Jackass star Steve-O is coming up on 16 years of sobriety, but not everyone is willing to accommodate him as he abstains—one such person, allegedly, is Bill Maher.
In a recent episode from Steve-O’s podcast Wild Ride!, he said Maher’s team reached out to invite him onto Maher’s podcast Club Random, where Maher interviews people while smoking marijuana. Talking to entrepreneur and conservative commentator Patrick Bet-David, who had himself just appeared on Club Random, Steve-O described what happened when he tried to ask Maher to put the bud down so they could do the show together.
“I’m a clean and sober guy, approaching 16 years,” Steve-O said. “The Bill Maher podcast, which I saw you on, reached out and they—his thing is he smokes pot the whole time while he interviews people. And I said ‘Hey, I’d happily go on there but could you, while I’m on, out of respect for my sobriety, could he refrain from smoking pot?” he continued. “He said no, that’s a dealbreaker.”
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He went on to compare Maher’s response to others who are infamous for their marijuana clouds during podcast tapings. “Mike Tyson’s podcast is called Hotboxin’, like the whole point, be real—all of these prolific potheads, I’ve been on their shows and it wasn’t so important to them to blow marijuana smoke in my face,” he said, “But for Bill Maher, it was a dealbreaker.”
Steve-O has been open about kicking his addictions to drugs, alcohol, and sex in the past, once checking himself into sex addiction rehab and undergoing 431 days of celibacy. When discussing his recovery from addiction last year on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, he said, “When I smell marijuana I find it kind of upsetting. I don't like breathing it into my lungs and what's worse, I love the way it smells,” but he’s in a “one hundred percent” better place in his life now that he’s sober.
“There’s nothing that I value more than my sobriety; there’s nothing more that I protect than my recovery,” Steve-O also said on Wild Ride!, so he “found [Maher’s response] kind of upsetting.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Bill Maher for comment.
