WHOOP Podcast - Steve-O on becoming a stuntman, finding recovery, and sense of purpose

Episode Date: January 13, 2021

Our guest this week is legendary stuntman and star of MTV’s Jackass, Steve-O. This is a story about self reflection, change, and growth. Steve-O talks about his remarkable transformation from a drug and alcohol addict to a man who has been sober for over a decade and practices mindfulness and meditation on a daily basis.  He discusses surviving his younger years (3:42), getting in to drugs and alcohol (11:37), getting injured (13:40), dropping out of college (18:39), becoming a stuntman (24:18), dealing with criticism (28:05), his sobriety journey (31:39), the instant success of Jackass (32:39), being homeless when he became a star (34:22), why fame and celebrity is unhealthy (40:35), finding recovery (43:39), WHOOP insights (45:58), meditation (47:29), and gratitude and serotonin (50:25). Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

Hello, folks. Welcome back to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Amit, founder and CEO of WOOP, where we are on a mission to unlock human performance. If you aren't familiar with the WOOP membership, it comes with hardware and software and analytics, and it's designed to help you understand everything about your body, sleep, recovery, strain, you name it. And I think what makes WOOP different is that we are able to help you change behavior and improve health. I encourage you to check out whoop.com. Use the code Will Ahmed and get 15% off a whoop membership. That's W-I-L-L-H-M-E-D to get 15% off a whoop membership. All right, we have a phenomenal guest this week. Legendary Stuntman and Jackass star, Stevo. Stivo might be one of the last people on Earth. You'd think Where's Whoop?

but believe it or not, he is all in on health and wellness and has been for years. And this is really a story about self-reflection and growth. I'm not going to lie, when I went into this interview, I was expecting one thing, and I came out with something very different. And I think stevo is incredibly insightful about his career and what it's taken to become such a successful stuntman and personality. But he's also quite thoughtful about his challenges over time and what it took to get sober and going through rehab and how he was actually homeless when Jackass hit it big. So Steve-O's very honest, I think, about the path to celebrity and the challenges that came with it and really what he's learned about the trials and tribulations of fame.

We go deep on mindfulness and meditation, how it's changed. his life. We talk about his crazy whoop data, HRV of 160, RHR of 45. Yeah, did you have Steveo pin for an HRV of 160? I don't know if I did. And really everything he does to keep his life in order at this stage in his life. You can check out Steveo's podcast, Wild Ride with Steveo, and you can keep an eye out for Jackass 4, which is scheduled for release later this year. Without further ado, here's Steveo. Steve, welcome to the Whoop Podcast. Well, thank you for having me, man.

Like I just said before we started recording, I'm a fan of Whoop. Like, I truly am. You know, I always say too much, and I just come out of the gates just saying too much. There's a bit that I'm reasonably sure will absolutely make this new movie that we're working on. and um and i say how i'm uh you know i might i might be old you know father time is certainly undefeated but i'm not taking it laying down man i care about my fitness i wear fitness trackers on both wrists uh my girl's laughing about that and you know like

patently absurd and uh and my fitness really does shine through you know uh i'll say this it was a competition setting i said that even though i was taking on somebody way younger than me way more successful way more talented way richer way better looking that he couldn't handle me on the exercise front and i was right well i'm glad that your fitness is is peaking at uh at age 46 i heard quoted recently saying that you're the most surprised of anyone that you've made it into your 40s. Oh my god, I never thought I would see 30. I mean, and I have like this weird dark memory from a young age, like where I just, out of curiosity, kind of calculated in my head what age I would be at the turn of the millennium. Like, oh, I'd be 25 when it turns your 2000.

And the next thought was, there's no way I'll be, I'll live that long. Oh, my gosh. But that was me, man. Like, what made you think that at such a young age? What seed was planted? Sort of a fundamental characteristic of alcoholism, I think. And I come from a really long line of alcoholics. Like, on my mom's side of the family, it's quite literally 100% of the lineage, you know,

every leaf of a tree. And, you know, and alcoholism is, like, characterized so often by a feeling of defectiveness, you know, like somehow, like, you know, I'm just not comfortable in my own skin. Like, there's something wrong with me. Like, I'm on, you know, just like this discomfort, which we seek to soothe with alcohol. And so, yeah, it was just that I had a feeling of being defective and not fitting in. not equipped to sort of survive in the world. And that was just kind of my default setting.

