#Dax Shepard Reveals Dark Truth Behind The Interview That Got Him BANNED From Conan

On this week’s episode of The Pursuit of Healthiness with Blake Griffin podcast, the Parenthood alum discussed the one moment he wasn’t able to keep his addiction struggle hidden during his life as a celeb.

Obviously throughout his entire recent relapse, no one had any idea he was using again. Even his wife Kristen Bell and his podcast co-host Monica Padman were fooled to an extent. He was doing hour-plus episodes of Armchair Expert on pills and getting away with it.

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But in 2004, at the height of his addiction before getting clean, Dax slipped up BAD — and it was right in plain sight.

He reveals to host Blake Griffin:

“Professionally, the only wreckage I really had while I was an addict was I went on Conan.”

This was back in Conan O’Brien‘s Late Night days, so the audience was used to a degree of silliness. But this was something else. Dax reveals:

“I had done the pre-interview in a blackout, and I woke up to the hotel security shaking me awake, and I was with a stranger, and the stranger had peed the bed, or I had peed the bed — someone had peed the bed.”

Hotel security, he explains, showed up because his publicist was flipping out; he was supposed to be on the show in 20 minutes, but he was still passed out.

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Somehow he got ready and made it to the soundstage, but he was a wreck:

“I show up on the show. I don’t know what he’s talking about. I can tell he’s queuing me up for stories I’ve told, but I don’t know any of the stories. So, I’m just doing what I can to be funny out there, and I am a mess.”

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a pretty classic late night appearance. Dax opens the interview taking a prat fall over the couch, demolishing the coffee table.

He’s a little scattered but still very funny, so everyone watching just thought, hey he’s on MTV, maybe he’s going full Jackass or something. He remembers:

“Now, the audience dug it. It was fine for the audience. But for him, what a disaster. I didn’t know any of the stories. I broke a coffee table.”

Viewers may have laughed, but what was happening behind the scenes wasn’t a joke. Conan and his producers had a better idea what was really going on, and they banned him.

“So I was banned from that show for some years, until I got sober and I got myself back on it and now I’ve been on it a bazillion times, but that was probably the only career wreckage-y thing I did.”

Innerestingly, on a 2018 episode of his own podcast, Dax previously asked Conan about the appearance from his point of view. While the late night vet remembered the debacle, he also said Dax was nowhere near the worst guest.

That would be Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara, who “fled” before his appearance and was caught by a producer who chased him out into the street, ultimately coming on the show “against his will.” Now THAT is a legendary bad late night interview!

[Image via Conan/YouTube.]