There have been troubling reports about Bam Margera for years as the Jackass icon has battled his addictions. These struggles led to an unfortunate divide within the Jackass crew as Margera was booted from the last film due to allegedly breaking a sobriety clause. The axing caused Margera to file lawsuits against his former friends and collaborators, however, the director of Jackass would go on to claim that Margera openly threatened him and his family.
In recent months, Margera has reportedly been in and out of treatment, and his family reportedly stated that he was under “guardianship” for his own safety. This launched the “Free Bam” movement among his fans who believed that Margera was under a conservatorship much like that of Britney Spears.
Samir Hussein / Staff / Getty Images
However, Margera recently caught up with Steve-O to discuss their troubles, and he insisted that no one forced him to be in treatment. As far as Jackass is concerned, Margera is putting that time in his life behind him.
“Everything is meant for a reason, and I’m much better off not being in it,” Margera said. “I don’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m much happier without it… Now that it’s done and over with, I didn’t want to do it in the first place.”
Still, he also suggested that being fired from Jackass Forever was “ridiculous,” but it wasn’t an opinion shared by Steve-O. Margera’s run-ins with the law—which have only increased in recent years—were affecting production and people had enough.
“I hope that you can understand that at a certain point, specifically over the last few years, that it stopped being fun,” Steve-O replied. “It stopped being funny. It stopped being cool. It stopped being something that we want to give you a high-five for, because we’d been watching you self-destruct.”
Check out Bam Margera and Steve-O below.
[via]