THE HAMMER INTERVIEW STEVE-O
He was the wildman of Jackass who drank goldfish, snorted wasabi and stapled his scrotum to his leg. Now 15 years sober, he’s no less of a daredevil
WORDS: MATT MILLS
Before finding fame with MTV’s OTT stunt show Jackass, Steve-O had already had some wild experiences. He’d lived in five countries, been arrested multiple times, and worked as a clown on a cruise ship. Then, as Jackass evolved from TV hit to worldwide movie franchise, he drank a goldfish and threw it back up. He snorted wasabi. He tightrope-walked over alligators with raw meat in his trousers.
Since the TV show ruled the world, from 2000-2007, Steve-O’s started looking after himself a bit more. He quit drinking and drugs in 2008, before branching out into the less-taxing worlds of podcasting and YouTube. But he’s still a fucking nutter. For his recent run of comedy shows under the banner The Bucket List Tour, he filmed himself jizzing while skydiving and getting anaesthetised on a bike. It may seem mindless but, as Steve-O explains to Hammer, it’s all part of his philosophy of ‘distraction therapy’. After all, whatever problem you’re facing, it can’t be worse than having some staples in your scrotum, right?
Your recent UK tour was promoted as something of a homecoming, since you were born in London. What was your upbringing like?
“I was born in Wimbledon, then moved to Brazil when I was six months old. I spoke my first words in Portuguese. Then I moved to Caracas, Venezuela, when I was two years old and spoke Spanish there. I moved to the States when I was four years old, then back to London, then to Canada, and then I stayed in London through all of high school. Maybe you know the reason why I moved around so much: my father was a very successful corporate businessman.”