Hanging out at Jay Leno's Garage
This last December I had the very nice chance to hang out for the day at Jay Leno's Garage. The whole thing happened very last minute and was because of an opening for me to be interviewed for Jay Leno's "Book Club" segment for our new book "Via Corsa Car Lover's Guide to Southern Germany"...and the whole thing was very cool...
A few days before I was to show up, a production assistant gave me the address and time. I was the first to be interviewed and was asked to show up around 10:30 am at the garage in Burbank (This was a week ago last Saturday during a massive winter storm that hung over the entire Los Angeles area). I arrive on time at the gate..punch in the secret code and drive on in to the parking in the rear...and low and behold...there is Jay walking about in the rain.
I park and walk inside the door I watched him enter moments earlier. The door, of course, has nothing on it except a plaque indicating "No Photos". After introducing myself to Jay and dropping of my bag, I follow Jay and some mechanics from the garage into the much larger collection building.
Now it should be mentioned here that "Jay Leno's Garage" is actually a garage and not a studio. The garage building is about the size of a full service car dealership. Tools, lifts, cars, mechanics, and a full kitchen. Yes, a kitchen. I'll have more on that later. Then there is the collection. The bulk of the collection is in a building on the other side of the driveway that houses his massive collection.
So for the next half hour or so, I help Jay and a few others unwrap and move some of his new presents. Giant recreations of vintage newspaper ads. "Take that one to the Duesenberg room" I hear Jay call out.
By 11:00ish or so, he motions me over and says "lets go". I follow him through a few doors and into a small room. Hmm..this isn't a studio..it's just a room with books. We sit and have mics attached and begin to tape. Just like that. Totally informal, no rehearsal, no "lights, camera, action!"..and then we are done. And as Jay walks off with the camera crew, his production assistant turns to me and says "You can hang out with us if you want..stay for lunch too"! Wow..really? Cool.
So for the next hour or so, I watch the small crew film about a half a dozen segments in both the garage and collection. Everything ranging from restoration updates to a story about a wall mounted charger for the new Chevy Volt. Then the pizzas arrive. No joke, these pizzas were at least 4 feet in diameter..and 20 of us or so sat down in the kitchen and had pizza and wings with Jay.
After lunch I asked his assistant if I could interview Jay..and ask him a few questions for my car book on Southern California. "Sure, wait until the taping is done..shouldn't be long". Around 1:30 or so I had a chance to sit down with Jay and interview him and by 2 I was back on the road.
The interview may be found here at Jay Leno's Garage!
- Ron Adams
Jay Lenos Garage may be found at www.jaylenosgarage.com
