0:00
My throat, my [ __ ] body's telling me that I'm doing gravely [ __ ] up, but I'm going to just do this because that's who I am.
Search this video
0:06
Cuz you're a showman, Steve-O. am.
0:12
Hey, what's going on, everybody?
0:12
For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans, and you're watching Hot Ones.
0:15
It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
0:18
And today, by popular demand, I'm joined by Steve-O.
0:21
You know him from Jackass and Wild Boys.
0:23
You can catch him on the stand-up stage, and oh yeah, he has a YouTube channel where he's still doing his Steve-O thing.
0:28
Casual 4 million subs, no big deal, Steve-O. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. An honor to be here.
0:35
You have an incredible pain tolerance, but how are you with hot food, specifically?
0:40
stand eating anything without hot sauce, for the most part.
0:42
But when we get into the zone of [ __ ] up hot, which we do. Right.
0:48
But I'm going to play ball as as much as until like when you when my butt when I feel the it's time to stop, I'm not going to beat myself up if I do.
0:57
Don't be a superhero, Steve-O. It's okay.
0:59
We're just happy that you're at the table.
1:01
And maybe if if I do decline to go to the next hot sauce, maybe I can still take the next salacious, ill-advised question.
1:09
Let me Let me just burn bridges and [ __ ] [ __ ] up with the the interview. I came here starving.
1:30
I have not I I had my girlfriend made me avocado toast this morning.
1:36
Here we are at [ __ ] 5:00 in the afternoon, haven't eaten [ __ ] And then they're already on there. Oh, yeah?
1:42
You don't have to add more unless you want to.
1:44
I I'm telling you, I love this [ __ ] You know, the the doctors say don't [ __ ] with the hot sauce, and I do. Yeah, I like that.
1:53
Right off the bat, you're like, "Oh, I have like an acid reflux thing."
1:56
And then just pouring Valentine on the first one.
2:00
So, I want to start by taking it back to the University of Miami. I love it.
2:04
Because college is very much ground zero for the watch this, hold my beer behavior that you ended up building a career on. Right. Uh-huh.
2:12
If camera phones were around back then, what would be some of the things on your highlight reel?
2:17
Uh well, then I'm sure I would have footage of uh the time when I broke my skull.
2:20
You know, that's uh it kills me.
2:25
I threw myself off a balcony at the University of Miami.
2:26
I landed on my face on the concrete below.
2:29
I broke my uh cheekbone, and I broke seven teeth, 10 stitches in my chin, a concussion, and a broken wrist all in one fall.
2:37
And I laid there face down with a pool of blood growing around my head.
2:42
It was a keg party on campus.
2:44
Everyone was like, "Wow, he's dead."
2:46
Cuz his face I wasn't even twitching a finger.
2:48
And my buddies, they knew that I had the weed in my pocket.
2:52
And they said, "If he's not dead, he's going to need that weed."
2:53
So, they came and like pulled it out of my pockets.
2:56
Like going through my pockets, going through the dead guy's pockets to take his weed.
3:01
It's a sketchy scene if you're just walking BY AND YOU SEE THAT go down. Right.
3:06
The next morning, I broke out of the hospital.
3:08
I they let me use his phone.
3:10
I called my buddies at the University of Miami.
3:11
I said, "Hey, swing through the ER.
3:13
Come break me out of here."
3:14
And I broke out with in my gown with my butt hanging out.
3:16
And I went back to the spot where I landed in the blood on the concrete.
3:19
And I tried to pound a beer.
3:22
And my sinuses would just fill with blood.
3:24
And then I'd go like hawking up a loogie and just spit the blood loogies into the bowl of applesauce, which I couldn't eat.
3:32
The fact that you're here today, Steve-O, is a miracle. I know.
3:35
How the [ __ ] did I survive that?
3:41
So, between Jackass, the movies, Wild Boys, I have a million questions about beanbag shotguns, and stapling your nuts to stuff. Whatever man. Whatever you want.
3:51
Do you remember the first you ever got arrested doing a stunt?
3:54
I guess the first time I got arrested around a stunt was when I was charged formally with a felony for obscenity in Louisiana for stapling my nut sack to my leg.
4:04
What do you think's the closest you've ever been to dying on camera?
4:07
Uh I'm I'm so confident that it would be a scuba diving.
4:10
I just I didn't pay attention when I they taught me how to scuba dive.
4:14
I don't even know what country we were in, but I was told the sharks were at the bottom.
4:18
I started going down and went all the way to the bottom and then someone was uh I felt something grab my fin.
