold the decompression.
You kick. You wanna do it ?
I can't do it with my right leg, I got a rod in my leg.
- I can't do both. - Alright.
Wait one.
Yeah. Two.
Three. Alright.
If this starts up first, if this starts up first kick...
We'll do, like, a half a choke. Alright, a little decompression.
A little bit of throttle.
Kick it to win.
Bro !
One kick.
Good.
It took me a long time just to collect one of these.
I didn't expect it to be that easy.
He worked on it for a very long time.
You worked on it for like three days, right ?
Yeah.
Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
You have to hold it in gear. You go like this.
Throttle, clutch, shift it in gear. Throttle, hold it in gear.
- Still. - Yeah.
First kick !
First, first kick, English bike. You got it, bro.
Damn !
- Do I need lights or anything, bro ? - No.
It's kind of the finale, man. This is a pretty amazing journey
we traveled from New Zealand to come down here,
where we're gonna show my friend Mike Hayes
a very special original Les Paul Burst,
1960 Burst and surprise him.
There it is !
Where's Mike at ? Is he in here ?
Mike Hayes !
Alright. Richard, come on in, buddy.
Over here, Richard.
Hayes, you should stand right here.
So, tonight's a special thing and I don't know any...
I honestly don't know a better guitar player in the world.
It's a very arrogant thing to say, that this man is Tommy Guitar.
There's no-one that loves Sunhouse and the Hot Chili Peppers
more than me and him, and it's like, and Robert Johnson.
This is my teacher, someone I look up to
and we have this special connection.
- And so, without further ado, baby. - Amen.
It has finally happened. I want you to go up there,
and I want you to blast away, because I don't think you've ever played
a 19... 60...
- '60 ? - He's had it. 1960.
That is an original, all original. You're gonna go up there
and you're gonna blast away for the troops,
for Richard, for me, for On the Roam.
And that's the real deal right there. That's the real deal.
- This is your guitar, sir ? - 56 years, bro.
Yeah.
You know there's not so many of these in existence.
I want you to just tear it up, buddy. You never played a real deal !
I've never played a 1960.
You're gonna be playing and playing the holy grail.
- You're playing the holy grail. - That is amazing.
You're gonna play it for the troops, you're gonna raise awareness ?
I can't thank you enough for the opportunity.
It's gonna be an amazing night.
You're gonna smoke it tonight, dude.
Wait until this thing growl. I can't wait until you plug it in.
Alright ? Sound check, baby.
Listen, we're going out there right now.
Hello ! Hi everyone !
Unfortunately, I need you to put your phones down.
No, it's really cool because it's very personal, okay ?
So, before everyone gets here, I have something really special to say.
This beautiful man right here... Come here, Richard !
He's an amazing rock and roll player. He's been playing his whole life.
He has owned this guitar for 56 years, 1967.
I don't know if any of you have seen a Les Paul Burst guitar...
... but this is a real 1960 Burst.
So, the sound that you're gonna hear tonight, this is the most,
it is the holy grail of rock and roll.
My best friend, my teacher and my best friend is gonna rip it up
for us tonight and you're gonna hear it on a real Burst, the holy grail.
And not only that, our show On the Roam is all about artistry,
it's all about handmade artists, and it's all about paying it forward
and charity, and so I want you to remember this,
that this is going to our veterans, Home for Troops.
They paved the way for our freedom, these men and these women.
We got two hours to tear this motherfucker apart.
In fairness to Mike Hayes, who's never... I haven't seen one.
For him to see it and blast away on this,
and then watch Richard watching it, it's just like it's super emotional.
There's so much new stuff, when I do something like this
it's a blow-through, supercharged, pressurized gas tank.
There's a whole lot of stuff happening in,
making a 1930s engine, work this way but.
If you're gonna do it, let's do it ! You know ?
Let's supercharge it and let's go as far as we can with it.
Each Brough was custom built and tailored to their owner,
so I feel like Max is continuing the tradition of the custom build
in the same way it would have been made 100 years ago.
I never thought in a millions years I could own a Brough Superior,
let alone have it custom, like, made to my size.
Because that's the thing, most of the bikes that I have,
are just six-four, six-five, and 250, I don't fit on a lot of bikes.
I love them, but this is the first one that, aside from my Choppers,
that just fits my size.
What was it like when you were building this ?
Because we hadn't met. We did everything by phone.
No. I got to a point where I sat on it, and the reach was so far,
but the bars looked right. That's set number six of handlebars
and I tried, and I'm trying to find the right ones,
and these ones were the right ones for the bike.
When I sat on it, I'm like:
"Dude, I think it's too big. I think I went too far."
I hit Jason up and like:
"I know you haven't seen the bike yet,
"but you want to sit on this thing and make sure it's okay"
"before we go any farther ?"
And he sat on it. He's like: "Finally, a bike that fits me."
It's perfect.
It came out pretty nice. I'm happy with it.
And I love it.
There's something that you can't put a finger on,
that you feel when you've taken the time to really make something
that has taken a lot from you to make.
You actually put part of yourself into something and took a chance
and used from in here to make something.
It's a feeling that I don't share with many people anymore.
It's wonderful. Thank you so much.
Now, we're gonna make the first Brough, Brough Chopper in history !
Absolutely.
When we first started filming,
I had six '36s built by all my friends and artists I admire,
because they are my favorite bike
and, at the time, I never thought I would find an original.
