Bam Margera Talks Genital Mutilation, Punk Music & 'Jackass'

It's not surprising that Jackass star/pro skater Bam Margera is feeling a little sore after years of abusing his body for the entertainment of others. “I wound up getting these bumps on the bottom of my feet – six of them – called bone spurs, and I had major bunions. I had to get surgery on both of those,” Margera begins. “Then I ruptured a hernia going off a hundred-foot waterfall in a kayak. I was all fucked up and not looking forward to having ten surgeries, so I was in a bit of a slump for a bit.”

Unable to throw his body into harm’s way, he found another creative outlet, forming punk band FuckFace Unstoppable, featuring members of CKY and Guttermouth. The transition into a chaotic and carefree genre makes perfect sense. “Alex Flamsteed from Guttermouth was playing a show in my club in Philly, and afterwards they came and stayed in my house and I have a jam room. So we started jamming and he was like, ‘Dude, this sounds really good; we should start a band,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, how about FuckFace Unstoppable?’ We just started laughing about it, and then a few weeks later, sure enough, FuckFace Unstoppable is out and about.”

What started as a fun way to kill time, hang with friends and vent creative energies becomes a more serious project from here, with Bad Brains bassist Chuck Treece and iconic Finnish guitarist Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks signing on to play on the next record, the latter even touring Australia with the band.

They might be tighter, but you can still expect things to get pretty loose. “There was a show in Kentucky, and this dude wanted to come up during the encore and light his balls on fire and do a backflip to put it out. He did not put it out and his dick was on fire for literally 30 very long seconds. It was burnt to a crisp, the ambulance came, and he went to emergency room. It was gnarly, man,” he says with a slight chuckle. “It happened at a FuckFace show, so I’m proud of it.”

It’s an insane act, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone as crazy as Margera when it comes to stunts, and it’s looking like we’ll see another Jackass film. “It’s not set in stone, but we’ve been talking about it, and always writing ideas.”

Margera’s latest pitch to Knoxville and co was a little too out there and got knocked back. “I was like, ‘Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear in a boxing match, so why don’t we have a Evander Holyfield redemption and he can bite off my fucking ear?’ And they were like, ‘Are you really willing to get your earlobe bit off for good?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah! Do you know how much street cred I’ll have?’ Like, ‘Dude, what happened to your ear?’ ‘Oh, Evander Holyfield bit it off.’”