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[playing blues guitar]

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All right. All right.

You got the questions, I got the answers.

[laughter]

Yeah!

This is Charlie Sheen interview,

take one, and mark.

[clapboard claps]

[chuckles]

Good luck with what happens next.

Don't feel like

How do you hold anything back on Sam Kinison?

[chuckles]

In his mind,

there was the Old Testament, there was the New Testament,

and then there was the Book of Sam.

[applause]

Sam is an acronym, "Surface to Air Missile."

When he took the stage,

the world, from that moment forward,

was changed forever.

So intense.

It was like, so, like... crazy!

I'm a XXX-rated comedian.

People count on me for bad taste.

Do we like rubbers, guys?

No!

We hate rubbers!

How down and dirty and nasty and offensive

and politically incorrect can you possibly get?

And Sam Kinison's my man!

Sam Kinison is the beast.

[screams]

Oh, you tight...

It was so outrageous that you go, "Wow!

I mean, you can, you can do that?"

Oh!

Sam was like a human cartoon.

[Sam] Aah!

I'm just a comic. [laughs]

Sam was deeply flawed as a person, by all accounts.

That doesn't mean he wasn't the greatest of all time.

Sam Kinison. Okay, here we are, Sammy.

Ah, there, there you are.

[Leno] Most comedians have an anger,

either real or imagined.

With Sam, it was never imagined.

It was like a punch in the face. Bang, bang, bang.

You will beg God to forget my face!

Aah!

Holy...

He's saying stuff that I've thought before,

but nobody's said it yet.

[screaming] ...you!

Sam let his devils take over.

Is it that bad, man?

For you to get a buzz? What's wrong with you?

[tapping microphone]

Stop what you're doing. Take it in.

Hey, man, how are ya?

Who knows how long this is going to last?

Like, what is going to happen?

All right, there's going to be a little cardiovascular damage,

a little.

Your life isn't a cartoon.

There's pain involved!

Comedy is pain

that you turn around and make people laugh about it,

because they've had the same pain.

[screaming] It's me!

Not from Celebrity Look-Alike, mothers!

It's me!

[laughter]

[laughing]

Ah, I know they messed around with this guy's book.

I read the Bible.

I know they messed around with this guy's book.

I know Jesus was never married.

Guy never had a wife, no way.

He was never married,

'cause no wife would buy this story

in a hundred years.

The disciples will. The believers will.

No wife would buy this story.

Good luck. Good luck with this story.

First of all, he leaves on a Friday afternoon

with 12 other guys...

[laughter, applause]

[laughing]

He comes home in the afternoon, looking like he hasn't slept,

and he...

[laughter]

Looks like he's partied out, man,

and Mrs. Jesus is just waiting, going, "Oh, okay.

Well, I'm glad you could find your way home, Savior!"

[laughter]

"Where's your 12 friends who won't get a job, huh?

Where they at?

Yeah, disciples, my...

They're losers!"

[laughter]

Jesus is going,

"I don't need this."

[laughter]

"No, honey, I'll tell you where I've been."

Come here. Come here...

Come here.

I'll tell you where I've been.

First of all, not that, uh,

not that it ruined your weekend any,

"but I was dead!"

[laughter]

"Do you understand that?"

I was dead!

While you were sitting here on your...

I'm in a grave outside of town!

I'm fighting death, Hell, decomposure!

I'm about to come into spiritual form

and I go, 'Wait a second. I better go back,

because she doesn't know where I've been.'

So now I've got to fight the angel of death,

get my soul back, crawl out of the grave,

come home to this,

"because I missed you, honey!"

[laughter, applause]

Our father had been the National Evangelist

for the Church of God.

He had built a church in East Peoria...

literally built it by hand...

and sold it

and bought this Methodist church,

and so we literally grew up in that church.

That's what Sam was born into.

Sam, he was a very mellow kid, just kind of laid back,

and then the accident happened.

[giggles]

[brakes squeal]

[bang]

[screams]

I was in school.

I heard an ambulance.

I don't know how I knew. I just knew it was Sam.

[siren wails]

[giggling]

[heavy rock music plays]

I thought they'd brought the wrong kid home.

It looked like Sam,

but didn't act like Sam at all...

Well, now he was aggressive, loud.

That totally changed his personality.

Our mom and dads were good friends.

Eight, nine years old when we first met.

He was kind of out of control as a kid.

You know, we'd be walking out of the store,

and he would moon someone.

[Sherry] And Dad was a pastor, and he'd say, "Sam!

Please, people know us here. You know, you can't do that."

He just always felt like he had to be outlandish,

always trying to make people laugh.

[Sam] This was always the cleaners,

the East Peoria Cleaners.

This was a dentist office right across the street.

I don't know what it is now...

'cause we lived in the church.

Mm-hmm.

'cause my dad probably couldn't have afforded to preach

if we didn't.

My dad, every one of us just idolized him.

We didn't just love him, we idolized him.

We thought he was great.

My mother, he was 19 years older than her.

Eventually, he was getting old, and she wasn't.

She really wanted out of the marriage.

My dad would've still stayed married.

It was my mother that pursued it.

When my mom and dad got a divorce,

Sam and my youngest brother, Kevin,

would live with my mother.

Sam was very upset about it.

Sam loved his dad dearly.

He had a lot of resentment for years against his mother.

[Bill] To, uh, Kevin,

Sam was the big brother.

Had a relationship

that was closer than any of the rest of us.

They were inseparable,

my relationship with Sam and my brothers,

I was like the dad.

My dad never ever told us, "I wantcha to be preachers,"

but you're kind of raised with this subliminal psychology

that the reason you're in this family,

and God put you in this family, and you're a boy,

and you can't be happy if you don't preach.

[Sherry] Bill and Rich had gone on to be preachers,

so Sam definitely thought, "Uh, I have to do this."

[Bill] We preached a lot in revival centers,

and you went 50-50 on the offerings.

It wasn't unusual for us

to make seven to ten thousand a week.

We did well.

The first time that I heard Sam preach

was in a church called Bible Way Temple

in Houston.

Richard and I had always done great there,

and so we decided one night to let him preach...

and I remember him getting up, and...

I didn't think it was very good.

[Sam] Amen. It's hard to...

[laughing]

oh, praise God...

to keep a consistent thought flow sometimes

with everything happening,

but God's good,

and he loves you.

Were you a serious minister?

Yeah, I was, I was.

I used to have, uh, kind of

a relationship with God, you know.

Why did you leave it?

That was a good money-maker, wasn't it?

I became disillusioned.

The offerings side of it, you know?

"Hey, if I blessed you and you want to bless me,

here's the basket."

I didn't do very well, actually.

You were not a good minister?

No. Well, not financially.

I didn't rake in the bucks.

He preached for seven years.

He never made $5,000 in any one year.

People come to be given to, not to be taken from.

My brother Bill is spirited.

Religion does nothing but take.

His first wife, he caught her in an affair.

Got a divorce, and that was the end of that.

It so devastated Sam

that I think it kind of molded his views

about being married,

and, uh, about women.

He said, "I'm, I'm done."

He was... he was broken.

I mean, he truly was devastated and shocked.

We were all shocked.

Amen...

which is better than being married,

and, well, I'm content.

No thanks. Amen.

I'd just as soon be happy. Amen.

I'm... I'm, I'm in love with love.

Any time I need any joy,

I just think about the family God stuck me in,

and I always cheer up.

[laughter]

[Sherry] He'd preach,

and he'd make people laugh,

and the pastors would say, "You know, you can't do that.

You can't make people laugh."

Finally, he got tired of it, and he said, "You know what?

I'm going to go to a world that I can make laugh

and I'm not going to get in trouble for it."

[Bill] Came up and talked to me,

told me he just couldn't cut it in the ministry,

and I said, "Well, take some time."

