It’s not that Steve-O wants to pass away . He just doesn’t want to grow old either.
At least, that is what he says the very first chapter of their new book, “A Hard Kick in the Nuts: What I have Learned from a Lifetime of Terrible Decisions, ” is about.
In the chapter, aptly titled “Don’t be Afraid of Dying, Be Afraid of Getting Older, ” he confesses to feeling envious when his “Jackass” co-star Ryan Dunn died in a fiery car crash in 2011 at age 34, just a few weeks after the release from the third installment from the “Jackass” film business.
“My take on death was – and am say in (the book) and I’ve never said this anywhere else – that at the point whenever Ryan Dunn passed away, we had just a new No . 1 film come out. It was barely six months (after) the particular (release of a) No . 1 box office hit movie. And I say he was young, he or she looked great, he’d never been in any kind of financial distress, he was on top of the planet, ” Steve-O points out. “He’d never reached a point where he was in any undignified place. (He) didn’t have to grow old, didn’t have to have his body deteriorate. He went out on the top, you know? In my look at, he went out at the top, and I felt like a part of me, if not all of me, felt jealous of that. ”
Right now 48, Steve-O offers learned the value of ageing.
He’s matured, he says. He’s been sober for 14 many years, and when we spoke, he was on a 985-day meditation streak. He does 40 minutes a day.
“I have an unshakeable perception that it causes the particular universe to conspire in my favor, ” he says.
This, from the guy who got famous by throwing himself into painful, life-threatening and awkward situations. Like the period he dangled themself over live alligators wearing raw chicken in a jock secure. Or when this individual put a fish hook through their mouth and swam in shark-infested oceans in the Gulf of Mexico.
Reflecting on it now, he or she believes he was “mocking and taunting death” because “I was mad on it. ”
Right after getting kicked out of college and encountering homelessness early on, Steve-O says he “legitimately thought that I was going to fail at living. ”
“I likely to die very younger, having failed from life. And I has been mad at the concept of dying – like, not only am We gonna die youthful having failed, but like, everybody’s going to die, ” he admits that.
If he can appear the other side of his lowest moments, anybody can, he says. Therefore the book.
“It’s a book of wisdom, which I’ve gleaned from clearly a very long time of terrible choices, ” he says, having a laugh. “And I say a lot of unflattering things about myself. ”
The second chapter will be on sex, plus “goes into severe, kind of graphic details, ” he says.
“I really detail exactly how outta control I got with acting away sexually, ” he admits that. “I got to a place where I was approaching 40 years old and I was just like, ‘man, the way I’m performing is not the path in order to being happy. ’”
He eventually activated to the idea that their future happiness has been dependent upon learning how to be in a healthy relationship.
“Finding a life partner plus stability, I really obtained proactive about working on the project. This was my mantra. I was doing the work to be the man that the really like of my life deserves, ” he says, “That’s sort of the knowledge of that chapter. ”
He is currently dating a prop designer from Los Angeles.
The concept at work in the book, he says, is to help, but additionally poke fun and the particular ridiculousness of him being a self-help author.
“What makes it function is that there’s most likely 90% unbelievably surprising true stories regarding my life and maybe ten percent actual wisdom to become gleaned and maybe the ten percent helps you, ” he says. “It’s patently absurd to think that the self-help book of wisdom is originating from Steve O. ”
Of course , he chose to promote the book in true Steve-O fashion, he says – “going down the 405 Freeway in La at 50 mph on a swing fixed, mounted on top of the truck. ”
As always, he made it out there alive.