The Viall Files - E291 Steve-O - Gripped By Fear

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

On today's episode of The Viall Files we are joined by the legendary Steve-O. You know him from MTV’s Jack Ass, his stand up comedy, or just from being the guy that makes your jaw drop with his stunts.  If you are only familiar with Steve-O from Jack Ass, this episode may have you getting to know him in a whole new way as he and Nick have an extremely insightful conversation about his sobriety and how that has changed his relationships - both romantic and in life. They also tackle societal norms, failures, attention seeking issues, dealing with addictions you can’t just quit, mortality, and the importance of betting on yourself.  Get ready for some drop the mic moments as Steve-O drops some serious knowledge.   Make sure to check out Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast, and go to his website steveo.com to see his special Gnarly or get his book Professional Idiot: A Memoir.  “ I treated people the way I most feared being treated.” Please make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and as always send in your relationship questions to [e-mail] to be a part of our Monday episodes.  For merch please visit www.viallfiles.com today! Don't forget to nominate The Viall Files for a People's Choice Podcast Award: https://www.podcastawards.com/ THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: BetterHelp: http://www.betterhelp.com/VIALLFILES  listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/VIALLFILES Headspace: http://www.headspace.com/VIALL for a free one month trial with access to  Headspace’s full library of meditations for every situation Episode Socials:  @viallfiles @nickviall @steveo See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

you're crazy what's going on everybody welcome to another episode of the vile files i'm your host nick and we got a fantastic episode for you today the legendary steve-O is with us. You know him, you love him from Jackass and his comedy and a bunch of crazy things he's done. And just a really fascinating guy who's been through a bunch of different experiences. We get to talk about it with him. So I don't want to spoil any of it and we'll just kind of let you listen to the episode. Before we get to the episode, send your questions to asknick at castmedia.com. Cast with a K for all your Ask Nick episodes.

Be sure to tune in on Monday for all your relationship stories and Q&A. If you're tuning in to listen to Steve-O, be sure to check out those if you like hearing about other people's problems and uh trying to find a solution for them if nothing else don't forget again subscribe rate review post on social it's great we love you uh let's get to steve-o thanks for coming on steve-o yeah for sure uh first time I ever, I was once 15 feet away from you. Okay. Back in 2001.

2001, all right. It was my first spring break in Panama City. Okay. And you were on a chair jumping on another chair and broke the chair. And everyone's like, and there was this big crowd around you. And it was a hideout. Was it something that happened on stage, or was it? No, it was like, everyone was just like,

oh, that's Steve-O, he's from Jackass. And I'm like, whew. It was really new at that time. Yeah, it was really new. And it was just a crowd on the beach. And you just happened to be there. Oh, OK. It was on a white plastic chaise longue kind of thing.

I was diving off of a wall. Yeah. And they didn't get the shot. And it was like super rad. And I was like way pissed. I was like 10 feet away. I was in the crowd cheering. That's cool.

How random. Yeah, Jackass came out in year 2000. So spring break 2001. It was just right. It just popped off. Were you on every? Did you go to multiple Spring Break destinations? I would.

I would become a prolific Spring Breaker. I was a regular in Cancun and Panama City. I did Acapulco at one point. Where else was there? I think those are the big ones, Panama City and Cancun. And I ended up getting banned from Panama City. I got arrested on an airplane flying into Panama City. And then you got banned.

Well, they had a separate deal. Separate deal. I got banned from, I believe it's the largest nightclub in America. It's called Club La Vila. And this was where it all began for me. rave promoter from Cleveland reach out. He somehow got my number. He reached out in January of 2001 saying, hey, I'm throwing this party and I want to fly you in. I'll fly you out the next day. I'll pay 700 bucks to come to this party. And I told the guy, don't just pay me 700. I was like, 700 bucks. I will chew and swallow glass. I will light myself on fire. Don't just give me $700. You were almost offended.

I know. So I went there, and it was like this thing. I was supposed to fly home the next morning, but I was like just – I did every drug in the sun like I think I actually did meth that night and coke and ecstasy and like just it was it was crazy and I'm like underneath the guy's kitchen table the next day and he's like hey your flight leave your flight departs in an hour do you want to even try and I was like no let's not even try dude and uh cleveland so yes i was in cleveland in january of 2001 and we walked over uh this bridge they have this this river through cleveland

yeah the cuyahoga river we walked over a bridge over it and i looked down the and the river was uh it was like partially frozen like such that some parts were like kind of wet some parts were kind of frosty but you could tell it was thin ice and uh and i said dude i'm not leaving cleveland until i get myself uh a pair of ice skates and skate on this river until i fall through the ice and uh so that took about a week to get it to where i was happy with it and uh you know i did it wearing a tutu and um it was it was a lot of fun. By the time I left Cleveland, and it was so funny, too, because it was, I want to say, like January 25th or something.

The guy's like, well, when do we need to get you back home? And I said, well, there's this chick I'm kind of into, so I'd like to be home by Valentine's Day. I'll just hang out for three weeks. I don't care. The guy's like, well, what are you going to do for money? I was like, oh, money? Are you kidding me? I've got like $1,100 in the bank. That's just how I was, man. But the guy ended up calling. He said, okay, so I got a spring break deal in cancun we're gonna go to this uh can't this big nightclub in cancun and i was like all right so so we went down there and uh all i was supposed to do was hang out and take pictures with people and stuff but but i i saw this stage and i was like oh well i gotta get on that stage and do my dumb tricks

so i get on the stage and like a thousand people gather around and I'm just doing dumb shit for like an entire hour and the guy says well we're gonna have to have a tour and that was how my tour began no way yeah my old don't try this on a home tour boy was it fucked up your commitment you you have like an immense an amazing ability to commit to things and follow through does that apply to all aspects of your life or does it just come with stunts like a lot of guys get crap for like being non-committal in relationships i'm pretty good man i'm pretty good about about follow through i don't know that that was always the case in every area. But yeah, man, it's good. Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff going on right now.

Being a clean and sober guy is a big advantage over the way I used to be because now I don't really waste my time on stuff. really waste my time on uh like stuff you know i'm not like wasting my time making like mistakes and creating problems like i'm pretty laser focused on what i want to do and uh i don't waste time like chasing chicks around or anything like that i did the whole sex addiction thing and now uh you know now i got a healthy relationship and my partner who helps me accomplish my shit so i'm pretty unstoppable that's great yeah um yeah you said so many things and i had so many questions and uh then i lost my train of thought how long you've been in this relationship uh for over four years now and prior to that i'd never made it even to one year. Oh, really?

Yeah. And so it's a big deal. Congrats. How'd you guys meet? We met on a job. It was for like a Super Bowl commercial type deal that was just for like a Facebook thing. But she was working in the art department. And that was how we met, yeah.

