Interview by Ryan Leyba
X Games gold medalist Adam Jones will be riding the first round of the Red Bull X-Fighters in Mexico City this weekend. Jones got the last-minute invite to fill Robbie Maddison's spot, and although it won't be his first time to Mexico City, it will be his first time competing in a Red Bull X-Fighters event. We caught up with Jones to see how stoked he is to ride the event, and then our interview kind of went all over the map.
So, how'd you get invited to the first round of Red Bull X-Fighters in Mexico City?
My manager Jimmy Button emailed me while I was riding the Crusty Tour in New Zealand. He was like, "Do you want to ride the X-Fighters in Mexico City?" and I was like, "Awe sh*t! Mexico City's, like, 18 million feet up there and bikes run terrible — I don't know, I'll get back to you." But, I thought about it and the Dew Tour is getting cut back to three rounds and contests are pretty far and few between now, so I told him I'd do it. Then he talked to Tes and all those guys who run it and now it's on.
Are you just in for Mexico City or are you riding the entire series? It seems like a really lucrative and prestigious series for the top guys to ride.
I think right now I'm just in for Mexico City. I'm sure they have guys that are seated for the entire series, but they're probably waiting until after the first round to see how everybody does, so hopefully I can go there and ride well. I mean, I've never ridden any of their contests — I don't know if they're cool or fun or what, but it's another contest and another way to get out there and show myself.
Yeah, they seem like really dope contests with rowdy crowds.
Yeah, I'm stoked to ride it, but I'm not looking forward to going back to Mexico City after last time. I got messed up during Mexico X Games.
What happened? What's your new plan of attack, as far as your eating goes, while down there?
Um, I don't know. I'm hoping we're at one of those really fancy hotels that boil the water and have good restaurants, you know? After last time, I think I'm just gonna find one good place to eat and stick to it — I was hurting so bad. I was diarrheaing every seven minutes. [laughs]
Enough poo talk. Dude, I've been watching MTV and VH1 with my chick and all of the sudden you pop up on the screen in that Axe commercial. What's it feel like to be on such a mainstream commercial?
I actually don't really watch regular TV too much, so I've only seen it a couple times. I'm either watching movies or dirty channels. Just kidding. I barely ever watch TV, but Dara and I were watching Most Amazing Videos or something like that—just to see if the commercial would come on—and it did. It was pretty crazy, but since then our TV has been playing nothing but Sponge Bob and Tom and Jerry, and I don't think they're going to play too many Axe commercials between those.
Have you had any girls come up to you and try to smell your pits?
Yeah, all the time. I'll just be reaching for something at Walmart and then all of the sudden there's a bunch of hot babes sniffing my armpits. It's kind of a pain now, but it comes with the territory, you know?
I want to switch gears for a second and get a little serious. How has losing Jeremy Lusk affected your riding?
It's definitely made the riders think a lot more, you know? Like realize how gnarly what we do really is. I guess we've always known that we can die riding a dirt bike. We said that it was going to happen, but we never really thought it was going to happen, you know? When it did, everybody was like "Whoa ... it's real. We really gotta worry about that now."
It was really tough. We had a show the next day in New Zealand and it was really tough to ride because everybody who knew Jeremy was an emotional wreck and on top of that, the new fear put inside of us made it really tough to ride. But I'm trying not to let it really affect me. I'm actually riding really good lately. It's not that I ever want to forget Jeremy and not have his memory with me, it's just that you can die doing anything — you can die crossing the street or driving. I mean how many people die in car accidents every day? And it's not like we quit driving.
I'm always going to remember Jeremy and who he was, but I want to remember him like that. I want to remember the good times. I don't want the only thing I think about him to be that he died riding a dirt bike. If we were to stop riding for fear of what could happen, then we would stop living before we die.
Do you think Jeremy's loss will slow the progression of the sport?
I don't know. Maybe a little bit. I think all it's going to do is make the guys that are huckers realize that there's always going to be another event. If I'm not feeling a trick, I'm going to back out and survive to ride another day. I think a lot of guys are going to realize that any, one contest isn't the most important thing in the world.
Some guys might slow down a little bit. For instance, right before this happened, I ordered a sh*tload of foam for Miller's foam pit because I was going to try and learn the double flip, because it seems to be the cool new thing. I mean, I still have the foam, but after Lusk's accident it was one of those things where I just said "Eh, I'll still push hard, but I don't know if I want to double flip anymore."
Speaking of hucking big new tricks, X Games is inching closer and one of the only ways to win Best Trick is to pull something new and huge. Do you have anything in mind or do you feel like everything has been done already?
Yeah, I mean, I've got something in my mind, but it sucks saying it because if you don't pull it everybody thinks you're an exaggerator for claiming it. I have some ideas — actually I have ONE idea and it's something I'd for sure have to be in the foam pit for. So I don't know, we'll see if it works or not. Just so everybody knows, I'm not trying to be a tough guy — I really want to try it. If I don't show up to X Games with it then it means that I weeded my Oakleys trying it in the foam pit and gave up on it. [laughs]
I'm actually having more fun learning regular tricks right now, rather then learning a stupid new backflip variation. Yesterday I learned no-handed Shaolins, which we haven't seen in a long time. Mason and I were having a really good session and we were getting kind of tired towards the end of the day and he was like "Go try some no-handed shaolins!" and I was all "No way dude, are you kidding me? I'm not wasting my time on that." But then he convinced me and I went out and tried them and actually got some pretty big ones.
You had a chance to ride with Levi Sherwood in New Zealand, what do you think of him?
Dude, that kid is so sick. He has the most ridiculous extension. He has rad style, he's smooth and he knows how to ride. That kid really really impresses me, I like riding with him a lot. He's super mellow and not arrogant or cocky at all. He doesn't think what he's doing is awesome, you know? I kind of wish he'd move to Nevada, because riding with somebody who's young and full of energy and rubbery and stuff like that — I need to ride with somebody like that just to spark the fire inside of me sometimes.
Speaking of kids, your first boy is due soon, right? What would you do if you're wife becomes the next Octa-Mom and has eight babies?
Well, I'm pretty sure that if she was going to have eight babies, the doctor would have given us a heads up. I don't know man, hopefully there's only one baby in there. Maybe there are eight little babies, but if that's the case, they're gonna be pretty small because my wife Dara is barely even showing.
[laughs] Do you have any names picked out?
Yeah, we were going to go with Blair, which we picked a while ago. But then we found out that somebody has officially changed Blair to a full-on girl's name [laughs]. I didn't know any girls named Blair growing up, but I knew a bunch of guys named Blair, so I feel like it should be a guys name. It was probably some dumb celebrity who named their girl Blair and now everybody wants to name their little girls Blair, so I don't know.
Not to be a total dork, but I watch Gossip Girl with my chick and one of the main chicks is named Blair Waldorf.
Well that's probably why everybody wants to name their girls Blair... freakin' Gossip Girl. Now I gotta pick a new name and I was really set on Blair.
What about Blade?
Why don't I just call him Wesley Snipes? [laughs]
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