MALE SPEAKER: What's all this fucking shit on the wall?
JASON DILL: I woke up-- for like a month straight-- just
with blood in my mouth.
MALE SPEAKER: How'd it get on the wall?
Spitting?
JASON DILL: Yeah.
14 dental appointments and they're still fucked up.
I know it's gross.
People probably think it's fucked up.
I mean every day you come in here you've got like--
literally, I'm not going to look at it.
I'm just going to be like, [SPITTING], spit it out.
I just had to see it, just to make sure.
So I had to look at it every day, knowing how
crazy it was getting.
It was just a reminder of just how bad it was.
PATRICK O'DELL: Hi, welcome back to the show.
This episode's about Jason Dill.
And I know we already did a Jason Dill episode.
But while I was making that, I was looking at all of his old
parts and stuff.
And I thought it'd be cool to do sort of the history of
Jason Dill.
JASON DILL: My very, very, very first ad was I was
sitting in a shopping cart with Caroll
sitting in the front.
Caroll, Ben Chibber, and Anthony Oglesby.
Me and Anthony Oglesby are the little guys.
Caroll is only like a year and a half, two
years older than me.
But I remember them being like, hey go get Caroll to go
shoot this ad.
Fucking--
what?
Like, I'm not going to talk to this dude.
Like, it's Mike fucking Caroll.
My first video part was an A1 Meats where--
MALE SPEAKER: Is that the one where you're running through
the-- doing like cartwheels through the grass?
JASON DILL: Yeah, and doing flips and shit.
I was 12.
I filmed for three days.
I was just, I can bigspin that.
I can 360 flip that.
Like, just, all right, do it.
I don't remember like ever taking time.
I would check out--
I remember seeing Ocean and Marcus like really try shit.
I remember I got driven to 7th Street, skate the head.
And I remember this one kid had a box in
front of his house.
So I did like a nose bump 360.
And I'll hit some gap there.
Instead of like, yeah, I'm just going to go fucking--
I was a little kid.
Like, I'm going to go ollie this big gap.
All right.
You know, like Rick Howard, he taught me how to do a bigspin
to frontside boardslide a day before I got on Blockhead.
And I tried it in my contest run for some
reason like a day after.
Who the fuck knows how I made it to here.
Jesus Christ.
Because if you really think about it from that perspective
and then so if you could only imagine, like fast forward to
me skating with Ocean.
Like, those dudes are so far in advance compared to my
prepubescent mind.
I mean, I'm sure Hensley and them were doing it before.
But I didn't have the opportunity to go skate with
Hensley in my prepubescent years.
MALE SPEAKER: So did you skate with Jeremy Wray?
JASON DILL: Yeah.
That's weird.
I was talking to someone about this recently.
I don't even remember how I met Jeremy.
I remember people doing pressure flips, but Jeremy was
doing over knee-high kickflips.
So he was a really big influence on my whole deal.
MALE SPEAKER: What was the clip where he does a gap and
you're in the clip?
JASON DILL: The Color Video.
I know I'm in that video because I tried to ollie that
gap with Jeremy.
No, I didn't come anywhere near Jeremy.
I don't think I got over it.
I don't even think I got my board over it with my body.
MALE SPEAKER: Where is that?
Where's the mark?
JASON DILL: Give me five.
Over here.
MALE SPEAKER: How'd he do that?
Nobody can--
I don't believe it.
It can't be possible.
I don't believe what I just saw.
MALE SPEAKER: I even saw it with my two eyes.
MALE SPEAKER: But I don't believe what I just saw.
Look at these marks.
JASON DILL: I never thought about it
until later, you know?
Thinking about it right now, I never thought of myself being
in Jeremy Wray's shadow.
I was in Jeremy Wray's shadow, but not in a bad way.
Those dudes were so fucking gnarly.
It really helped me shape and have what feeds me today.
Man, I've had a fucking weird, wild ride.
When I was like a fucking child,
how the fuck my mother--
how she let me do this, I do not know.
My mom got this job.
And she went up to a business trip in San Francisco, took me
with her, skated the streets by myself.
I'm talking about sweat pants, Converse, and a Batman t-shirt
with a mullet.
I was a goofy white kid from Huntington Beach, man.
I was just fucking--
I was just enjoying being there.
I wasn't even worried about being accepted.
So that was my little early EMB niche that I somehow
sorted out on my own.
And then by the time I was 15, I already rode for
Spitfire and shit.
So it's like, I think I just got accepted.