4:25
And they're like And then when we got up to the top, the guy said, "You [ __ ] you almost died and I almost died trying TO SAVE YOU, YOU [ __ ] [ __ ] You can't you know, like something about scuba diving that I just don't understand."
4:38
And then what was the most savage off-camera prank that was ever pulled on you? Oh, man.
4:43
What a great question that is.
4:46
There was the one that was actually on camera, but little known about because it it lived on a on an obscure DVD that I put up on myself.
4:54
I um filmed myself ejaculating onto the computer keyboard and desk of the most germaphobic producer of Jackass back in the early days of the TV show.
5:09
And then I wanted to go in there and film him just typing away.
5:13
You know, uh but my blabbermouth I I had told too many people until he found out about it and really forensically cleaned everything.
5:20
So, when I went to film him, I filmed him giving me the most hilarious lecture ever.
5:24
You know, "Clean it up as you're on your way back to Florida."
5:28
When reality finally sets in, "Man, there's a lot of stuff I could have been doing while I was TOO BUSY JERKING OFF ON SCOTT'S DESK." YEAH.
5:46
I I A CONDIMENT DISORDER.
5:46
SO, I'm just I'm I'm going to just add the Valentina.
5:52
When you jump off of a 35-ft overpass from the bed of a moving truck, what happens beforehand? Is there physics? Is there math? Are there sketches?
6:01
Or is it more just a grip and rip it balls to the wall whatever happens happens mentality?
6:09
There was no practicing that one because it was pretty illegal.
6:11
We went up on foot and scouted the bridge.
6:15
Realizing that really you had to meet that window.
6:18
You couldn't be early or late cuz you would hit uh pylons.
6:20
You know, I mean, there's important to get the timing right.
6:25
Normally, in a situation like that when it's a difficult thing, a dangerous thing, 1 2 3 go is my tool.
6:33
You know, when 1 2 3 go, I count that and I've never backed out of a 1 2 3 go in my life. Oh, no.
6:47
All right, so let's switch gears and talk about stand up for a wing. Cool, man.
6:50
Do you remember the last time you had to kick out a heckler?
6:53
I've had a pretty good run of not having to do that.
6:56
I [ __ ] hate having to do that.
6:59
I mean, I have Think about heckling is that it kind of conjures up this is the word heckling conjures up the image of somebody witty, somebody challenging the comic like in a way that's kind of confrontational and then it's the onus on the comic to be witty and shut them down with that one just brilliant sort of burn that that shames them and and quiets them.
7:26
But, that's not the experience.
7:28
You know, It's just some drunk guy screaming?
7:32
90% of the time it's just drunk people and there's just no making sense with them.
7:37
With that said, I can be pretty mean. I I like it.
7:39
There have been times when when I when I totally lost my cool. They get the [ __ ] out. Get them out. You know?
7:47
And and and and particularly with like the the videoing with the cell phones, it's so insidious.
7:53
In New Zealand, I went off on the Get her out. GET HER OUT.
7:56
And uh they wrote a [ __ ] article about what a dick I was in New Zealand.
8:00
And uh it's like dude, you know, here I was worried about what?
8:04
Like there's like someone's going to post a video of my show.
8:06
How many people are going to see that on this person's Facebook?
8:10
A handful, but then they write the story about you, everybody sees that. And now Google search.
8:14
Oh, the latest news about Steve-O. What a dick. You know? Yelled at a poor girl.
8:25
Oh, you have your own sauce. How about that?
8:28
Yeah, I might do a little less dunking now. All right.
8:31
So, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram, and what we do is we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram.
8:35
We pull interesting pictures that need more context.
8:38
So, I'll show you the picture, and then you just tell me the bigger story. Does that sound good? You got it. All right. Laptop, please.
8:45
First and foremost, what's going on in this picture? Okay, that was in St.
8:48
Louis 2 years ago at a summer concert festival.
8:51
I performed my famous double back.
8:56
Meaning I flopped my dick and balls back and forth violently until jumping up in the air and clasping my thighs together, catching back burger.
9:06
And then pulled down my uh my boxer shorts revealing the mangina to 15,000 people.
9:12
I had to pixelate the dick and balls protruding from my rear.
9:17
For Instagram's strict guideline policy. Right.
9:19
But Snapchat let that one slide.
9:23
Undercover clown with Justin Bieber?
9:28
It wasn't actually planned.
9:28
And when we were out in clown makeup filming it in Venice, just pranking people and doing all this crazy [ __ ] and lo and behold, that's Justin Bieber, just plain plain day, walking.