Now, at that age, you didn't necessarily know that you were an alcoholic, right? You just knew that you had this sort of destructive energy. Right. I wouldn't have, at that age, I knew very well that, you know, my mom was an alcoholic, that the family was plagued with it. And I think I could have probably, you know, assumed that I would, following that foot, you know, on that path because nobody, you know, escaped it. But I wouldn't have equated the two. At that age, I wouldn't be like, oh, well, there's my alcoholism flaring up.

You know, I wouldn't have, no, I don't think most people would. But, you know, it's sort of with the benefit of hindsight and a lot of experience and understanding of the disease of alcoholism, I think I view it that way and I do attribute it to that. And you traveled a lot as a kid like i read that you lived in london toronto brazil miami connecticut like you're really bouncing around that that probably didn't help in some ways my experience with the the whole moving so much and always being the new kid in school you would think that uh you know to be uprooted and and moved and forced to it's kind of like integrate so many times that it would be distressing but it was completely the opposite for me.

I had this, like, social awkwardness, like this just inability to fit in, this, like, discomfort in my own skin. I was just so, like, that the way that I behaved, it was always just like, you know, like, I was, I wanted so much to be accepted by my peers and to be popular. But the thing was, I tried so hard. I would be like, I was so aggressive, overwhelming, like, annoying. Like, I was just this ball of energy that just wanted to, I wanted affection. I got exactly the opposite.

I was like just this like pariah of a uncomfortable kid that just did not fit in. And so every time my parents told me that we were going to move, I was thrilled. I was like, oh, man, like, I blew it here. Now I get to this part, you know, now I get a fresh start. I'm going to start all over and this time I'm going to be cool. This time I'm going to get it right. And then, sure enough, every time there we went and there I was. Like nothing changed.

It was always the same deal. See, I had a really uncomfortable and awkward upbringing. And I honestly don't attribute that to the moving at all. I don't attribute it to the, you know, my parents sort of, you know, not to bag on my parents, but, you know, they weren't particularly attentive, you know, and that's fine. Right. I don't attribute it to that, you know, I just, for one way or another, like if I lived in one place my whole life, I would have been the same deal.

I know it. Who were role models for you at that time, like age 15, age 18, Steve-o? That's, yeah, I really like the way that you, they, they've, you know, conduct and interview, man. I'm going to give you some praise. But I think that this whole sort of like my youth being characterized by like super like discomfort and, you know, what do we call it, restless, irritable and discontent. And so like I always had the feeling that I was defective that like, you know, on my own,

I wasn't like enough. And so I was always seeking to cloak myself in some identity that I could really latch on to. And I always said that it was when I was 10 years old that my first Iron Maiden album taught me that I was a metalhead. When I was 11 years old, my first Motley crew album taught me why I was a metal head because then I kind of caught on to like this whole, you know, bad, bad boy. like sleazy like rock and roll like and at that point now I say that taught me why I wanted to be a metal ahead like they took like all the alcoholism and it was cool you know like party and like a rock star like became you know I was like wow so they became my heroes for just what they represented as like heavy metal party guys and then when I was 12 years old I got my first Slayer album and that's when I realized like how bad the situation really was as far as like you know, just being like an antisocial, like, aggressive heavy metal kid. But, you know, by the time I was 13, I'd shed the heavy metal persona identity and it was all skateboarding. Now I wanted to grow my bangs out like Tony Hawk, you know, like, now I just,

like, the skateboard, like, it just consumed me. And that was actually of all the phases I went through probably the healthiest one, because skateboarding really, I would say, taught me the values you know, of hard work and, like, sacrifice, persistence. Like, skateboarding really is a big deal in my life, like, for just how hard it is. Totally. It's, it's a, yeah, skateboarding is a really big deal. And, you know, of course, I was in England. I attended all four years of high school at the American school in London.

You know, eighth grade, 13 years old, like, it was a bunch of skaters. Skating was sort of in. a boom period, you know, and then ninth grade less, you know, come 10th grade, there were only two of us left. And that was right, and they were really getting pretty good, man. I was making videos. I already was into video editing, and it was 1990. We were like really pretty rad, by the end of 10th grade, that one other buddy moved away, and it was just me. And I just gave up on skateboarding, man. And then I decided 16 years old, I'm going to be a pothead. I'm going to be a pot head and I'm going to take acid and drink. And like, and I hadn't even

done any of that stuff yet. Like I wasn't like, like for me getting into drugs wasn't like somebody offered it to me and pressured me into doing it. No, like I went seeking it out. I decided that that was going to be my new identity. It's like, and I asked him, like, hey man, do you think you could get me stoned. And when I smoked pot for the first time, I got nothing happened, but I was such a douche. And I was like acting how I imagine somebody might act if they were high. But like sometimes people smoke the first time and nothing happens, particularly back then.