Did you ask her out? She slid into my DM. Yeah. That's my love story. I love that. She slid into my DM because on the set, she was wearing a ring on her wedding finger. But as it turned out, it was a don't fuck with me ring,

like a leave me alone ring. Interesting. So I just figured that she was off limits. But then she slid into the DM and I was like right on. So we went the healthy dating route. She was like just in case you were wondering, I am available. It was the other assholes I didn't want to talk to. Right, I suppose so, yeah.

So we did responsible dating like once a week for like a month before we we made out and stuff what do you mean by responsible dating well like i i have just an addictive personality so i've run into problems with just about everything that that uh is comforting or pleasurable you know drugs, drugs and alcohol, sex, sugar, spending. And the sex was something that I really had to address. And, you know, unlike drugs and alcohol, which we just cut out, you know, you just cut it out and you're better off without it. Like, there's nothing you can do about the fact that you're a sexual being you know and with food like you have

to eat you know so like that that is a more tricky thing where you got to learn moderation and uh and a new healthy approach to to sex and a healthy approach to sex is, is really pretty, uh, it's, it's definable for each person. You know, you make a dating plan and the dating plan is a camera, you know, you don't, you're not going to just go crazy right away. You're going to see them once a week and not more, you know, you're going to like have so many dates before you try and kiss or anything like that. Like we were responsible in that regard. That's great. Did you bring that that up was she familiar with it uh you don't want to bring that up on the first date no it's like hey so i have a responsible dating plan correct correct i will but you know what like and and i'm i'm generally pretty like just transparent i'm transparent in everything about everything

i i basically have no filter but um with the you know being open about sex like you know if you're like a sober alcoholic there's no stigma around that like that's like a law you know it's like oh cool you're you're a sober guy you know that's great but if you're gonna say i'm a sex addict now that's not fucking cool you know but i personally believe pretty strongly that that the world is full of scumbags you know like cheating on their girls and you know doing you know it's like almost like acceptable or like a societal norm i i would rather be the guy who lives with integrity, does the right thing when nobody's watching, and calls himself a sex addict than be the guy who cheats and is a scumbag and doesn't call himself a sex addict. That's my position. And I put in a lot of work.

I think that's awesome. I totally agree. Also, when you talk about responsible dating, I honestly feel like that these are kind of practices the average person, the average young person should start incorporating because kind of to your point where I've been talking and thinking about a lot of like hookup culture lately. We talk a lot about relationships and dating and I participate in hookup culture. Like I've had one night stands, you know, you know you know are you my girlfriend and i now we we hooked up on the first night and i i definitely think that if people want to they should and that's all great but at the same time with dating apps with social media our accessibility for people is it's so easy now that we're also we're we're confusing like what we still want find love. We still want to date.

And we're no longer getting shamed for sex. And that's a great thing. But we aren't controlling kind of our habits. And then we're kind of getting ourselves in trouble. We're disappointing ourselves with the expectations we have around sex and dating. And this responsible dating plan, I think is a really neat idea, especially it's probably a great way for people just to get people to like them.

It's like, I can only hang. Don't even tell me you have a plan. Just be like, I don't know. I'll see you once a week. I mean, that's going to make you seem real busy and real like hard to get. And I feel like that's something people should start incorporating,

even if they haven't necessarily, you know, decided they're a sex addict. i mean i think that there's uh it's it's commonly accepted that that uh our dna dictates that monogamy is just not what we're supposed to be about you know like we're we're, like, it's not in our genetic makeup that we should be monogamous. And maybe there's some validity to that. But for me, I know that my approach to sex was just so fucking bad that

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Everyone could benefit from therapy just like everyone could benefit from running a lap. Taking care of your mental health is just as beneficial and helpful as taking care of your physical health or your dietary health. But there's always these kind of, it can be stigmas or whatnot, or sometimes it can be super inconvenient. Where do you go? Where do you go to get therapy? Well, now you can go like right from your bed or your couch, the comfort of your home with BetterHelp. BetterHelp, you can start communicating in less than 24 hours. You don't need a crisis. You can maybe just feeling a little bit anxiety. Maybe you have some money problems, relationship problems. It doesn't matter what the problem is. You just want to talk to someone. BetterHelp is here for you.

Just go to betterhelp.com and take a quick assessment. They'll give you a licensed therapist to talk to and see if you like that. If you don't like you get someone else super convenient and easy visit betterhelp.com slash vile files that's v-i-a-l-l-f-i-l-e-s that's better help h-e-l-p and join over the 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional in fact so many people have used better help they're recruiting additional counselors in all 50 states this podcast is sponsored by better help and vile file listeners get 10 off their first month at betterhelp.com slash vile file what does it even mean i mean honestly i don't know what does it mean or where did you kind of come to be a sex addict that you are a lot i mean i just was just doing fucking reckless shit and uh you know and then you end up with all the stress

over like oh my god like what kind of a health risk have I just, you know, like with the health risks, all the anxiety that comes about from that. And then another like whole area of just shame and guilt is where like I would act towards women. I would feel like legitimately infatuated by them and pour on the charm to try to hook up with them and really feel like I'm crazy about this girl. And like, I would just like put in all of this work, pouring on all this sociopathic charm to like get her on the hook. And then like, and then I would hook up with them and just like, like a, like a switch flipped, like all of a sudden I would just like super lose interest

and be like, oh my God, I got to like get away from this person and just like do the ghost routine. And that's like super not the fucking way to treat people, man. Like we see in every like spiritual way of life, like be good to thy neighbor, treat people the way you want to be treated. And I was treating people specifically the way I most fear being treated. You know, like, you don't have to be fucking Freud to know that I've got like abandonment issues, like rejection issues, like, you know, insecurities.

And so for me to routinely, like, mislead, exploit, neglect, abandon, reject. That's not the recipe for good karma. Treating people that way left me feeling like a complete piece of shit and I don't want that anymore. And then the worst part is the amount of time wasted.

My buddies with all the swiping on the dating apps and shit, the amount of fucking time it takes to do the swiping, swiping and then you go into the messaging phase and and with the messaging like what's the i mean for god's sakes and they're talking to 15 different girls on messages and right yeah and by the time they actually hook up with the chick it's like all right great like uh you know what have you actually done? How much do you know them, if at all? Or is it just a focus to... Right.

So, I mean, I don't know. And I know as well that there's like a crazy dynamic where it's like a form of validation, you know? Like guys really like seek to derive like self-esteem and self-worth from like hooking up with as many chicks. Like each time they conquer a chick, then it means they're the man and that they validated this like this thing about them that's a value. When in fact, the more that you have like promiscuous hookups, you do entirely the opposite.

You completely deplete whatever value. Well, yeah. I mean, it's that notch on the belt kind of mentality. Sure. So what happens when you don't have as much sex or you get older, right? And you're putting all this value on a number. Right.

