{"id":78082,"date":"2020-04-01T15:24:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T22:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=78082"},"modified":"2020-11-24T13:28:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T21:28:56","slug":"r-i-p-jeff-grosso-1968-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/r-i-p-jeff-grosso-1968-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Jeff Grosso 1968-2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we search for the best way to pay tribute to one of the most influential skateboarders of our time, we could think of no better way than to share Jeff Grosso’s own raw and unfiltered words with you. This interview took place in 2006, a few months into a life of newfound sobriety for Jeff, before Grosso’s “LoveLetters to Skateboarding”<\/a> and the next chapters of his life with his son began. This is a down-to-earth conversation, between two good friends, that we hope speaks to you in the same way that Grosso always spoke to all of us, honestly and from the heart… R.I.P. Jeffrey Blaine Grosso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am skateboarding. Skateboarding is me. The little wooden toy is a kiss and a curse. It\u2019s everything. It\u2019s the best thing that ever happened to me and the worst thing that ever happened to me, all rolled up into one.”<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Grosso in Costa Mesa. Photo by Adam Wright. Jeff floating over the combi. Photo by Brian Fick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JEFF GROSSO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INTERVIEW BY STEVE OLSON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIRCA 2006 (JUICE MAGAZINE #60)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OLSON: Yeah. Hello. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GROSSO: Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Totally.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who am I talking to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Steve Olson calling from Juice Magazine. What are we doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interview?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Sure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me get some cigarettes. Are you ready?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready? We\u2019re off to a blistering start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This thing hasn\u2019t even started yet. What are you talking about? It\u2019s a false start.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m full of false starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Basic Bowl BBQ 1999. Photo by Rhino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

See, now we\u2019ve started. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell me your name.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grosso or Grasso, depending on if you are Italian or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grasso?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. In Italian it means \u201cfat\u201d. For some my reason, my family moved over here from Italy and changed it to Grosso to Americanize it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re Italian?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dad is 100% Italian. My mom is a Welsh\/Euro mutt. I got her red hair and freckles, but I got the Italian nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why you\u2019re so sexy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See, now the interview is going somewhere. Where were you born?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born in Glendale, CA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re a native. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I spent the early part of my life in Eagle Rock, but I moved to Arcadia in junior high school. That\u2019s when I started skating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vans Pool Party 2014. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When did you first step on a board?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was probably \u201877. The first skateboards that I got were hand me downs. I was a teeny, tiny kid, like five years old. My mom brought home a skateboard from her boss at work. It was a California Surfer board. Urethane wheels were already out, but I had this shitty skateboard with clay wheels and shitty bearings. I lived on a hill in Eagle Rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, you did?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. It was super rough asphalt. I couldn\u2019t stand up on the thing. I had no concept of that at all. I would sit on that board and roll down the hill. I was doing that for a few days until I dissolved the wheels. My mom realized that I liked it, so she took me to go get a skateboard at the toyshop. I got one of those California Comet fiberglass doohickeys. It had Cadillac wheels on it. The skateboard craze was going on. It had to be \u201877. Then my mom had a friend who had an older son who had skateboard magazines. He showed me the magazines and I tripped out on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Then I had this friend at school, and  he had  a skateboarding birthday party. They took us to Montebello. So I got to skate Montebello, but I was a \u201cbeginner\u201d. Remember how you had to pass the test? If you were a \u201cbeginner\u201d you could only ride certain runs. If you were an \u201cexpert\u201d you could ride the snake. We were all a bunch of beginners. We sucked. All we could ride was this little sidewalk with a bank at the end of it. We couldn\u2019t do anything, but I watched everybody and freaked out on the place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who did you see at Montebello?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no idea. We were little kids. I still had no concept of it. I was more interested in the cake and the presents the birthday kid got. Remember those Evel Knievel motorcycles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d rev up the wheel\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And launch them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. That kid got an Evel Knievel, so I was more enamored by that then the skateboard park. I was like, \u201cIf we could bring the Evel Knievel into the skateboard park, we\u2019d be having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throw it right off into the big bowl.