And I was just acting like such a douche. But sure enough, the next day, I smoked again. Like I went from never having smoked it to smoking it every day immediately. and taking acid and isn't that. And so then at this point, I'm like, I want to listen to the Grateful Dead, and I'm just like,

my identity is of just being a druggie, hippie kid. And I was a fairly decent student up to that point. I had bees and Cs, you know? Like, and that's like with minimal effort. Like, I was never, like, particularly, like, I was a pretty good kid. But once I started with the drugs, and the drinking.

My just graged torpedoed. I started showing up in the hospital, like, way more, like, from being fucked up on drugs and alcohol. All my injuries were than when I got into, like, doing stunts, you know? Every time I went to the hospital was because I was drunk. Well, let's go back for half a second because... Wherever you want to go. You as a skateboarder, I think,'s interesting.

And this idea that you have to work at it, But I also imagine that's when you first started falling and you first started getting injured. Like, was there a moment from that where you realized, I don't really care if I get injured or like, I kind of like the pain or was there any, like, there was there any signs at that moment that you were going to go down this path of being a stuntman? Again, great question. And I really appreciate your steering it that way. And the honest answer is I don't believe at any point.

was there a feeling that getting hurt doesn't bother me like I can do this it wasn't that I think what it was was that the same kid

that tried way too hard who was just way just such an attention seeker and this like you know I just have always had like a super absurd need for a attention. And I'll always be wanting to show off, always trying to do something like along

those lines. And with skateboarding and what the video camera represented, like I could edit out the failures, you know, like that was like sort of a big thing. Like once it was on the video, then now I can present myself as like the edited version of, you know. And as it as it turned into like stunts. I don't think that it was as much about like, about getting hurt or even for that matter, like, thrill-seeking as much as it was just being an attention whore. You know, that's like I don't consider myself an adrenaline junkie. I identify as an attention horror. Injuries along the way are just sort of like the price of admission, you know, like it's not anything. I don't have a particularly high threshold for pain.

on any level. Like, I feel pain as much as anybody else. And I think that it's important that that's the case because if I didn't feel the pain, then there wouldn't be a reaction, which makes the, you know, the video compelling. You know, if I wasn't afraid, like, like, you know, it's that it's that you want to see that fear. You want to see that reaction. I think that that's a big part of what, like, what, you know, that I'm just like a normal dude, you know. All it is is an overdeveloped need for attention. And you're animated. too. I think that helps a lot. Yeah, well, cool.

The thing was, too, that for as hard as I tried at skateboard, it just wasn't that great. You know, when the skateboard led me to the video camera, I knew that I was in love with the way, that with manipulating a presentation, the way that you can with editing footage. I knew that, like, I really connected to that. And so as I, you know, went on in high school,

albeit the fact that my, grades torpedoed and it was just, I was getting arrested and hospitalized way more than the average high school kid. I did apply to the University of Miami on early acceptance, which was sort of a saving grace because I would never have, I don't think, gotten in if I was, if the last semester, you know, early acceptance was the way to go because it didn't, it wasn't based on the end of my transcript from high school, which was exactly. master. But what I saw myself doing and what I applied to the University of Miami for was to try to become a creative advertising, like executive or whatever. You know, like I thought,

yeah, I get it. I thought I can make, I can, I can make killer like videos. I can make commercials. I think I could manipulate video to sell products like well. And I think that that's something that I could really get behind. And I remember showing. going up to like my, I think it was like communications 101 or something, like in that first week of a class at the University of Miami. And I remember them saying, if you want to get anywhere in communications and business, you're going to have to work for free. You're going to have to pour coffee. You're going to have to kiss ass. You're going to fuck. I have to because there's going to be a lot of competition. And I was like, I come to this fucking school to learn how to kiss

people's ass and make coffee. I remember feeling pretty offended by that. And on top of that, I was out of the gate. I mean, dude, I showed up to the University of Miami the day before Hurricane Andrew hit. And this was 1992. And Hurricane Andrew is like the bar for the most destructive hurricane for a long, long time. You know, maybe all the way until Hurricane Katrina. And then they shut down the school for a couple weeks.

we came back when we came back from the shutdown after hurricane andrew then classes start and i want to say it was within one week of classes starting my freshman year at the university of miami that i was thrown out of my dorm like i was placed on final disciplinary probation they relocated me to because they raided my room and found a bunch of marijuana and alcohol and like and uh they're like one more This is one week in. They're like, one more screw up. You're out. And you're like, there's no way I'm going to make that.