Forget about your brothers are preachers.

Your dad was a preacher. Your friends are preachers.

Look down in your heart

"and find out what you've always wanted to do."

He took, like, three seconds, and went,

"I always wanted to be a stand-up comedian."

[Sam] I've screamed at God at the top of my lungs,

'cause that's how much I believe in him!

That's how personal I feel like my relationship is.

If I can't be myself with the Father,

then I'm going to stop preaching this gospel!

That's what Sam did, and shocked us all.

[Bill] He found a comedy club in Houston, Texas

that was going to teach you how to be a stand-up comedian

in one week,

and that's where Sam started at.

I think he chose Houston

where he could get his stage legs as a comedian,

'cause he had to let preaching go

and learn stand-up comedy,

and it ac... it served him very well.

The first time I saw him on stage,

and I said, uh, "You know, I think you're going to do well.

You got a lot of energy, got a lot of conviction."

He would always improv, no matter what.

Whatever was on his mind, he was going to do it.

You guys ready for a show?

[cheering]

Huh?

Look at it!

[laughter]

Here's your show!

[laughter]

He was all in for the art.

He was going to make you laugh, whatever it took.

[laughter]

Sam was free, a free man.

Nothing stopped him.

He did whatever he wanted

for the sake of comedy.

[applause]

He never had a drink

until he's 25 years old and he got into comedy,

but having an addictive personality,

now that he's able to drink...

he really did.

It didn't take long to figure out it was a problem.

He'd never been around pot. He'd never been around drugs.

You know, and this just struck him as very exotic,

and he was like, "Oh, wow!"

[laughter]

Thanks, Charlie.

Like working overtime on the overtime.

[laughing]

Oh, Sam getting banned at the Annex.

Oh, I don't know whatcha call him...

talent coordinator, whatever,

and Sam's not his cup of tea.

I mean, it's like standard.

You have the wall and the stool and the mic,

and he sat on the stool...

[snapping]

It was like, "God, what a cheap piece of crap..."

and he smashed it like Pete Townshend's guitar,

smashed the stool into kindling.

Basically, he destroyed Annex property, you know,

so they banned him for that.

Well, Sam can't go quietly.

They have, like, a convenience store

across the street

with a big sign.

With a little help...

I guess from me...

he ties himself up to where he's Christ,

and he put a little cardboard crown of thorns

and ketchup for blood,

and stood on the sign,

and crucified himself

in full view of the Annex audience.

You know, they're, uh, "They're crucifying my art."

[laughs]

The way the Annex was,

the front of it was all glass windows.

You know, they're trying to get up and do their act,

looking at this guy across the street

that has tied himself up to this, to this sign.

You got police out there trying to get him to come down.

[sirens approaching]

And the cops were in a pretty good mood.

And they went, "Hey, uh, Easter was two weeks ago."

His return became this huge event.

[Bill] He's got to rent a limousine,

show up in a tux,

like he had won a victory.

And everybody's cheering him, and...

and he goes, "All right, well, this is what got me banned,"

and he picks up the stool, and he smashes it again,

and that was his return.

One thing that did happen in Houston

that was pivotal in Sam's career

was he met Rodney Dangerfield there.

Rodney sees Sam on stage for the first time.

Sam did this bit, The Cops.

Did anybody tell you this one?

You got a couple Puerto Rican guys going...

they were stealing something...

and you go, "Oh, man! Oh, no! Look!

It's the cops!"

And then these guys...

you go like, "That's right.

We're the cops."

You know, you know...

"Pull over there.

Uh, get up against the wall, buddy!"

"Oh, no, no. Not the cops!"

You know.

And afterwards, he goes, "Okay, kid, come here,"

you know.

"I love ya.

"That cops bit, oh, that was great," you know.

"You know, I think you could be something some day,

and I hope you do, because, you know what?

You're no competition to me at all."

[laughs] You know,

'cause no, nobody... he's, he's not going to...

That was a very important friendship and relationship

that continued.

You know, I didn't know comedy like Rodney at all,

but to be successful at it...

it was like Sam got an inspiration

"I could get up there and do what he's doing."

[Barton] Sam just got it into his head,

says, "Why don't we fly to L.A.?"

And we flew out.

He took me and Kevin,

and he was coming here to L.A. to break through.

If you're a comedian,

Everybody came through there. It was a legendary thing.

If you wanted to trade punchlines

with the best guys in the country,

if you thought you were really worthy,

then that's where you go.

First time I met Sam, there was a party backstage...

and this real estate magnate was holding a softball.

What it was was,

it was a softball-sized ball of cocaine...

and he was scraping a runway on it,

and each scrape would be a line,

and there were about six or seven people standing around,

and I'm sitting there like the RCA Victor dog,

waiting my turn,

like a RCA Victor dog, awaiting his master's voice,

waiting his turn,

and it was Sam.

It was love at first sight.

We liked each other, too. [laughs]

And they partied all night,

snorting and drinking and talking, and like...

and talking and drinking and snorting,

and I was like, "Did somebody get a sitcom?"

I mean, we are partying like it's New Year's Eve.

Is there something that they're celebrating?

And I realize, no, this is a Tuesday.

You know, this is just what they do.

We made off with the coke.

Sam and I, uh, partied for three or four days on that.

I said, you know, "You've got it."

You're wasting your time in Houston.

"Get your butt out here."

Mitzi Shore

is the greatest woman there ever was

for stand-up comedy.

When you went up on open mic night,

if you had the charisma on stage,

that's all she cared.

She didn't care

about any amount of laughs she saw.

She judged only by charisma.

For eight years, I was the MC at The Comedy Store.

Sam came out.

I am the comedian that teed up his first showcase

at The Comedy Store.

I said to Mitzi, "You should watch this guy."

[chuckling]

[Man] What?

[laughter]

He thinks that he come to L.A., he's going to hit.

Can't even hardly get a notice from Mitzi.

Mitzi Shore tells him, "You're not funny.

You're just not funny,

but you can be a doorman, if you want."

Sam is a doorman there for five years,

trying to... to be a regular,

and, uh, Mitzi just wouldn't do it.

It was really great,

because if you were a doorman at the Store,

not only you got to perform, but you also got to watch.

You got to see people who were magnificent,

and you got to see people who sucked.

It didn't matter.

The point was, you got to see everything.

[Shubert] That was Mitzi's system.

You got to watch the best guys in the country...

Robin Williams, Garry Shandling, George Carlin.

I mean, you know, these guys were coming in, doing spots.

The Comedy Store was like a college.

When he came to L.A.,

the act he was doing wasn't going over at first here.

He had a lot of trouble

because he was trying to find the medium.

He bombed.

He just ate it...

because people just didn't get what he was doing.

I saw him tank...

same nights I tanked,

And Mitzi thought Westwood would be a place for him to grow,

which was a really good space

and a good place to put people

before they're ready for the original room

at The Comedy Store.

[Barton] The Westwood Comedy Store

was a satellite club that Mitzi Shore set up

for the comedians to develop, get better...

as she herself has said in interviews,

a place for them to be bad.

[Saget] Sam was always depressed.

He'd hope he either made enough money in tips or whatever

If not, you know, he'd walk back, him and Kevin.

[Sherry] Sam always felt responsible for Kevin.

He told him, "Move out here," you know,

"I'll get you an agent," you know,

and, you know, "and you can, you know, do the acting gig,"

and we didn't think it was a good idea,

but he did.

I told him, I said, "You know,

if you ain't got a place to sleep,

you got the keys."

After a while,

there was Sam and quite a few people

were living in the club.

[Barton] He and Kevin used to pretend to lock up

and pretend to drive away,

when they'd actually go back inside

and sleep in the booths,

pulling the red-checkered tablecloths over them

as blankets.

He would sleep at The Westwood Comedy Store.