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I was playing with GI Joes and dolls and stuff, so I put the skateboard on the back burner for a while. Then I moved to Vegas and started doing poorly in school. My mom had a boyfriend out there, and his son was a year older than me. He was a super smart mathematician kid. They wanted to get us together, so maybe the kid would wear off on me and I\u2019d start doing better in school. He skateboarded, so they took us to the Las Vegas Desert Surf Skatepark. That\u2019s when I caught the bug for it. I went skateboarding with him, and he taught me how to carve down the snakes and do that whole trip. I had a mini bike out there, because, you know, I lived in the desert. When we moved back to Arcadia, I begged my mom to sell the mini bike, so I could buy a skateboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What board did you get?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first real board was a Lonnie Toft. I hate to say this, but I bought Trackers and Sims Snakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What color were your Snakes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got two green ones and two red ones, because if you looked in the magazines at that time, the Sims team were riding multi-color wheels. I got two greens and two reds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Desert Dog Bowl Bash 2006. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Did you alternate them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. One week I\u2019d put the greens in the back and then the next week, I\u2019d put them all on one side. Wheels were softer back then, so you\u2019d cone your wheels out super quick. You\u2019d cone your wheels out in front and then put them on the back. I had to make those wheels last a long time. Then I got to skate Skatopia. I met Eric Nash. Eric Nash had a Lonnie Toft board. That\u2019s why I got it. He was in the same grade as me, and on the first day of school, he was wearing a Sims Snake shirt. He had a broken wrist. I was like, \u201cDo you skateboard?\u201d He was like, \u201cYeah.\u201d I was like, \u201cMe, too.\u201d Then we lied to each other about how good we were. You know how you are when you\u2019re a little kid. You\u2019re like, \u201cI rip. I can do frontside airs six feet out.\u201d Neither one of us could barely kickturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perfect. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] We started buddying around. He\u2019d been to Skatopia a bunch of times, so I got to go there a few times before it closed, and a few times after it closed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso Lien Air at Soul Bowl in Hermosa Beach 1999. Photo by Rhino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Did you like the halfpipe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. We\u2019d just bottom turn at the bottom of it. We sucked. The squared bank funnel thing was more our speed. We were severely beginning. It was more about staying out of everyone\u2019s way, because of the localism back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was there localism going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, if you were a little kid and you sucked and you were beginning, you knew your place. You stayed out of the way. If there were good guys in the park, you stayed away from them, for fear of getting run over or just getting in the way. It was a respect thing. We were beginners and we knew to stay in the beginner\u2019s section. They had just finished that capsule in the back. The first time we went the capsule was closed. They were putting coping on it, so everyone was skating the halfpipe. We didn\u2019t really get to skate it because it was so crowded. When the capsule opened up, we could ride the halfpipe, because everyone had moved on to the capsule. We bottom turned the thing and tried to figure out how to go frontside and do fakies. We rode it to the best of our ability. Then we started going to Pomona Pipe & Pool. It was only 30 minutes from Arcadia in San Gabriel Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell me about Upland.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn\u2019t a big fan of Upland, but we went there a bunch. The magazines back then had coupons to get money off on memberships at all these different parks. Of course, we wanted to go everywhere, and Eric\u2019s dad was always willing to drive us around. We\u2019d go skate SkaterCross and Marina Del Rey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso invert \u2013 1984 Del Mar \u2013 Photo by Kennan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Give a rundown of all the parks that you rode.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rode Montebello, Las Vegas Desert Surf, Pomona Pipe & Pool. I ended up on Pomona\u2019s Pipe & Pool\u2019s Park Team for ASPO. I skated Upland, Marina Del Rey, Skatercross, Lakewood, Whittier, Del Mar, Glendale Boogie Bowl and Agoura Hills, which had already been closed down for a long time. I rode Colton, Endless Wave, Oxnard and Big O. I entered my second contest at Big O.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll get to that. How old were you then?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in fifth grade. It started at the end of fourth grade when I met Eric. In fifth grade, we started skating all the parks. In sixth grade, all the parks started to close down. By seventh and eighth grade, there were just a few left. By then, we were really into it. That\u2019s all we did. We were full-blown skateboarders by sixth grade. We went to skate Skatopia and it was closed. This was right after the Whittier Hester Series had come out in the skateboard magazines, so we made Eric\u2019s dad take us to Whittier instead. We walked in the door and it was like we were home. Every weekend we\u2019d go back to Skate City. We just loved the place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That became your home park?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep. It was a 30-minute drive for our parents. Everything was 30 minutes. Upland was thirty minutes. Whittier was thirty minutes. Pomona was 20 minutes. If we had our choice, we would pick Skate City every time. Upland sucked, we thought. Pomona was kind of a wasteland. It was barely alive. It was kinky. You had to be gnarly to skate there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grossman. Photo by Adam Wright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Did you ever ride Paramount?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I rode that one, too; the Verti-Bowl. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say the least. