November 20, 2025 • 8 mins
Steve-O recounts a low point in his drug addiction and the mass email that led “Jackass” co-star Johnny Knoxville to stage an intervention. Plus: stories from his recovery, including suicidal thoughts, lessons from rehab, the unlikely benefits of his pessimistic outlook and the reason he stayed in sober living for two years.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
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.
This week, stunt performer and comedian Stevo.
You send a 2008 e-mail to your friends that they viewed as
(00:27):
suggesting possible suicide. Trump And I said, this is how I
scheduled my own intervention. I said said that I've been
evicted and I've only got like, you know, this 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.
(00:48):
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 it and
bring me a hot tub or cardboard boxes.
And if you don't, I'm going to jump anyway just to find out how
(01:10):
many bones get broken when when I land on concrete from 25 feet
up in the air like I'm ready to die was how I ended that e-mail.
And now this e-mail that I sent was to like 200 of the most
influential people who had the misfortune of me getting a hold
(01:32):
of their contact info. And when I proposed that Knox
will come over and bring a hot tub, or, you know, the rest of
it, he had already been in contact with Doctor Drew and,
you know, various people to organize, you know, this
intervention. What happened when you actually
got to the hospital? I was like spitting on people,
(01:54):
as I recall. I wanted to smoke a cigarette
and I was screaming and yelling and, and I tried to throw some
chair or something. I was like, I'm throwing a
temper tantrum and just being like generally unlovely.
And then they jammed a needle inmy butt cheek.
(02:15):
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 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
(02:38):
like, you know, this internal dialogue where I was, I'm
calculating and like how to handle like how many 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 5250, which is a two weekold.
And I think it was like maybe the 4th day, this guy, another
(03:02):
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,
I'm 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 I'm just laying in, you
(03:23):
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 particularlyin 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.
(03:48):
Like, like as I look at it now, because if part of you thinks
like, oh, like, no, there's hopefor 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 when I didn't even realize is
(04:10):
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.
(04:32):
Why, after 100 days sober, have you said before that was the
closest you'd ever been to actually killing yourself?
After I got sober, I would say that it took probably about that
long, like 3 months for, for thefog to clear enough for me to
see like the reality of like what I had become, you know, and
like the, I just judge myself aslike, I hate myself.
(04:59):
There's one time in particular where I was at, you know, one of
our sober people things and, andI just, I spoke up and said like
all of the work that I'm puttinginto, you know, my recovery, I
feel like what's coming out of this work is self hatred.
(05:20):
You know, as I look at like the,you know, my inventory as I
like, you know, like go through this, this stuff that I have to
go through. I don't like what I see.
You know, I'm ashamed. I'm like, I feel guilty.
I feel, you know, I feel like I hate myself and I feel like, I
(05:41):
feel like I want to blow my brains out.
And this thing that I was at waslocated on hospital grounds.
And so when when, when it was over, the people walked me
across the hospital ground and checked me into, I checked
(06:01):
myself into the psychiatric unit.
Why'd 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 is like the general statistic, like only about 5% of
(06:23):
Alcoholics achieved long term sobriety.
And I said to Doctor Drew, hey, man, like I know the odds are
not in my favor and here I'm allin.
And I don't want to waste my time, you know.
And so however long do you recommend that I stay in this
rehab, I want to stay significantly longer so that I
(06:46):
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.
(07:06):
But but Doctor Drew and bless his heart, he said, 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 soberliving.
(07:27):
And that makes all the sense in the world.
And like, today, I am such a bigfan of sober, 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 that moment of subtle
(07:48):
insanity. We're just all of a sudden, we
just can't think of a reason notto take a drink.
Yeah. That's what alcoholism is.
And then there's no way around it.
You're going to have that moment.
And that's why it's so importantfor sober people to stay
together because in a group, notall of us have that moment at
the same time. Yeah.
So we protect each other from that moment and without being in
(08:09):
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 like, I needed the, I neededthe safety of and the structure
(08:32):
and the discipline. That's it for now, but if you're
hungry for more in depth interviews, head over to
youtube.com/graham Bensinger. You can dive into our deep
library, which includes more than 2000 clips spanning 12 plus
years. Thanks again for listening.
