Wow, poor Phil and April.
I have no doubt he really did think he raised Bam right. For all I know, he probably did. I'm glad he got that out there in front of Bam like that. The catharsis was worth it if nothing else.
FWIW I really enjoyed "Bam's Mom Says Fuck." back in the day. But I was in my 20s and not smart enough to realize the risks people take with working with corporate shitheads like MTV or TLC. And FWIW, I don't think the Margeras fully knew either.
I honestly don’t think Ape and Phil can be fully blamed for the way Bam turned out, look at Jess he wasn’t the star of the show but to this day his life is infinitely richer for what his brother did for his band. He’s shared stories on IG talking about memories from the past including meeting DMX at an industry party and hanging out with him all night and knowing Darkman X they partied hard.
Phil was a good dad, he carted Bam all over the Pennsylvania area as a kid so he could follow his dreams and when he realized them they allowed him to drop out of school. I’m willing to bet that he did the same for Jess and his band. And along the way we all know he tried his best to impart them with knowledge, exactly like he’s trying to do in the clip I shared that Bam completely ignores and refuses to take seriously.
Bam says in the above clip “I’m going to be an asshole forever, I make money off it”. Bam put his tv persona front and center for so long it became who Bam was, for the worst. In more recent interviews Bam has said when he’s in situations in public he plays the part that he thinks the public wants to see; which he could get away with as a dreamy teen heartthrob but as a 40-year old man he repels anyone genuinely looking out for him until now when he’s surrounded by a junkie/groupie wife and a bunch of faggots who want to do drugs with him and be in his movies.
And for all the wrong choices he’s made you have to admit he had a lot of pressure on him to keep up his act and if any of us were in his shoes we might make the same mistakes he did.
Bam was always a douchebag, but he was a professional douchebag who had a lot of people counting on him to make their money for their families. He had to keep up his good looks and thin physique for MTV which is where the eating disorder and speed came into play. His life was a never ending tv production which meant 7 days a week he was working 12 hours a day with him at the center of it all so the speed also made sure he could work the long hours.
And how many people relied on Bam to pay their bills? Friends, his own family, and certainly MTV gave locals plenty of work building sets, ramps, stages, and feeding crews etc and Bam would’ve become public enemy number one if that cash cow dried up because he wanted to quit being drunk and retarded.
It’s like you see in school shooters and the like, they come from great homes but something went haywire along the way without any fault of parents. Bam had a dad who was extremely supportive to a fault and he helped him reach a place where he stared the evils of fame and riches right in the eye and in the end he made the wrong decision.
