Bam Margera Is Unrecognizable As He Attempts To Quit Booze On ‘Family Therapy’ Reality Show
Bam Margera says the party is over. The former MTV reality star is practically unrecognizable nearly five years after the death of his longtime friend and Jackass co-star Ryan Dunn, and he is still getting help in dealing with his loss. Us Weekly posted a clip of Bam Margera on the reality show Family Therapy With Dr. Jenn, and the 36-year-old pro skateboarder and TV veteran is fully bearded and looks noticeably heavier than he did during his MTV heyday. You can see Bam Margera in the preview clip at the 1:30 mark below.
In the Family Therapy With Dr. Jenn preview clip, Margera said Dunn’s 2011 death affected him profoundly — and it drove him to drink.
“I never had anybody, anybody, that I cared about die — I didn’t know what the hell it was like. Then all of a sudden, my best friend dies — like, what the f*c-k? What do you do now?’ Well, I went on a drinking bender.”
The reality show will have Bam Margera living in a dry house for several weeks with other troubled celebs like recovered addict Michael Lohan, the father of Lindsay Lohan. In a second clip posted by Us, Bam talks to Lohan about trying to live without alcohol, saying that while he’s afraid he’ll miss out on the fun he used to have when he was partying, he also knows that it’s time to get sober.
“Enough is enough. It’s not fun anymore, and [neither is] feeling like sh*t in the morning every f*cking day.”
Bam Margera’s lucrative TV career started in 2000 on the MTV stunt-themed reality show Jackass. Bam went on to star in a spinoff Viva La Bam, as well as several big-screen movies and became a millionaire. But Margera’s world was turned upside down when his best friend and fellow Jackass performer Ryan Dunn died in a horrific high-speed car crash in their Pennsylvania hometown in 2011.
At the time of Dunn’s death, Margera was in Arizona with friends, and he told a news reporter that he inexplicably started ripping apart a rental van that he was partying in. He later found out that his unexplained tirade occurred at the exact moment Ryan Dunn had died.
In an interview with E! News, Margera said the stretch of highway where Dunn crashed was the same spot where the longtime pals had a brush with death 15 years earlier.
“He flipped me in a car eight times at the same exact spot in 1996. Thank God I had my seat belt on, because Chris Raab put one on me, but my brother didn’t have one on. He flew 40 feet. Thank God he’s alive. But like, Dunn was always a maniac at driving.”
But Dunn’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when he crashed his Porsche, so alcohol was also a factor in the fatal accident. The crash not only killed Dunn but also his passenger, Zachery Hartwell.
Ryan’s death at age 34 prompted Margera to get vocal about drinking and driving. Bam spoke to Philadelphia radio station WMMR to warn fans not get behind the wheel even if they have one drink.
It was an honor to speak with you, Ryan Dunn. You were gone too soon, but are certainly not forgotten pic.twitter.com/cUB2lHKM5a
— The Preston & Steve Show (@PrestonSteve933) March 31, 2016
Bam Margera and his wild bunch of friends were known for their hard partying, but on the day Dunn died, drinking took on a whole new meaning for Bam.
“Since Dunn got in that crash, everything changed dramatically, and instead of drinking for fun with your friends, [it] turned into drinking to forget.”
[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]
