Marc Johnson Unleashes On Lakai + More | “If you ask me a f’ing question don’t you want the truth? Or do you want a bunch of vanilla bullshit?”
Tired of the boring old same-same skateboarder interview? Probably. Marc Johnson is here to shake things up. This was an interview that we did with him and he went in. Didn’t really matter what we asked him MJ had something passionate to say. Thankfully there is someone out there willing to say what’s on their mind and not cover it up to please sponsors or fans. Marc talked his current feelings about Lakai, how Blind and Bill Weiss ruined skateboarding, how Dylan Rieder’s Gravis part was the last great skateboard part, how stoked he is on adidas Skateboarding, and much more.
Sample:
Over the years you’ve become one of the go to guys for getting a great heart felt interview about how much skateboarding means to you. Do you ever feel pressure to get emotional over skateboarding when speaking about it now after so many strong performances?
Umm. You say performances as if that’s like acting?
No I mean it like, you give a more in-depth, honest interview than an average skateboarder.
Yeah because you know what, if somebody asks me a question I tell the truth based on what I know at that given time. You know that Jenkem interview, I’m still getting raked across the coals for one line. And that fucking dude Ian (Michna) kept trying to get me to say ‘Nike.’ I told him, Dude I’m not going to say Nike for your questions. I’ll say “big footwear brand” or whatever, but I’m not saying Nike. He kept trying to get me to say it. He had an ulterior motive for wanting me – of all people – to say ‘Nike” and I fucking refused. I know tons of people that have great lives because they skate for Nike now. I’m not going to take a shit on friends of mine who have a good life now because they ride for them because you want someone to take a shit on Nike for you. Nobody gives a fuck about what you say, so you want to get someone like me to say it for you and I’m not going to fucking do that dude.
I’ll say “big footwear brand” and so people that read that don’t know that I was talking about Nike because I wouldn’t say their name. But now they’re raking me across the coals because they think that I meant Adidas, or New Balance, or Converse, or whatever. They don’t know the story behind that fucking interview.
The stuff that I said in that fucking interview was in the beginning of 2013 and that’s before I know all of the dirty shit Lakai was doing. So I gave an honest interview based on the information that was available to me at that time. And now I’m not going to give an interview, now that I know all of the fucking dirty shit that they fucking did to other people and me in the following years. Yeah, fuck those people seriously. Fuck those people and I’m glad that their piece of shit shoe company took a nose dive. Because they are piece of shit people. Yeah.
That was one of my favorite interviews because you put it all out there. I thought it was cool, yeah you said that one sentence that everyone always goes back to, but immediately followed it up with 100 sentences saying exactly why skateboarders should ride for companies that support what they want to do and than you ended up on adidas years later.
Yeah. It’s that social media mentality now where you’ll write a whole paragraph and motherfuckers will sit and read every fucking word and they’ll pick out one word or sentence and then they will fucking grill you for it. That’s what the social media mentality breeds now. They’ll look at your photo you posted and if they can’t find anything in the foreground to talk shit about they will pull something out of the background. Like somebody’s shoe out of the background and say, “Dude, what’s up with that thing in your post? What’s up with you promoting that?”
Those people (companies) get those those alerts or whatever. Then they’ll come after me about that. Because motherfuckers on social media are just starting shit all day long because their lives have no meaning at all. You don’t see pro skateboarders or sponsored amateurs ever doing that shit.
Point being. I don’t give a performance. I just say what the fucking truth is. And that’s revolutionary now or some bullshit. I don’t know.
They’re scared of the truth out there now.
Yeah and I’m telling motherfuckers the truth on Instagram now where I’m just like, “Dude, newsflash. Everybody that works at adidas Skateboarding skates. Every day. They treat me 1000x better than my previous shoe sponsor did. I get to travel the world. They keep a roof over my head and food in my mouth.” Are you kidding me? People just don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. If I’m not going to say some shit that doesn’t mean anything, I’m not going to say anything at all. So if you ask me a fucking question don’t you want the truth? Or do you want a bunch of vanilla bullshit? “Aw dude everything’s rad bro yeah so stoked bro!” One of those fucking interviews? Nobody that reads that shit believes it anyways. Shut the fuck up. No you’re not.
Anyway. Tangent over.
Click to WHAT YOUTH for the long form interview with Marc Johnson
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