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] We had full run of all those places, because we joined the amateur circuit. We started to compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What age category did you compete in when you first started entering contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in the 12 and under, 1A, the bottom of the barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who were some of the cats you skated against?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Eric Nash and I, and there was a kid named Jeff Heath from Lakewood that was really good. We skated against Eric Juedan and Billy Braden, and some guys out in Upland. Jeff Heath was our competition. He could do layback airs and rock n\u2019 rolls, so we were incredibly jealous of him. We were both already better than him, but I remember being jealous of him.  He came from one of those little league skateboard families, which we couldn\u2019t really fathom. Our parents weren\u2019t as active as that, in the beginning. They got more active later on, but at the beginning our parents were confused by it.  We were just like, \u201cThis is awesome. We want to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think drew you to skateboarding?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, it was the rush of going down a hill, and the wind in your hair – poetic nonsense. The first time that I saw “Skateboarder” magazine, I was seeing the parks and the guys in their high-top Nikes and their socks tucked up in their kneepads and their Sims gloves and Bennett trucks, and all the equipment and bizarre pictures of guys doing airs and stuff. I couldn\u2019t even fathom what they were doing. It was like, \u201cThat guy is getting rad.\u201d I wanted to get rad, too. The first time I saw \u201cSkateboarder\u201d magazine, I was hooked. That\u2019s the best way that I can put it. We just studied it. We didn\u2019t even really have a concept of what it was. It was like, \u201cI can\u2019t really do this, but it\u2019s so neat to me that I\u2019m just going to keep trying to do it.\u201d Slowly but surely, I started picking it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lance Mountain, Dave Andrecht, John Lucero, Jeff Grosso at Skateboarding Hall of Fame 2016. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What did you do when the parks started closing in the \u201880s?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric and I were the same age, so we came up together. Eric was sponsored by G&S and I was sponsored by Variflex. Lucero, Lance Mountain, and a bunch of the Whittier locals, like Neil and those guys had befriended me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were the annoying little local kids at Skate City. We were constantly bugging them. They were all a few years older than us, so they just tortured us. I was really a target, because I had a really big head. They nicknamed me \u201cBlockhead. They kept trying to get us to do stupid shit, like roll in when we could barely do kickturns. We\u2019d just do it. We wanted to be liked. It was like, \u201cYou\u2019ll think I\u2019m cool if I roll in? Well, fuck. I\u2019ll do it.\u201d I\u2019d just take the slam until I made it. Pretty soon, we were friends with those dudes. They took us under their wing. They tortured us like little brothers, and we loved it. Lucero had gotten sponsored by Variflex, and Lance was getting his pro model. I worshipped Lance when I was a kid. He was totally accessible. He was always really nice to us and really helpful. He got us hooked up through Variflex, and introduced me to Allen Losi. They were like, \u201cYeah. We\u2019ll give you boards.\u201d I was so stoked. Then Whittier closed. Lance lived in Alhambra, which is like 15 minutes by car from my house and he had this ramp in his backyard. He rebuilt his ramp and made it new and awesome. I started going over there and hanging out with him. Lucero had gotten his driver\u2019s license, so after school during the week I\u2019d get rides to skate Lance\u2019s ramp with him, or Lance would come and pick us up. He\u2019d come over and get us and take us to his house to ride. Lance was awesome. He was so cool. He still is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso, Lance Mountain, and Chris Miller at Vans Pool Party 2005. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s crazy that he\u2019d come and pick you up.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had this little yellow Datsun or Toyota. It barely ran. He\u2019d come and pick us up. We\u2019d skate, and our parents would come and pick us up. He was teaching us how to get to the next level. We started learning airs and inverts. By then, we were 14 or 15 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were the contests still going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASPO died out and it was replaced by CASL, the California Amateur Skateboard League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds like little league.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was totally little league, but that\u2019s how it was back then. Contests were everything. Skateboarding was really small. It was dying. In order to get anywhere in it, you had to enter contests and place well in contests. That\u2019s how you got your name out there, so we entered every contest. That\u2019s how you networked back then, too. We\u2019d go down to Del Mar and skate against the Del Mar guys at their home park. We met Gator and Hawk and all the people that rode down there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Ament, Jeff Grosso, Chris Strople, Doug Pineapple Saladino, John Lucero at Vans Pool Party 2014. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who did you skate against in CASL?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were always one step behind. I\u2019m the same age as Hawk, Hosoi, Chris Miller and some of the other guys. Lucero and Neil Blender were in different age categories. We were 3A sponsored, so I didn\u2019t have to compete against Hawk, if that\u2019s what you mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just wondering who you were skating against.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rode against Joe Johnson from Colorado. We rode against Eric Juedan a lot. We skated against Adrian Demain a lot at Del Mar. It was the same five or ten guys at every contest. We were skating against some good guys, but we weren\u2019t skating against East Coasters. This was back when the East Coast was completely overlooked, because the magazines were all out here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think that was fair?