being evel: a johnny knoxville interview

To celebrate the theatrical release and availability of Being Evel on iTunes today, Rick Kosick secured this exclusive interview with Hollywood movie star Johnny Knoxville, a producer and primary voice of the documentary about the man, the myth, the bad ass legend—Evel Knievel.

  

Rick Kosick: So what does Evel Knievel mean to you?

Johnny Knoxville: He was a living superhero, you know? Like you grew up watching cartoons of superheroes and here comes a real one. He was a big inspiration to me, because no one was doing that before he was doing it. There were some stuntmen that did car jumps, Joie Chitwood and those guys, but no one did that on a motorcycle before Evel. So he opened up a whole new way of thinking. It’s kind of like the first time I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. It blows the top of your head off. That’s what Evel did for me. Just opened up everything.

He was mostly featured on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, right?

He was doing stunt shows for a while. First it was “Evel Knievel and his Motorcycle Daredevils,” it was him and these other guys, and no one was really showing up. Then he went out on his own, and still not that many people were showing up, but he knew Wide World of Sports was going to be filming an event in California. So he was like, “I have to get on Wide World of Sports because if I get a little recognition then people will start showing up.” And that helped a lot, but what really helped was Caesers Palace. That really put him on the map.

What year was that?

I think ’67? But the first time he jumped in a show was when he was working at this Honda place in Moses Lake. He wanted to sell motorcycles, so he staged this event where he was gonna jump over some cougars and rattlesnakes. He did the jump, but his back tire came down on the box of rattlesnakes. They all got out and started heading in all directions. Everyone started scattering. But he was such a salesman. That’s one of the great qualities about him. He was very sharp, very street smart, but he was like P.T. Barnum as far as being a salesman. He was a storyteller and a historical bullshitter in the best sense. But when it came to stunts, he was a man of his word.

There’s a part in Being Evel where he’s talking to Dick Cavett and he’s like, “I’ve been called a lot of things: a con man, a hustler, but when you head down that white line and hit that jump you better have made your peace with God because a con man is not going to get you there.” I really like that moment in the film, because he was a con man and a hustler but he never backed down when it came to the stunts. If he said he was going to do it, he did it. I do stunts on a much different level than he did obviously—there’s Evel Knievel and then way down on the list there’s me—but if I said I was going to do it, I do it. And that’s because of Evel.

How did you get involved with Being Evel?

We were doing Bad Grandpa when the Oscar-winning director Daniel Junge came to us and asked us if we wanted to do it with him. Jeff and I thought about it for a moment and decided we should do it and that Mat Hoffman should do it with us. We felt it was an important documentary and we wanted to make sure the story was told in the right way. We wanted to be honest about his life, too, because he had some pretty harsh sides to him as well. We didn’t want to gloss over that, but we also didn’t want to make a documentary about the worst things a man ever did. We just wanted to give the most complete picture and still keep it entertaining.

So for someone who didn’t know anything about Evel’s legacy, what would they learn about him in Being Evel that they might not expect?

Obviously I’m a huge fan of the daredevil side of him, but what I love most about the film is the life he lived before he started jumping. The hustler, small-time con character. You could have made a whole documentary about Evel before he started jumping motorcycles. He did his first jump at 25 over the cougars and rattlesnakes, but when he was 19 he was a great athlete. He was a ski jumper, he rode motocross, and he started a semi-pro hockey team called the Butte Bombers at 19 years old. It was the middle of the Cold War, and like a year or two into his team he convinced the Czechoslovakian National team to come to Butte, Montana, to scrimmage the Bombers. And they came! And they demolished the Bombers like, I don’t know, 22-3, some score like that. Evel would go out onto the ice between each period and he go, “The Czechoslovakian delegation is a little larger than we had anticipated, can you please pass the hat around and give them a little money.” So they did, but when the third period came around Evel left the ice. And when he left the ice, that hat of money disappeared and all the receipts from the game disappeared. It was so fucked that the Czechs couldn’t get out of Butte because they had no money. The U.S. Olympic committee had to get the Czechs out of Butte because they had no other way. Everyone knew that Evel did it, but they could never prove it. All the time around Butte when Evel was growing up, like bars were getting robbed, safes were getting cracked, but they could never prove he did it. And maybe if they could prove he did it, he was so charismatic everyone was probably like, “Oh, That guy? Let’s forget it.”