And then you realize what is it? Yeah. It's all great. So you've had sex with like hundreds of people. Like, ew. Yeah, exactly. You know? And the other thing that I think is a complete fallacy it's all great so you've had sex with like hundreds of people like ew yeah exactly you know uh and and uh the other thing that i think is a complete fallacy is the idea that the guys will

say like oh man you know i'm just trying to get it out of my system you know like so my wild oats then i can settle down it's like okay so you're gonna have like sex with hundreds of people to try to get that out of your system like that makes as much sense as the guy like who just wanted to smoke a bunch of crack to get that out of his system so he could move on and be like you know it takes a lot of work to undo all of that yeah so cement it like as a coping mechanism when you do that i feel like that's really common with casual sex where it's like you end up in a validation loop with someone and then you break things off. But then instead of actually like sitting with your shit and working through that, then you just find the next like shiny thing and you're accumulating all of this like emotional bullshit that you're not actually like dealing with and you keep scapegoating onto other exciting stuff.

Well, that's like we talked with Andy or just like what you choosing what validates you can be a very dangerous thing if the thing that you choose to validate you, you aren't really getting any fulfillment out of. You know, like validation versus fulfillment is something I think people make a big mistake on all the time, you know, because you can feel validated and you focus on your ego and what makes me feel special in the moment, but you're not getting anything out of it. You're just kind of wondering why you feel empty. Yeah, validation versus fulfillment that's a really uh i think that that's a subtle distinction but an important one yeah yeah i think about that all all the time and just yeah it's just our you know people like i spend a lot of time talking about ego with my audience because like everything you know when we you know we get cheated on i have a friend who recently got cheated on and and and she was just talking

to me about you know essentially he was just trying to make sense of it right she's like well he he did this and he's a narcissist or or he etc etc etc and i'm like i everything you're doing is just you're just trying to validate what he did in the experience you're trying to justify it it's your ego excuse it it was you know people do it because they're almost they feel stupid you know you get cheated on your ego's just like what the fuck you know like why did you why did you let this happen right and then we start making excuses for it right and. And even if that's calling them a narcissist or saying they couldn't handle the success that I had or whatever

it is. And yeah, it's just more ego driven because you're just trying to validate your decisions to date this person. We feel stupid. Like how could we have gotten duped? Right. But it's not really a fulfilling kind of way of trying to understand why it happened right so yeah i'll often try to figure out like whether i'm actually being you know if it is it the validation i'm seeking and is that validation actually fulfilling anything about what is making me happy or not right i think uh a big sort of a life hack for me and i don't do any of this like really perfectly but if i can view my relationship like in every moment as every moment is an opportunity for me to express myself as the guy who i aspire to be then all of a sudden like selfishly like it's it's purely

self-serving like wow i i get to think i'm a good guy you know because i i treat my girl right you know like and uh and and then if you can make it so the relationship like and you're looking at what you bring to the relationship rather than what you take from the relationship and only want to take just a feeling you're a good guy then then that's relationship and only want to take just a feeling you're a good guy then then that's that's pretty killer yeah uh yeah you talked i was listening to your podcast earlier and you talked about someone who's you know always wanted attention early on yeah they probably got you in you know to doing the stunts and jackass you mentioned insecurities because you some you often i'm sure to a lot of your audience come across as incredibly open you're you know yoururities because you some you often i'm sure to a lot of your audience come

across as incredibly open you're you know your merch line you're naked a lot all these things and so how do you balance and uh you know being so open and vulnerable to what whatever insecurities you have and i'm really just kind of curious what are some of your biggest insecurities because i feel like a lot of people just assume nothing bothers you. Oh, it's definitely not the case that nothing bothers me. If anything, I'm gripped by fear. And I think that, I mean, in review of one's fears, I think we can boil it all down to I'm afraid that I'm gonna lose something I have or not get something I want and it's all like you know kind of the ego which is our it's our whole survival system you know like we got to eat we

got we need we need things to survive and then like the it just goes goes crazy but uh big insecurities that i have um uh you know like like getting old i think that's a pretty common one and like here i'm in this position it's it's extra difficult because um extra difficult because I have this persona, this career that's sort of built on adolescence. It's kind of not okay for Steve-O to get old. I got my new tour. And just today, I announced new tour dates for the first time in ages and uh this show i come out i'm like like i just start off the show saying guys i'm in a really

fucked up situation i'm steve-o in my 40s and it's just like right there like that's a big laugh you know and you almost kind of bring you well right like the elephant in the room. It's like I'm like this irreverent, immature, reckless guy. To be middle-aged and that is kind of a fucked up position. So on top of that, if anything drives me in absolutely every area of my life, it's attention seeking you know like i i fully i i identify as an attention whore as as like that's just my career you know like i could say entertainer i could say like any different offshoot of performance art but really i'm just an attention whore and i've said that sort of uh in a little bit of a self-deprecating way,

like as if I'm like, you know, but let's be honest, attention is the most valuable commodity that we trade. You know, that's everything's driven by advertising, by eyeballs. But, you know, so as a character defect, being an attention whore is like pretty, you know. Something you can do with yeah it's uh it's it's a it's a character defect that works pretty well for me you know because i think i'm good at being an attention whore but the problem is that particularly in in western civilization like getting old is not fucking cool you know like the fact that we're all going to die is super not fucking cool. And people don't want to think about it.

You know, they just want their blinders on. And so to avoid thinking about one's mortality, like we really don't even want to acknowledge old people because they're a fucking walking party foul that reminds us of our mortality. And we want to like. No, that's so true.'ve never thought of it that way yeah you know we we blacklist when people when they start looking older

yeah it's like I don't want to I don't want to be at my party buzzkill 100% they're a reminder that we're gonna die and that's not fucking cool so when they get

when your relatives get old throw them in a fucking nursing home and just get them away from me you know like they're that's so true and so sad it's from me you know like they're they're so true and so sad it's like prison for old people there's nothing lonelier that i could possibly imagine than being an old attention whore all i know is that this is something that i think

about a lot and it's because it's a huge insecurity for me and And it really puts an asterisk for me on the importance of having separation between the persona of Steve-O and whoever I actually am. Because if my self-worth, if my identity, my self-esteem is tied to how popular I am as a commodity in the entertainment industry, then that's just sad, fucked up,

and totally barreling down a track to a terrible place. So I've got to be able to separate myself from that and be okay with me just out of the spotlight. And that's something that takes a lot of work because fame is like probably the most addictive drug of all yeah you know yeah i've seen a lot of people especially in the community i come from reality tv where you get the the quick fix for sure and that like is really a big part of how the sex thing became a real priority for me to address. Because I was approaching 40 years old. I'm 47 now. And I just turned 47, by the way.

