Steve-O Wants Bam to Own His Recovery, Not Just Live It

When Steve-O showed up to talk about Jackass: Best and Last, the conversation naturally drifted to the one cast member who wasn’t in the room. Bam Margera skipped Wednesday night’s premiere, and while the reasons were complicated—another commitment, lingering tension with Johnny Knoxville and director Jeff Tremaine since his 2020 firing—Steve-O’s take on the situation reveals something deeper than tabloid drama.

Here’s what’s interesting: Steve-O isn’t dismissing Bam or writing him off. There’s genuine affection there, the kind that comes from decades of shared chaos and survival. But he’s also not giving him a free pass. During his appearance on The TMZ Podcast Thursday, Steve-O made it clear that he wants Bam to do more than just get sober—he wants him to talk about it. To own the journey publicly. To tell people what he’s learned.

That’s the gap Steve-O is spotting. Bam’s sobriety is real and worth celebrating, but from Steve-O’s perspective, the silence surrounding it is a missed opportunity. When you’ve lived as publicly as these guys have, recovery becomes more than a personal milestone. It becomes a story that can matter to other people fighting similar battles.

The fact that Bam’s parents, Phil and April Margera, showed up to the premiere instead speaks volumes—they’re still showing up, still engaged. But Steve-O clearly wishes Bam felt ready to do the same, and more importantly, to speak candidly about what his recovery has meant. That’s not judgment; it’s the voice of someone who’s been through the fire himself and knows the difference between getting clean and actually healing out loud.

The Jackass franchise is closing its doors with Jackass: Best and Last, and Steve-O even teased an absolutely insane stunt from the film that somehow tops their usual insanity. But the real story here might not be what’s on screen—it’s what remains unspoken between the cast members, and the hope that one of them will eventually find the words to fill that space.