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. But skateboarding was a fledgling sport. It was super teeny tiny. The magazines were out here. There was no money in it, so it\u2019s not like they were going to travel around. They had to make do with what was around. I think \u201cThrasher\u201d had already hit the scene. I was riding for Powell, so this was way down the line. They had a contest in Arkansas. It was the first East Meets West. It was ams and pros from out here against ams and pros from out there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso, Chris Miller and Lance Mountain at Vans Pool Party. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did that go down?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a super good contest. I won the amateur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was that the first contest that you won?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sorry. What\u2019s the first contest that you won?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very first contest that I won was the very first contest that I entered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay. Settle down. Is your head bigger now than it was then?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] No. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your first contest was your first victory. Not a bad start, Grosso. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. It was pretty good. I have to say that I pulled a chump move, because a month earlier\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re coming clean, right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, since you think I\u2019m big headed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just kidding, \u201cBlockhead.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] There was a contest at Marina Del Rey. Nash had the nuts to enter it, but I backed down. I was too scared. I sat there and watched Eric. He got fourth. I saw what I was up against, so I entered my first contest at my home park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that wasn\u2019t a bad idea.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a good idea, but I chumped out. Eric had the nuts to show up and roll the dice at a park where he wasn\u2019t a local. It was in the upper keyhole. He still got Top Four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soul Bowl at Hermosa Beach Contest. Photos by Rhino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What do you consider good placing at a contest? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you got Top Ten now, with 200 pros showing up at Tampa Pro, you\u2019re somebody. Back then, if you broke top ten\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That meant there were 11 guys in the contest. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. There were about 100 kids in the contests. You could break top ten, but you couldn\u2019t break top five, because the Bones Brigade and Hosoi ate up the top five. Caballero, Hawk, Mountain, McGill, Hosoi, Gator and Phillips were going to be the top guys. They rotated out depending. If you were pulling a seventh or eighth place as a pro, you were doing pretty good in my book. As an amateur, there was only one place, and that was number one. If you didn\u2019t get first place, you lost. That\u2019s the world that I came from. As a little kid, I used to cry if I got second place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dave Duncan, Eddie Elguera, Jeff Grosso, Chris Miller, Christian Hosoi at Vans Pool Party. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re not even going to dip into that. Would it be safe to say that you\u2019re competitive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, yeah. It was a great part of my early skateboarding. That\u2019s the way we were brought up. I know people can\u2019t relate to that, because it\u2019s so different now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who cares what they think? They weren\u2019t even born yet. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. That\u2019s what it was about. It was about contests. That\u2019s what we were raised on. People say, \u201cOh, that\u2019s little league.\u201d Fuck, yeah! That was me. I was down for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso 1999. Photo by Charlie Middleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How dope was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved it. There was a downside to it too, which I learned later on. It took some of the fun out of it. You put all this energy into competing, instead of just riding. After the parks closed, we had to take it to the backyard ramps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay that\u2019s fine, but you can\u2019t tell me it wasn\u2019t fun to win a contest.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] No. It was awesome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you won the contest you were stoked. I don\u2019t give a fuck what anyone says. You win a contest you feel great.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Totally. It means you\u2019ve done something. It means you\u2019re good. Here\u2019s my number one trophy that says so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a cocky, bigheaded little kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You didn\u2019t have a big head. You\u2019re just saying that you had an ego, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I got an ego early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you think you developed the ego?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of part of skateboarding. You have to have an ego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Heimana Reynolds, Jeff Grosso and Sergie Ventura at Vans Pool Party 2014. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Is it a defense mechanism?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. When you show up to skate against a bunch of other dudes, you\u2019ve got to believe that you\u2019re the man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was your mindset when you were going into competition?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already won this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso in the Juice Magazine Skateboarding Hall of Fame circa 2000. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They should just give you the trophy and not even have the contest?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. \u201cYou should just give me the trophy, because you guys suck. It\u2019s mine. You can\u2019t beat me. I\u2019m way better than you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds fucked to say it. People reading this are probably going to think, \u201cThis dude is fucked up.