Bam Margera | Skate Stories Ep.14

ben margera was a pop culture icon in the early 2000s whose popularity was once limited to skating in circles but quickly rose to mainstream fame through jackass and even eventually his own show on mtv he had everything going for him at one point in his life name recognition brand sponsorships and even a sad career as a radio host and label owner but nothing has ever been the same for him ever since he lost his friend ryan dunn in fact things got so bad that bam margera himself asked dr phil for help so without taking up any more time let's jump into this week's episode of skate stories about the life of bam margera brandon margera was born in westchester pennsylvania on september 28 1979 and is the son of april and phil margera by the age of three his grandfather knows that he would keep intentionally running into walls giving him the nickname bam at the age of nine ben picked up skateboarding for the first time and instantly fell in love with it once he started he did not stop and just kept practicing every single day that he had the opportunity to around the age of 13 a local shop named fairman's sponsored him and two other local guys the three stayed everywhere that they could together during this time bam was going to high school at east high and say that his only reason for doing so was because his friend chris rabb was going those two stopped going to school shortly after though after chris got expelled for smearing literal poop on the lockers eventually bam and his crew got bored of westchester so they moved on to more iconic spots such as love park for a few weeks the group filmed as much as they could but this ended quickly though because a new skatepark called fdr was opening up and it had a lot more features that bam was interested in but even though his time at love park didn't last all that long it obviously had a very big impact on bam because he has a love park tattoo on his arm for a few years bam and his friends just continued filming their skateboarding and some pranks and funny content thrown in here and there during that time he picked up a sponsor called toy machine skateboards and by 1999 his filming really stepped up and bam's brain child was getting ready to be born landspeed presents cky was the first time that he released in the series in case you didn't know cky stands for camp kill yourself this series featured his friends ryan dung brandon camilo reik yong and brandon novak together they called themselves the cky crew at first most of the footage in those videos was just skating in a few shenanigans thrown in here and there quickly though bam realized that people were less interested in watching him skate and a lot more interested in watching him and his friends nearly kill themselves so what did he do well he continued to do the best that he could as a stunt man and as he continued releasing episodes notable names in the skateboarding community started to notice bam's work and by the time the fourth and final one released spike jonesy the american filmmaker gave bam a call and suggested the idea of jackass for him right off the spot he loved it and they started filming as soon as possible very early on bam's parents april and phil were a hit among fans they started out on the cyk series just as cheap extras when bam needs someone to prank but by the time jackass released they started getting used to so much that his father ended up quitting his job as a baker because they were doing so well and i guess another reason that he quit was because he couldn't get his work done because his work address got leaked and the kids started showing up every day asking for hugs and autographs bam was obviously a little bit jealous of his father's fame phil would go to the mall and these kids would just like jump on him and hug him and stuff like oh my god i can't believe it's phil it's just like dude why do you like him so much he's just a baker and he's fat following the release of the first jackass movie mtv offered bama's own tv show called viva la bam each episode was given a specific theme mission or challenge that was accomplished by performing pranks skateboarding or enlisting the help of friends or experts tony hawk even appeared in the pilot episode this was when castle bam started becoming a thing in 2004 he dedicated an episode to moving into the so-called castle most of it was paying purple and it became a haven for him and his friends the property sits on 14 acres has an indoor skate park a swimming pool and even a ramp when they weren't filming at castle bam the show followed them as they went to different locations and even featured him and bob bernquest in brazil where they had to take a helicopter to find places to skate because the traffic was so bad while filming for viva la bam he picked up another sponsor which was element skateboards and when bam was not filming viva la bam you could find him in his studio at night still with all of his friends drinking a six-pack and streaming his radio show cyrus xm brilliant like dude cheers is serious because it's the easiest thing in the world while filming for viva la bam he was engaged to jen reville who was a divorced single mother six years older than he she can be seen in a lot of episodes throughout the show and the relationship ended when viva la bam ended in 2005 and you can say that it wasn't exactly a happy ending bam even filed for protection form abuse order after she allegedly broke into his house supposedly several computers were broken by her along with other vandalism throughout the house by the time the marriage ended bam already had his sights set on a new project so in 2005 he started a music label called filthy notes records along with a band that he named [ __ ] unstoppable this remained a side project for him through 2015. after viva la bam was cancelled jackass 2 is in the works and bam was doing incredibly well for himself for reference tony hawk was selling 13 000 boards per month and bam was selling 20 000 even though the merch was doing well baman just stepped back from skateboarding during the week he had nearly 40 people helping him with the production of the movie and each skateboard trick can take up to an hour to land and once they do land it that hour that you spent filming only yields to about five seconds of footage so they essentially ganked out skateboarding from the movie entirely this was when bam started to skate less and less and