HIM‘s Ville Vallo has spoken out on Bam Margera, saying that the Jackass star is “turning into a monster”.
Margera was a close part of the HIM universe in the early 2000s, with Margera directing their music videos and the band often appearing on his MTV shows in return.
In 2021, Margera entered a one-year drug and alcohol rehabilitation program and told Jackass co-star Steve-O that his descent into alcoholism was in part due to his obsession with Vallo.
“I am an alcoholic. I have been for a long time,” he said. “I remember when I was probably 24, I was so mesmerised by Ville Valo from HIM… he would just walk down the street in Finland and girls would literally faint, sometimes guys too. So I would just follow his lead. I’m like, ‘He’s buying a pack of cigarettes, I’m buying a pack of cigarettes. He’s getting a beer, I’m getting a beer. He’s doing a shot of Sambuca, I’m doing a shot of Sambuca.’”
“Once he cracked open a beer when he woke up, that was the first time I’m like, ‘You’re drinking in the morning? In the daytime?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, why not? Want one?’ I’m like, ‘Well I’m not gonna let you do it alone, but this is fucking crazy.’ It was the first time I ever day drank.”
Speaking to NME in a new In Conversation video interview, Vallo was asked whether he kept in touch with Margera. He replied: “I haven’t heard from him in a while. I think the last time I saw him was during our last tour in the [United] States with him, which was 2017. We tried to contact him via Brandon Novack… but I haven’t been able to reach out in that sense or really talk to him.
Of the personality’s ongoing recovery, he added: “I’m hoping that he feels better because he’s a nice guy. He’s a sensitive, special fella and it’s just sad to see that he’s turning into the monster that he’s turning into. I think I can understand some of it, but it needs to stop.”
Watch the interview below.
Elsewhere, Margera recently confirmed that he was “basically pronounced dead” after developing seizures and contracting a blood infection.
Speaking on Steve-O’s Wild Ride! podcast, Margera revealed what happened during his near-death experience. He explained that COVID sent his health into a tailspin, which resulted in him suffering five seizures after which he was placed in a hospital ICU ward on life support.
Margera recovered enough to attend an Amon Amarth gig at SOMA in San Diego on December 16. The show was part of the Swedish melodic death metal band’s headlining tour in support of their latest album ‘The Great Heathen Army’.
He was previously taken to rehab by police in September 2021 after an incident at a casino in Tampa Bay, Florida.
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