Kurt Sutter vs. The Devils Ride: The Sons of Anarchy Feud, Explained

• The first round began in May 2012, when Sutter criticized The Devils Ride on Twitter.
• The show followed the Laffing Devils MC of San Diego and aired on Discovery Channel.
• A club member known as Sandman answered through TMZ and invited Sutter and Hunnam to San Diego.
• A second round came in February 2014, when Hervey joined in.
• No physical confrontation was reported. It stayed a social media and press feud.
• The Devils Ride ended in March 2014, and Sons of Anarchy ended in December 2014.

Kurt Sutter created Sons of Anarchy, a drama about the fictional Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original, known as SAMCRO. The show ran on FX from 2008 to 2014. Charlie Hunnam played Jax Teller, and Sutter’s wife, Katey Sagal, played Gemma. Sutter has said he spent time with members of an outlaw motorcycle club in Northern California as research for the show.

The Devils Ride was a reality series on Discovery Channel that followed the Laffing Devils, a San Diego motorcycle club. The name is often misspelled “Laughing Devils.” The show premiered on May 8, 2012, and its first season ran six episodes. It was produced by Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment, with Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey as executive producers. Hervey is best known as an actor on The Wonder Years.

The show’s own description focused on brotherhood. Hervey told Rolling Stone that many members were Marines who had served multiple tours. Its storylines covered a growing club, a split between older and younger members, and pressure from police over the club’s home base.

The Devils Ride and Sons of Anarchy covered similar ground, so comparisons were inevitable. Hervey himself referenced SOA while promoting the show, telling Rolling Stone that the drama only tells part of the biker’s story.

There was also a business backdrop. On May 14, 2012, Sutter’s own six-part Discovery documentary, Outlaw Empires, premiered. It was produced by Studio Lambert and Sutter’s company, with Sutter as an executive producer. One outlet at the time suggested Sutter may have been stirring the pot to promote it. That is speculation, but the timing stands out: both men had shows on the same network within days of each other.

Around May 21, 2012, Sutter tweeted that he had watched The Devils Ride. He said he would probably get in trouble for saying it, but he believed his SOA actors could beat up this “real” MC.

The quotation marks around “real” matter. They signal that he was questioning the club’s authenticity, not just bragging about his cast.

On May 24, 2012, TMZ published the club’s reaction. Sandman, a prominent Laffing Devils member, said he was concerned that Sutter’s creative mind was stuck in “make-believe land.” He invited Sutter and Hunnam to come to San Diego and prove the point.

The trash talk got personal in a funny way. Sandman joked about taking Hunnam’s white sneakers, and he asked Katey Sagal, known to many for Married with Children, to send him an autographed picture. The tone was part threat, part comedy, and it landed just before Sons of Anarchy went into its fifth season.

Season three of The Devils Ride premiered on February 3, 2014. In the days after, around February 8–10, Sutter tweeted again. He asked whether the show was still on and said his “thespians” were tougher than the club’s members.

A Laffing Devils member known as Mad Max, who was club president by season three, replied. Sutter answered that a club that agrees to become a TV show has traded legacy and pride for cash and fame, and he told the club it was now in his circus.

Then Jason Hervey joined in. His message was blunt. If Sutter had a problem, he should not put his cast out front. He should face Hervey himself, executive producer against executive producer.

Hervey later spoke more diplomatically to Fox News. He said he and his team had a great deal of respect for Sutter and the Sons of Anarchy cast, and he called the drama one of his favorite hour-long shows. He also said Sutter acts as if he owns the subject of motorcycle shows, and he pointed out that Sutter had never spent a moment on his set before questioning the show’s authenticity.

In other words, Hervey’s complaint was not that Sutter was rude. It was that Sutter judged the show without seeing how it was made.

No. Despite the invitations, I found no reports of a physical confrontation involving Sutter, Hunnam or the Laffing Devils. It stayed on Twitter and in the entertainment press.

The argument is more interesting than the trash talk. Sutter used “real” as a jab, but his own show was never purely fictional. Sons of Anarchy brought real outlaw club figures into its cast and crew. David Labrava, for example, started as a technical consultant and became Happy Lowman. We cover that in our guide: Is Sons of Anarchy Based on the Hells Angels?

So both shows had real club connections. The disagreement was about packaging. One was a scripted drama inspired by real clubs. The other was a reality show that followed a real club under cameras. Each side felt the other was selling an image.

It is also fair to say that reality TV is edited television. That does not make the people on screen fake. It means the story is shaped for an audience, just as a drama’s story is.

Hervey put it in terms riders will recognize: respect matters, and disrespect gets a reaction. Clubs take identity seriously. Patches, colors and rank are earned, and many riders feel strongly about who gets to claim them. If you want to see how real club tensions are handled outside of TV, read How Police Track 1%er Runs.

That is why a TV creator joking about “real” bikers landed badly. For a club member, authenticity is not a marketing word. It is personal.

The Devils Ride ended with its third season, which wrapped on March 10, 2014, leaving 20 episodes. Sons of Anarchy finished its seven-season run in December 2014, and its world later continued with the spin-off Mayans M.C.

Whatever you think of the feud, Sons of Anarchy changed how many people picture a biker: worn leather, boots and a bike loaded for the road. Many riders still chase that look, and the practical side of it is real. A long ride means carrying gear somehow, and most cruiser riders end up choosing between fixed-mount, quick-disconnect and throw-over setups. Our motorcycle saddlebags collection shows how those options compare across bikes.

If you ride a Softail Low Rider S and like the hard-shell leather look, the Darkin Large Quick Mount Leather Wrapped Hard Saddlebags are one example of that style. And if you are weighing bags against a tail bag for solo riding, our saddlebags vs tail bags comparison lays out the trade-offs.