9:39
And uh I went up to him, and I said, "Yo, dude, what's up, man?"
9:43
And he goes, "Stevo, man, recognize you right away." And I'm like, "Wow." Like, "Hey, dude."
9:47
So, we started skateboarding in the Venice skate park together.
9:50
He signed a release form to be in my video, put it out, and then like maybe a week later, he was uh all over the news for uh making some kind of racist joke in an age-old video that had surfaced.
10:05
And there was all this negative publicity, and the very people who paid me asked me to make the video private because Justin Bieber WAS LIKE RADIOACTIVE SO, YEAH.
10:17
SO, ALL OF THE MONEY THEY GAVE me was for nothing. I have one more for you.
10:21
This is an adorable picture. 9 years old.
10:24
Uh the team was called the Kendall Broncos.
10:28
What's great about this isn't that picture, but that I was wearing that same uniform.
10:35
Shoulder pads and everything.
10:38
When I went in to get my passport photo taken for my Canadian citizenship card.
10:43
This is so incredible because like always as a child, I was just uncomfortable in my own skin, which is pretty par for the course for alcoholics and stuff. That's why, you know.
10:53
And like I just felt that in my football uniform that I was more I I I amounted to more.
11:01
I always had my outfit, my my costume that made me feel better.
11:06
I wanted to grow my little mullet because I was like a heavy metaler, you know, and I had to That was my identity.
11:11
And then and then it was like skateboarding, and then it was pot and drug and alcohol.
11:15
Always like I had to have that like identity. You were in a phase.
11:18
You were in a You were always in a phase. Perpetually in a phase.
11:21
I was never just comfortable being me in my own skin.
11:25
Well, you look like you're comfortable in your skin now.
11:26
I I've I've made a lot of progress in that area, and I appreciate you saying it.
11:35
So this one's dirty dicks.
11:35
It's an aggressive brand name. Okay, dirty dicks. How about that?
11:42
I once recorded a rap song called down with STDs. It's good name. Sounds like a good hook.
11:52
That dirty dicks reminds me of that, yeah.
11:55
I recorded it on a night when I was smoking so much PCP that I actually blacked out, came to, discovered that I had destroyed the studio.
12:05
And the studio was the studio of famed gangster rap, actually named Fame of M. O. P.
12:11
And you don't [ __ ] with that guy.
12:14
You don't break his [ __ ] No.
12:18
I was so [ __ ] up that night on PCP, recording down with STDs, that I lost a $20,000 Rolex, man.
12:25
And for all I know, I [ __ ] may have might have given it away.
12:30
What what Jack let me to be unprofessional here for a sec? Do it. Do it. Oh, Knox though. Should I answer him? Hell yeah, you should. Yeah, dude. Yeah, bro. Dude.
12:48
Hey man, um I can't really talk right now because I'm doing this uh thing called Hot Ones where I eat like outrageously hot [ __ ] while answering salacious, ill-advised questions.
13:00
Oh my god, I'm getting harder than Portland than Portland cement just thinking about it. Right.
13:06
And so I just uh figured I'd answer on speaker phone to show off how I just got a call from the captain.
13:15
Okay, well you you do your thing.
13:15
Sounds like you're busy and Yeah.
13:19
when you're finished eating the hot ones, I'm I'm available for you. Hey, for sure, man.
13:23
I got I can't wait to tell you funny stories. Okay, buddy. All luck. All right. All right. Captain. The captain. Captain, man.
13:38
So, as we've talked about already, we're eating vegan wings.
13:39
You've been very vocal about being an animal advocate over the last couple of years.
13:42
So, I want to talk about the time that you scaled a 100-ft crane. 150.
13:49
150-ft crane over here on Sunset. Right.
13:52
You were protesting SeaWorld. Right.
13:54
And I remember it being pandemonium.
13:54
I remember the emergency vehicles.
13:56
I remember it had very much sort of like a standoff.
14:01
Not only was it emergency vehicles.
14:01
Now, and and let's just backtrack.
14:03
Looking back at how dumb could I have been, right?
14:07
I mean, I went to go protest SeaWorld at a random construction site nowhere near SeaWorld.
14:12
I mean, right out of the gate, we're talking stupid. 150 ft up in the air.
14:19
Nobody can see your stupid [ __ ] toy whale that high, you know? Like, pointless.
14:23
Now, I'm climbing up and enough people called 911.
14:28
That by the time I got the [ __ ] whale inflated or shortly thereafter, there weren't just emergency responders.
14:33
There were, specifically, as the police report says, 80 firefighters, 18 cops, a helicopter, and a SWAT team.
