DANNY “THE COUNT” KOKER
Danny Koker, otherwise known as ‘The Count’, is the larger-than-life owner of Count’s Kustoms in Las Vegas and star of the hugely popular fly-on-the-wall TV show Counting Cars. Danny, who confesses to being ‘a lip-flapping dude’, looks more like a member of a Seventies rock band than a custom car and motorcycle builder with his bandana, ponytail, tattoos, dark sunglasses and sleeveless shirts and jackets. That’s because he loves the Seventies - he’s lead singer in his own Seventies-style rock band and has his own rock club and tattoo shop. A hugely likeable and charismatic character, he even walks the walk and talks the talk of a Seventies rock star as he saunters around his shop calling folk “brother, man.”
The show, which first aired in 2012, follows The Count and his loyal crew as they take on commissions from the generally well-heeled to customise their own cars or even to go out and find them the car of their dreams and then customise it.
Sometimes Danny just likes to cruise Vegas looking for classics to buy which he can then do up and sell. His shop turns out some beautiful cars and bikes finished to a very high standard and the show makes for great viewing. With such a colourful and varied life, I asked Danny, now 54, to tell us a bit about his background and how he came to be doing what he’s doing now.
He said: “If Iam really candid and really look at my past I feel like everything that I did growing up has led me to where I’m at now and has helped to give me the tools to who I’ve become today. Starting from the very beginning, Iwas born just south of Cleveland, Ohio, in a town called Akron, but all my relatives on my father’s side of the family lived in Detroit. So, growing up, all my school time was spent in Ohio, but all my summers were spent in Detroit at my grandmother’s house. My father (Danny Snr) was a musician and so he spent a huge part of his life travelling, on the road. So I feel like I’m from two places.
“Most of my family worked for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit so we are very closely
