Steve Irwin, God rest his soul, went out doing what he loved most, swimming with the fishes. I’m guessing that I’m not alone in secretly wishing that Evel Knievel, stuntman extraordinaire, had the chance to go out on one of the adrenaline highs that made him famous, shooting off into the stratosphere on his motorcycle or underestimating the width of a big ass canyon.
But, according to the Associated Press, it was his generally failing health that did the stunt man in. In a way, the hepatitis C he contracted in 1999—most likely from a blood transfusion after one of his stunts went awry—was his way of going out on a stunt. So I take it all back.
Knieval and soon-to-be-married rapper Kanye West had just made amends last week on a dispute over West’s portrayal of Kanyieval in the music video for “Touch the Sky.” Peace out, Evel.
