Steve-O, the still-mischievous Jackass alum, has a comedy special out later this week — he promises you’ll get some of the new stand-up Steve-O, mixed with some of the old stunt-driven Steve-O. (Though, the latter is slightly more cautious these days.) While promoting the project in a recent interview with GQ, Steve-O discussed his electrifying act, revisited the early years of his fame and substance abuse, and revealed why he’s still doing (at least somewhat) insane things. “The reason I do everything I do now, straight up, is I’m an attention whore,†Steve-O, who has been eight years sober, told the mag. “It’s that simple.†The chat also notably unearthed a handful of wild Mike Tyson anecdotes, a couple of which have been highlighted below.
When asked about his treasure trove of wild stories, this seemed like the top choice:
I’ve done fucking cocaine with Mike Tyson, dude. We spent three hours locked in a bathroom together. There was this house party in the Hollywood Hills. And I remember I was distinctly not invited, but I showed up and rang the doorbell. Mike Tyson opened up the door. I said, “Hey, is it cool if I come in?†And he said, “You got any coke?†And I told him, “Yeah, dude, I got a bunch.†And I did. I had like a whole eight ball in one pocket, half an eight ball in the other pocket … At that time in my life, I would develop Tourette’s syndrome if I was fucked up enough, just blurting out inappropriate shit. So I said to him, my exact words, “You know, Mike, I don’t have a racist bone in my body, but I like to consider myself a n—-r.†[laughs] I’ll never forget, he said, “You ask me, the definition of that word is anybody who uses it.†And I was like, “Damn! Iron Mike, deep as fuck!†And so we’re talking about the finer points of racism in America or whatever, just sort of philosophizing about how to make the world a better place, and it was just fucking incredible, man. The last thing he said to me was, “You know, Steve, everybody’s got you wrong. You’re actually really smart.â€
This anecdote came as an example of how he was acting out as a youngster:
I walked into my Spanish class in fifth grade, and I chose deliberately to sit next to the prettiest girl in the class. Right before the class started, I told her, “I don’t have to be in class today. I can leave whenever I want.†She looked at me like I was crazy. And then the class began, and I just super violently ripped out [my loose baby] tooth. Of course it started bleeding really heavily. I raised my arm and told the teacher that I needed to go to the nurse. She saw that blood and said, “Go, go!†And I stood up, turned to the girl, and said, “I told you so.â€
That time Mike Tyson broke Steve-O’s nose, but it was a good thing:
[It was] the Comedy Central Roast with Charlie Sheen, and we talked Mike into … holding his fist out, and I dove into Mike Tyson’s fist and landed on it with nothing but my nose. Super broke my nose. Like, really crazy broke it. And then this guy comes out of the crowd, running up toward the stage at the end of the show, and he says, “Steve-O, your nose needs to be set right now. I’m a kung fu instructor, and I know what I’m doing.†So I let this kung fu asshole set my nose on the spot, and it just turned out that he did a fucking magnificent job. He basically fixed my nose perfect. Everything I was hoping to get that [doctor] dude to do, I got done by Mike Tyson and a fucking kung fu weirdo.
For more from the interview, which also has info on Steve-O’s latest stunts, flossing advice, and health fears, head here. And you can catch Steve-O’s Showtime special, Guilty As Charged, on Friday at 10 p.m.