Epicly Later'd

Should we give it a go?

Ready whenever you are.

Fuckin' pretty full of glass, B.

Welcome back to the skateboarding business.

**

First and foremost, he was a really solid skater.

He would kill it at every situation.

He was the kind of fellow on a skateboard

that, if he believed it, he could see it.

He would skate transition.

He'd skate ledges. He'd skate switch.

You know, it's like, one thing,

it'd be, like, something more technical,

and then he'd just go full blast

on some crazy sculpture or whatever.

He's just balls to the wall.

He would drop in on everything. It just went bigger and bigger.

There's all these crazy skateboarding tricks

that Bam would film, but then also, all this just chaos.

It's kind of amazing to see some of the early stuff

that ended up becoming a hit TV show.

You get to vicariously beat up your dad through Bam

and this loving mom in this funny, chaotic world,

but Bam was starting to get a little off the deep end.

After the show left, he just thought

it still should be a show, and nothing was happening.

He got bored. He got crazy.

Drinking and drugs was definitely a bit of a problem.

He got to a point where he floated away, I think,

and just became the dick he was pretending to be.

That level of fame is not -- it's not healthy.

You know, at some point, it just got to be

that the chaos was louder than the product.

My God.

Bad.

Bad.

And we try to hide it all.

"Hey, how's Bam?"

Great.

That was perfect.

**

**

**

What's up? Welcome back to "Epicly Later'd."

We're here in Barcelona to film with Bam Margera.

A lot of people, when they think of Bam,

they think of "Jackass" and "Viva La Bam"

and all his, like, MTV celebrity.

But I always think of him as an amazing pro skater.

Whoo!

I think of the Eastern Exposure video.

I think of Toy Machines, "Jump Off a Building,"

all his years on Element skateboards.

But you know, after that, he got into MTV.

Kind of really got sucked into, like,

a rock star kind of lifestyle.

Practically quit skating

and just became a full-blown celebrity.

But once "Viva La Bam" ended

and one of his best friends, Ryan Dunn, passed away

from a drunk driving accident,

it really sent Bam into a dark space.

And now, suddenly, we hope,

it seems like he's coming out of his mourning period.

Trying to get my skate on today.

Hola. I'm looking for Bam.

Good. How are you?

Whoever that was said they knew me,

so... I don't know who it was.

Hello.

Hey. What's up? Hi, Patrick.

Winkle? Yeah.

I'm Patrick.

Top of the morning.

Morning. Good to see you. What up? How's it going?

What up?

This is your house?

Yeah.

So, we're, - we're staying right here at the moment.

It's really hard fucking, but it reminds me

of, like, a tour bus bunk which I sleep really good in,

so there's some goods and bads to this.

What was your plan to come here? Like, why'd you come here?

Because, um, I figured...

See, I haven't skated in, like, a long time.

And I figured if I was gonna relearn, it would be here.

And it took a long fucking time

to get the muscle memory back.

Like, I couldn't even, like, axle stall on a --

on a half-pipe for, like --

It took like five days to even get that dialed.

Honestly, like, if you want to say street skating,

nearly a decade I haven't skated.

I went and saw a doctor,

and he was like, "Your legs and body

are so dehydrated from alcohol

that they're, like, dry-rotted rubber bands.

And if you think that you're gonna skate again,

I'd be careful because it -- it could snap just like that."

That really fucked my head up bad

because I'm like, "How am I gonna skate again?"

Well, about a year ago, um, Bam asked me

if I would drive him to the airport, he and Nikki.

But on the way to the airport, he says, "You know what?

I just -- I'm just sick of this shit."

I can't even explain how many people

I had nothing in common with except drinking.

And I didn't realize, if we take away these drinks,

we're gonna all look at each other and say,

"What the fuck are we doing?"

These are not people who we should be around

because these people want to, like,

"Hey, Bam, let's go out to the bar."

Knowing that Bam will pay.

So he just decided that he was

just gonna bail on the situation, period.

I didn't get no phone calls.

I haven't heard from him. He hasn't wrote me or anything.

He just showed up at my door, like, "Let's go skating.

Knock, I'm here."

Yeah, it's been really good. You've been out here for how long?

God.

Well, in Barcelona how long?

Yeah. Four months?

Four months. Wow. Four months, yeah.

But, no, we've been in Europe for like eight months now.

Wow.

He just came out here to get healthy. That one's rad.

He just said it the other day before you guys got here.

He's like, "So, like, the booze don't help me out,

the people back at home don't help me out.

The only thing that keeps me good

is on the fucking skateboard."

And I'm just like, "Stay there."

This is basically a normal, everyday routine right here.

By the way, a year ago, I could almost not even see my own dick.

It was that big -- and my dick's not so big, so...

But it was still like that.

I was like, "Something has to be done."

In the Toy Machine days and when I had to go do an Element demo,

like, I was stoked to show up.

And I was stoked to slap kids' fives

because I knew I was gonna fucking rip the park.

Now it's like, I don't want anybody to see me.

I need somebody to skate with,

but I don't want people to watch me suck.

Fail hill.

You gotta taste it before you roll away from it, right?

Yeah.

Yeah!

Fuck!

I don't know what you want to call that one.

Perfection's hard to achieve, my friend.

When you are a skater and you know what you can do,

you carry that around in your heart.

And if you can't do it, it hurts you.

He knows how good of a skater he is.

He knows what he can do.

Fuck!

What's it been like trying to get tricks for a video?

Um, that's the place that I wanted to, um --

I don't know. I'm not --

I'm just kind of just filming, you know?

And if -- I'm just -- just learning all my tricks again.

Board smash.

Yeah, my fat ass, I broke two boards.

April visited Bam in Spain this year in March.

He was on a sober kick trying to get sober,

but she said he started to have a --

just wine with dinner, maybe two.

I said, "Ap, it's not a good sign that he's doing that."

And she says, "No, he's fine in Spain, he's fine in Spain."

And then, like, a couple weeks later,

he started drinking until he was crazy.

So, he still hasn't conquered drinking, but he's trying.

All right.

This is what's scaring me about Bam right now.

When he had his comeback,

they put that line out in that interview.

Yeah! Fuck yeah!

But I know Bam,

and I know the issues that he's battling right now.

And I know that he's doing much better than he was,

but he's not cured by any means.

I know he's on that fine line.

All right. Okay, thanks, buddy. Yeah, yeah.

Bam's kind of like how I was in the beginning.

He does want to get sober and stay sober,

but he's not willing to do the certain things that it takes

to get to where he's trying to get to.

* I'm all that and a bag of chips *

* I can't rap

What up?

After a year in Europe, I'm back.

We're at Ap and Phil's house in Thornton, Pennsylvania.

Hi!

How are you?

Good. How's it going?

I know, the kid's back.

He's been gone for a year.