Happy birthday. but I was approaching 40 years old and I was on my stand-up comedy tour and I was just like trying to hook up with chicks all the time and it just felt like at a certain point I was like man like this is it's starting to feel kind of sad

like when I'm like 40 years old like I'm trying to hook up with chicks like what am I going to be like 50 and you know like it's just I had the major sense that what I was doing did not represent a path towards being, like, happy later in life. You know, like, that, and I really subscribed to the idea that if I'm going to be genuinely happy, and I like what you said, fulfilled, that I need to learn how to have a healthy relationship. happy and I like what you said fulfilled that I need to learn how to have a healthy relationship and that was where I said okay like I got to put away all this uh this sexual acting out and I was

just unable to so that I recognized you know the addiction and uh and and yeah dude like that it's it's relationships that matter in life you know like relationships is what matter and when I'm properly fucking old and nobody wants to pay attention to me it's the quality of my relationships that's gonna make the difference you know and uh that's why like I really I really care about the people who are close to me and the relationships that we have yeah that's that's great um what do you think about uh everything you just said as it relates to the world today in social media and everyone tiktok you know everyone's trying to be famous everyone's trying to get that attention and to your you know you mentioned like you openly call yourself an attention whore and and yet, and you're beloved for that.

I mean, and owning, I guess, your insecurities and faults. And yet, we often will criticize people for doing things for attention. Or people, more importantly, will feel very judged if you say, are you doing that for attention? Right. I mean, it's really weird, man. Like, we came, I want to say, in the 2000s into a new sort of genre of celebrity, which we called famous for being famous.

And the idea of the attention, calling someone attention whore is supposed to be insulting but like what the fuck does performance art mean except for you know being performing for attention um but uh yeah this this crazy shift where everybody is sort of sort for some modicum of fame. And it used to be you were famous or you were a regular person. Now there's this sliding scale that goes, the spectrum is so crazy. And I don't even know how I feel about it is it healthy no you know like um there's nothing healthy about uh about the idea of celebrity you know and at the same time

nobody's trading it in so like no one's complaining about it. Yeah, I don't think there's anything truly. Yeah, I mean. It's fun. And I'm as addicted to my phone as anybody else. It's really scary how just detached. I don't know if you're more addictive than I am. Right, and I don't even try. I don't even try. We're not all supposed to laugh

everyone in the room is like you're not more addicted than nick i don't even try to pretend that i'm not you know like uh and and and i also get a lot of work done on my phone too so it's tough does your girlfriend complain about it she can yeah she does sometimes and we're actually engaged so she's she's my fiancee oh and out of respect i wear an engagement ring i think that that should be a no-brainer for everybody but did did you come up with that or she bring up i like that i it was important to me i just thought like what the fuck is wrong with our society that a woman should indicate that she's taken but the the man should not shouldn't somehow fucking kind of message does

that send you know like i never thought about it that way though like i just felt like you just dropped a mic on my face does that not imply like like explicitly that like men are just like should be allowed to just keep fucking doing whatever they want and and they're not committed until the literal day they walk down the aisle right like they could pull out at any point in time. Right. I mean, I'm curious the history behind an engagement ring. Is that what it was for? I don't know.

I feel like financially, because women used to be like a financial liability, it was like to prove that you can support a woman for her dad to give her away, you have to like put your money where your mouth is, like give her the diamond. There's probably something to that. And that's why the parents of the woman pay for the wedding

because it's the last fucking thing they're ever gonna have to pay for ali ali our uh bona fide researcher has the answer engagement rings originated in rome as a sign of ownership they did not originally have diamonds diamonds gained popularity in the late 1940s. Yeah. But yeah, it was ownership. A sign of ownership. That's awful. Yeah.

To signify. Well, to that point, at least you're making it even. Like, fine. You know what? If this says I own you, then you own me. You got 100%. It literally says, quote, to signify a business contract or to affirm mutual love and obedience. Do you think any guy listening to this podcast be like babe i can't give you an engagement ring i don't want to imply that i own

you so right and then and what the fuck is going on with uh that i think still is saying to this day like oh yeah he's gonna get married she's gonna make him an honest man like he's a lying cheating piece of shit until like he actually gets married yeah eddie yeah you're right if you're a woman and you're and your guy's friends say oh you're gonna make an honest man out of them yeah run they're telling you that he's a piece of shit yeah that's a good point never thought of it that way this is the second knowledge drop that i'm obsessed with and all the podcasts that we have done. So you obviously have a lot of thoughts about masculinity and some of its kind of toxicity that's – or yes or no.

Sure. Sure. I think that it's less about masculinity. It's more just about like respect, you know? And like the societal norm is just like comes up short of respect you know like uh in a lot of cases and particularly this one you know evidently yeah i i like that a lot because you know people get kind of bogged down in in the argument about toxic masculinity etc yeah i don't even i'm not even pointing the finger at masculinity or anything toxic.

I'm just crying out for respect and equality and dignity. That's just what it is, I think. Makes sense, yeah. I mean, masculinity has become such a triggering word these days okay yeah no well i like that he's just more like yeah i like it's more respect yeah for sure i don't know what what do i know um so you have your special gnarly out yeah i put i put that out about exactly a year ago and that went that went spectacularly well for me actually uh in the special the last thing that happens on stage is i

propose to my girl which uh which is pretty rad um and uh you know i i was so excited about it it was my my second comedy special. And as I put together the hour, I was like, fuck, man, I'm telling all these super crazy stories, and there's footage for most of what I'm talking about. So how about if I make it a multimedia comedy special where I do the stand-up act, but there's just footage edited in to illustrate the stories I'm telling?

And that seemed like such an original fucking awesome idea. So I started taping my shows and cutting in the footage. And I just saw that it worked. And also, prior to that, I was kind of scared. Not scared. I just didn't want to. I didn't enjoy watching back because I had insecurity. I didn't enjoy watching back because I had insecurity.

But doing this sort of edit, these drafts, making these drafts of this special, it forced me to really study the footage of me performing. And it brought about real progress on a much faster scale. And it worked super well. And I started filming new crazy shit to plug in and build stand-up around that and then i got like the like i talked the whole jackass cast into getting together for the opening sequence and that was fucking epic and and and and i was so confident in this thing that i funded the whole deal. And with all the new footage I had to shoot and with all like, you know, everything and then doing it all professional,

I ended up spending over 300 grand to produce the thing. And then I took it out to all the platforms, like, you know, that could play something that filthy. And they all passed on it. They were like, we don't want it. I was like, wait, what? This has never been done. It's totally fucking original.