Also, we finally reveal the truth about Snake River, about whether he released the parachute or not. You can see what a shit show Snake River was. It was completely out of fucking control. Evel was pretty much out of control, too. Publicity-wise, it was a nightmare for him. I think one reporter said, “This weekend Evel Knievel is going to jump Snake River canyon … and the canyon is the sentimental favorite.” He was a little unhinged during Snake River, but I mean, the guy was staring at certain death.

You don’t think it was possible to make?

They did two tests. One was meant to fail, because he wanted to drum up publicity, and the second test went right into the water—and if it goes into the water he dies. I think the chance of survival on Snake River was about 5-percent. And that’s going to put you on edge. I’m not excusing all his behavior at Snake River, but you gotta take into account what that would be like. But by god he said he was going to do it and he did. The winds were blowing too hard that day for him to do it, and everyone was trying to call it off, but Evel was like, “I can’t back out now. Too much has been said. They’d call me a coward. I’m going and that’s it.” So that probably put his chances down to 3-percent.

If he would’ve made Snake Canyon, where do you think he’d have gone from there?

He was constantly having to try and top himself, so I don’t know … maybe it’s good. But he didn’t stop there. Everyone thought he was going to retire after that, but he jumped Wembley, which besides Caesers Palace was the worst injuries he ever sustained jumping. One of my favorite stories from Wembley is, the landing was off and he just eats shit all the way down the runway. He’s rolling on the ground, the bike is trailing him, and it ends up falling on him. Everyone runs to him and they’re “Oh my god, Evel, are you all right?!” Evel is laying on the ground and they’re like, “What do you need, Evel?” He’s like, “Frank, Frank…” Frank Gifford is the announcer, and Frank and Evel had a great amount of respect for each other, so they’re like, “Frank! Frank! C’mere, Evel needs to talk to you!” Frank runs over. “Yeah, Evel?” He’s like, “Frank… will you do me a favor?” “Anything, Evel. You name it.” “Can you get that broad out of my room?” Ha ha ha… So good.

Who are some of your favorite modern day daredevils with the Evel Knievel spirit?

When I think modern day Evel Knievels, I think Mat Hoffman. He is a big hero of mine. Obviously Travis Pastrana has that spirit. You know, it’s the people that look at things a little bit differently. Robbie Maddison—that surfing thing was one of those things that just blew the top of my head off. Cuz I saw the photo and I was like, “That’s fuckin’ fake,” and then here comes the video and I’m like, “What is going on…” That was like the spirit and balls of Evel Knievel but with the creativity of Buster Keaton. Seth Enslow, I love Seth Enslow… that Crusty Demons of Dirt footage where they’re out in the sand dunes and he goes off a jump and falls and falls and falls—he fell so long a bird built a nest in his ass before he hit the ground. And that’s no lie. That’s a true story. He just ate total shit.

Some of your stunts on jackass throughout the years could easily have been inspired by Evel. What are some of your favorites?

I don’t know… when I think of favorites from jackass I think we all have all have the ones we like the most: Ryan sticking the toy car up his ass in the first movie --

You think that was in the name of Evel Knievel? Do you really think Evel would appreciate that?

No, no. But I remember one time when jackass first came on, ESPN was giving an award to Mat Hoffman and Mat asked us to present it to him onstage. So everyone was pretty well into their cups that evening. From what I remember it was me, Pontius, Wee-Man, somehow Chris Nieratko came onstage, maybe Dave England and Steve-O were there, I can’t fucking remember, but I’m going to do the talking, you know, how we feel about Mat Hoffman and what award we’re giving him. So as soon as we walk out onstage, someone kicks Wee-Man from behind and he goes skidding across the stage on his stomach. Pontius is following close behind wearing nothing but a thin belt, he’s completely naked and doing a helicopter with his cock. And Chris Nieratko, the whole time I’m trying to fucking do the intro, he’s trying to puke, putting his finger down his mouth. But Evel Knievel was in the audience that night. I think it was part of a whole “Evel Knievel Spirit Award” type of thing, and from what I heard he was not very happy about how ugly we acted. So my one chance to meet Evel Knievel, I fucked it up.

So you never got to meet the man?

No. But, uh, sorry about that night, Evel. Ha ha ha…

Comments

[JoyJoy]

I remember the Evel Knievel hype growing up in the 70's...he was the shit (next to the Fonz). I'm sure looking down on you now Evel can appreciate the fine art of stupid..

[Susan Loren]

Evel Knievel is a Legend. Could you do a tribute on the jubilee? I really like those obscure funny songs. Dont forget the moto with the pull string ahahaha.
That was as amazing as Evel. Respect.