Bam Margera

It's never dull, tedious or mundane when it comes to Bam Margera. The noted musical, skateboarding, TV (whichever profession label best fits, really) identity is coming back to Australia. F*ckface Unstoppable return down under to bring their entertaining tunes to a local audience. Killyourstereo.com contributor Natasha chats with Margera.

*INTERVIEW credit: Natasha.

You’ve got a lot going on, but Fuckface Unstoppable seems to have become a pretty legitimate project for you.

Yeah, I mean, we just started off kinda having fun with it, and we kept getting all these festivals and tours and stuff, so we finally put together a legit band – I got my brother, he’s the drummer of CKY, and then I got Waldie from Viking Skull, and Andy McCoy, he played for Iggy Pop and then he played in Hanoi Rocks, so it’s come together nicely.

And do you have plans to work on new material?

I’m actually in the studio right now! I’m trying to get some stuff done before we leave for Australia.

Oh right! How are you feeling about coming down to Australia again?

Good… last time it was kind of a clusterfuck a little bit cause I thought it would be my last tour ever (laughs). I was in kind of a bad place; it was a rough year, but yeah, once I got these new guys in the band, it’s like a new thing and I’m excited about it, because I’m a little sick of doing TV and stuff these days, to be honest.

Well yeah, as you mentioned it was kind of crazy last time, so what are your plans for this time?

There’s going to be some craziness of course, as usual, but I dunno, you’re going to get a good fuckin’ rock ‘n’ roll show (laughs).

Do you have a bit of time off to do stuff?

Yeah, there’s a couple days that we can go hang at Bondi, stuff like that. And then it ends in Perth, so it should be good. I always dig Australia. Australia’s awesome – good crowds, good beer.

Which Aussie beers do you like?

Coopers, I’m all about the Coopers. And VB of course.

In terms of the live show, I know you have a mix of covers and originals. Besides the usuals like Clutch and so on, are you putting other covers in there?

Yeah, we do a Turbonegro song, we do an Iggy Pop song, we’re doing a Ruts song – this punk band called The Ruts from the seventies. Andy McCoy actually turned me onto that band. I was in Finland and we were in the studio and he laid down a guitar to that, so we got the rest of the guys to record on it and it sounds awesome.

Is there going to be any naked Phil Collins? I hear that’s a thing that happens…

(laughs) Well sometimes, yeah, Novak comes out naked and sings Phil Collins – we call Novak Pill Collins (laughs). So yeah, there may be some of that, we have to work out what we’re gonna do.

If you had to permanently have one of Novak’s tattoos, which one would you choose?

(laughs) None of them, they’re all terrible! (laughs)

I know you’ve had some issues with your feet, but are you skating much these days?

Yeah, for like a year or two I couldn’t really skate because my feet were basically broken (laughs), but I’ve had time to heal, so yeah, I’m skating in my house – I have a skate park in my house.

In your castle?

(laughs) Yeah. So that makes it easier, because I can’t really go to FDR or anything, it’s a hassle. So it’s pretty rad to just go in my backyard and be able to skate all day.

You’ve always been known as a good skater obviously, but do you feel like that’s been overshadowed a little bit by the shenanigans and stuff?

Yeah, I think Jackass, once the movie came out, everybody knows me from that, and yeah… but I dunno, my roots have always been in skateboarding, like the CKY videos and stuff, so yeah… it’s weird that people know me for other shit. It is what it is though, you know? I’m cool with it (laughs).

You’ve also made this movie, I Needed Time to Stay Useless, which is kind of about your life story right?

Yeah, well basically, I saw all this stuff on YouTube about me and I dunno, I just felt like I wanted to do it right, you know? And yeah, I just basically explained everything, like how I came up and got popular, if you want to call it that, and then yeah, Ryan died, and I was basically a pile of shit for two years (laughs), and I did that tour of Australia, but I didn’t even know if I was coming home or not, so it was pretty crazy. But yeah, I dunno, I’ve kind of got my shit back together and I’m working on this music, and I hope people like it. It’s a double-edged sword; people are always going to be like, "Oh, the guy from TV’s in a band now." That's always weird. But so far the shows have been awesome and people seem to like it, so I’m gonna keep doing it.

Do you think the movie portrays you in a different light than how people might see you?

Yeah, I mean, when you step away from it people just assume the worst, and yeah, I just wanted to show people what I’ve been up to, and maybe they’ll get a better perspective on it.