focused more on his movie career during 2008 he had a prominent role in a porno called the fantastic horse i can't say that i've watched it myself but apparently a dvd features bam and his crew and skateboarding and action-packed sex scenes like novak was getting head while getting shot by paintballs i don't really know not my personal cup of tea by 2009 he was on to more serious stuff and appeared in three nitro circus episodes after this bam really just stopped skateboarding entirely because it just wasn't profitable enough compared to being a tv star skipping forward a few years and a few jackass movies bam's best friend ryan dunn was killed in 130 mile per hour drunk driving accident in 2011 and it took such a big toll on bam that he still has not recovered to this day bamber counts 2012 as the year that he lost control of his drinking mostly because of the loss of his best friend but also because he stopped skating and because he was just drinking because he was bored even before ryan's accident his drinking started to become a problem back in july of 2009 and he was rushed to the hospital by paramedics and state troopers after a four-day alcohol binge then in 2010 bam was allegedly attacked by a baseball bat after getting drunk and calling a girl the n-word but he denies ever having used that language after a few years of not doing much except drinking and getting into minor legal trouble his long career towards sobriety began in 2015 he went to rehab for the very first time but left without finishing later that year he took part in family therapy with dr jen and his mother after he remained sober and he remained sober only for a few months before he started drinking again by 2017 he went on the nine club and said that he has been the most sober since 2015. then within a year he entered rehab again after getting a dui during this time his first child was born with his new wife and was named phoenix wolf and he was sober for a few more months before he got robbed at gunpoint during a vacation in colombia where he relapsed yet again then another year later in 2019 he entered rehab for the fourth time but left stating that he did not belong here i could keep going but i think that you get the point since the loss of his best friend it's really just been a downward spiral for him who the [ __ ] cares if i'm drunk as hell or not anymore he really seemed to hit a low in 2019 when he tried to board a commercial flight when an airport police officer stopped him telling him that he was too drunk to fly the following day bam posted a chain of videos on his instagram publicly pleading for dr phil to help and as i'm sure that most of you know dr phil decided to help him out but yet again his sobriety did not last long and he went through another instagram rant on february 11th 2021 where he admitted to breaking his sobriety if anybody cares about me don't go see their movie because i will make my way [ __ ] radder if you've just been mowing me a dollar throughout the emotional video you can see bam crying vomiting and even eluding they looked up how to tie a noose and he alleged that paramount pictures have been forcing him to take antidepressants the fallout got so bad between him and those filming jackass 4 that the previous good friend jeff tremaine ended up filing a restraining order against spam and most recently bam has been cited in yet another rehab facility this time inventing his own language i want myself to be self-medicated i want to be hated i wanna do things my way answer to no one except a woman to be my girl i am pickiest hopefully this dude gets better soon like seriously during his time battling his addictions he had a few projects that hadn't really gone anywhere right after ryan dunn died he shut down his bar called the note because the city had imposed some serious restrictions that affected the business too much to continue he also worked on releasing a documentary about his life called i need time to stay unless during 2015 through 2019 but unfortunately he never completed it supposedly a project is just on pause for the moment but it wouldn't get your hopes up for ever getting released while bam was not known for being the greatest skater in the world he was featured in a bunch of skateboarding content and this really gave him the publicity day a need to become a personality which is what he always wanted to be some of his most notable video parts are toy machine jumping off a building element elementary volume one and element welcome back bam he also appeared to all of tony hawk's video games aside from pro skater 1 and 2 along with the most recent one and after taking a long break from skateboarding he started skating again in 2015 when he took a trip to spain to get back into it and element even sponsored him again by 2017 which is when his part for element released again welcome back bam and today you can still see clips from skating but he's obviously just doing it for fun he isn't trying to push himself to the limits and compete or make crazy new parts he's just doing it because he enjoys it bear margera is a staple of kids childhoods like mine and i have tons of memories of me watching bam doing crazy stunts on there he basically spent his entire life getting paid to do dumb stuff and entertain for others and living the dream life to a kid watching he truly is an example of never growing up but ever since he'd lost his best friend he has been through some pretty tough hardships and still struggling constantly to maintain his sobriety and sanity hopefully he can finally break the bad habit because it's hard watching him go down this path and it seems to just keep getting darker and darker every month and that is pretty much the story of bamar jared as we know today anyway thank you guys for watching i hope you enjoyed and that's all i have for now peace out

Channel: Skate Or Die

Views: 37,179

Keywords: bam margera skate stories, bam margera, skate stories 14, best skaters of all time, best skater, skate, skater, skateboarding, skate or die, skateordie, steezy, 10 skaters you will meet, skateboarders, skateboard, top 10 skaters, skaters you will meet, the berrics, braille skate, john hill, skaters vs, skaters, skate support, tricktips, skateboarder, funny, 2020, 2019, satire, skate 3, top 10, skateboarding fails, tik tok, skateboarding tricks, tiktok, eboy, 2021

Id: XMNuEO5AzEw

Length: 11min 7sec (667 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021