Sober Steve-O is Still Fearless

Steve-O, the daredevil who rose to fame with his fearless on-screen stunts in MTV's Jackass, says his sobriety has helped him with his latest adventure: a stand-up comedy tour. "I’m just more present and observant," he says. "I’ve really blossomed and found my voice. I’m just generally sharper and funnier than I was before." The thrill-seeker was an active addict during the filming of his TV show and the first two Jackass movies, and filmed the third in 2010, shortly after getting sober. During an exclusive interview with The Fix in June 2011, he said doing stunts without the influence of drugs or booze scared him at first, but he bounced back. Now with over four years of clean time, he says sobriety hasn't put a damper on his adventurous nature. "I think that drugs and alcohol were never really a reason or benefit to the process," he explains. "I’ve always done this kind of thing because I’m an attention whore, and becoming clean and sober doesn’t change the fact I’m an attention whore." More dangerous than stunts is the temptation to use, which he says is triggered by watching on-screen footage of himself from before he got clean. "You would imagine that [watching] it would have totally deterred me from doing drugs, but I came away from it really craving drugs," he says. So he sticks to moving forward, instead of looking back: "I just couldn’t fuck with that shit, man."