Jackass’Johnny Knoxvillehas put his body through hell for over 20 years — all for the sake of a good laugh.
At 50, the father of three might be finally ready to throw in theJackasstowel.
“My doctor said I can’t take another shot to the head, I’ve had so many concussions. I put my family through enough, quite honestly. I don’t think I have anything else to prove,” he tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.
Jackass Forever, the fourth film from original stars Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man and more, ups the ante with stunts involving bears, bulls, scorpions, and hordes of bees. In one harrowing — and hilarious — sequence, Knoxville gets shot out of a cannon.
“Luckily, I’m not very in touch with my body, which has cost me, but we got some great footage because of it,” he says.
Knoxville credits much of his wild nature to his dad, Phil, a salesman with “a huge personality” who “loved nothing than to stir a bunch of trouble up.”
“He pranked his employees constantly,” Knoxville remembers. “He would send letters from the IRS to his friends saying they were going to be audited. He was just nonstop with giving people hell. I idolized him.”
Although his parents were later “very vocal” with their concerns over hisJackassshenanigans, Knoxville says they eventually grew to love the franchise. “When some people would deliver a pizza to the house, [my dad] would open the door and go, ‘Home of Johnny Knoxville,’ because he was proud,” he says.
Everett
Knoxville — who’s dad to son Rocko, 12, and daughter Arlo, 10, with wife Naomi Nelson, and daughter Madison, 26, with ex-wife Melanie Lynn Clapp — has no desire for his kids to keepJackassalive.
“My son, he’s got the same gene that my father had and I think that I have, so I definitely want to keep him out of it,” he says. “I made it very clear to him he won’t be going into the family business.”
Jackass Foreverhits theaters on Feb. 4.
source: people.com
