The Tragic Story of Bam Margera and Brett Novak

what's up skaters hello and welcome back to another video today we're going to be checking out a little bit of the backstory of bam and Mr Novak themselves this is another video by the channel dusted we've done a few on this guy so far so if you want to subscribe to this Channel please go ahead with that all being said we're going to watch this the dark story of bam Novak Brandon Novak is one of several professional skateboarders that dominated MTV in the mid 2000s from becoming a pro skater in his teens to being featured on shows and movies such as jackass viam and CKY no I didn't know that he was actually a pro skateboarder I thought he was just one of B boys and skated on the side like the rest of them do like steo Joy ox and that but I didn't know he was an actual proper Pro had all of the right characteristics to launch a successful career similar to some of his co-stars instead the path he ultimately went down would be filled with Decades of constant struggle and self-destructive behavior in fact when you learn just how bad things got it makes you wonder how he survived as long as he did yeah I don't know how he managed to keep it going to be honest like he losing bam I'm pretty sure I'm not sure if him and Bam are still friends I'm not sure if him and any of the old jackass boys are still friends but it seems as though they used to be super close I remember bam saying in an interview that he used to always be at his Viva bam skate park at the what's it called The Westchester place that he used to live at for many people Brandon Novak was simply another happy character having fun with his friends on TV but the truth of what was going on behind the scenes was far worse than what most people knew this is the story of Brandon Novak to be fair to him he still looks pretty good for how old he is but that is La lifestyle Brandon Novak was born on December 10th 1978 in Baltimore Maryland and grew up in a household with an interesting Dynamic his mother was a nuclear physicist at merer hospital his father was a struggling drug addict who event what combo nuclear physicist is a mom and a struggling drug addict as a father not not a very common couple coincidence right there died due to his addiction when Brandon was still a child despite the peculiar Dynamic of his household Brandon did have a relatively decent childhood which mostly cons assisted of skateboarding with his friends now pretty much any kid who picks up a skateboard at least briefly has a goal of becoming a professional skateboarder yo he's actually well good I didn't expect Brandon to be that good to be honest hitting the rails with the nose grind we got that 180 to blunt on the half five and this is obviously him when he was pretty young so I'm excited see first started skating at age seven he wasn't any different however unlike the majority of kids Brandon skateboarding was actually good he was so hooked on skateboarding that there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he would eventually get SP and I got my first skateboard at the age of seven and and the night that he would this Gap here is like a proper famous Gap I always forget the names of these ones but I'm pretty sure this one's not there anymore sponsored I got skateboard at the age of seven and and the night that my mother put me to bed she said Brandon what would you like me to do with your skateboard and I said I went in bed with me she said why and I said because if I die I want it to go with me the moment that that board had touched my hand that's a really cool thing do a really cute cool wholesome thing for a kid to say like if I die I want my skateboard to come with me you know we all felt like that when we were kids for sure I knew I was going to be a professional skateboarder he began spending all of his free time skating and completely dedicated himself to getting better luckily for him it didn't take long for his hard work to pay off when he was still a kid Novak happened to start skating with Bucky lazik a professional skateboarder who was one of the top pros of that era absolute Legend Bucky lassic so many great tricks and just really cool looking wholesome dude in my opinion since buy was also from Baltimore he took Novak under his wing and acted as a mentor for his skating at that point Brandon was already a talented skateboarder but this mentorship accelerated his progression bro that 5 fakey he's obviously a talented skateboarder look at this thing already a talented skateboarder but this mentorship Accel look that is like 70% vert my man my dayses of 5 fakey on that is like progression even faster by the time he was 14 his incredible skill level allowed him to catch the attention of Tony Hawk which then led him to Landing a spot on the power Peralta skate team oh a little funny funny thing that I heard a couple months ago obviously you guys know about the Bones Brigade was the original Power paral crew there's actually a group of older skateboarders in a that Aaron Kyo introduced me to and they're called the brittle Bones Brigade and I thought that was such a clever name I just thought I dropped that in there after that Brandon became the first skateboarder to be sponsored by Gatorade and was even doing commercials with top athletes such as Michael Jordan at just 14 his childhood dream was already starting to come to fruition unfortunately this dream would be short-lived perhaps influenced by his father or maybe just the people he put himself around Brandon began experimenting with drugs at an early age he started off by casually smoking and drinking with friends but soon progress to much harder substances now even in a subculture like skateboarding that is the one bad thing about skateboarding in my opinion is like that is such an easy path to fall down because so many of the really really really good skateboarders do go down that path of like destruction alcoholism and stuff I think because either it just helps them skate helps them forget things or just makes them a bit more Fearless so it becomes like a self-fulfilling prophecy that the more the drink the better the skate until it's not like that so it can be very detrimental if you get sucked into those things but you have to have that nogin screwed onto your head so you can let yourself know and keep your boys in check to make sure drugs don't happen to you and take over your life that they have to at least 5 years of mine and many other people I know so keep that in mind hard substances isn't widely accepted and it didn't take long for habits to