I didn't think there was a way I was going to make it. I did, I did, remember they relocated me into this other dorm. And I was on this floor with like mostly like, you know, university seniors or something. They thought maybe they put me in there with like older people that I wouldn't, you know, like act out as much. And I remember all the people on that floor, all the, it was a met like they did floor by a floor like men, like boys, girls, boys. So all the guys on this floor saw the way that I was parting and they were like, dude, if you get like so much as a 2.0 GPA, the way you're going, it's not going to happen. But if you do, we'll throw a party for you. And I remember my attendance

wasn't too awful that first semester. And I broke a 2.0. I think I might have had 2.1. And they were like, wow. But then the second semester of that first year, like I got this girlfriend and I just stopped going to class. I just couldn't bring myself to go to class at all. And I got kicked out of the door. And I got that next strike. They kicked me out and said that. Now, when did you start doing, I don't know, what you would call stunts?

I got back into skateboarding at the University of Miami. And when I was not going to classes, what I was doing was going to the pool. It was like the, they have like the Olympic pool. And it was like kind of the hit place to be like hot chicks. They call it Sun Tann University. Diving boards were really legit diving boards. So when I wasn't going to class or getting stoned or drunk, I was at the pool jumping on the diving boards.

Like I really fell in love with it. And like I said, I had that girlfriend and she saw me not going to class and was kind of like, ah, you know, the fuck. You know, what are you doing? And I squeaked out the, I think my GPA on that second semester of my freshman year was like 0.07 or something. It was like, it was bad. And I came back, I did come back to the second year, came back for the second year. And my dorm room said, Steve Glover, freshman.

And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, well, you didn't get enough, you're still a freshman. You know, it's based on credit you got. And it was, as soon as they showed up, up back at that second year that that girl was like, hey, man, look, dude, you know, I want to like be somebody, you know, like, I'm looking in my future and I can't see you in it. So she dumped me. And that was where all of my jumping on the diving boards, you know, and I had this kind of crazy group of friends. And one of them had, like, repelling equipment. And I'm like, dude, we would

be like taking acid and tying repelling ropes to like the library and like repelling down like uh you know i i would um be looking at uh there was this one apartment building we would go to and and um you know i'd be jumping off the balconies into the pool like moving up and then I would be like I made it up like up onto the roof of a three story building and jumping into just five feet of water and I was like whoa like this is crazy and with all the rappelling and And there's another building, actually that building that I was in with the guys who said I'd never get a 2.0, that building was 12 stories tall. And I figured out, like, on the 12th story, how to just climb because the balcony was open.

And so I was on the 12-story balcony climbing over the railing and, like, dangling off by my hands, and then I would, like, swing in and let go and land on the 11th floor, which was a pretty gnarly stunt and like sort of the uh key middle of sum of all of these things that i was doing and videotaping that girl that dumped me she knew i was so heartbroken but i was just like she's i want her to think i'm going to die i want her to you know like in a lot of ways it was it was uh in a lot of ways it was just to show her like how like it was an expression of my angst from this heartbreak, you know, and what's super crazy is that that when she dumped me, that was 1993 and like 1994, 1995, 1996, like for like every year probably, yeah, and 97, like

yearly, I would mail that girl a fucking videotape, like an edited videotape of all the stunts that I had done like since the last videotape. if I mailed her and each one was like more like legitimately impressive each uh you know they started being like like clothing company sponsors and stuff involved like things like that and it's just a super creepy fucking thing that that I would even do that but uh that was my story when she dumped me and I started videotaping the repelling the jumping off roofs the dangling off balconies I was like I'm going to be a fucking stunt man you know and that was when I dropped out me I was kicked out the dorms. I just stopped going to class. And I was just, people are like, well, what are you

going to do now? And I was like, I'm going to videotape fucking stunts, man. I'm going to become a crazy famous stuntman. And everybody I told that too, just like sincerely fucking felt sorry for me. It was like, okay, you're going to leave the University of Miami and you're going to become a famous stuntman with a home video camera. Like, what a fucking shame. What a tragic loser. And rightfully so, because there was no precedent for that. There was no reality TV. You know, there was enough home video cable.