He would have sex at The Westwood Comedy Store.

The gentleman doesn't talk about these things.

You know, he'd wake up smelling like an ashtray.

"So what? It's comedy!"

[Barton] They would eat the cherries

and limes and lemons

as food.

They had nothing.

[Bill] Sam...

he didn't have the money.

I was sending it to him every month

that he really wasn't paying apartment rent.

It's going to blow

and whatever drugs he was wanting to do.

I quit doing that.

"But I'm not going to feed your habit."

One time, before I lock up Sunset,

Sam and I are standing at the back parking lot

at Mitzi's car, the owner of The Comedy Store,

'cause we know she's not likely to come down

for a couple more minutes...

but we hear... [imitates grunting]

We look over,

and a comic has Mitzi by the arm,

So we run over to rescue the queen of comedy, our boss.

Sam does that slide move across the hood...

and kicks the guy off Mitzi.

We save her. We get her in the car.

And Sam is manager of The Westwood Comedy Store

in two weeks.

I looked at world hunger realistically,

and I go, "Wait a second, I can solve this.

I got a weekend free. I'll solve it."

You know what the problem is with world hunger?

We've been sending them food.

[Gaynor] I went on the road in '83,

came back,

and Sam's act had changed.

You want to end world hunger?

Stop sending them food.

[laughter]

Send them U-Hauls...

luggage...

some buses...

It was so dark, but it was so real,

and I said to myself, "This guy, he struck oil."

It just occurred to us

that we've been doing this for, like, 60, 70 years,

bringing you pizza and donuts

out here every day...

[laughter]

making the trip...

and today, we thought we'd do something different.

Yeah, we thought we'd put you on the truck

and take you to where the food is!

"There's no food there! Go where the food is."

He was like the preacher of the truth.

He just made it, like, in-your-face truth.

Sam give his version of truth and what he thought was true,

and really believed it,

and that's what made it funny.

See this? It's sand! You live in a desert!

You know what it's going to be in a hundred years from now?

It's going to be a desert!

He spotlit what should've been kept in the dark.

He just choked

how we all thought about everything

when he says, "It's a, it's a desert.

Nothing ever grows here. It's sand!"

[screaming] You live in sand!

What are you going to do, make a milkshake?

"Get in the truck!"

He finally got to the point of,

"I'm going to let all this inside me out

because you want to also,

but I'm going to be the one who says it."

We have deserts in America!

We just don't live in 'em!

Not many comics were in your face,

whereas Sam, he didn't mind being rude.

He'd come in, throw punches and yelling.

He was different than other comics that way.

Hey.

Don't make me draw attention to you.

It's not a very pleasant experience.

[laughter]

The last people that... with my act

have since chosen never to speak in public again.

They don't even order their own food in a restaurant.

They point at the pictures.

[laughter]

He was doing his act,

and a couple got up and started to walk out.

"Did I say something wrong?

And they went, "No, no, no. We're just going home.

Uh, um... she has to get up early."

Goes, "Oh, okay. Well, thanks for coming,"

and he would go,

"Oh, Lord of Darkness, hear my prayer."

May their child bear the mark of three sixes on their head

"and be Satan's infant."

he'd go, "This is just nothing. This is nothing."

I'm just, I'm just messing with you.

And so they'd turn to go, and he would go,

"Oh, Beelzebub, I read from the Necronomicon,

the heart of darkness...

shine the light... [mumbling into mic]

...hellhounds of evil..."

and he'd go, "I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding."

God, please make them eat it.

"Take the gift of speech away from me,

rip out my tongue!

I messed with Sam Kinison! Aah!

I never want to feel that again!"

Sam, he would chase them out the door from the stage.

"Get out, you lightweights. Don't want to hear the truth?"

And they would leave, they would always scurry,

as he cursed them and ridiculed them,

they would walk even faster toward the door,

and then the people he were left with

were his.

He could go to the depths of Hell

or the height of Heaven

and take them anywhere he wanted to go.

It was just them now,

and they could be themselves.

As he started getting a name as the late-night guy,

all of a sudden, he got hot.

[Shubert] He was one of those guys

who, even before he became famous,

had this kind of notorious following

of rock stars,

all those, you know, movie stars.

[Michaels] Monday night,

that was the big night then at The Comedy Store.

That was such an amazing night.

It was packed.

There were a lot of bare chests and leather jackets,

a lot of fringe going on.

Seeing Sam the first time was scary.

I felt like my soul was at risk.

[Tenuta] Sam at The Comedy Store

was like the king,

'cause everybody waited to hear Sam.

What was different about Sam's comedy?

Everything.

He walked in,

and everyone just had to either back off

or sit down, or both.

[screaming]

Yeah, he'd do coke, you know,

and then he would go on and do incredible sets.

Grab the mic... next thing you know,

he was just cussing everybody out,

cussing everybody out.

You know what I mean?

"Don't you leave!

I see you walkin' out there!

You come back here, you... you whore!"

[Nugent] Somebody brought me to The Comedy Store,

and said "You gotta see this Sam Kinison guy."

[laughs]

and he hadn't even said anything yet.

He came on like a cyclone, hurricane, tornado, whirlwind.

[screaming]

[Leno] Sam had a connection to the audience

that I don't think any audience member

had ever seen before.

When he would do that primal scream thing...

Like, was it angry, it was just...

It was, like, frightening, it was so funny.

There's a moment when your life peaks.

It's not Platoon, it's not this.

It's not Two and a Half, it's...

Your life peaks

when the smartest person that ever put on pants

looks down at you mid-routine

and acknowledges that you're there,

and that you're, now you're a part of it.

He taught so many of us to just,

just be okay with living out loud.

[Saget] When someone commands a room like that,

there's a lot of people that become followers

Sam's saying something that's never been said before,

"and he's got more balls than anybody else to say it."

[applause]

I think he always wanted me around,

first, because I had this father image to him,

he knew I was always gonna tell him the truth, regardless.

I come out to manage Sam.

Sam went, "Now you're the personal manager,

the road manager.

Anything to manager, you're it."

I would try over and over

to get agents and managers to come.

I was willin' for somebody else to manage him.

They'd come, I'd buy their drinks.

They would double over when Sam was up there, just...

uh, laughing uncontrollably,

I'd be like, "Okay, well, let's talk some business."

"Well, we don't know what to do with him.

We just don't know what to do with him."

It was Rodney Dangerfield.

Every time they would run into each other,

Rodney would ask him, "How many minutes do you have?"

Sam would tell him, "Yeah, I got, I got 12 minutes."

"I got 15 minutes."

"I got 20 minutes."

Until the fateful night at the Comedy Store...

[♪♪♪]

We'd all be out back smoking a joint,

and the limo would pull up.

[tires screech]

The foot come out with a bedroom slipper,

and you knew it's Rodney,

'cause Rodney always showed up in a robe and pajamas.

He goes, "Hey, what's goin' on?

Hey, how are ya?"

And Sam goes, "Hey, Rodney, you're the king."

And he goes, "Aw, don't soft-soap me, ya fat...!"

and if anybody could do that to Sam, it was Rodney.

There was nobody else could do that.

That was the only time you'd see Sam

just become a little boy,

around Rodney.

Uh, he said, "I want you to do this Young Comedian Special.

I think you're ready."

Sam thought this was a contest.

So he tells Rodney, "I don't do contests."

So Rodney calls me, like, 3:00 in the morning,

"Hey, your brother's missin' a good opportunity here."

I'm doin' this Young Comedian Special.

So I tell him the same thing Sam tells him.

I go, "Rodney, he doesn't do contests."

"What is it with you two guys?

It's not a contest.

It's a showcase."

Here's a guy who's rather unusual.

And I love people who are different, you know?

When I say "rather unusual,"

you'll know what I mean when you meet him, okay?

