Professional skateboarder and MTV reality star Rob Dyrdek says he's willing to try anything for TV, but he tells us his mom is not always a fan. In fact, he admits things went a little further than he expected on this season of his show "Fantasy Factory" when he was palling around with buddy and fellow celebrity John Mayer.
"It's as if my whole existence is built around these funny inspirations that I know I could create funny TV out of. I like to create situations and then let reality happen within them. It is such a hardcore process for me," he explains.
"The problem with one stunt is that I faked as if I was drunk and got carried out of a club to see what would happen. It just exploded in the tabloids and made it all the way to my parents' local news. It said, 'Local celebrity almost died partying with buddy John Mayer.'"
Dyrdek felt so bad about giving his parents such a scare that he and Mayer ended up trying to making amends. "I did an entire episode about making it right for my mom. We wrote a song called, 'Rob's Mom.' It was an apology to her," he recalls of the episode. "I still don't even think she can really wrap her head around the fact that a seven time-Grammy award winner wrote a song with her son as an apology to her."
The faux drunkenness stunt is actually mild compared to many of Dyrdek's antics. As he notes, "I got attacked by a shark. I've jumped a car 100 feet. I've jockeyed a horse. There's so much fear in a lot of this stuff. It always seems like a great idea on paper, but it's very stressful in the process. Two jockeys die a year. It's one of the sketchiest things you can do. I film all this funny stuff but then I have to like buckle down and have this very real moment to get it done."
His mom "doesn't like this stuff at all," he admits. "She doesn't understand why I continue to put myself in dangerous situations."
And, he probably wouldn't have her be any other way.
Emily-Fortune Feimster