Johnny Knoxville
June 29th, 2011
A week after the tragic death of “Jackass” star Ryan Dunn, his friend and cast mate
Johnny Knoxville has taken to his blog to say everything he couldn’t say
at last week’s memorial.
“I walked to the podium and tried to share memories of my dear friend, but the words were just spinning in my head,” Knoxville recalls of Dunn’s service. “What came out were the mumblings of a man trying his best not to cry, and I wasn't even successful at that.”
Although he cautions that he may not be able to get everything out in his blog post, he forges ahead, remembering the friend and stuntman who died in a fiery crash on a Pennsylvania highway.
It was later revealed that Dunn was traveling at a speed of up to 140 miles per hour and had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.196 percent.
While Dunn was known for his ability to make people laugh – Knoxville says he was 34 percent funnier when Dunn was around – he “wasn’t incapable of seriousness.”
Knoxville explains that “Ryan was a great listener. If you were having troubles, he was always someone you could go sit down and talk to…he was always there if you were sad about something. That's why all this is even harder because right now I really need to talk to him but I can't.”
He continues on, at times speaking to Dunn directly, saying frankly, “I'm hurting!! We all are because we loved you so much and now you're gone. I know your spirit lives on in me, Angie, Bam and everyone you touched, but that's pretty tough to see right now through the tears.”
Knoxville concludes his post by asking for understanding if he’d begun to ramble. “I'm just very sad because I lost my brother and my world got about 134-percent less funny,” he says. “I don't know what else to say right now, so I will close with I love you, Ryan. I have a lot of emotions swirling, but I want you to know I love you so very much.”
He isn’t alone in feeling the loss of Dunn, however.
HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky adds that Dunn’s death “has really hit me.”
“I have a close relationship with several of the ‘Jackass’ crew, who support and love each other,” Dr. Drew says. “Make no mistake they are grieving deeply right now, and we need to be mindful of their feelings during this time of grief.”
And although the accident
also sparked a bit of online drama surrounding tweets from film critic Roger Ebert, the “message here is, ‘be careful,’” Dr. Drew says. “Don’t drink and drive. Let’s use this awful tragedy as a reminder that none of us are invincible.”
Meanwhile, the G4 network,
which previously had put Dunn's show "Proving Ground" on "permanent hiatus," will resume airing the stuntman's 9-episode series on July 19 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The network will also air an hour-long tribute to Dunn with "Attack of the Show!" on July 19 at 7 p.m. ET/PT, which will feature memorable moments of the "Proving Ground" star plus interviews from friends and colleagues.