Let's have a nice, warm reception for Sam Kinison.

Okay, here we are, Sammy.

[applause]

Ah, there you are.

Baby, I love you.

Well, I'm sorry I'm late.

I was supposed to be here a little bit earlier, but, uh,

I just spent the last two hours at a 7-Eleven

goin', "Marlboro!"

[laughter]

Marlboro!

Cigarettes!

It's staggering,

'cause what he did

was he employed what he did in a club

on television.

What's your name?

Michael?

Well, Michael, if you ever think about gettin' married,

if you ever think you've met the right woman,

you wanna settle down, change your life,

would you do me a favor, Mike?

Remember this face.

[screaming]

[laughter]

[screaming]

'Cause if you get married, Mike,

that's gonna be your face every morning.

That hadn't had a chance to have that kind of anger released.

I'm like anybody else on the planet.

I'm very moved by world hunger.

I see the same commercials,

those little kids starvin' and very depressed, and, uh...

Yeah, I watch these things on TV,

and I look at it, and I go, "God, how cruel," you know?

To see the little kid out there, and I go, you know,

"I know the, uh, the film crew could give this kid a sandwich."

[laughter]

You know, the kid's not out there, uh,

you know, filming a letter from home

with a Betamax, huh?

[applause]

You know there's a director five feet away goin',

"Don't feed him yet!

It doesn't work unless he looks hungry!"

But I'm not tryin' to make fun of world hunger.

Matter of fact, I think I have the answer,

'cause I spent a lot of time workin' it out, and, uh...

If you wanna stop world hunger, stop sendin' them food.

Don't send these people another bite, folks.

You wanna send them somethin'? You wanna help?

Send them U-Hauls.

Send them U-Hauls, some luggage,

and send them a guy out there that goes, "Hey, you know",

we've been driving out here every day with your food

for like the last, uh, I don't know, 30, 40 years.

And we were driving out here today across the desert,

there wouldn't be world hunger if you people would live

where the food is!

You live in a desert!

You understand that? You live in a desert!

Nothing grows out here!

Nothing's gonna grow out here!

Come here, come here, come here.

You see this, huh? See this? This is sand.

Yeah, it's sand.

You know what it's gonna be a hundred years from now, huh?

It's gonna be sand!

You live in a desert!

Get your kids, get your... we'll make one trip!

We'll take you to where the food is!

We have deserts in America.

"We just don't live in 'em!"

You know what it's gonna be in a hundred years?

I still remember it word by word.

"We have deserts in America.

We just don't live in 'em!"

You guys been a great crowd. Thank you very much.

My name's Sam Kinison. I love you. Thank you.

Thank you.

[cheering and applause]

Nobody I knew said,

"Hey, you know what I'm doin' this weekend?

I'm watchin' that Dangerfield special."

Nobody said it.

There was no anticipation, nothin'.

Everybody, "All right, see ya on Monday."

Monday came around, everybody saw it.

That six minutes changed his whole life.

[Saget] It was his explosion onto the scene.

I think they had to do roof construction

after he finished.

[Bill] I got calls immediately, for a week.

Four-special deal with HBO.

We did a four-record deal with Warner Brothers,

three-appearance deal on Letterman,

a three-appearance deal on Saturday Night Live,

all this within a week.

Sam was very excited that he'd made it,

but there was the other side of him that,

"Five years I've been here

doin' this every night, same thing,

and just now they get it?"

Every day you wake up, you look in the mirror,

you go, "What did I do? What did I do?"

He was exactly what comedy needed at that time.

There's a Before Kinison and After Kinison with comedy.

There's 1986, man.

Before 1986 is BK, is different.

[applause]

When you're not afraid to make the crowd scared,

uncomfortable, sad,

all of those other emotions,

and having the ability to end on the laugh,

you can really just take them

into such a weird, uncomfortable place.

A group of homosexual necrophiliacs...

[groaning and laughter]

I felt the same way.

I read this thing and went, "Oh!

[screaming]

Oh, thanks for the visual!"

The homosexual necrophiliacs

who are paying money

to be undisturbed for a few hours

with the freshest male corpses?

And I know these guys who were laying out on slabs...

[laughter] They're in there goin', "Well..."

Well, I'm just...

now I'm ready to spend eternity in Heaven,

be with Jesus, and...

♪ Rock of ages... ♪

You mean life keeps ...you in the...

even after you're dead?

Aah!

If it's funny, you can get away with anything

because it's funny.

Funny is really the only rule.

I know about... the dead, I do.

I know what it's like to stick your... in a corpse!

I was married for two years!

I... the dead a lot, pal!

You know, the VCR had just come out,

so somebody'd have a VHS tape,

we'd just watch it over and over again.

Everybody saw it.

Everybody was, like, doin' his bits.

Still love ya, honey!

[laughter]

Oh, am I glad I got married!

I wish I didn't have to work

so I could stay here and... you all day!

Women, in general,

and marriage, the way he was talkin' about it.

Man, I don't know, but some woman must have...

I don't know what happened, but she must've... him over.

All of Sam's women in his life helped create his act.

You're as pretty as when we met!

[laughing maniacally]

[Bill] You got this fat guy up there tellin' ya

"Women screwed me over."

The white workin' man identified with that.

[man shouts] No...!

[laughter]

Ah, but I still love 'em.

What are you gonna do?

I still love women.

He built up the anger in relationships,

and if you, you know, watched his comedy,

that's what he screamed about.

But I learned one thing, guys.

Don't tell the truth.

[Saget] Even with all of Sam's demons,

there still was a lovable thing there.

He had a lot of deep thoughts about Heaven and Hell,

and Satan,

and trying to reckon with it all.

I love those churches out there, man.

[chuckles] I saw one the other day.

It says, "We're the church where everybody's somebody,

but Jesus is Lord!"

He wasn't just doing jokes.

He was talking about his anger toward things.

Yeah, it's a little tough for me, folks.

I'm from the Midwest, from that Bib...

I'm from one of the notches in the Bible Belt.

[laughter]

What a name, the Bible Belt.

[laughs]

[Saget] It was very cynical,

and yet, there was charm behind it.

That's the, that's the secret...

of Sam.

Yeah, I read it, folks.

I read that book.

He's on the cross.

30, 40 Christians standin' around goin'...

[crying]

"It's a shame that he has to die."

And Jesus is goin',

"Well, maybe I wouldn't have to

if somebody'd get a ladder and a pair of pliers!"

A ladder, a pair of pliers,

could have been a different book, folks.

Anything that he sees that's comedy,

and it didn't matter whether it was

dead people gettin'... in the... by psychopaths

or Jesus.

It didn't matter.

...you! He was goin' in.

He was a comedy barbarian.

Yeah, people say, "You think Jesus is comin' back?"

Sure...

[chuckling] Sure.

What's it been?

What's it been, 2,000 years?

Boy, I sure don't wanna dampen anybody's optimism here.

I think his last words may have been...

[banging] "Oh, ow!

Oh, not the other one... Oh, you jerk! Ow!"

"Not my left hand! Not my left hand!"

[banging]

[Bill] He's makin' fun of Jesus, for God's sakes.

I loved it, I never found them to be offensive.

I think God's got a sense of humor.

"Be a symbol of peace and love to the world, help."

He's goin', [laughing] "Yeah."

Yeah, sure...

Help, huh?

Yeah, yeah, I'd like to help.

Tell 'em I'll be there

as soon as I can play the piano again!

[laughter]

Thanks a lot!

I'm the only savior

"who can use his hand as a whistle!"

[whistling]

[laughter and applause]

[Hamilton] Nobody was a living metaphor

for satirizing these televangelists

like a real preacher,

like Sam.

And did a perfect caricature of a televangelist,

yet ripping the very tenets of Christianity to shreds.