It's completely badass. And it has all the guys from Jackass together for the first time in like 10 years. And people didn't want to be in the business of Steve-O stand-up comedy because they view me as like a crossover guy. And I was like like all right well what do you mean by that like uh i don't know it's just like uh i i think that uh you know i'm

known for one thing and then i started doing stand-up and a lot of people uh are like yeah you know like he's not really a stand-up you know and meanwhile i've been doing it consistently for for over a decade, like touring my fucking ass off and really giving a shit about it. But yeah, I just couldn't sell the special, and I doubled down right away. I started shooting my next one, shooting footage for my new tour, where the footage actually comes on the road with me. And I built a fucking paywall on my website and put out my special on there.

And I hate it when people brag about success or money, but fuck, I'm proud that that special I spent 300 grand on has brought in a fucking million bucks so far. That's amazing. Yeah. So, yeah, and I own it. So everyone who passed on it can suck my dick. Fuck you.

Yeah. Suck my dick. Fuck you. If you want my next one, I now have demonstrated that you have to pay me a shit ton of money. There's no better feeling than betting on yourself and winning. Yeah, I mean, 100%, man. And I think that that's kind of –

I've lately kind of gotten into YouTube videos that kind of get into psychology and sort of habits and patterns and, uh, patterns of, of, uh, people who are successful. And, and one of the biggest things is, um, like, uh, failure and, and how, how you react to failure, you know, like, uh, failure just fucking motivates me, man. And, and, um, I think that that's, uh, something that's, that's really important yeah do you feel like you have haters i mean sure everybody has haters and and there's nothing more short to to to bring hatred than uh being successful you know um and and whatever like i'm just as sensitive as the next guy where there's a

hundred totally glowing gushing positive comments and then you see one that was nasty and that fucks up your whole day i'm like that you know i gotta be careful not to not to go into the the comment section of social media i consider it like the sewer that runs underneath the city. There's just shit in there. It's a rabbit hole. I mean, I find myself, I think I'm as good as anyone, but when it gets you, it like sneaks up on you. And sometimes it will be like this comment that like someone at mentions you and like, you're just like, why did I want to see that? Then you start asking yourself some questions and then you start looking for it. You're like, I don't, I, because you want to prove that one comment wrong so you go

and just and it's just such a rabbit hole right next thing you know you're like blackout for 45 minutes and just read a bunch of hate about yourself it's a really dude i yeah i don't know if you've ever done that but of course of course and apologies for interrupting i know that i know that i never shut up but um the my job easy yeah the uh at my last podcast i put out i shouldn't point out to everybody that i have a podcast it's called wild ride with steve-o uh or steve-o's wild ride um but uh the last episode i put up was by far and away my favorite one that i've ever recorded. And it was with Duncan Trussell, who's like a prolific, like psychedelic enthusiast, like sort of not as much that he even takes psychedelics anymore, but he's just really kind of in this weird sort of

psychedelic kind of thoughtful, spiritual mindset like mindset he's just a genius fucking guy so we were talking about the universe and everything and i i ran by this theory i said let me run this by you because i came up you know i came up with this thing and and i think it's pretty cool uh and there's a point to this too because his take on it was so fantastic and and and it pertains to what we're talking about here. But I said, you know, people, I think that the flaw in our sort of level of evolution, our concept of biology and of life and the human experience. I think the flaw in how our science is looking at it is that we're assuming that it's the brain and the body which is generating consciousness. To say that we're transmitting a signal of consciousness, it's the origin of consciousness and i said i don't think that's the case and i think that that's where the idea that that death like uh is easy to to kind of disregard is that the physical body like i view it as to to create a metaphor i view the physical

body as like uh a radio it's not generating uh signal. It's just picking it up. It's a receiver. So to extend the metaphor, you can take a sledgehammer, you could bash the radio into oblivion, and certainly you've killed the radio. But you've done nothing whatsoever to alter, to end, or to interrupt the signal which the radio was picking up and so that's sort of a way of viewing like you've got the soul you've got the the physical body and uh and i think that if we if we could view it that way then uh you know like the idea of of death not even really really being real would make more sense and And Duncan Trussell said, yeah, he said, I like that. And there's some people who are like a radio

that's just picking up a signal of the Beatles and they're thinking, man, I'm cool. And I was like, oh, gee, I just got goosebumps. And at the same time too, there's some people who are convinced that they're just a piece of shit, but neither is the case. And so when it comes to the haters and the comments and all this and all that, it's just really important to put it aside and be like, hey, man, I'm just a receiver over here, man. I'm just a receiver over here, man. You can't get too invested in what's going on with your value or what other people's opinions are because at the end of the day,

everything's the way it's supposed to be, and we're all eyes in the same head, man. So just change the channel on the radio. Yeah, I mean, for sure. Just like trust in the signal, man, you know, and just don't trip, I think is the ticket. Yeah, no, I try. I mean, that's a great way to look at it in terms of,

because you're right, it doesn't ultimately matter. It's just, you know, when you receive whatever that signal you're talking about and it's the hate and it can really mess up that radio i guess it's like it's like it's like it's like having stereo war dude everyone's trying to fucking out blast you dude and you just can't fucking listen dude yeah yeah i was thinking about failure the other day you were i know something you you said you've been thinking a lot about and you know we i think do you think their society is getting better at failure or worse at failure in terms of how they're handling it i don't think that that's something that that really applies as much on a societal level I think that if you look at the story of any,

like any success story is not a straight line, you know? Like it's like super, you know, super jagged line. You don't just go straight up, you know? Like I think that failure, you know, for individuals is, it's an inevitability, you know for individuals is um it's an it's an inevitability you know like uh but how do you how i mean how have you gotten good at channeling that failure into like a positive outcome and as opposed to because a lot of people might fail and quit or or divert their plan uh as opposed to you know you kind of had a fuck it i'm following through i'm gonna keep doing this i think that like going back to kind of my early uh you know like when i was

dropping out of the university of miami in 1993 and i determined that uh i was going to uh that I was going to become a famous crazy stuntman through making home videos of reckless stunts. At the time, there was no precedent for that. So everybody I told my idea to just legitimately felt sorry for me. It was just sort of a tragic case of this guy who thinks he's going to use a video camera to become a crazy, famous stuntman. And I didn't have a backup plan as much, and I was actually pretty sure, I felt pretty

sure that I would never live to be like 30 years old. I just thought that I wasn't equipped to navigate the world, that I didn't have the survival skills to keep a job or go to class or anything. So I just felt that I was gonna fail and I wanted to hurry up and get as much video footage as I can that was really notable and entertaining

so that when I did ultimately die, probably very young, that the video footage I had filmed would outlive me. I had a religious view of the video camera that it would make me immortal, that footage was forever, that even though I would be dead, that if people were watching videos of me, I would live on. And that was my little way to beat my mortality. And, uh,

you're like around your teenage years when you're thinking about this. I was like, uh, 20, like 20 years old, like 1920, 21, 22,

and around there. And, uh, you know, I was like, I felt like I was kind of trying to cram my message in a bottle. And, and I was happy with that. If, uh, if that like, it felt like I was kind of trying to cram my message in a bottle. And I was happy with that.