start causing a conflict with his skating career after finding some of his paraphernalia on a skate tour the older skaters on the team including Tony Hawk gave a 16-year-old Brandon an ultimatum go to rehab and get clean or get kicked off the team forever I mean that's pretty fair to be honest right they're giving him the opportunity to go to rehab as birdhouse and Tony Hawk they were likely offering him the opportunity for them to pay to rehab if he's a good talent on the team but if he's not going to accept it if he's not even going to accept free treatment which bear in mind if it's free treatment more often than not they'll just take advantage of it and it won't help them but if he's not going to take advantage of that he should be kicked off the team in my opinion surprisingly without hesitation Brandon chose to quit the team on the spot despite spending the majority of his childhood dreaming about and working towards becoming a professional skateboarder just like that he had given it all up in his mind he was simply having fun like the other teens were and skateboarding needed him more than he needed skateboarding however as he would soon find out that was far from the case how did I not know about Brandon novat being a pro Escape water like this I didn't know he had skills like that for real issues of his reality were just beginning we still [Music] learning growing up skating in Baltimore Brandon would often make trips up to Philly to go to skate the park there since he was such a talented skateboarder naturally he became close friends with some of the other skateboarders who would visit the park well it just so happened that one of those skateboarders was a young kid named Bam Margera well that's not bam is that actually bam that like that looks like a baby Garrett Jenner nov and Bam were around the same age they SK the same things and were both very good at skating over the years they became great friends and would even make trips to go stay with each other and skate sadly when Novak started getting into heavier substances this pretty much stopped altogether bam would show up to the skate park and Novak was nowhere to be found essentially disappearing from the skate scene overnight well as time went on even though Noak quit bam continued his skate career and oh so that's pretty why we didn't hear about them if they weren't skating together at the same time in a professional way then maybe not maybe brand was Brandon a pro before bam was and then like slowly gave up and then bam carried on began getting some major sponsors shortly after that he then started to transition to media and was filming movies TV shows and commercials the lives of the two friends had basically become opposites with Novak slipping into substances and Bam rocketing into a life of f Fame and money the thing is throughout young bam just looks like a completely different person I swear to God this period bam never forgot about their friendship although he was basically becoming an overnight celebrity he would still ask about Novak whenever he was in town and like a true friend when bam heard that he was struggling with substance abuse he invited Novak to come live with him to try to get clean that's a good friend man so many people as soon as they find out their mates are on drugs either just want to cut them off and not have to deal with it or just will ridicule them and put them down for whereas when you actually got a boy that respects and loves you they're going to invite you in they're going to bring you there they're going to keep you close so that you could actually get well and Bam seems like a freaking good guy in this situation obviously he's done questionable things in between now and then but just disappeared off the face of the Earth due to my addiction and and he's asking about me and they're like well you know we see him he pops in occasionally he's on heroin there's not much we can do and and with that bam left his number and he said look let Novak know if he wants to clean he can come live with me the goal was to get him out of Baltimore and into a new environment where he would be around better people who had his best interest as simple as it was this act of kindness arguably saved Novak's life yeah that old crew despite the destruction and the reputation they had they actually kept each other together pretty well it seems see after moving in with bam Novak was shot into the spotlight right alongside him he was in many of the same TV shows and movies and because of that he started making more money than he had ever made before in his early 20s he was already a multi-millionaire he was traveling the world getting paid for appearances and was living a life many people could only dream of in a few short months he had transitioned from a homeless drug addict to a millionaire TV personality and I swear to God in America it can just happen like that all you got to do is know the right person at the right time and literally you can go from homeless drug addict to multi-millionaire in the span of a couple months it really is the land of opportunity at first glance everything about it seemed like a an amazing success story however as great as it may have appeared on the outside there was still one major problem Novak had never fully overcome his addiction throughout the entire time he was living with bam Novak simp wasn't able to maintain his sobriety he would have certain periods where he was doing better but cool he looked hella old there he wasn't able to maintain his sobriety he would have C bro he literally looks like 20 years older there than he does nowadays periods where he was doing better but even with the multiple rehab centers and Clinics he was never able to stop using for good this would cause major tension CL was never able to stop using for good this would cause major tensions in his friendships since most of the people around him desperately wanted him to get better but were frustrated with his constant relapses he would be late to filming he would miss various trips and he would show up to events completely spaced out what the hell Brandon and Bam looks so similar there all while constantly lying to his friends about his sobriety seriously so he just did what fam is doing now completely tell take the whole thing out take it all out trust me I come I know dude I'm just saying man you're doing my house I seriously got to out leave things were beginning to spiral out of control yeah damn right if you if you in your own house you invite them into help and then he's going to go and take the Pierce and