Being Evel | The Life of Evel Knievel | Johnny Knoxville | Tony Hawk | FULL DOCUMENTARY

It was May 25th 1968. I had just turned 10 years old. Bee Line Dragway sat on the edge of town 20 miles east of Phoenix and my buddy’s mom agreed to drop us off there…with no money in our pockets. Evel Knievel was going to jump 13 cars later that night. We arrived around 2:30pm, well before the gates officially opened and walked right on in and onto the track where Evel was staged for a full-on practice jump, which didn’t go as planned. The take off and flight was poetic, the landing not so much…off center to the left. Foot comes off the peg, catches the side of the ramp resulting in a broken leg and compound ankle fracture. He is whisked off to the hospital. A local guy named Butch successfully completes the jump that night. The crowd knows nothing until it is announced just before Butch goes into action. Me and my buddy were the only members of the public to see both jumps. Fast forward to 2002, the year that Ford made the Evel Knievel Signature F150 Gladiator. Galpin Ford sits in the middle of LA and Evel was there for the launch along with me and hundreds of others lined around the building to meet the man. I told him this story. He remembered it like it was yesterday. He looked me square in the eye and to my surprise said, “that was the scariest jump of my life.” Of all his jumps, this one? Later, I realized of course, it was the first one back after the Cesar’s Palace crash only 5 months earlier on December 2nd 1967. He truly embodied the era in which he lived…flaws and all. He was always up to the challenge and never quit. I was so glad to meet the childhood hero that had captured my imagination.

I would jump Big Wheels with my banana seat bike back in the early 70’s trying to emulate this man. He was bigger than life.

Me and my little brother met Evel Knievel at a custom car show in Charlotte North, 1978, he made a big entrance with a lot of security he was a rockstar, he let the children come up and get real close I remember him putting his arm around me telling me not to ever do drugs I didn't listen to well, that's a whole nother story, Long live Evel

We built sketchy ramps and went down the hill in my neighborhood because of Evel. It's a miracle we weren't seriously injured. I would love to do it all over again.

Kudos to Johnny Knoxville for this. As a boy of the 70’s also, you hit this out of the park. 👍👍

Being a kid in the late 60s and 70s was the best time. You had great music, great movies, Evel, Billy Jack, Hank Aaron, GI Joe. We played outside from morning to night. Street football, built forts in the woods, played war and dug fox holes in a nearby farmers field. Farmer would shoot rock salt at us. Walk to nearby stores. Ride bikes and skateboards all over far from home. The smell of weed in the air july 4th. Just a totally different life than kids today.

if man is lucky enough to be here for a million years, they'll never be another

R.I.P. Evel and Robbie. Legends never die.

Growing up in late 60's and early 70s Evel was one of my childhood heroes. I still have my toys that are on display in my home.

Loved what Johnny Knoxville said, "you gotta have your heroes"...so true!!

His contribution to American culture is incalculable. Not a perfect man but who is? He gave MILLIONS of kids something to dream about. One of a kind.

As a kid growing up in the 70s he was are hero and he still is today . Rest in Peace Evel Knievel.

Watched this on the eve of Robbie’s passing.
God speed Robbie! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

As someone who was an American boy in the 1970s, lived through all of that, I type this with tears in my eyes. Evel, Bruce Lee, and Billy Jack were our heroes . The man made his mistakes, but like Knoxville said, he was Human.

What made him the best was he did not do it on a motocross bike, he did those jumps on street bikes, Harley Sportsters and Triumph Bonnevilles. Big bikes.

This guy is the reason that I started riding as a small child, and also the reason that I have so many aches and pains as an older man 😂 Loved Him 💯

As a child of the 70s, I will say there was NOBODY bigger than Evel, not even close.

I meet Robbie in the lounge of a Italian restaurant in Jackson Tn on April 17 2008 the day my daughter was born I had stopped for dinner on my way back to the hospital he was standing at the bar pounding drinks his dad had died 5-6 months before I recognized him & sad hay man sorry to hear about ur dad & told him I’d luv to buy ya a drank so he came over & sat at my table & we talked about his pop & my new daughter.. super nice guy I’ll never forget meeting him… Rip Robbie & evil….

Having been born in 1958 in Southern California I grew up watching a superhero, and that's just the way it was.

“7 of the top 10 wide world of sports greatest moments “

That speaks for itself