14:43
I had these these artillery shells that, you know, you light them in the tube and they shoot up in the sky to make a big display.
14:49
But, what I did was I duct-taped them to the crane itself so they did not have the opportunity to travel anywhere so that when I lit them arms length away from my body that the full blast designed to make a display in the sky is an arms length away from me, you know?
15:06
I'd be And I'm 100 ft up in the air just to show that that I'm gnarly.
15:09
And uh I used my inflatable whale as a shield to protect me from the blast.
15:15
But, the problem was that the blast occurred while the police helicopter was circling around me and it just added to a litany of [ __ ] criminal charges, five in total.
15:26
Uh God, they threw the goddamn book at me, and I deserved it, you know?
15:31
I remember reading the reports at the time, and you were facing something like 4 and 1/2 years or something crazy like that.
15:37
I know you never end up like and you never end up serving.
15:38
It never happens, but but were you worried Probation, jail time, like any of that.
15:43
I wasn't worried about it at all.
15:43
What it was was the restitution.
15:44
Once you start adding up 80 [ __ ] firefighters, 18 cops, and plus I was on the crane for a good hour and a half.
15:53
I mean, like helicopter circling.
15:55
You got to think restitution to the city of California.
15:57
Everybody guessed like, "Shit, that's going to be 200 grand easy, you know?
16:01
You got to [ __ ] pay that back."
16:03
My dad was like, "Wow, that was dumb."
16:05
My knuckles He was like, "Hey, uh bud, you know, um that's going to be an expensive one.
16:13
Hope you got a good lawyer."
16:13
And I honestly don't know I do know why I didn't just come down as soon as the first cop showed up is because I had promised that uh I think I had promised that I was going to light fireworks really high in the air.
16:30
And I had to keep my word.
16:31
Yeah, you can't let anybody down.
16:31
You can't let anybody down.
16:32
You can't LET ANYBODY DOWN.
16:40
AND YOU DO THIS the same thing every interview. Does it get easier?
16:45
So, there's nothing that surprises me, you know? But, I do feel it. You know, I'm human.
16:50
Let's really [ __ ] rock the boat on this one. Love it.
16:54
Try to keep it off the lips, too, huh? That's smart. That's smart. I [ __ ] up over here.
17:00
Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, here we go. Smoky.
17:10
Let's talk about YouTube because I think that in a lot of ways Jackass's sort of low-budget, do-it-yourself extremeness really paved a way for a lot of what you see on YouTube right now.
17:21
But, I want to talk about the stunts and the pranks specifically because it's such a crowded, competitive, and congested space on YouTube. Right.
17:29
Do you think that YouTube is pushing that sort of art forward or is it taking a step back?
17:34
Do you ever think about it?
17:38
I think what made Jackass successful is that the spirit of it was very positive.
17:43
I mean, granted, yeah, we were destructive, self-harm, very mean to each other, but we never targeted innocent bystanders. Right?
17:56
We never um were mean-spirited to anybody outside of us.
18:02
And that is what's lost on a lot of YouTube pranksters.
18:05
You know, you see a lot of mean-spirited pranks going on.
18:10
And it goes by and it's wildly popular and successful, and it's upsetting for me to see that.
18:16
At the same time, YouTube really exploded between the second Jackass movie and the third.
18:20
And by the time the third Jackass movie came around, we were scouring YouTube FOR IDEAS. RIGHT. YEAH.
18:33
SO, I MEAN, AGAIN, it's uh it's it's a step forward, a step backward.
18:37
There's so much going on that you can't just make one uh claim about what YouTube is good or bad for.
18:50
I thought my [ __ ] body's telling me that I'm doing gravely [ __ ] up, but I'm going to just do this because that's who I am.
18:57
Cuz you're a showman, Steve-O. Cuz you're a showman. Ah. Ah. Ah. Getting through them.
19:16
Mega Death Sauce, I like that. It's a good name.
19:19
So, growing up, I know that you idolized rock stars, specifically of the '80s hair metal era.
19:25
So, what I've done is I've pulled up some icons from the genre.
19:29
I just want to show them to you and then just get your snap reaction to them. Does that sound good? I love it.
19:35
My man Tommy Lee, T-Bone. Bless his heart.
19:37
I mean, I could go do the I could do the whole story about how I met Mötley Crüe.
19:42
When I was a little kid, they were in my town. I was 13.
19:46
I called every hotel in the yellow pages asking for a room by the name of their manager.
19:53
Got through and was lucky enough that the brother of the manager answered and was impressed by my initiative and put me on the list for backstage passes.