Or iPhones, right? I mean, you age 20 with an iPhone today probably would be a career path, you know, like, that is like the TikTok kid of this generation, right? I don't know. it's a really interesting question to ponder by stevo if i if stevo was born 20 years later yeah like what would it look like and part of me thinks i'm just i was such a tireless just persistent attention whore that like i would have found my way no matter what but part of me also thinks that back in my day of duplicating like big cassettes, you know, of the VCR, the videotape and hitting play on one and record on another and then taking that duplicate tape and

walking down to the post office and mailing it to anyone I thought might watch it. Like that's what it took to get yourself out there. And that's what I did. But now, like, I worried that if I was born, consider. later that it would be so much there's just so much noise out there you know there's so much to compete with and also i think that the the people who like the logan pauls the jake you know the the people really cracked the code that their success is based on volume of content you know i think that that's like kind of where the you know like the youtube dynamic it's like based on

how much are you posting and like in my day dude like I wasn't even filming the part where I climb on the roof I wasn't trying to film like an intro or the climb there was no that was when I first sent to I sent some footage to to license it to like real TV or something they were like do you have any heads or tails like I don't know what that means they're like you know like something to set it up to establish it you know you've got the middle but you don't have and so like i was only filming the jumps you know like but i i think you would have figured that out in the nanos yeah i mean like think about it you if you had that camera on you 24-7 in your pocket like you you would have just been been doing it but i think it might have been

it might have been even worse off for you because you would have gone down a very crazy spiral probably so fast because the feedback loops are so fast in today's social media world, right? Right. Yeah. Or you can go viral in 30 minutes. And to go viral, like to be exposed to, because I was always still, man, like, I have this persona like this, you know, like, oh, I'm sort of generally perceived as this crazy guy who's like, you know, unafraid and like, you know, unfazed. And that's so not it. Like,

I'm gripped by fear and I'm terrified of negative like feedback, you know. I'm even at a point right now where like I try so hard to not expose myself to the comments. It's like, you know, I think most people can relate to like a social media. Like, you know, you scroll through and you read like 99 glowing positive comments and then there's one negative one and that negative one fucks up your whole day you know like I'm on a strict regimen of avoiding fucking comments and it sucks too because they're the negative shit like I am sensitive as hell I have the same thing with whoop reviews where like I'll read 10 in a row where it's changed someone's life and then I'll read one where it's like my Wi-Fi like and my Bluetooth didn't pair this thing sucks

I don't talk about whoop man there was something I saw where a guy was able to tell that he had coronavirus because his respiratory rate which is spiked yeah that was a fucking cool story man dude I get I get messages like that daily I mean it's unbelievable how many people have seen a spike in respiratory rate and use that as a tool to recognize that they shouldn't go into the office or they need to stay home and quarantine. Yeah, it's been amazing. I mean, the conclusion from the COVID moment is kind of the same thesis we've always had, which is you need to measure things about your body that you can't feel, right?

Like COVID-19 is the ultimate version of that in that you can have a virus, not feel it, be asymptomatic, give it to your grandmother, and God forbid, what happens to her, right? And so this, I think society is waking up to this phenomenon that you have physiological indicators that you can't feel. And so much of founding whoop was around that idea that you just don't necessarily know what you're doing to your body. Right. What I think is fascinating is how recovery is not completely proportional to sleep. You would think like I'm actually, I'm fucking alarmed because when I got on,

when I started using my whoop strap, I had like unbelievably high heart rate variability. My HRV was like 150, like, you know, like crazy. That's good, yeah. yeah and it's it's been slipping it's uh and i don't know like i was on a real strict um uh i was on a strict no sugar no flour for like almost an entire year and then i just like i just relapsed on my food program you know like and i like started eating fucking flour again and not like uh being so careful to avoid sugar and i think that that's about

out and step with where my heart rate variability went down, you know. Well, you've taken a lot of variables out of your life, right? Like how long you've been sober for? I'm coming up on 13 years of a surprise. Congratulations. Thank you. So 13 years sober. So 2002 Jackass comes out, right?

You weren't sober at all then. Well, Jackass came out in 2000. 2000. Yeah, it came out in a year 2000 as a TV show. Jackus, the movie came out. Yeah, that's right, the movie. And the show just out of the gates was an immediate success. Yeah, yeah, crazy.

