After completing a one-year substance abuse program in May, Bam Margera has unfortunately been in and out of court-mandated rehab. At some point, however, he was able to appear on Steve-O’s podcast to discuss his battles with addiction and dismissal from Jackass Forever.
Though the episode was just released last week, Steve-O explained in the introduction that it was actually recorded “a while back.” Based on the recency of Margera’s skateboarding injury in the video, the sitdown appears to have taken place a week or so after he passed the one-year mark in late May. With such a major milestone behind him, Margera was open to talking about his departure from the franchise.
“Everything [was] meant for a reason and I’m much better off not being in it,” Margera said, after Steve-O explained how hard he “campaigned” to get Bam back on Jackass Forever. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m much happier without it.”
According to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Margera in August 2021, he was pressured into signing a “draconian” wellness agreement in order to participate in Jackass Forever that involved submitting regular drug and alcohol tests along with taking various prescription medications. He had been removed from the movie’s production that February after testing positive for Adderall, which Margera said he was taking to treat his attention deficit disorder. The suit was settled this past April.
During the conversation, Margera pointed out the hypocrisy of the agreement by recalling how the Jackass producers had encouraged his drug and alcohol abuse in the past. “I got a high five for good press,” he said about his 2014 arrest at Los Angeles International Airport. “Now I wind up sipping on a beer out in front of a hotel on TMZ, and I get kicked out for being a liability. It’s just fucking ridiculous.”
Steve-O responded, “Back in the days of Jackass 2, we were in our ‘heyday,’ we were at our worst. Drugs and alcohol were still working for us. Nobody was getting locked up in rehab or jail or having public meltdowns. I hope you can understand that at a certain point — specifically over the last few years — it stopped being fun. It stopped being funny. It stopped being cool. It stopped being something we wanted to give you a high five for because we’ve been watching you self-destruct.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Steve-O expressed his concern about Margera possibly relapsing. “I get the impression that you feel like, ‘Alright, I’m done. I did my year of treatment and now I can kind of get back to running around and doing my own thing,’” Steve-O said. “I worry like crazy that you feel that the problem you have with alcoholism is something that you can handle on your own.”
Sadly, Steve-O’s fears have come true in recent months. In June, Margera was reported missing from rehab two separate times. He eventually went back on both occasions. Margera was then placed under a “temporary healthcare guardianship,” which led to some fans comparing his situation to Britney Spears’ recently dissolved conservatorship.
In response, Margera’s family shared a statement addressing his ongoing recovery on August 6th. “The ‘Free Bam’ movement has caused confusion and threat to Bam and our families,” it read. “Despite rumors, Bam has never been [in a] conservatorship, but rather a temporary healthcare guardianship for reasons not shared with the public.”
Steve-O echoed their sentiment in his intro to the podcast episode, adding that the guardianship did not have “any financial implications.” He also called out people for attacking Margera’s former healthcare guardian Lima Jevremović on social media.
Watch the clip below, followed by the full podcast episode.
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