Bam Margera? Really? What’s going on with him now?
When I first got the call that we had the opportunity to exclusively interview one of the iconic OGs from MTV’s Jackass, the legendary professional skateboard stud and star of Viva La Bam and other memorable roles, it took me a second to realize he was still alive. I mean, how could he have survived the drug addictions, the multiple lawsuits, the exhaustion of what it meant to be famous for him and his fellow jackasses in the aughts. Yet, here he was, after surviving that treacherous trek filled with landmines, willing to talk about it all.
So, yeah, resilient fearlessness is an apt launching off point to begin our chat.
Welcome to Bam Margera’s clean-and-sober era complete with a new powerhouse wife and business partner in Dannii Marie and an ambitious cannabis business that’s showing signs of becoming a genuine success. But Margera isn’t ambiguous about who gets credit for this resurgent life he’s currently experiencing.
bam fam: Skateboarding professional and MTV Jackass star Bam Margera and his wife, Dannii Marie, have redefined his relationship with cannabis to something much healthier with Bam THC—”And I’m
skating again, man. Miracles can happen,” he says.
“When I first met Dannii, I was at a real low as I was dealing with all the stresses that my life was about then—suing Jackass, going through a custody battle, the up-all-night drinking—all of which culminated in me having five seizures 20 minutes apart and waking up in the hospital with a tube down my throat suffering from COVID and pneumonia,” Margera says. “Dannii just told me all I needed was structure and stability after a lifetime of never having anyone telling me what to do. Thanks to her, I now have a regular bedtime. She told me, ‘I don’t care if you’re hanging out with Iggy Pop and jacking off Bon Jovi, you’re going to bed at ten o’clock and that’s that.’ And that’s exactly what I do, and I wake up feeling very refreshed, ready to skate, walk the dogs and paint.”
The skateboarding pro at work.
The thing I keep reminding myself as I listen to Margera earnestly and engagingly prattle on about his challenges and his many accomplishments he’s faced throughout his fantastical life, is how predetermined his greatness seemed to be. And yet, he’s still only 46 years old. Even in the fifth grade, when he won some amateur skateboarding contest, Brandon Cole “Bam” Margera was being celebrated by those around him.
“At eleven, I was even signing autographs then for the local kids of Westchester, PA,” he says of that early skating accolade. “From there I was sponsored at 13, then 15, then all of a sudden Nike came calling—and I became the first skater ever sponsored by Nike. Then, Jackass happened and out of nowhere I became the most famous person in school and everyone suddenly wanted to hang out with me and girls who wouldn’t give me the time of day before are now inviting me to prom. It all felt so fucking fake that I quit school in the tenth grade and continued my path to becoming a pro skateboarder. I never had a Plan B, man. My Plan A was that I was going to be a pro skateboarder and a movie star and I was either going to achieve that or I’d be dead.”
I ask about his early experiences with cannabis. If I know anything about Margera by now, there has to be a story there.
“I never tried cannabis until I was 23 and we were in Copenhagen on the Steve O tour and they pulled out these buds with all these orange hairs on it and they said, ‘Dude, this is the strongest, best weed ever.’ They dared me $100 to eat $100 worth of that weed and I first started laughing hysterically then I felt like I was going to die,” he says. “I go to my room and fall asleep at the sink and I wake up some 48 hours later with a big bruise around my chest. I couldn’t eat anything for a week except vanilla ice cream. Yeah, my first weed experience was a very, very gnarly one. My second experience was with Snoop [Dogg] on his tour bus and that laid me out, too. Now, Dannii is a sort of cannabis connoisseur, and she regulates how much weed I should have whether it’s a single puff, or a gummy or whatever. No one had ever taught me how to consume weed before Dannii.”
Given his dubious relationship with the powerful plant, it’s somewhat surprising to be here talking to Mr. and Mrs. Margera about the burgeoning success with their nascent cannabis enterprise, Bam THC that launched earlier this year. Their flagship product is a lidocaine-based topical with menthol, CBD and THC that promises massive odorless relief. Bam THC will hardly be a one-trick pony as flower, gummies, pre-rolls and concentrates are reportedly next on the brand’s release schedule.
“Bam THC’s lidocaine stick is a game changer,” Marie says. “I use it every day and I stretch Bam with it every morning and it’s nothing short of amazing. Within ten minutes, all the pain, all the inflammation is gone. As a physical therapist, this product makes my job easier and the results are nearly instantaneous.”
Bam THC’s signature lidocaine-based stick.
As our chat turns to Margera’s legion of fans globally, he once again sits up energetically at the mention of his social media presence. Boasting some three-and-a-half-million followers on Instagram alone, Margera knows of what he speaks.
“The more fans and followers you get, the more haters you’re gonna get—you just get used to it,” he says. “I’ve been called every fucking name in the book and I’ve concluded that all press is good press unless you’re a murderer or a rapist. I’m the ultimate redemption story. I’m living proof that you can come back to positivity from the lowest lows of your life. From an overweight, drug addicted, alcoholic mess to where I am now on the other side of that is quite powerful. It’s never too late to change. My rubber band legs that were useless to me a couple of years ago have come all the way back to feel like I’m 20 again. And I’m skating, man. Miracles can happen.”
Speaking of miracles, I find myself totally relating to this good man in front of me—and loving Dannii Marie as we have many connections in common—even as the facts of his difficult life have very little to do with my own experiences. There’s a built-in—not sadness, exactly, but a gentle vulnerability that makes you root for this damaged, unquestionably talented man. I suspect that’s the part Marie taps into regularly. Margera though sees his life as an epic, true-blue cautionary tale. Full stop.
somebody to love: Margera isn’t ambiguous about who gets credit for this resurgent life he’s
experiencing—he thanks his wife, Dannii Marie, for everything.
“My story is broke as a joke, instantaneous millionaire professional skateboarder at a very young age who gets everything he wants, whenever he wants, who then got bored with that so he became a drunken, drug addict and a fucking mess who ultimately learned from that,” Margera says, pulling no punches as is his want. “Now, I’ve done a complete 180, changed my ways to surprisingly become a legit success story. In my view, you really have to have a good better-half, an amazing partner, to do everything with. I don’t know how people fly solo—I thank Dannii for everything.”
It’s taken a lifetime for Bam Margera to get to this happy, centered place. At last, the professional skateboarder, sensitive artist and big television star can finally—finally!— look in the mirror and know precisely who’s looking back at him. Bam I am indeed.