It was crazy. What was the moment for you where you realized that this whole thing was going to just go through the moon? Because your life really changed. I mean, you had kind of a before and after moment, right? For sure. when the first episode of Jackass I think it was like I remember if it was October 1st of year 2000

or October 9th but I want to say it was the first in the first episode I had like a very forgettable thing that wasn't you know but at the end of the first episode they were teasing on next week's show and it was me with the goldfish

and then that following week when the goldfish aired I mean, dude, it was overnight. You know, I mean, and that was here to 2000. Fuck, that's over 20 years ago now. You're October 2000. It was at that time, there really wasn't like video playing on the internet. You know, you couldn't like log on and watch a video clip on the internet.

You had like dial up modems where you heard the fucking phone ringing if you wanted to check your AOL email. You know, like at that time, the media was not. so fragmented you know what i mean sure you had basic cable and you had the network but nowadays i don't know how all these different streaming platforms networks like internet things podcasts for god's sakes you know like everything is so unbelievably fragmented i don't know how it all stays afloat you know it's like people's attention is just so divided into like a million different places that uh it's it really i think means something something pretty significant to rise above all that noise today.

At that time, being a hit on MTV, like I, and it was an instant hit, my life was 100% different the morning after, that next day after that goldfish, like I was recognized everywhere I went, you know, like it was insane. And I was. It's like a flip switching in the simulation kind of. Plus, at that time when Jackass came out, I had been living with my sister. She kicked me out. I was homeless.

I was completely broke. I had made less than 1,500 bucks, all told, for the first season of Jackass. And that had long since been spent. You know, I had lost my job in the circus. I was unemployed, homeless, broke. and a star on the not just the number one show on MTV but the number one show in the history of MTV

it was that big of a deal and people were like you know dude can I get a picture yeah I'll take a picture of me can I sleep on your sofa you know like so it was a little bit you were kind of couch surfing for a little bit I was fucking homeless yeah

crazy and so at least you find that there's going to be be a season two. I did. I did. It was right after the third episode of Jackass aired. I got a call from the executive producer guy, like sort of the red tape guy, not the creative guy.

And he said, all right, dude, the show's a hit. Okay. The show's a hit. The first season had been eight episodes. And I got this call. He said, the show's a hit. MTV isn't just going to order another season. And their next order is 16 episodes.

So they were effectively buying seasons two and three in one go. 16 episodes, he says, and we know we're going to have to pay you. So we're going to give you $2,000 per episode, which like, you know, all those years later, New Jersey Shore would come along. And they'd be getting like a hundred grand, like a million bucks. Sure. And when I heard this, $2,000 per episode times 16 episodes, I'm just doing the math in my head. And I computed it to, that's $32,000. I'm fucking rich. Like unlimited money.

Yeah, sure. I mean, it was crazy. Like, I'd been, you know, I mean, for being the son of a, you know, successful corporate. executive guy, I sure had the homeless mentality, you know? And I just thought I was made in the shade. And it was pretty crazy to you because at that time I had this like still the belief that I would not live to the age of 30. You know, I was in the grips of drugs and alcohol. I felt still totally defective. Like I wasn't, you know, like it was all a scramble. Like it was this just this frantic scramble to try to just document enough crazy entertaining stuff so that once I was dead that I would have been immortalized. I thought I was going to die really young and I thought it was going to be like sad and pathetic my life but I want but it was going to be fucking forever

then jackass comes out and now we're going to do 16 more episodes. I'm fucking right on I'm on top of the world we uh started filming season two right away and uh and i got paid half of the 32 grand like pretty like close to the front end you know and after taxes they deducted taxes from that check and so half of 32 grand after taxes was 10,000 bucks and when i found out i was going to get that check. I called up the jackass boss, the director of Jeff Tremaine. And I said, dude, I'm about to get a fucking check for 10 grand, dude. And I am not even going to wait for it to clear into my bank account. I'm already going to be fucking loaded up the car and driving across country to move to LA because I was living in Florida at the time. And he said, you're not fucking driving anywhere

until you give me a list of ideas that you're going to shoot in Florida and every state between California and Florida. He says, if you give me an idea list that covers every state from Florida to California, then I'll fly out a crew. And, you know, I'll fly out a production crew and they'll follow you in your car. And you can knock out all that footage. That's what we did. you know um yeah so i got way ahead of the game on that season's two and three because i had i had my own production crew just shooting all this shit um and then when i got to california now it was just

like dude you know i was just a cocaine addict in la on the sunset strip like you know and and it was like people were aware but like the the whatever I kept hearing was, man, you better hurry up and make some shit happen quick. Strike while therein's hot because your show is going to get canceled and then it's going to be all done and you'll be amazed how fucking fast that happens and then you're

you know a flax in the pan and it ended. And I remember that being like really like I don't want to say soul crushing but God it fucking because it challenged my view of the video camera and the video

footage as immortal. You know, now all of a sudden, when I got out to LA, and everyone's talking about strike while the iron's hot. You know, they've got to fucking worry, what's the next thing, what's the next? Then now all of a sudden I realize that the video footage is not immortal.

