Sequel nearly cost Johnny Knoxville his life

There's a warning that accompanies "jackass: number two," something to the effect of "don't try this at home."

Johnny Knoxville wants to add another caveat for the benefit of his East Tennessee relatives: "Don't watch this back home."

"It's really naughty," Knoxville says of the sequel to 2002's "jackass: the movie." "I told Mom, like, 'Mom, you saw the last one. I don't know if you need to go see this one. If you do, I'm gonna have little cards that say when a certain scene comes up, just turn your head."

He didn't even consider setting up a special family screening in his hometown "'cause it's so naughty. I'm like, 'I can't show this in Knoxville. I'll show it everywhere else, but Knoxville, that's all my people."

He also hopes his former teachers will steer clear.

"Man, if I saw Miss Brown - she was one of my favorite teachers ever, English teacher at South-Young - she'd probably twist my ear," he says.

By comparison, the first film - inspired by the showcase of idiotic stunts and scatological humor created by Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze that ran for three seasons on MTV - was a tame affair, he says.

"About 30 minutes of the first movie would have made it into this one," Knoxville says by cell phone while heading to a radio station in Dallas during a cross-country publicity marathon. "This one blows the first one out of the water."

Knoxville, 35, says he was so worried about trying to top the first movie that director Tremaine had to talk him into doing this one.

"He goes, 'We don't have to top it. We've just gotta be funny.' And somehow that took all the pressure off, and everyone went completely ape-(bleep) and just crushed the first one."

Once Tremaine convinced Knoxville to revisit "jackass," he couldn't get him to stop.

"We have so much extra footage," he says. "He had to make a deal with me so I would stop shooting. He was like, 'I have to edit this. We have so much to do. We have to quit shooting.' I'm like, 'I don't want to stop.'

"Finally, I said, 'Well, if you give me three weeks in November to shoot, I will stop,' and he goes, 'Deal.' I don't know what it'll be for; I think just to get me off his back."

The "jackass" gang - Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Dave England and Ehren McGhehey - threw itself into making "number two," which was shot in Argentina, India and the United States.

"All the guys just stepped up," says Knoxville. "On the first film, the guys weren't competitive for footage. On this one, they were competitive. And everyone got great stuff."

But "great stuff" comes at a price, and Knoxville nearly paid with his life.

"I came close a couple of times," he says. "I was riding a rocket Wile E. Coyote style. Jeff drew this rocket on a piece of paper like a triangle; it looks just like something off a cartoon. The next thing you know I'm riding it, and the next thing you know it explodes while I'm on it, in foot-long metal rods.

"The rocket scientist told us that when rockets fell, they fall backwards and forwards, but no one has ridden one like this, I guess, and they haven't dealt with it. I guess my weight shifted all the - I don't know, I'm no rocket scientist. But um, my weight just made it go haywire, and it just exploded.

"And a foot-long metal rod went right out next to my rib cage. And then another rocket went 200 yards back and whizzed two of our crew guys' ears; could have taken their heads off. But I got back on and rode it again and it didn't blow up, so that's good."

For another stunt, Knoxville tried to replicate the classic Buster Keaton shot in which a house facade falls over him but leaves him unscathed in a window opening - with a 20-foot-high steel wall. Knoxville was warned not to move from his mark, but he got distracted.

"I took two steps forward, and it just smashed me," he says. "It's real cartoonish. Luckily, my head went through the window, but the wall hit my body. I think if my head got hit, you might've been talking to Steve-O right now."

Knoxville didn't go to a hospital on that or any other occasion.

"I had a lot of energy this time out," he says. "Whatever happened, I was like, 'Let's just keep shooting.' "

He says he couldn't tell a difference in his body's resilience after four years away from "jackass."

"But, I mean, you don't have to be in good shape just to stand there," he says. "We decided that the only two things I can do are stand in one spot and grab onto this. So I can stand in one spot and get smoked by something, or I can grab onto a rocket. Other than that, I'm useless."

Some directors might disagree: Knoxville has acted in 13 movies, with another, "Killshot," in the can. He has been so consumed with "number two" that he hasn't "even taken one meeting all year" about other films. His next meeting, however, might be at a clothing store.

"I don't have any socks," he realizes. "And I have one pair of pants. I have to get a new pair of pants and socks."

What's he spending his Hollywood paychecks on?

"I don't know," he says. "Obviously not pants and socks."

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