do the drugs in the house him out no friends and family were starting to lose hope make matters worse Novak's time in the spotlight would only last for so long as the years passed and Brandon steadily burned Bridges he would slowly get fewer and fewer opportunities the sto getting filmed the TV show the old jackass gits was so good man I swear to God if someone did like a remake like a 2024 4K remaster of the old jackass films and like remastered to some of the old stunts that would probably be pretty popular was ended and the paid appearances stopped happening the only thing that continued throughout the years was his addiction which had no clear end in sight Novak had some oh my God look at him there throughout the years was his addiction which had no clear end in sight like who wants that picture nobody wants that picture for sure nov had somehow found himself in a position where the flash of Fame he had experienced was over his addiction was at its all-time worst and his friends and family had been pushed to their Breaking Point jeez the train stopped as bad as Brandon was when he was strung out when he was sober he was actually a really good guy yeah he healthy and he had a lot of potential people genuinely wanted him to get sober and his friends and family had literally spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his treatments over the years the thing is it's hard to help somebody who isn't ready to be helped yeah at that point you've just got to get your [ __ ] to if people other people are wasting their savings on you you've got to take that as a kick up the old assies that made Novak so likeable fair enough you waste your own money that made it hard for them to get better when someone is that successful at a young age it's hard for them to lower their ego enough to get the help they need this was a major issue with Brandon and it's the main thing that held him back for so long the more outrageous the more outlandish my Antics were the more in demand I became the higher my ratings came the more I made financially he had been to over a dozen rehab centers and countless outpatient treatments and although he learned some things like many other users he thought he knew better and I mean there's no way under any circumstances that any drug addict of any description is going to get better if they don't actually want to do it themselves if they're not taking the initiative and either have something driving them some outside motivation whether it be family kids whatever it could be that is the one thing that's going to drive you whereas if they just want to do it because they're being forced to do it for money or by an agency or someone that works with them it's just not going to work they have to do it of their own accord and otherwise it's just a waste of time money effort all of that never fully accepted the help he was getting eventually though he was forced to come to ter terms with reality Brandon's years of substance abuse had caused a toll on himself and those around him his employment opportunities disappeared his friends had all but given up and to be honest like the state the things have kind of switched up now like bam is more of like in this drug addict position and then Brandon is kind of like the good guy now so they've kind of switched roles a little bit I'd like to see that Brandon stick of bam as much as bam sticked of him back in the day to be honest like they should really be helping him as much as he like moved him into his house paid for his rehab B helped him after dealing with his addiction for years his mother finally decided to kick him out of her house and serve him with a restraining order all of these things combined left him homeless broke and alone but in some ways it was exactly what he needed having spent years and years letting substances ruin his life he was completely defeated in every way possible and after realizing he had no other option he decided he was ready to actually get help the pain became great enough that I became willing to do whatever you told me to to do there you go you just you keep using the drugs to poison your body to a point where you can't take anymore and it becomes easier to just find the solution than to just keep poisoning yourself and it will just keep going to that point if you have this self-fulfilling toxic mindset and and and and I came to this realization in that basement that that that I cons I possessed that job for for 20 years that consist of knowing everything to to coming to the understanding that what I do know is that I don't know with everything stacked against him Novak was beaten down just badly enough that when he checked himself into rehab for the 13th time something finally 13th time man 13 is my lucky number so hopefully that is the one that helped him he clicked he was at such an all-time low that for whatever reason the same information he was given on the 12 previous tries had finally started to resonate with him he actually started to respond to the advice being given to him and his perception suddenly started to change New Perspective complet shifted the way he lived after successfully completing a 90day rehab program he then continued on to a sober living house and so does he that live sober nowadays I guess we're going to find out soon but I hope so after staying there for a while he went back out into the real world except for this time he was finally sober in the following years Novak was able to write another book release more skateboarding videos and start it's got like lines racked up on it like look at the powder lines racked up on the uh cover that's pretty funny was able to write another obviously not drugs drugs AR funny book release more skateboarding videos and start a successful speaking career where he shares his journey with others today he even owns several sober living houses where he helps people in recovery transition back into society Brandon Novak could have easily become another celebrity that eventually passed away from an overdose and was simply forgotten about but somehow he managed to completely turn his life around for the better it's hard to know why it took so many years and so many attempts to do it but after seeing what he's gone through and where he's been able to end up his story is definitely an inspiring one yeah that is for sure and I reckon seeing how bam is probably motivates him to stay on the straight and narrow to be honest and I hope bam finds his way too but anyway there that being said thank you for watching guys subscribe to dusy and I'll see you in the next one