It actually has an expiry date on it. As soon as it comes out, it's fucking old news. And, you know, and then you got to worry about what's your next thing. Now it's like, okay, I've been in the spotlight, And now there's like this kind of a desperate, like, hustle to try to keep that spotlight on you. And that's where there's nothing healthy about celebrity and all of it entails. Now, nobody's trading in their celebrity, you know? Like, you can complain about it all day long.

Nobody's trading it in. And I'm not trading it in. And I'm profoundly grateful for it. But with that said, I think that we can safely conclude that there's nothing fucking healthy about fame or a celebrity. Elaborate on that. Again, great question. Fame or celebrity, I think we could generally define it as success based on external validation. I can't be a celebrity without the validation of those other people.

Other people, right. Everything that celebrity is based on is inherently, by definition, external validation. And I think that everything that happiness is based on is within and at the very least, like intimate, interpersonal. There's nothing fucking intimate about the relationship between a celebrity and the masses. There's nothing healthy about seeking validation from external sources, particularly masses. But, you know, and that's the other thing, too, is that even if you're doing well with it, even if you're doing well with the external validation, it's really precarious, you know, and to have been in the spotlight and then have it, then you're not a big deal anymore, you know?

Like, that's dark, dude. you know that's really when you've got your when you have your your self-esteem your self-worth your identity wrapped up in this super out of your control precarious you know approval of the masses and that if that's what you base yourself on then you're fucked And so that's what, like, I'm grateful that for me, the whole desperate trying to stay in the spotlight and not knowing myself as anything but that, not knowing myself as anything but the persona of Steve O and the, myself as a commodity known as Steve O, that was fucking scary and dark. And no, like, it was a blessing for me that, that it all got so. tragic and fucked up and that I had to find sobriety and recovery and ultimately spirituality. And now I don't know that I've come that far.

You know, I don't know, I'm certainly not out of the danger zone as far as like this unhealthy pursuit of attention. I recognize it as what it is and it's certainly my livelihood, it's my business, but I think that what recovery and spirituality has really instilled in me is the importance of finding separation between my persona and my livelihood, my profession, and like me and my intimate relationships, my identity as a person, and like, and, you know, what I'm really all about. I have to separate myself from Stevo, otherwise I'm fucked, you know? I've got to.

Yeah. That's the closest I can get to being healthy is to just try to exist outside of that fucking Stevo persona. And then I think by doing that, by doing that and making a disciplined effort to stay on top of the meditation, to do like, to treat people right and, you know, be grateful and all this stuff, I think that what we have. actually see is that the other side of things, the Stevo side thrives. If I only live on the Stevo side of the fence, I think it's all bad. But if I'm healthy on the other side, then the levels rise. I mean, is it fair to say that, you know, Jackass 1, Steve-O and Stephen are the same guy? And today, you know, you're filming Jackass 4. It's almost like you recognize you're playing a slight character of yourself i wouldn't i wouldn't say that uh stevo and stephen are the same

guy in jackass one i would just say that stevo was uh a shield for just a really fucking sick stephen you know it was like yeah you know like god i hope they don't see me for for what i really am because I'm just like my, my self-esteem, my self-worth is just so non-existent. And hopefully they can just believe this fucking, you know, this facade of Stivo, you know. And then to not to, and leave that facade the way it is, it's great. But like, it's just, I think I kind of became less sick on the behind the facade, you know. what's the most surprising thing you've learned about yourself from whoop the heart rate variability being high you know uh i've always known that i have a particularly low heart rate you know

like resting heart rate for me is uh 45 beats a minute you know and like that's it's on brand for you like i feel like a world class crazy stunt man should have a low resting heart rate like that's a good stevo brand moment with the whoop is i really legitimately every day I check it you know every day I'd fill out my thing in the morning you know like that 100% did I meditate like you know and sometimes I did tone in before I go to sleep and I'd ask me did you just take melatonin last night I didn't if I either did or I didn't you know did you uh like get in massage therapy like you know it's been so long since you could go get a massage but I have a massage chair at home and I'll count it if I did yeah I did you know like um I do it

every day. Dude, okay, I'm doing all right. Check it out. I got 97% recovery with 160 HRV. Wow. That's pretty baller. You know, it's interesting that your HRV is so high because we actually see people who have used drugs and alcohol heavily that that can suppress their HRV over time. You must be in such a Zen state with this new, you know, new you.