If that's how it was going to be, I just wanted to hurry up and get some insane footage before I died. And then I would have just insane footage. And the more footage I got, like, I was stoked. And the more I wanted to get, and then the harder I tried. You know, I was homeless for three years after leaving college. But, uh, you know, then I moved in with my sister and I found out about, uh, Ringling Brothers in Barnum and Bailey Clown College. And I went there and, and like, I was just the one thing for the next thing. And, uh,

and it all just kind of started working out, you know, but, uh, Did you ever feel like a switch? I mean, it's crazy to think that your inspiration was death in a way of like, For sure. You just accepted, I'm going to die young, and therefore you were ultra-motivated to document it via video, and then you found this purpose, and you joined a circus circus college which is awesome and the

determination the fortitude and yet you know you and with criticism did it yeah did the light go off and now you found this purpose and and hey i'm still alive i'm still here and then you got sober you you know things like that i think it all comes back to like the the the mortality thing you know i think that like i and i had a bit that i was working on in uh in my stand-up which kind of never really went anywhere because people don't want to even consider mortality but i would say uh like the premise of the bit was that i think god hates us because like seriously, we have one instinct, which is to survive. And one guarantee, we won't. So what the fuck?

You know, the one thing that we give a fuck about like not happening is the only thing that we can count on happening. So like our existence is a fucking cruel prank on us. How the fuck are we supposed to be cool with this? Every fiber of our being instinctually cries out against our only fucking guarantee. So we're in a jam here. Our human existence is a fucking jam and i think that like ultimately that you know in the human existence we only really have like one

objective and it's a pretty urgent one which is to wrap our head around our mortality and and like like i said in the western civilization people are not fucking even interested in in in exploring this idea you know like duncan trussell said it's kind of like uh you know we've like we've all like collectively fallen out of an airplane and like with like a picnic basket and like you know we're all like pummeling you know like uh big falling towards the earth and and like everyone's like just trying to like you know have their picnic and and like nobody's willing to say like um aren't we like falling towards our the earth it's like shut up don't fucking say that you know like uh just enjoy the ride right and um so i don't't know. I really think about that.

I always did think about that a lot. And I think that we have to wrap our head around mortality. And I identified three ways that people do that. The first one being reproduction. We call them the family jewels so you're like if you have a kid like then you've left a legacy behind your family name continues you're kind of still alive and like we're really driven to to reproduce but i'm not uh into that at all and i got a bit i got a vasectomy because i'm so not into that. And then the second way people wrap their head around mortality

is with religion. Because I think that for the most part, and it's a flaw with religion, is that people aren't really interested in being a good guy or feeling like a good guy. They're just interested in that, like, I'm going to heaven, so it's going to be okay. It's transactional.

It's super transactional. And they weaponize religion all the time. And it's the fear of death, the fucking not being okay with mortality. And that's what makes everybody subject to all of this shit that goes on. And so I never really got into that either, and I couldn't subscribe to it. shit that goes on. And so I never really got into that either. And I couldn't subscribe to it. And then, so the third way that we wrap our heads around mortality is, you know, just leaving evidence of ourselves, you know, like I look at like cavemen drawing stick figures on the wall. Like the idea was that fucking stick figure is going to be there after they're not, you know?

And, and so like, that's what art is, you know? That's what, you know? And so I followed in that third category. And I was just, you know, like, you could say, too, that, like, I was trying to, like, I was mad at mortality. It's like, fuck this, dude. This human experience is a prank on me, and I'm fucking pissed. And so I'm going to lash out and like,

and, and I'm going to like use a video camera and I'm going to like express fucking anger at, at the idea of mortality. I'm going to fucking jump off buildings. I'm going to make it look like I could fucking die at any minute because I'm pissed at death. Set yourself on fire.

You know? Yeah. Did you, when you're doing all these stunts, did you accept the possibility of death with some of them? Because some of them were pretty insane. Yeah, I don't know that that was ever... I was never trying to die.

I was never trying to die, and I don't know that I ever took that crazy of risks. I mean, for situations that were potentially life threatening, there was mostly like, like a lot of safety measures, not deliberate that like it would get that, that close. You know, I was, I was always trying to create the illusion that I didn't care if I lived or died, you know? And I suppose with the, with drug abuse, it did, you know, arguably kind of cross that line you know i

like i was probably think my personal life was much more like life-threatening than my professional life wow do you think now having somebody else like where before you could make those decisions from a place of like autonomy and like hey this is my fucking choice but now having another person who loves you and needs you and is such an essential part of your life, and knowing you're an essential part of theirs, has that changed your calculation for the risks you take? It's a great question. And I, you know, I still I don't, I don't know that I was ever really interested. Like, there was never anything like super fatalistic. I never had a death wish on any level.

So I don't know that I have to like dial down my risk taking to accommodate my committed relationship. But at the same time, I know that there's like, it'll cross my mind like oh i can't like nothing can happen to me before my dad i can't die before my dad that's a big one you know and uh and and certainly my girl like i don't want to i don't want to leave um you know sad loved ones and i definitely don't want to leave Wendy this is my dog who I found in in the streets of Peru do you so are you you don't see you don't practice religion does that seem like all right

but do you have like a you seem also spiritual yeah I have a sense of the afterlife? Do you believe in God? Sure. I mean, I think that God's a funny word for the universe, right? Like everything that is, the universe, I think, covers that. And I think that all of creation is an exercise in the universe experiencing itself, which is maybe like a weird thing to grab onto. But like all scriptures, all like spiritual wisdom, like it indicates that God is omnipotent, that we are one. You know, this concept of oneness is a real common denominator through all sort of forms of wisdom.

And the idea of one thing, one thing, it can't relate to another thing because it's only one thing, you know? relate to another thing because it's only one thing you know like um so relationships relativity is is uh dependent on that one thing dividing itself and so that's like creation god as one thing it can't have an experience because it's only one thing. So God, the universe, divides itself into infinite different things which can relate to each other. And in that relativity, you can't have something that's hot without something that's cold. You can't have something that's tall without something that's short.

And so we're all just these fractions of the universe divided into relative things. So that's the universe keeping us in balance? Well, it's the universe experiencing itself. And by that measure, we're all equally divine, and there's no room for hatred or for any bullshit. hatred or for, uh, you know, any, any like bullshit, you know, that, that just, that view means that like, it comes with respect for, for all that is, you know? Yeah. I just wish more people would subscribe to that logic these days because it feels like it's going the opposite direction.

