A week after losing his friend Ryan Dunn in a car crash, Johnny Knoxville has opened up about his Jackass costar by writing an ode to his departed "brother" on his website.
The blog post, which Knoxville said was written in part because he could barely get through talking at Dunn's memorial service on Wednesday, is both a moving tribute and haunting reminder of a life lost too soon...
"What came out were the mumblings of a man trying his best not to cry, and I wasn't even successful at that," Knoxville writes on his blog about his attempt to speak at Dunn's service in West Chester earlier this week. "Here is what I wished I could have told everyone then."
The Jackass mainman writes that Dunn's "spirit was very contagious," and that Knoxville felt "34 percent funnier" when he was around his friend. After sections about Dunn's ability to listen and help out his friends, Knoxville sadly muses: "That's why all this is even harder because right now I really need to talk to him but I can't."
The ode is also peppered with Jackass tales and many mentions of Dunn's love for his wife, Angie. "More times than not, he would smile wide through that filthy ass beard of his and say something along the lines of, ‘How did I ever luck up and land her?'" Knoxville writes. "It was because he had a pure, open heart, and many other qualities of which I am writing about now."
The letter takes a even more heartbreaking turn during this passage, when Knoxville starts to ask why, and reveal that he had to wake up his daughter to tell her what had happened: "Ryan, I had to go wake up Madison and tell her you were gone. Do you know how hard that was?!! She loved you so much and I know you loved her, so why, buddy?"
Knoxville closes the letter by admitting "I don't know what else to say right now," and then with a simple "I love you, Ryan…I want you to know I love you so very much."
You can read the entire blog post, titled "from knoxville with love," here.