you want to know what the real ticket is dear the real secret is uh check it out dude this is my meditation i'm on three hundred six straight days averaging 41 minutes per day i know it's funny i could tell i could tell you're a meditator just from talking to you uh i've been i've been meditating for six years nice what kind of meditation i do transnational meditation You know, mantra-based, dude. Mantra-based, focus, clears your mind out, lets the things float in that you need to know about. It changed my life. Epic, dude.

I'll take it a step further. I believe, and I know a lot of people think, oh, what a kook. But I genuinely believe that by the virtue of a disciplined, spiritual practice of meditation, twice a day without that you actually get plugged into something where the universe conspires in your favor because we're all interconnected no matter what and by I just think it plugs you in where like it's a big deal man it's a big deal

it's a real life hack it's a superpower especially for people who are hyper driven or have like high energy you know, it helps you calm your brain. I mean, most entrepreneurs I meet myself included are, you know, just like shot out of a rocket in some ways. And you need that to control that energy and to shape it, I think. And I completely agree with you this idea that it makes you feel more connected to everything around you.

And in some ways helps you kind of see the paths that you need to see. There's like some kind of like synchronicity where, like, like being a way like when I'm meditating you know like when I'm like sort of on my my spiritual game like things come together in a way it's like man and another thing I do every day is a gratitude journal I think oh wow gratitude journal is a serious life hack that uh they're right in there with that with all the rest of it it's amazing I've done I don't know about a hundred of these podcasts now interviewing famous successful people like yourself athletes, everyone, and it's unbelievable the number of people that talk about a gratitude

journal in their life. It's just, I mean, it's not even like surprising that if you set aside some time every day to really focus on and focus your attention on things that you're grateful for, then, you know, you're programming your brain to be grateful. You know, you're coming from a place of gratitude. And, yeah, it's like, I mean, How many studies have there been? You know, you don't have to be Oprah to know that.

Well, gratitude produces serotonin. Most high-driving people are driven by dopamine loops, right? So dopamine loop is like you telling yourself, oh, if I do this, a lot of people are going to watch it and it's going to make them more successful, more famous, and that gets you to do it. And then you do it. And so you're on that dopamine thing. But if you never appreciate that that thing's happened,

and you just go on to the next, then you create this sort of dopamine deficiency. And that's where the serotonin needs to come in to balance it. And it's, anyway, I learned that from Andrew Huberman, who came on the podcast, really fascinating neuroscientists. And it's a problem with entrepreneurs, too, where you're just on a dopamine system and then you never appreciate what you've built along the way. Did, epic. I think you've got an amazing story, man.

And I do feel like at some point you should talk to kids. Like, I feel like your credibility is a 12 out of 10. And young people are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives. I'll be inspired by you. Well, hey, thank you, man. I appreciate that a lot. And I got to say, too, that, you know, if I have a most proud, like, project, you know, what I've done, it would be my book. You know, my book is called Professional Idiot.

a memoir and it's uh you know it's about all this you know it's about it's got all the drugs all the sex all the crazy fame and rock and roll and just shocking that like how gory and crazy everything got and it's also you know got this this real stuff that i'm talking about too so i'm proud as hell of that book for being a new york times bestseller and i love it it means the world to me to get that out there to, you know, to get it because, like you're saying, talking to kids, like, it means so much to me when I go into, like, a 12-step store, like a store for, like, you know, stuff about recovery and sobriety.

Totally, yes. See my book in there. It's pretty killer. Well, look, this has been a real pleasure. We're going to include all that stuff in the show notes. It's been fun meeting you, man, and thanks for being on Woo. Hey, brother. Thank you for everything about Woof.

And, yeah, and I appreciate you, dude. thanks to stevo for coming on the whoop podcast uh thank you to everyone for listening reminder you can use the code will omit w i l-l-l-h-m-ed to get 15% off a whoop membership and check us out on social at whoop at will omit stay healthy folks stay in the green Thank you.