You look up to people and you see something that's beautiful
and you want to collect that artwork.
I don't want to get an original and just near impossible,
and they're hard to find in general.
It's not that they're the best motor, either, but I don't know.
It's not even...
It's the evolution of Harley when they took off and buried everybody else.
Indian couldn't hang on, the style of the new Indian.
It buried everybody, all the other competitors.
For the water, is that special effects ?
Water line broke right there.
It's nothing to do with Aquaman or anything like that ?
The first time that I have to really look up
and see if it's absolutely original,
but my mom works at an insurance company in Iowa.
In her building is a '36 Knucklehead.
I remember seeing that as a little kid.
It's a black and, like, reddish one. And it was, like, pristine.
Since I saw saw that bike, I've been in love with the '36 Knucklehead.
Now here we are, years later in London,
and Jeremiah has tracked down my dream bike.
The '36 Knucklehead isn't the rarest,
but it's the last bike that the four original founders of Harley
put together themselves.
It's one of the most sought-after bikes on this planet.
It is one of very few all green, painted green, the fork,
the frame, from Harley.
It was stored during the war in Amsterdam,
and it was put together, it's pretty surreal.
Pete, come up here and gimme some love !
- This is Jason. Jason, Pete. - Hello, sir.
Hi ! You've got grease on your hands now.
A pleasure to meet you. This is all my friends and family.
You know Jeremiah's, Liam, Larry. This is Dan.
- Let's do this ! - You want to see it ?
I'm dying to see this. Dan, come over here and hold my hand !
Let's do this. I'll follow you in, sir.
There's only two export greens that are, I think, known of,
and to be able to bring that back to the States,
own an original paint, which there's just none.
- Pretty insane, right ? - Yeah, that's totally insane.
- Put my butt on it ? - Yeah, sure.
Man !
To actually...
- You're making me want to keep it. - No, I'm hurt. Let me get off it.
Man !
When I first got it, it was my everyday, and I loved that bike.
It rode so well as well.
And so, if I was going anywhere, I'd go out on that.
But it's got to the stage now that I'm conscious of its original paint.
There aren't many original paint bikes around.
If I crash it, or it kicks back and catches fire, it's gone,
so it's not a pleasure for me to ride anymore.
I would think, looking at the rear chain sprocket,
it's only probably done about 25.000 miles.
I want to give it away.
We got you a 36 mile ride down and back.
My God, look at that !
What was unusual about the Dutch export bikes,
they painted everything, including the fork, the oil tank, green.
It should be standard, for the States was black.
God damn !
The things that strike you as a kid, that you fall in love with,
never really leave you.
Who knew back in Iowa, looking at that bike in my mom's office,
that I would be here some day. It's beautiful.
It's a dream to find these works of art,
not to collect them or store them somewhere,
but to keep them running and on the road.
Dan, I made it, baby !
Man ! Good day.
Just having a moment to say
thank you for making my dreams come true.
Thanks for breaking my heart.
But you're gonna come to California and ride it,
it's just she has a new...
She's gonna travel in the States and you're gonna come and see her !
Thank you very much.
- Getting wet now. - Yeah. Should be alright.
I'm sorry I broke your heart, Pete.
That's what it's all about, is not putting it there in some museum.
I want to get out and ride these bikes, want to bring them back to life.
This guitar's gotta get out there, it wants to be out there.
For some of those artists that need to retire, we can make the other ones,
but I want to like take this and get it out and inspire.
This isn't made to sit on some wall. I want her out there, roaming.
... belong in the world, like I said.
Thank you so much, Richard, for giving it up to me to play.
I've played all those songs in my life that I could,
and I was, like, this is so inspiring it's unbelievable
and you played the shit out of them.
- Thank you, brother. - You're a master, my friend.
- Bro, this is what's we're... - Yeah, it's a good friend of mine.
I've definitely made a connection right from the get-go.
There's magic in this guitar
and all you have to do is talk to it and it'll tell you these stories
and that's what it was up there for me.
It just seemed like it wanted to speak. It had a story.
It was wanting, I can tell you that.
It's an inspiration to me.
- Say, it's got your sweat in there. - Yes, it does. Sorry about that.
No, that's what we want. It's got your mark in there.
- That's why it is the way it is. - Yeah.
I'll never be able to play something like what those guys do,
but to be able for them to take this and take joy and pass it around
and then when we finish this show it's gonna go out
and hopefully help artists and travel the world, inspiring.
Richard could have sold it many, many times over,
and he held onto it, and he waited for the right time.
And, you know what ? The right time is now.
56 years, you know. Blessing and I got together last week.
I did some recording with it. We said goodbye, you know,
but I'm definitely gonna miss it, but it's the right thing to do,
definitely the right thing to do in my opinion.
I'm excited about where it's going.
It's the roaming, the wander. That's it.
This show is the hardest show that I've ever shot.
I'm not a host, but I'm showing you what my heart is.
You may not like it, you may love it. It's exposed, it's me.
My heart's all over it and I don't want to get it wrong. I hope you like it.
Well done ! Good job. It's your family heirloom.
Your son's son's son's son's,
until the Earth keeps spinning it stays in the family.
Unless I mess it all up and you gotta sell it.
- Damn ! - Or you mess it up.
Subtitling: FAST TITLES MEDIA