[laughter and applause]

I used to preach, I used to study the Bible.

It was a pretty fascinating book.

People go, "Sam, do you think you could do it again?"

"Do you think?"

Think you could ever be able to preach again?

Do you think there's anything left inside you...

[imitating evangelist] ...that has any good to it

that could shine a light into somebody's lost way!

Do you think if you had to,

if your soul was ridin' on the line,

and you had to testify,

and you had to make a commitment

"if it was a final answer, what would you do?"

Well...

[cheering and applause]

[Bill] His resentment was against organized religion.

Which sounds weird with the kind of act that he did,

but he was a very spiritual person.

[applause]

He says a lot of truth, you know,

that other people don't have the courage to say,

and, uh, let's face it, he's havin' fun doin' it.

[crowd cheering] Sam! Sam!

[Bill] The difference of Sam being a celebrity

and before he was a celebrity,

wasn't much difference,

except now he had money.

[tires squealing]

With Sam, it was just... [snaps fingers]

everything all at once.

He's a guy who wants everything all at once,

that could handle everything all at once.

[primal screaming]

Go for it.

All right, get ready.

-Okay, I'm goin'. -Let's go!

Let's do it!

♪ See, C.C. Rider ♪

[crowd roaring]

[Emcee] Let's hear it for Sam Kinison!

[crowd roaring and cheering]

[Gaynor] That whole character...

that whole look, with the beret and everything...

it was a persona.

You waited with bated breath

for what was gonna come out of his mouth,

in that outfit...

Because you just didn't know

what the... this guy was about.

That whole persona, I mean...

And it made me think,

"Are you actin' like this all the time?"

I think he got lost,

'cause you run into that fine line of...

of the character and you.

[♪♪♪]

[Corey Feldman] There was the Cresthill house.

Everybody came to Cresthill.

Sam was, you know, this was his kingdom.

This was his lair, you know.

[Barton] Mitzi owned Cresthill.

She wanted a place for comedians to live.

You just had to come down the hill and go to work.

When I first went there,

he had this kind of side room on the second floor,

and then, it went from that

to him kinda working his way up the domination chain

to where he had the main quarters,

and it was now his place.

He ruled that empire unequivocally.

He wanted to be the master of ceremonies

He liked being the guy with the bag in the pocket,

you know, so that he could dole it out.

Sam...

would pull out a bag of drugs that...

I didn't give a... who you were,

how famous, how rich...

you were suddenly so jealous

of the weight

of what he just dumped on the, um...

What are those scales

all the dealers had back in the day?

You finish the joke.

And, yeah, we all dove in.

We all dove in, you know?

[chuckling]

[Chong] When you get on the coke, you...

you have this powerful feeling that you can do anything.

You can come up with an answer to everything, you know?

And Sam did, you know.

For a while, it works for a while,

and then it starts tearing down the...

We'd go upstairs at The Comedy Store,

and, of course, it's like an outtake from Scarface.

I thought, "Are there really people this stupid still,"

with the cocaine, and the meth, and the crack,

and the dope, and the hashish, and the...

just like a...

a burial ground for stinky hippies,

and I said, "Get me outta here."

Sam, why do you do this?

"You stupid..." and I walked out.

This entourage of people

were obviously not comedy people,

and I said, you know,

"I don't wanna get busted with somethin'

I'm not even involved in.

I-I'm... this is where I work.

This is my job.

"You know, I'm... I just..."

I just stopped goin'.

[Feldman] That's when it started

getting particularly worrisome,

when Sam would show up so loaded,

he was supposed to be on at, you know, 11:00,

and he'd be up at the house party.

"He's not here."

They're doing everything they can

to kind of coax the crowd...

just calm, calm,

"Stay calm, he'll be here, we promise."

[telephone rings]

Get the call from somebody down...

you know, Todd, or whoever, down there.

"You gotta get him down here right now," you know.

He's gonna lo... Mitzi's goin' crazy.

She's gonna throw him outta the house.

"He needs to get down here now."

And we'd usher him out the door,

and then he'd get in there... [grumbling]

I mean, literally mumbling,

'cause he hadn't slept for three days.

I saw some stuff where I would just, like,

my head would just go down.

"What are you doin'?

How can you do this to yourself?"

We had this movie with CAA called "Atuk."

[Gaynor] When I was at the bon voyage party for Atuk,

and he's shooting in, like, four days,

and I asked him, "How's the script?"

And he said, "I don't know, I haven't read it.

I'm gonna read it on the plane."

Sam, you haven't read the script?

Everyone read the script but Sam,

and every one of us that read the script told him,

And he said, "No, I'll make the changes when I get there

if I don't like stuff,"

and I tried to explain to him,

you've had it three months.

Now you're gonna go there and you're gonna...

they're gonna say you're a prick.

We were both positioning me as Sam's writer.

We showed up in New York to start shooting Atuk.

Let's shut down production for two weeks

and rewrite the script,

I thought the ideas we had were good,

but Sam was trying to execute them

with all-night writing sessions.

[♪♪♪]

[Shubert] You have to take it serious, you know.

I... I... I don't think he, I don't think he did.

I think he thought he could do whatever he wanted.

He thought he could stay up all night,

and party and carry on,

and then show up for work the next day be on...

[Barton] There were, like, three or four hotels

he was banned from in Manhattan

'cause of all the noise and ruckus and...

and we were at the Omni International.

I think that was about to be on the list.

Hollywood's kind of about, can you make the 6:00 a.m. call.

Can you be there at 6:00 a.m.?

Drinking coffee, and, like, all right.

Are we gonna do something here?

You know, I mean, and he didn't get that,

and this all came to a head with the production of Atuk,

which shot for exactly one day.

[Bill] There's a meeting, and we go in.

There's, like, six...

six big shots there,

and one chair on this side, which is Sam.

I don't even have a chair.

"W-what is this?"

"That's the rewrites."

"We never said you could do any rewrites."

Sam then tells 'em, "You know, the movie is..., dude.

It's a bad movie."

"I think maybe we'll just pull the plug."

Well, I think they was expecting Sam to go, "Wait a minute.

You know, wait a minute, guys, you know.

Let's, let's try to, let's try to work this out."

Instead, Sam says,

"Okay, then, I'm going back to L.A."

[door slams]

It was a genuine debacle.

It was a genuine perfect storm.

They're two drastically different visions.

And believe me, he was right.

Unfortunately, he was absolutely right

about the changes he wanted to make.

It's just he... It's too late.

I began to realize that, you know,

this guy is blowin' it.

These opportunities are not gonna come around again.

Sam and Kevin, they were house-sitting in Hollywood.

Kevin is not eating much.

He's wantin' to get his weight back down,

and, well, Sam, he's gonna party every night,

and some of these parties will last two or three days.

They were at some place,

some house up in the hills,

and I would be up partying with Sam all night,

and we would try to outdo each other

for who could stay up the longest.

Not just whose lines were the longest,

but who could stay up the longest.

I think what happened was,

and I think he got a hold of... was stealin' the guy's weed,

and then the guy, to... with him,

Maybe it was Angel Dust or somethin',

it, you know, ...with your mental capacity, and...

They said Kevin was never right after that night.

[Bill] We all thought

that maybe he had gotten some drugs, and...

you know, bad drugs or whatever,

so we actually put him in a rehab.

He's detoxin'.

I called one up for a friend about a month and a half ago.

A friend!

Don't give me that look.

[laughter]

"Yeah, sure, it was a friend.

It was for you, you loser!"

[roaring]

[laughter]

I called to have access for my little brother,

'cause he tried to hang out with me for a week.

Said, "No, he has no drugs in his system at all."

"We'd like to move him over to the psych division,"

so they moved him over there.

While he was there,

he was diagnosed with manic depression

and with bipolar.

And it was just weird.