Yeah. Like I do a bad job of articulating this but uh but but one thing that really helped me grab onto it is um a book series called conversations with god and i fucking love it man i love that shit so much like uh book one book one book one two and three the trilogy is uh that's something that really helped uh change and shape my view of uh of life the universe i'll have to check that out yeah it's it's rad about because i've always like i grew up catholic very very catholic and then i've gotten away from it a little bit so i've struggled with like faith and religion at times but and then sometimes the idea of sugar just makes me think

that god exists because there's just no way something like that. It's so good, but then it destroys me. Right, but then that's another thing where life is a prank, dude. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's all a prank. All the things you love the most are the things that can really fuck you up. I can't recommend the movie, but I totally recommend the books. They made a movie out of it. I can't recommend the movie, but I totally recommend the books. A movie?

They made a movie out of it. Yeah, I think it has like an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. But the book is transformative. The book, I believe, holds the record for living on the New York Times bestseller list longer than any book ever. At 130 weeks so almost three straight years on the new york times bestseller list indicating that there's something to it yeah is it when who who wrote it is it like a guy named neil donald walsh wrote it at a time where he was feeling frustrated. Um, I understand that he was in the habit of, of, uh, like when, when something was really bothering him or like, uh, he was upset with somebody, he would write a letter to that person without necessarily ever sending it. It was sort

of an exercise in, uh, in inventing and sort of like expressing that. And he did better to not send the letter, but he was at a place and he was really frustrated and he of like expressing that and he did better to not send the letter but he was out of place and he was really frustrated and he'd had an accident and he was really struggling to provide for his family and he just decided to write one of his letters to god it was just like all right you know i just started writing like uh you know why the fuck does my life suck so bad like what the fuck is the purpose in this you know like why you know like and and he intuitively got a response and so he was like what the fuck he really felt like like what the fuck like the response was like do you really want you know answers or are you just venting and so like and i understand it's a tough pill to swallow that this guy's

writing sort of both you know sides of the dialogue but you know if you can just swallow that uh you know there's so much wisdom in it it's so like in many senses counterintuitive but it's just so beautiful at the same time and uh it really just shapes the way I look at everything. And I was particularly upset because my mom, who died in 2003, had suffered a brain aneurysm. And she'd become very disabled physically and mentally. And she had bed sores. And she was in terrible agony. And she cried in pain for the last five years of her life and it traumatized the shit out of me and i was like deeply resentful towards any concept of god where that was okay you know like what the fuck like i was like pissed off at a god that could

allow for my mom to suffer like that. And what this book, Conversations with God, helped me with so much was to recognize the flaw in my thinking, which was based on the idea that God was over here and my mom was over there and that they were separate. Whereas a view of God where God is all of us, you know, God is everything, and that we're an exercise in God having experience, then that, let me release that resentment,

because now God wasn't like off somewhere having a great time while he let my mom suffer. Like it was actually my mom was god and and god was that was god having the experience you know and that was my mom wasn't alone you know like like my mom's okay and uh you know that that that helps a lot man and there are a lot of things that that helped a lot with yeah i'm just thinking about what you just said that's great um well i think we've just i feel like i could just yeah i think we're good man banter all the time you want to play a little game with us before we let you go it's called uh do you know me sure but before we do that i want to tell everybody about my book um which is also new york Times bestseller. And I think probably the been my best thing.

You know, my mom would have been most proud of my book, I think. And it's it's fucking hilarious. It's nuts. It's oddly inspirational. And yeah, what we were talking about, you know, reacting to failure and just getting motivated. And it's a book about a dude who would not fucking take no for an answer. And at every stage of my life, like belligerently doubling down on everything I ever did to just force things to work out. And I'm really proud of it. And if you go to my website, every single copy that I sell from my website is signed. That's great. Like I sit there and fucking sign books and getting them out there.

You sign a lot of awesome things on your website. Yeah, thank you. I spend a lot of time signing shit. I just think that people dig that. And, you know, I love getting it out there so so yeah like i would say you know it means a lot to me if you go to my website and get my book you know there's a lot of cool shit a lot of it signed and also i've got that gnarly comedy special uh which streams from my website as well oh yeah i i love that you bet on yourself every time you get an opportunity yeah

thanks man um something uh that i think everyone should try to do it's hard to do and and you're a perfect example of that well i appreciate that all right okay so let's play let's play it's really simple it's called do you know me we're gonna i'm gonna ask some questions does steve this has steve ever done that and don't answer right away we're gonna guess and uh if you have an anecdotal story on any of these answers feel free if not just say yes or no to the answer and we'll move on do you know me with steve-o real softball question to lead off does steve-o ever sing in the car? Wait, you don't answer. Don't answer. Well, right off the bat,

he has maybe, but it doesn't sound like it's a go-to. Maybe more of a book on tape in the car kind of person, I think. So I'm going to say no. I think he sings. I definitely have. I definitely have. I don't know if the question is do I do it all the time?

I'm like, eh. Do you ever got caught kind of dancing at a stoplight i have totally like you're just jamming out and then you look and you're just like oops yeah i had like that that's one area where i don't think uh i'm particularly self-conscious. Does Steve-O stan any celebrities? What's that? You have a celebrity crush? He's a fan. Like when you're obsessed with him.

Stan is an Eminem reference. You know this song? That comes from an Eminem? Yeah. An Eminem song about a fan who, you know, I've heard children love him. So Stan is when you're like a creepy, like super fan kind of stalker. So have you stalked him so stan is when you're like a creepy like super fan kind of stalker like uh so have

you stalked any celebrities i think now it's become more like do you go to bat for them like are they a celebrity you don't just like but you would like defend them um i mean i guess like my big stan thing uh it's a pretty well-known story when i was a little kid in 1987 and i was a huge motley crew fan and motley crew came to my town on girls girls girls tour um and i saw the news that they were in town the day before the concert so i was like dude they're in a hotel and i know it and i've called every hotel in the yellow pages asking for a room by the name of their manager and like hours into calling every hotel in the yellow pages i was put through and the brother of their manager picked up the phone couldn't believe what i had done he said dude you called every hotel in the

yellow pages that's fucking awesome like would you like backstage passes? So I was 13 years old. I got my picture taken with Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx backstage at their concert. And it was, it represented. Your follow through is amazing. It represented the, like the first real like thing where, where my dad, like, cause all my dad ever wanted was for me to like be tenacious and to be passionate and to like really go for stuff. And, and I didn't ever do that in school. I was always in trouble and shit. But when it came to meeting Motley Crue, I was like ready to fuck. I was ready to move some mountains and, and, and I made it happen.