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.
This week, stunt performer and comedian Stevo.
You send a 2008 e-mail to your friends that they viewed as
(00:27):
suggesting possible suicide. Trump And I said, this is how I
scheduled my own intervention. I said said that I've been
evicted and I've only got like, you know, this 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.
(00:48):
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 it and
bring me a hot tub or cardboard boxes.
And if you don't, I'm going to jump anyway just to find out how
(01:10):
many bones get broken when when I land on concrete from 25 feet
up in the air like I'm ready to die was how I ended that e-mail.
And now this e-mail that I sent was to like 200 of the most
influential people who had the misfortune of me getting a hold
(01:32):
of their contact info. And when I proposed that Knox
will come over and bring a hot tub, or, you know, the rest of
it, he had already been in contact with Doctor Drew and,
you know, various people to organize, you know, this
intervention. What happened when you actually
got to the hospital? I was like spitting on people,
(01:54):
as I recall. I wanted to smoke a cigarette
and I was screaming and yelling and, and I tried to throw some
chair or something. I was like, I'm throwing a
temper tantrum and just being like generally unlovely.
And then they jammed a needle inmy butt cheek.
(02:15):
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 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
(02:38):
like, you know, this internal dialogue where I was, I'm
calculating and like how to handle like how many 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 5250, which is a two weekold.
And I think it was like maybe the 4th day, this guy, another
(03:02):
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,
I'm 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 I'm just laying in, you
(03:23):
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 particularlyin 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.
(03:48):
Like, like as I look at it now, because if part of you thinks
like, oh, like, no, there's hopefor 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 when I didn't even realize is
(04:10):
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.
(04:32):
Why, after 100 days sober, have you said before that was the
closest you'd ever been to actually killing yourself?
After I got sober, I would say that it took probably about that
long, like 3 months for, for thefog to clear enough for me to
see like the reality of like what I had become, you know, and
like the, I just judge myself aslike, I hate myself.
(04:59):
There's one time in particular where I was at, you know, one of
our sober people things and, andI just, I spoke up and said like
all of the work that I'm puttinginto, you know, my recovery, I
feel like what's coming out of this work is self hatred.
(05:20):
You know, as I look at like the,you know, my inventory as I
like, you know, like go through this, this stuff that I have to
go through. I don't like what I see.
You know, I'm ashamed. I'm like, I feel guilty.
I feel, you know, I feel like I hate myself and I feel like, I
(05:41):
feel like I want to blow my brains out.
And this thing that I was at waslocated on hospital grounds.
And so when when, when it was over, the people walked me
across the hospital ground and checked me into, I checked
(06:01):
myself into the psychiatric unit.
Why'd 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 is like the general statistic, like only about 5% of
(06:23):
Alcoholics achieved long term sobriety.
And I said to Doctor Drew, hey, man, like I know the odds are
not in my favor and here I'm allin.
And I don't want to waste my time, you know.
And so however long do you recommend that I stay in this
rehab, I want to stay significantly longer so that I
(06:46):
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.
(07:06):
But but Doctor Drew and bless his heart, he said, 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 soberliving.
(07:27):
And that makes all the sense in the world.
And like, today, I am such a bigfan of sober, 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 that moment of subtle
(07:48):
insanity. We're just all of a sudden, we
just can't think of a reason notto take a drink.
Yeah. That's what alcoholism is.
And then there's no way around it.
You're going to have that moment.
And that's why it's so importantfor sober people to stay
together because in a group, notall of us have that moment at
the same time. Yeah.
So we protect each other from that moment and without being in
(08:09):
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 like, I needed the, I neededthe safety of and the structure
(08:32):
and the discipline. That's it for now, but if you're
hungry for more in depth interviews, head over to
youtube.com/graham Bensinger. You can dive into our deep
library, which includes more than 2000 clips spanning 12 plus
years. Thanks again for listening.
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