He would have these... be very lucid,

and then would have these moments,

and people tried to treat him different,

because I don't think Kevin felt any different.

[Bill] Sam felt like that his, uh, lifestyle

had made Kevin the way that he had got.

He sincerely felt he was responsible.

It affected all of us.

Uh, Kevin was our baby.

He's the baby of our family.

[Feldman] I remember walking into a party,

and I was told Sam was there, and he wanted to see me,

and he wasn't doing well, and he was really depressed.

"Dude, did you hear what happened?"

I said, "No, man, what happened?"

"I lost 150 pounds."

I said, "What?"

"I lost 150 pounds!

Can you tell?"

And I said, "No, Sam.

To be honest, you look exactly the same."

Very somber, kind of "heh-heh," uncomfortable laughter.

I said, "What's goin' on?"

And he looks up at me and he goes,

"My brother killed himself.

"I lost my brother, and I'm lookin' for a new one.

You want the gig?"

and I was like, "Sure.

Okay."

And he was like, "Well, good, that, that'll work."

Then he just gave me, like, a big hug, and...

It was just one of those very rare,

honest moments from Sam

where he was just, you know, helpless,

which you didn't really see much.

You didn't see Sam helpless much.

[Shubert] Kevin committed suicide,

and I think Sam tried to douse the pain

in cocaine and alcohol,

and even more so than he was before.

I think the thing he felt guilty about was

he made a deathbed promise to his father

that, "I will look after Kevin."

[♪♪♪]

He came to The Comedy Store, and he was real upset.

Real upset, that's an understatement.

The guy was like... already gone,

literally out of control,

out of his mind, over his brother.

He's smackin' people around.

He's goin' nuts.

He's screamin' at people.

[Sam screaming]

It gets really ugly,

and finally, somebody called the cops.

[Bill] He wanted to keep working.

That's how he got through it,

was being on stage, and, uh...

Even then, he had funny stuff.

You know, you gotta deal with it the best you can.

He just couldn't find a subject

that he wouldn't breach.

If Sam found a funny angle, he was goin' in.

[laughs]

Well, I'd better not get started on that gay issue.

I'm not mad at gays.

I'm not mad at gays, I don't understand it,

but I'm sure they don't understand me.

I made one joke about AIDS.

Maybe it was in bad taste,

but I'm a XXX-rated comedian.

People count on me for bad taste!

[laughter and cheers]

"You can't say this, and you can say that,"

and he just wanted to... "Nah... all that."

He just broke every rule there was for stand-up comedy.

They're jokes!

I'm a comedian.

[cheering]

Although it was funny in retrospect,

ooh, it was so, so off-color.

We're... [giggles]

[Shubert] Sam was really one of the first guys

to take, like, four really funny guys

on the road with him.

I mean, I was a kid.

I was 25, 26, I'm on tour

with one of the most notorious, outrageous comedians

in the country.

[Bill] Everybody's on tour at the same time.

You run into everybody.

He got involved with all the rockers.

Sam was actually a real player.

I mean, Sam could play guitar.

He could sing, and he could play the piano.

He loved that stuff.

Sam and I became rock 'n' roll, comedy blood brothers.

We actually did a gig together

where I got up on stage and jammed with him.

We played "Cat Scratch Fever."

He fancied himself a wannabe guitar player.

[Rudy Sarzo] There were some outrageous rock stars

But none of them ever came close to what it was

when you were around Sam.

We shared the same management company.

He was being groomed...

[screaming]

...as the rock 'n' roll heavy metal comedian.

[♪♪♪]

For really a stand-up comedian

to be part of the MTV generation...

[screaming] Oh, yeah!

In front of arena-sized crowds, you know,

and that is huge.

You also worked huge halls, right?

Oh, well, this is gonna sound like I'm bragging...

I probably am, but...

it was, um, Giants Stadium.

[crowd screaming]

It was 82,000 people.

[voice echoing]

How are ya?

[imitates roar of crowd]

[screaming]

[crowd screams back]

I love you, New Jersey!

[Sarzo] He wasn't performing in clubs,

he was performing in arenas,

the same places that our band was performing at,

to sell-out crowds.

One guy...

with a microphone.

[screaming]

[Nugent] You gotta have confidence

to go out there in front of all those people

with a microphone.

That's all you got.

[laughs]

[Bill] We consistently played

to 5,000- and 10,000-seat venues.

Sam was the first stand-up comedian ever

to fill and sell out Madison Square Garden.

He was it.

[Michaels] When someone comes along,

and they totally change the face of comedy, like Sam,

and to be witnessing it,

and the elevation of stand-up comedy

from being a small, intimate experience

to happening in the stadiums,

I mean, it was awesome.

[cheering]

[Gaynor] He reached that audience

that was listening to...

molten rock from the depths of hell!

You know, Metallica. Oh, God! You know?

[cheering and screaming]

They're all long-hairs

with shirts with the heavy metal.

He hit the rock 'n' roll nerve.

[crowd screaming]

To hear and feel the whole building shake

because people were stomping their feet...

all coked up and stomping their feet...

"Kinison!"

It seemed impossible.

It was, like, wow.

[screaming]

[crowd screaming, band playing]

It's about to go dark.

Hollywood!

[Tenuta] He presented himself like a rock star,

and he was a rock star.

He would have two women,

two, very pretty, assistant women.

[Michaels] It made me envious,

because it was so awesome.

It's like, "Why can't I be the girl on the leash?"

You know what I mean? "Why?"

These, of course, are my babies.

The lovely Sabrina.

The lovely Malika,

ladies and gentlemen.

[crowd cheering]

[Tenuta] He'd say, "Hey, yeah,

Bring me the phone, bring me the phone."

because he'd ask somebody in the front... a guy,

"So whaa..?"

"Yeah, yeah, she broke up..."

"She broke up? Okay, well, what's her name?"

And... and they'd call.

[Sam] Whoo!

[crowd cheering]

These are the operators we have standing by.

[crowd cheering]

What's your name?

Kevin.

I come home from work, and, and, you know,

he's with my girl on the kitchen table, and...

The kitchen table

where you have to eat your breakfast?

He would actually call the girl.

It was real!

Is the phone ringing?

[man on phone] Hello?

Is Kate there?

-[man] Kate? - Yeah.

[man] Uh, yeah, hang on a second.

[crowd screaming]

Yes!

You are the winner of a very special prize.

[Kate] And what's that?

Well, we were lookin' for a girl

who is a...

that... her boyfriend's brother, and you won!

Yeah, you...

Some women would say, "Well, isn't he sexist?"

Well, no.

I'm, I'm just laughing.

I can't help it.

You...

How do you live with yourself?

Oh, ...political correctness!

He just had to tell his truth,

which was very intense and raw.

Malika and Sabrina are sisters.

Sam met his match with Malika.

How the... are you?

Oh, God...

Oh...

she's this exotic, beautiful, firm, young babe.

Sam and Malika's relationship was very volatile,

very volatile.

[screaming] Ow!

In Sam's mind, that was the perfect woman for him.

[Sam] This is Malika, and this is Sabrina,

ladies and gentlemen.

[Bill] She was beautiful,

and he could still go out and do whatever he wanted to do,

'cause she wasn't goin' anywhere.

He went out and did whatever he wanted to do,

and she didn't go anywhere.

[Sam] Oh, God.

I love my work, folks.

His priority was he partied every night,

he's gonna party every night.

Being on the road with Sam was...

it was a traveling circus, that's for sure.

Because you're in the limelight,

because you're a celebrity,

and you look like you're a party animal,

they, people assume

you can do supernatural amounts of narcotics,

of drugs.

You go, "Oh!

Oh, it's Kinison!

Oh, oh!

Here's your line!"

[squeaking]

You know.

It's like two feet long.