And at that time, which was kind of rad, they just lumped
me, Jeremy, and Jonas together.
And hey were like, fuck, all right.
You're on the team too.
MALE SPEAKER: Were you there when Gino did
the backside heelflip?
JASON DILL: No.
I wasn't there when Gino did the backside heelflip.
I talked to Gino on the phone.
I was just thinking about it, when you mentioned that
Spitfire video.
What happened with the Spitfire video was that I
didn't ride for anybody except for Spitfire and Thunder.
And within that time frame, I had already started filming
with this dude Dave Sloshbach that was friends with Brian
Lotti that was trying to get Gino and I to do this offshoot
company, World Industries.
And then, thank god, fucking right before Brian Lotti left
skateboarding, he left our footage on Natas's desk.
Natas had a desk to leave footage on.
Natas called Gino's house.
I remember sitting there, being like, fucking Natas is
on the phone.
And he was like, do you want to ride for 101?
So we got on 101, and immediately released Snuff.
It was the footage of us skating just World and Blind,
101 Plan B boards.
MALE SPEAKER: I remember you telling me one time that they
saw your 101--
whatever, your tape to get on 101 or something.
And [INAUDIBLE] or somebody was like, oh yeah we like you.
But I don't know about your friend Gino.
Am I remembering that wrong?
JASON DILL: There's no way because Gino was already so
well respected before he even really hit that scene that I
kind of went on his coattails.
I think I had such a big mouth when it came down to what my
opinion was that the people that I did business with were
like, well this fucking little loud-mouthed kid.
He's so about it.
Like, fuck it.
Throw him out there.
Let's see what he does.
And I think I've been thrown out there so many times to see
what I can do that I ended up just having to
become as big as my--
I thought my britches were, or whatever.
I know how anti-climactic it sounds, but then I was pro.
I don't really remember.
And then the whole 101 thing kind of turned into a really
rad thing, though.
Yeah, right after Snuff was 20 Shot Sequence.
And what happened was I hurt my knee.
I tore my ACL in half.
Yeah, so that video came out with a super small part, the
20 Shot Sequence video.
But Natas let me help him edit that 101 section.
My mom had seen enough of me around the house and was just
not stoked on how bummed out I was, I'm sure.
I'm sure she really felt for me.
And the very first clip of me coming back is
that line at Flushing.
It's the first time I skated in eight, nine months.
MALE SPEAKER: What was the line?
JASON DILL: The heelflip over the grate with the pipe,
nollie backside [INAUDIBLE] flat, switch 5-0, switch
frontside 180 out.
And that was the beginning of Trilogy.
Yeah, my part in that video was fucking balls
to the wall, man.
I think that was everything I'd ever achieved to bin was
in that video part.
Like, up until that point, I think that's everything I ever
worked for.
Finally, like--
Finally, like as gnarly as Gino's part was in that video,
I felt finally I had my own niche.
I achieved all my goals at 19.
Anything after that was just icing on the cake.
By the time that came out, Natas quit, and
I got kicked off.
So the day Trilogy came out, I got kicked off.
MALE SPEAKER: But you're in it.
JASON DILL: Yeah.
MALE SPEAKER: And so--
OK.
Why'd they do that?
JASON DILL: Because I stole boards because I was--
MALE SPEAKER: Oh, I heard about that.
JASON DILL: I had no money.
Gino made $1,500 a month and I made 1,000.
One day we went to roll in the streets and they were like,
you're not getting paid this month.
With Trilogy about--
Trilogy master tape, done.
Parts, done.
You're not getting paid.
MALE SPEAKER: How many boards did you steal?
JASON DILL: 36.
Because then I can get-- if I had 36 boards I could pay my
rent and get an ounce of pot.
And then I'd just live off Top Ramen and Kool-Aid like I'd
been doing.
That Memory Screen blew me away.
If anybody's seen Memory Screen, it just like--
I remember [INAUDIBLE] like, you were into it?
Like a little kid, like that whole first part?
I was like, yes.
Like the [MAKING SOUNDS].
I'd sing the song, that middle section.
I can't forget to tell you something that you're going to
think is funny.
You'll probably use it, after this.
But when I was skating for 23, I was going to SF a lot,
during that fit shit because I rode for a
company called C/O Wheels.
C/O was short for cocaine.
So stupid.
What age is that, like 21?
I was like 21 years old, going to SF all the time, smoking
cocaine blunts, being nutty.
Like, turning into that weird dude who would just take drugs
when he's with you and not tell you.