19:59
So, there wasn't that much crazy that happened backstage that night and I certainly didn't have anything um pressing to ask or discuss with them, but by the virtue of the fact that I was standing next to these guys through my own sheer perseverance and initiative, it just empowered me, man.
20:15
I was like, "Fuck, I made this happen.
20:17
Here I am with Mötley [ __ ] Crüe."
20:19
And I think that I took that attitude largely through the rest of my life, you know, with me.
20:24
Like, I got I can [ __ ] do anything.
20:27
Were you a Sebastian Bach guy?
20:27
Of course, he's notorious for getting roped into a terrible contract by Jon Bon Jovi.
20:34
I think Jon Jon Bon Jovi should be held for more [ __ ] accountable for being a [ __ ] head dickwad screwing people over business wise.
20:41
You hear about his relationship with Richie Sambora, but I understand that Jon Bon Jovi really [ __ ] over Sebastian Bach and he just skates around like it didn't happen. [ __ ] Jon Bon Jovi. Is it already on there?
21:02
So, it's funny that you say that.
21:02
It's tradition around here to put a little dab on the last wing.
21:05
This is another hot one sauce.
21:08
It's called the last dab.
21:10
You don't have to You don't have to if you don't want to. than a little dab.
21:14
You don't have to if you don't want to. You don't have to.
21:18
I'm not going to do a dab.
21:18
I'm going to compromise with a schmear. A schmear?
21:23
We've had people schmear.
21:23
We've had people schmear.
21:24
The schmear is a relatively popular Right.
21:29
workaround, and I think it's fair. Right.
21:31
You don't know what's coming out of that bottle.
21:32
You'd rather control that a little bit. Right.
21:34
Stevo, I would say this on a reaction level, you're very chill.
21:36
I know that you came in here with a little bit dad taught me one motto in life. Mhm.
21:43
Always under promise and over deliver.
22:00
And um here we are at the end of our episode. Mhm.
22:03
I kind of feel sorry for the poor guy who had to edit it. So much gold.
22:10
Stevo, as we've discussed today, you're a man who has long had Hollywood dreams, and through swimming with sharks and jumping off of buildings and putting hooks through your face, you've been able to realize those dreams.
22:20
You really are a living example of how you can do anything you want in this world, and that's coming from a guy who eats chicken wings on YouTube.
22:30
Holy [ __ ] I'm like, where the [ __ ] is the teleprompter? This guy IS GOOD.
22:37
I'M READING THAT'S ALL ON YOUR SHIRT.
22:39
DUDE, YOU'RE AN IMPRESSIVE TALENT. I'm impressed by you. Okay. Thanks, Stevo.
22:43
I like this as my new motto in life.
22:45
It doesn't really matter what you want.
22:47
It just matters how badly you want it.
22:49
Well, yeah, what if you want to be an NBA player?
22:49
It's never going to happen.
22:51
You know, of course there's limitations, but whatever you want to [ __ ] do, get off your ass and start [ __ ] doing it.
22:58
And then when the ship is there, if you're ready for it, you'll be on it and you're going to sail.
23:03
And that's all that that's all you need to know.
23:06
And you know what else the people need to know? What?
23:08
That you made it through.
23:08
That you cleared the board.
23:10
That you came in and dominated the vegan chicken wings.
23:12
And now there's just one thing left to do.
23:16
This camera, this camera, or this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life.
23:21
And I'm I'm living my life in a way where I can look myself in the mirror.
23:25
And and believe like I'm a good person.
23:29
And uh and I have a relationship with the universe.
23:32
A lot of people like to call it God, you know?
23:33
And by the virtue of that fact, I can look in the mirror and see gray hair, wrinkles.
23:42
And I'm cool with it, man. You know? I'm cool with it, dude. I'm in a GOOD PLACE. WOW.
23:51
DUDE, I ACTUALLY BATTLED THE [ __ ] heat consciously thinking, man, I don't want this [ __ ] distraction [ __ ] watering down my episode.
23:59
Let me chew quickly You were really focused on the interview.
24:03
Let me chew quickly and try not to let my speech be overly affected. Hello world.
24:11
Sean Evans coming at you to say thank you for watching.
24:13
If you like what you saw, please subscribe.
24:15
We're hovering around the 3,000th ranked YouTube channel in the world.
24:19
It has been a childhood dream of mine to be somewhere in the mid twos. We're so close.
24:25
Help make an adult bald man's dreams come true. Please. Please. Please. JK. JK. No pressure.
24:30
But if you do subscribe, I appreciate it.