"Go, man, go! Go! Go! Go!"

You know?

I'm trying to live up to the image.

"Oh, get out of my way!

Watch me!"

[sniffing]

And I would sniff all this up.

About 10 minutes later, I'm walkin' around the party...

[banging]

[Barton] The partyin' got scary.

Sam was, like, on really severe heart medication.

That didn't stop him.

[Saget] With Sam, I mean, he let his devils take over.

Some people that were too close to him got hurt.

Anybody that's friends with someone

who changes by the... by midnight,

turns into, you know, Mr. Hyde,

better get out of their way.

I tried nitrous oxide.

That's the... they give you at the dentist's office.

You know, so I'm sittin' there.

I'm higher than God, you know.

[breathing heavily]

I remember once we were in a hotel,

like, I don't know, Kansas or somewhere,

and he'd gotten a hold of a case of nitrous oxide.

Jimmy and I were staying in the room next door,

and we just hear this...

[squeaking to imitate valves turning]...

[breathing heavily]

And he just...

And I heard Malika goin',

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

And he would mumble something, and she would leave.

"You go talk to him, Dan. He'll listen to you."

[knocking]

"Who is it?"

And I say, "It's Dan."

And he would say, "Go away, Dan."

An average bender for Sam was three days,

and his record was seven.

Seven days, no sleep.

Sam might have had a hard time...

loving himself,

forgiving himself,

and accepting himself.

He missed Kevin terribly.

Are you happy?

Yeah.

I had some tragedy in my life about a year and a half ago,

- Your brother. - My little brother passed away.

It was kind of a...

He had achieved his greatest dream.

He'd become a famous comedian,

but at a price,

that if you asked him,

"Are you willing to pay this price?"

he would've said, "No.

No."

[emcee] Ladies and gentlemen,

the undisputed king of comedy,

the leader of the band,

Mr. Sam Kinison!

Hi, Liz!

[Liz, on phone] Hello?

This is Sam Kinison.

[Liz] Who?

Yeah, Sam Kinison. I'm a comedian.

I'm down at Bally's, and we're havin' fun...

that he had been up for a few days, partying and...

He was not on.

He was not the typical Sam.

Well, then, let me re... recreate...

Let, let me, uh, apologize

for the first part of this bit.

His delivery was off.

He would forget jokes,

and stumble and stammer on stage,

and, uh, some people would be heckling him.

You would look around and say, "Wow."

These people are actually happy

that Sam is having such a bad night.

Oh, God.

I'm havin' so much fun.

It's so good to be back at Bally's, man.

I'm tellin' ya, man, I'm havin' a blast.

Got a lot of surprises.

They were there to watch the train wreck.

Uh...

He's just...

...it up.

He didn't realize how bad he was,

and I knew that in every one of those casinos,

they record your show.

I said, "I want you to watch something."

And I put it in, and he watched it.

He watched the show.

Well, then, let me re-recreate...

Let, let me, uh, apologize

He goes, "Man, I was, uh, I was really messed up."

I said, "Yeah, well, that mess-up there,

that's gonna cost you half a million dollars a year.

'Cause I can tell you right now,

they're not gonna renew."

The high is that you're becoming successful

at what you love doing.

The high is writing a new hour.

The high is going out

and performing for 5,000 people.

You can't continue to carry on, and snort cocaine, and drink,

because you have professional obligations,

People are spending millions of dollars.

I mean, I watched the guy blow off, uh...

He had a Learjet waiting at the Van Nuys Airport,

and he's gonna fly out and do a gig

where he was making $35,000.

And he got so... up on coke and booze

that he blew it off,

and I'm sittin' there goin',

I'd have given my left nut

to jump on a Learjet and go make $35,000,

and you're gonna pass out

on your Nicholas Canyon floor

like a homeless person

with a nice house.

That's when it... it really got ugly,

and it was kinda hard to get business done.

Uh, I can remember going to the house.

One day I needed some papers signed by 3:00 for something.

I just started kicking him

and saying, "Sam, get up, it's business."

"Get up.

Go take a shower."

You know, this is ugly.

To me, it was just a waste of life,

and I hated it.

[♪♪♪]

We were gettin' ready to go on tour.

We drop our bags off at LAX.

I should've known when we pulled up, man.

There isn't a soul,

except for one skycap walks by,

and I asked him, I said,

"Hey, you wanna give us a hand here?"

And he stops and looks, and says, "No way, brother."

And so he takes off.

Well, there's another...

looks like a skycap,

has got his foot up against the wall,

lookin' at me.

And he goes, "You need some help?"

And I said, "Yeah,"

and he goes... [claps]

And outta nowhere, there's like 30 DEA,

FBI, LAPD,

you name it, man.

So they start pullin' the luggage out,

and they've got these dogs.

They're sniffing through the luggage.

[barking]

"We got one! We got one!"

So they throw it out.

With, like, seven pieces of the luggage.

And said, "Sam's gonna be transporting some cocaine."

[Bill] Well, Sam now comes to me,

'cause I'm tryin' to talk to this Sergeant Evans, you know.

"What are we doin'," you know?

"We gotta get a plane," you know.

"How do we work this out?"

Sam goes, "Hey, brother.

They wanna check your, uh, black bag."

Well, the black bag is his carry-on bag.

So I'm goin', "What's in the bag?"

And he goes, "I got a little bit of pot."

So I'm like, "Oh, God.

All right."

So I go to this sergeant, and I tell him,

"Hey, those two bags are mine.

Uh, the black bag,

you're gonna find a little bit of pot in there."

So he goes, "Don't worry about it.

It's a misdemeanor, $150 fine."

and the little bag of pot is over two ounces.

It looks like a soccer ball.

So now, all of a sudden, I'm facing three felonies.

I end up goin' to court,

and I end up goin' to rehab for five months

for his pot.

[Sherry] They were brothers.

I'm telling you, they would do anything for each other.

So Bill took the hit.

[Bill] My daughter at that time

is about eight, nine years old.

So I gotta get ready to go.

I take her into, uh, the room, and I tell her,

I said, "Ginger, I'm gonna be gone for a while.

Sam got in some trouble,

so I gotta go, uh, take care of it for him.

It's gonna take me..."

"Well, how come he doesn't go?"

And, uh, that was one of the hardest things I ever did,

to have to stand there and tell my daughter

that, uh, I'm goin' to a rehab,

and I don't even drink.

He loved Ginger.

And for her to have to know the truth,

and the reality of what happened,

it was embarrassing for him.

I shamed him.

I said, "Look what you did.

This isn't funny now,

so don't get up on stage and make a joke outta this.

This is not funny."

Oh, I think it was a come-to-Jesus moment.

He looked like crap, stunk...

"You have $300 in your account.

That's what you got left."

I said "I'm... I'm quitting."

I'm off this party train.

I've ended up with shingles,

end up you owing me all kinds of money.

I'm not doin' it anymore.

"So I'm done."

For the first time, he admitted that "I have a problem."

I said, "Well, if you do,

then from now on, you're in AA meetings,

Log Cabin out in Malibu,

and, uh, if you're not there, I don't work,"

and, uh, he was there.

[Feldman] I hadn't seen Sam in about six months.

"Dude, you gotta go to AA meetings with me, man.

We're gonna do this. We're gonna get sober together,"

and I was really messed up at that time on heroin,

and I was just like,

"I don't know what you're talkin' about, dude.

I'm not goin' anywhere near there."

And he's like, "No, dude."

I want you to come with me to an AA meeting.

It's important.

I've been sober lately.

"I've got it together, I'm doin' great."

I'm like, "Really?"

March 2nd, 1990, I stopped doing coke

because I didn't know it was illegal.

[cheering and applause]

Thank you.

Thank you, for you that believe me.

Thank you very much.

For you that don't believe me,

eat me.

I'm alive, all right.

