Steve-O: Johnny Knoxville’s drug intervention | Forward Progress

0:00Hey, it's Bill from the Bill Simmons podcast. FIFA World Cup 26 fans, listen up. As the official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 26, Michelob Ultra is giving away$1 million worth of FIFA World Cup 26 tickets and prizes. Enter now at MichelobUltra.com slash SuperiorAccess slash FIFA World Cup 26. Michelob Ultra, FIFA World Cup 26, Superior Access, no purchase necessary. Open U.S. Residence 21 Plus begins on December 1st, 2025, ends on July 31st, 2026, multiple entry periods. Visit www.micelobUltra.com slash SuperiorAccess slash FIFA World Cup 26 for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details.

0:30Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney Plus Let's go Get ready for a new case We're gonna crack this case and prove we're the greatest partners of all time New friends You are And your last name Dream Team New habitats Zootopia has a secret reptile population You can watch the record-breaking phenomenon at home You're clearly working it Zootopia 2 Now available on Disney Plus Rated PG Hey, it's Graham. It's Thursday. And that means we're offering you another positive piece of a past interview. Each week, our team digs through the archives to find our strongest feel-good stories to present to you in podcast form.

1:14This week, stunt performer and comedian Steve-O. You send a 2008 email to your friends that they viewed as suggesting possible suicide. How did they respond? I said, this is how I scheduled my own intervention. I said that I've been evicted. I've only got to get out of the apartment. But before I get out of here, I want to ride a motorcycle through the living room and jump out onto the roof of the building next door. And, you know, I don't want to jump out of my bedroom window and land on the sidewalk, but I'd like to land in a hot tub. You know, I'd settle for cardboard boxes. But Knoxville, get over here with the crew and bring me a hot tub or cardboard boxes.

2:06And if you don't, I'm going to jump anyway just to find out how many bones get broken when I land on concrete from 25 feet up in the air. I'm ready to die, was how I ended that email. And now this email that I sent was to 200 of the most influential people who had the misfortune of me getting a hold of their contact info. And when I proposed that Knox will come over and bring a hot tub or the rest of it, He had already been in contact with Dr. Drew and various people to organize this intervention. What happened when you actually got to the hospital? I was spitting on people, as I recall. I wanted to smoke a cigarette, and I was screaming and yelling.

3:00And I tried to throw some chair or something. I was throwing a temper tantrum and just being generally unlovely. And then they jammed a needle in my butt cheek. And then I took a nap. You know, and I'm knocked out. And then I, like, you know, when I wake up from my nap, I'm in the part of the hospital where, like, the doors just don't open. And I'm like, I can't get them locked up. Like, it was a cross between a hospital and a jail. You know, it was, like, a pretty intense situation. And being in that situation, like, on the first day, I had like you know this internal dialogue where I was kind of calculating like how to handle like how am I gonna I want to get out of here you know but because my behavior had been so like spectacular they changed my status to what's called 52 50 which is a two-week hold and um I think it was like maybe the fourth day this guy another patient who he said that he was a heroin addict he gives me this book about alcoholism but i don't want to read this book because like there's no helping me you know like i'm like there's no hope for me you know but then if it was that night if it was the next night i don't know but uh i'm just laying in you know and i can't sleep and i'm bored and there's nothing else better to do and here's this book and i just picked it up and started reading the book and as i read it i particularly in the beginning there was this sort of like, you know, like general, like assessment of alcoholism that they were describing that the more hopeless you are, the better, you know, which makes sense.

4:48Like, like, as I look at it now, because if part of you thinks like, oh, no, there's hope for me, I can manage it. Then you're not a candidate for recovery. You know, recovery starts with an admission of complete defeat you know we admitted that we got our ass kicked and we surrendered you know and so what i didn't even realize is that my core belief that i was past the point of help that i was a lost cause a write-off actually made me like a prime candidate and so it's this paradox that you know I'm just kind of fascinated with, but recovery begins by finding hope in hopelessness. Why after a hundred days sober, have you said before that was the closest you'd ever been to actually killing yourself?

5:39After I got sober, I would say that it took probably about that long, like three months for the fog to clear enough for me to see the reality of what I had become. You know, and like the, I just judge myself as like, I hate myself. There was one time in particular where I was at, you know, one of our sober people things. And I spoke up and said like, all of the work that I'm putting into, you know, my recovery, I feel like what's coming out of this work is self-hatred. As I look at my inventory, as I go through this stuff that I have to go through, I don't like what I see. I'm ashamed. I feel guilty.

6:37I feel like I hate myself. And I feel like I want to blow my brains out. And this thing that I was at was located on a hospital grounds. And so when it was over, the people walked me across the hospital grounds and checked me into, I checked myself into the psychiatric unit. Why did you end up staying in sober living for two years? I remember a counselor saying some statistic that like 95 % of all alcoholics died drunk of causes related directly to alcoholism. It's like the general statistic. Like only about 5 % of alcoholics achieve long-term sobriety. And I said to Dr. Drew, hey man, like I know the odds are not in my favor.

7:32And here I'm all in and I don't want to waste my time, you know. and so however long you recommend that I stay in this rehab I want to stay significantly longer so that I can give myself a better chance of not wasting my time doing this and that is just a really crazy thing to do because it's essentially handing over a blank check and this place was like I don't know how much that it cost me I think it might have been like something in the like 300 grand you know ballpark yeah but but dr drew and bless his heart he said uh that's great that you're so committed but the fact is i don't recommend that you stay in this rehab for more than 30 days i think that would be pointless but if you are serious about giving yourself an advantage then what i recommend you doing is going from rehab into a sober living and that makes all the sense in the world and like today i am such a big fan of sober living saved my life is what i think because without it there would have been so many moments where it's just like like in the book it describes you know like like uh that moment of subtle insanity where just all of a sudden we just can't think of a reason not to take a drink yeah that's what alcoholism is and then there's no way around it, you're going to have that moment.

8:57And that's why it's so important for sober people to stay together because in a group, not all of us have that moment at the same time. So we protect each other from that moment. And without being in that safe environment of the sober living on my own with that moment of subtle insanity, like I'd be a goner. And on top of that, with no discipline whatsoever. Such entitlement issues, you know, like just such a child. And I needed the safety and the structure and the discipline. That's it for now. But if you're hungry for more in-depth interviews, head over to youtube.com slash Graham Bensinger.

9:41You can dive into our deep library, which includes more than 2 ,000 clips spanning 12-plus years. Thanks again for listening.

10:12There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Well, Lorenzo, the pitch looked good. Yeah, so green. USA Keeper was decent enough. Didn't have much to do. Ugh, 99 minutes. Not a single goal. Well, Bet365 sure came through, though. I bet$10 and got$150 in bonus bets just for signing up. At least someone scored. Bet 365. Winning is everything. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 21 plus only. Must be physically located in Illinois. T's and C's apply. In-app only.