Like, that was never me, but I turned into that.
It was a really strange period.
In my 23 ad, it's that ollie over to frontside tailslide on
that pole, where you have to do the gap thing.
Henry Sanchez had wrote, Michael Bolton-ass looking
motherfucker.
And I remember being so hurt by it.
And then it just being one of those things like, well fuck,
at least one of the gnarly dudes wrote it.
Yeah.
And then I remember being--
towards the end of my contest skating days--
and I just--
I went to a contest in Canada.
And all I did was hang out with Dyrdek and Kalis.
I came home from that contest and it said I rode for Alien
Workshop in the new Slap Magazine.
So I called Chris Carter, knowing him.
And I was like, hey, it says I ride for
Workshop in the new magazine.
I just want you to know I have nothing--
I didn't--
that's not me.
He's all, I know.
And I think he said something along the lines of like, no,
we OKed it.
That's cool.
And they just knew.
They knew I'd be riding for Workshop because I tried to
get on Workshop when I got kicked off 101.
Carter, he always calls bullshit on it.
But I remember getting Memory Screen.
It was yellow.
It was a VHS, yellow tape.
I liked Dinosaur Jr. I knew who they were.
Carter always calls-- no, you didn't.
Fuck.
Bullshit.
You didn't know who--
yeah, pfft.
Just Alien Workshops is just such a
fucking sick, smart company.
Like, I always adored them.
And so it was a pleasure to be at Workshop.
It was really great.
But the video that people always come up to us about is
the fucking Feedback video.
People love that goddamn video.
And we put Ty through so much shit making that video.
Because we made that video right before we put
our Alien part out.
Poor Ty was making that Feedback video of us, like
totally showing us, showcasing us in that section.
And we were like, fuck this shit, Ty.
We want to do our Alien part.
Fuck a Transworld video.
Fuck--
Transworld video--
what the fuck, Transworld.
That's bullshit.
We didn't know what it was going to look like.
And then that fucking Feedback video came out.
Everyone had just the raddest parts in it.
Kids that were born when that part came out still
come up at a demo.
Feedback.
They love that video.
CHRIS CARTER: Dude, you got-- this is your big video.
This is it.
JASON DILL: OK, OK, OK, OK.
All right.
No problems.
I'm only skating.
I'm just skating.
I swear.
That's it.
That's all.
So far I heard I got the last part and all that shit.
So [INAUDIBLE]
so psyched.
CHRIS CARTER: You know what the last part
means, don't you?
JASON DILL: I do!
CHRIS CARTER: That's the curtains.
JASON DILL: A lot of people don't believe this, but they
started recording me for about a year straight without
telling me.
So what you see in Photosynthesis is a mixture of
conversations me and Carter had over a year.
And that's not Carter you see at the desk.
It's just a stock photo they found of some guy at a desk.
My mom thought that was Carter for years until she met him.
Photosynthesis took about two years of work-work.
I think for so long, I always felt that this is what I'm
going to do.
I'd want to be individualistic, and I'd want
people to know me for me and not part of some
big team, or whatever.
MALE SPEAKER: Everyone always talks about the walking down
the stairs.
JASON DILL: No, I just thought it worked.
I was trying to film a line and--
what was it?
Originally, it was just a backside
heelflip over that barricade.
And so then I started doing this stupid fucking 360 flip
that I ate shit on so bad up at the top of the street.
And that spot got demolished after 9/11.
But what it was-- like, you cruise down this small street,
and the fakie shuvit over the bench because I've always
loved that trick.
No one does that very much.
And then to pick up the board--
I just figured it would transfer so well to walk down
the stairs.
One, two, three, four, down!
And then I jumped that.
That was a pretty fucking big gap that was there then.
I was a much younger man at the time.
It's just part of the video.
And then just the reaction I've gotten out of that over
the years is just insane.
MALE SPEAKER: So then--
then my brother Joe hit me in the chin with a crowbar.
I turned around and talked to Joe.
You know, why you [INAUDIBLE].
It's not necessary.
Don't hit me in the chin.
[INAUDIBLE]
I don't like, OK?
Joe comes over, has a gun, shoos me in the stomach,
shoots another guy over there really fast.
Shoots him down.
[MAKING GUN SOUNDS]
Right?
Everybody's freaking out, going crazy.
I'm like, Joe, stop shooting everybody, man.
This is crazy!
Those people are going to die!
[LAUGHING]
MALE SPEAKER: I can't take it.
[LAUGHING]