[laughter]

We were in AA,

and Ozzy Osbourne was a sponsor.

Who outdoes you?

Who outdoes me, well,

I was, I was freaked to meet this guy,

because I, you know, I heard so much

about how crazy he was and outrageous, and...

So I met him at an undisclosed location.

We ran into each other, and it was Ozzy Osbourne.

What was Ozzy like?

[Sam] Oh, Ozzy's great!

He's so funny, he's so mellow.

You know, I was expecting...

"Oh, you got any bats on ya?"

[roaring]

"Gonna get some raw meat!"

And he's not like that at all.

He's so kind, you know. He's so British.

He's like, "Hello. How are you?

I've always been afraid to meet you."

That's what he told me.

"'cause I heard you were too wild for me to hang out with."

And I'm... Yeah, I'm like, "Yeah."

Great, Ozzy Osbourne is afraid to meet me?

"Yeah, my reputation isn't too exaggerated."

When I say he cleaned up, uh,

once every three or four months,

he would have a night.

I could live with that.

I could not live with every night.

He was genuinely clean and sober,

and you could communicate better with him.

[Barton] He actually did clean up,

and he stayed out in Malibu,

and he grew a beard,

and he started to lose weight.

I had a place in Malibu, he had a place,

"Oh, I got a place here." "Oh, me too."

"Oh, oh, well, come over to the house."

I walk in,

and I notice he had a drum kit

with a neon sign,

and it was dedicated to his brother,

who had passed away.

That showed me a lot.

You know, and I thought, hmm,

he had a fall,

and he started to pick himself up,

and I think he really wanted to get in touch

with the real Sam.

Honey!

I'm home!

[crowd cheering]

[applause]

Aw...!

Happy Anniversary, pumpkin face!

I don't believe it,

even after three months of rehab!

Rehab? Hey! How about a drink?

When he joined in with what we were doing,

he absolutely understood

that we were making fun

of extreme nature of his stand-up,

making fun with what he's created,

"And I'm gonna be in it."

Like, who does that?

[laughter]

He's in on the joke,

but he wants it to be super accurate.

Like, "Show me, like, what, what are we doin' here?"

And he was like, "I'm gonna wear this

'cause I kinda like do this thing

where I, like, tie this head scarf."

You know, as he was like sort of doin'

a Pirates-of-the-Caribbean kind of affair

with, like, you know... at a jaunty angle.

"I've got all this jewelry,"

all this crazy metal stuff, like leather bands, and...

just crazy rock 'n' roll, like, swag, you know.

It was very impressive.

...steak from a dead cow that died six years ago!

His completely crazy, animated face

is, like, inches from mine,

and I'm really trying very, very hard not to laugh.

[laughter]

But I was like, "I will make it work.

I will not break!"

I only met him

the day that he came to join me on In Living Color.

I really did love him,

and have known ever since I met him

what a special thing that was.

[Sherry] Are you ready for Sam?

[crowd cheering]

Are you sure?

[applause and cheers]

[crowd roaring]

[Bill] With him being clean,

his material got more political.

But he still did, you know, crazy crap.

He was back to his old self,

and even... better.

He was back to topical material.

He's comin' into a new chapter of his career,

like he'd kinda...

found his rhythm again.

And it was funny.

You could not sit there and just not belly laugh.

It was so unique to watch Sam,

and just to sit there and think,

"Wow, this poor kid."

He fought for life,

and he got where he was gonna be.

[crowd cheering]

[Gaynor] And I really do think

he was trying to come back to be himself.

It was like the old Sam,

and it felt warm,

it felt for real.

He really loved Malika, that much I know.

He connected with Malika

they hung out a little bit more together.

They got married.

Voilà.

Uncle Ted, the ultimate matchmaker.

[wedding march plays]

[♪♪♪]

[officiant] The guests may be seated, please.

Best man and bride's attendant,

step right in beside them, please.

Samuel, or Sam,

and Malika...

When he became big as life,

he always wanted a family.

He always wanted a wife that would love him

and be passionate with him.

...I pronounce you husband and wife,

and you may kiss your bride.

[applauding and cheering]

[laughter]

Congratulations to you, sir.

Ah, good job.

Brother James, God bless you.

Malika, how do you pronounce your last name?

"Kinison."

[laughter]

[♪♪♪]

[Bill] He married Malika.

I mean, everything was working exactly,

for probably the first time,

the way we wanted it to.

[♪♪♪]

I heard that he had to do some make-up shows.

He was going out to Laughlin,

to the middle of nowhere, to do these shows.

He is supposed to fly into Vegas,

take a limo down to Laughlin.

He decided he wanted to drive.

We met at, at Barstow.

Malika was in the passenger seat.

He has to get gas, so we pull off.

Then, he pulled out in front of me,

which he never did,

because usually he just followed wherever I went.

He pulled out in front of me,

We're just startin' to go up this river road.

It's dusk.

It's like 7:00 at night.

We could see this pickup.

He's passin' all these cars.

So I'm talkin' to Sam,

but I mean, he can't hear me.

I'm in, I'm in the van,

but I'm telling Samuel, "Slow down, man."

Let this guy get back in.

Well, he's probably slowed down to 15 miles an hour.

And, uh, at the very last second,

this kid gets back in line.

Problem is,

behind him was another pickup and kid.

They hit head-on.

I went over and checked on Malika.

She was unconscious.

When I jerked the door open,

Sam was sittin' in his seat,

was leaned over into... like where the armrest is.

Uh, the steering wheel was non-existent, uh...

his head had hit the windshield.

And, uh, I opened up the door,

and he's, uh, starts telling me "Why?

Why now?

Why?

Why now?"

And I'm saying, you know, "Sam,"

you know, "Just lay still, we've got help on the way."

It was like he was lookin' at somebody.

"I don't wanna die,"

and it was like he was negotiating with somebody.

"I don't wanna die."

"I don't wanna die."

Then he went, "Okay. Okay. Okay,"

and that was it.

He was gone.

[♪♪♪]

I called my mother.

I said, "Well, uh, Mom, this is the..."

I said, "This is the toughest phone call

I'm ever gonna have to make,"

and she said, uh, "What' goin' on?"

I said, uh, "Sam was in a car accident tonight,

and, uh, was, was killed."

She just...

dropped to the floor.

Bill called and said,

"Sherry, Sam's gone.

We've lost him."

"What do you mean you've lost him?"

It was a life-changing moment.

Aah...

Dammit.

Great man, good man,

focused man, gifted man.

I was so... pissed off.

As quickly as Sam Kinison had entered my life,

Sam Kinison was taken from my life.

He was my brother, you know, and he was gone.

Just in a flash, that was it.

Hey, Sam...

Sorry.

Here's to you.

Cut, please?

I always thought he would end up taking himself out.

I always thought that he would take the pills,

and drink the booze,

and dial the wrong combination, and...

wake up dead,

you know, just be from an overdose.

I didn't think he would go the way he did,

but that's a classic show business death,

on the road to a gig.

It wasn't stupid and useless.

It was on his way to a gig.

All along Sunset Strip,

all of The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory,

everything was "We love you, Sam."

The Improv...

Because they knew that... he was a prophet.

[Saget] I loved Sam.

He had a charm, and he had those eyes.

He had the eyes of a star, is what he had.

[Rogan] His story is an amazing story

that goes from a kid getting hit by a car,

to becoming a preacher,

to having your heart broken,

to screaming about it on stage,

to changing an American art form.

[Leno] He was a true original.

What comic was Sam most like?

I have no idea.

He was most like... Sam.

[♪♪♪]

[Sam] Such a special night... it's our last show...

that I thought it was, uh, appropriate to do a love song.

[playing piano]

[♪♪♪]

I wrote this about this girl

that I met about five years ago.

[♪♪♪]