And then, so yeah, I would say that I'm a stand when it comes to Motley Crue. That's great. i was told before we started you you had or you you do have a list of a bunch of celebrities email addresses and you would email them on the rad email list i did that yeah that was that was fucking the lowest point in my life what was that how'd you get the emails and what were you sending them it was um it was towards the end of my run with drugs and alcohol when i was like at my absolute worst and um i was basically broadcasting my downward spiral in real time for uh like weeks and months leading up to my intervention and i had compiled a a list of, there were a lot of celebrities. There were a lot of media outlets. There were high-powered agents.

Anybody from the entertainment industry or media who was influential and had the misfortune of me coming upon their contact info was on this list it was about 200 people on the list and uh yeah it was it was and everything that i sent like on a daily basis and it could have been anything i would be feuding with someone and like you know i would be like it would be a video of me like snorting drugs or like you know or some shitty fucking rap song that i recorded like you know like just just generally fucking awful disturbing shit and uh and i it was just non-stop inundation right up until the very end and um i called it my rad email list.

And when I got sober and sort of the fog cleared enough for me to realize what a douche I had become, it represented the fire under my butt to put in the work of recovery. Everyone has their motivation story. That's great. Right. Does Steve-O consider themselves an introvert? So I guess the question is, are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Sometimes it's always tough with these ones. Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm very introverted. Yeah, because you derive energy from attention, which I feel like is inherently interpersonal. Yeah, I mean, evidently, I'm pretty outgoing. Does Steve-O have any specific turn-ons, which post-sex addiction... So this is like sexual turn-ons.

Well, no, not necessarily. It doesn't need to be sexual. Well, no, not necessarily. You don't need to be sexual. Yeah, I guess. So let's just augment it. Other than attention and other than, I guess it could be something in sex, what gets Steve-O going? Like what gets you real revved up? So I'm going to say yes, he has some.

uh so i'm gonna say yes he has some and then yeah i mean i i think that uh i get um like i think the most important ingredient in uh being fulfilled and i think that fulfilled fulfillment is a really great um a really great sort of a focal point for uh for everything i think that um enthusiasm is the number one ingredient to having a good life you know like uh being turned on is the the ticket you know like i always tell people it doesn't matter what you seek to accomplish just it really only matters like how fucking bad you want to accomplish it you know so like like what you choose to do is secondary towards the level of enthusiasm which you employ towards that end 100 so yeah like uh do i get turned on fuck yeah and if i'm not turned on i'm useless

i'm utterly and my dad said that many years ago about me he said um that uh when when steve uh really sets his mind to it when he's when he's turned on like there's nothing he can't do the problem is that's a fairly narrow slice of the pie you know like i'm really good at pulling shit off when i'm turned on and if i'm not like i'm just fucking useless seem to have worked out for yeah i mean so far so good yeah and and for the stuff that uh that i just don't give a fuck about like um i put people around me who who uh can reliably handle it yeah i mean i know you say you don't want to have kids or you have a vasectomy but i think about being a father a lot and you know as i think a lot of people will fantasize what their kids could or what they'd want to be good at and all i give

a is that my kid wants to be great at anything whatever it is just have a passion for it i don't care if i like it or have an interest in it i just want them to watch yeah i think that passion i think that that that is common sense you know i think anybody would want that um you know my concern is with all the alcoholism and addiction and just fucked up shit um in my uh in my genetics you know like there's a lot of discomfort that's going to come along with anyone who uh i you know bring into the world and then the the bigger issue for me is the world that i would be bringing them into because uh particularly just the the the wealth disparity is just past the point of being cute or funny you know like the the fact is that

we have a a dwindling level of opportunity that's just not fucking at all cool anymore. When my parents went to college, a university diploma meant placement in a career of their choosing. The people I went to college with, not so much, but it was helpful. Now it doesn't mean shit except a bunch of debt and like people are fucking struggling out there. You know, like it's like I wish that Bernie Sanders was president. I wish that everybody paid fucking way more taxes because I don't want to drive through the city and see homeless encampments everywhere I go. You know, I can't fix it. And all I know is I don't want to fucking create a person to try to navigate this bullshit.

You know, I don't need it on my conscience that I created a person to fucking struggle and suffer. Yeah, I guess. But what about the Wild West or the medieval times? I mean, I guess, you know, I had this conversation with a guy who I've known since we were nine. You know, a guy who's, you know, a pediatric surgeon. You know, he's fucking genius. He went to Brown University with a 4.0 and then went to Cornell Medical School. And now he's like, he's invented like ways to operate on unborn babies in the womb.

He's like the most genius fucking guy I know. And like, we were like best friends in like fourth grade. And he's the only guy, it's the guy I've known the longest. And his family comes from Sudan. And I used to spend all my time at his house because my house was a little crazy. And, you know, I would pray to Mecca with the guy that he's a you know muslim family and like like uh you know whatever that's besides the point but i said to to my buddy abdullah about how you know like the the opportunity in the world and i don't want to you

know like and and his response to me was really profound he He said, in Africa, where there's starvation and disease, like poverty, do you think people are any less happy? And my gut instinct, my natural reaction is like, fuck yeah, I think they're less happy. I think that they're fucking super less happy. I think they're less happy. I think that they're fucking super less happy. And he said, no, they're not. You know, and intellectually, I can grasp the point he's making is that what is actually the basis for happiness is the capacity to love. You know, like love is the thing. You know, like we're here to love. Love is the fucking answer. Like love is what it's all about and you can take away someone's health their their

you know their livelihood you can like make them hungry but you you cannot take away their their capacity to love and by that measure one could argue that that uh happiness is um available to to everybody no matter what but at the same fucking time dude i got a real problem with uh it's an imperfect world uh but like you said it's all about relationships and love sure it's all about relationships and love has steve-o ever volunteered in the last year i'm gonna say yes yes absolutely i bet he's done some animal shelter something animals yeah i mean with sobriety we do that shit all the time so uh you know that's like the whole deal all right final question has ste Steve-O ever been cheated on?

I think. Yeah. I mean, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. But like, I never had a relationship that was really worth shit anyway until the one I'm in now. Does that scare you?

Or is that making you? I mean, did it scare like i don't know like um now that you value this so you know so much as opposed to something like if i were to come across someone who was like a really uh you know good person who would have been great for me like it would have been a waste of time because I would have been useless for that person. So I had to put in a great deal of work to sort of become eligible, you know, for that, you know, it's not finding the right person. It's, it's about becoming the right person, you know? Like, uh, so I had to become someone who could be in a healthy relationship. And, uh, and, and that's what, that's where I put my focus that's great steve i can't

thank you enough for coming on it's been a pleasure talking to you uh check out steve's website for his special your you can get your book on amazon i'm assuming if you get it from my website go to your website for everything yeah the only autographed copies are at my website and steveo.com yeah great man thanks dude Thanks for coming out. Thanks for listening, guys. Don't forget to subscribe, tell your friends, rate, review, send in your questions at asknickatcastmedia.com, cast with a K, and we will see you back on Monday.