\u201d And they\u2019re right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No way. Who\u2019s to say what\u2019s right or wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso in the Juice Skateboarding Hall of Fame circa 2000. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the early \u201880s, skateboarding was dead. How did you handle it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was rough at first, but the seed had been sown. It didn\u2019t matter that everything had died out and everything was gone. \u201cThrasher\u201d had just started up and there was a Bible to read. We studied it, lived it, ate it and breathed it. If \u201cThrasher\u201d told you to seek out backyard pools, we did it. They had this thing called the San Jose Pool Exchange. They had a big article on what to do. You gather your backyard pools and find pools with other skaters. We started hunting new terrain. Eric had a Peugeot moped, and we\u2019d just ride all over the valley. We put forklifts on the front that we made in shop class to put our skateboards on. We had a couple of ditches and a full pipe in Irwindale. We had a couple of pools. We just loved it. From the moment we woke up until the moment we went to bed, we were always skateboarding. We built little ramps in our yards and quarter pipes. I had a beer keg quarter pipe. Eric had a couple of ramps at his house. We had Lance\u2019s ramp, so we started riding there a bunch. We had a tight little group of seven or eight guys that rode Lance\u2019s religiously. We were stoked. We had free boards coming in from our various sponsors at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chad Muska and Jeff Grosso. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What was it like when someone said, \u201cWe want you to ride for us.\u201d How did it feel to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a Wednesday afternoon. I got off from school. I rode my bike home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs] Do you know the date?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just checking.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] I got home and my first Variflex box was sitting there. It was a complete Allen Losi model with orange X-wheels. It was totally set up, grip taped and everything. I thought, \u201cI\u2019ve arrived. This is it. I\u2019ll never do anything else.\u201d I just lay on my bed, did inverts and dreamed about how I was going to ride that board. I just loved it. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. There\u2019s nothing better than when the brown truck rolls up at your house. It\u2019s like Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Alva, Salba, Olson, Grosso, Strople, Brannon, Murphy and Peters at the U.S. Bombs Video Shoot – Juice Magazine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When did you get your first photo in a magazine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My very first photo was in \u201cThrasher\u201d. Stacy and Stecyk went to Magic Mountain for a freestyle and slalom ASPO contest. I\u2019d seen Stacy Peralta skate at Marina. We all knew who he was. Stacy and Stecyk were wandering around being weirdos. They had their sunglasses on, and they thought they were all mysterious. We were just little kids following them around. Stecyk shot a photo of me, and I was all smiling and dumb. It was just a photo of my face. He put it in \u201cThrasher\u201d in a bunch of TV Sets. They had a picture of Rocco doing a finger flip. They had a picture of someone slalom racing. My very first photo was a dumb picture of my face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were you stoked?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was super jazzed, but there was a bunch of controversy with my buddy Eric, over whether it was me. They had fuzzed the photos out like a TV screen. I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s me!\u201d Eric said, \u201cIt\u2019s not you.\u201d He was jealous. A few months later we went to the Palmdale ramp for a contest. I got a photo doing an eggplant channel. There was no mistaking it was me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\u2019d it feel to see your photo in the magazine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was mind blowing. Everything was coming together. We were skating all these awesome places. We were right on the verge of getting our driver\u2019s licenses. We had pictures in skateboard magazines and free product. Life was good. We were still innocent. This was right before the fucking wave broke. It felt like it was never going to end. It was only going to get better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso and John Lucero at Skateboarding Hall of Fame. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When did it start getting better?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right around then. Variflex shut down. They were becoming a mass-market brand. The Losi\u2019s were over it. Allen was out in the wind. Lance quit to go ride for Powell. Lucero and I got hooked up with Santa Cruz. I don\u2019t exactly recall how. I think we talked to Tim Piumarta. He might have come to a contest at Upland and seen me ride. He told me if wanted to ride for Santa Cruz, I could. John did all my talking for me back then. He was older, wiser and more hip to the way everything worked. He was my mentor. John and I got hooked up to ride for Santa Cruz, so I started riding Rob Roskopp models. Then there was a contest in Lake Tahoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was it the Mile High?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the first Tahoe ramp contest. I begged my parents to go. My mom said, “If you pass your driver\u2019s test, and get your driver\u2019s license, we\u2019ll let you drive the truck up there.\u201d I took my driving test on Friday afternoon, got my driver\u2019s license and packed up my mom\u2019s truck Friday evening. Then I picked up Lucero, Neil Blender and Allen Losi. We drove to Santa Cruz, saw the warehouse, and got a bunch of free product. We were heavily Santa Cruzed out. We thought you guys were just the neatest back then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delusion. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] Yeah. We were really let down, because they had stopped making Blackharts. We were like, \u201cYou stopped making Blackharts? What do you mean?\u201d Lucero really wanted Blackharts. We were going to go skate a Masonite ramp. We were like, \u201cWe need Blackharts so we can rip.\u201d Blackharts were the wheels. We got up there and they were like, \u201cWe don\u2019t make Blackharts anymore. We\u2019ve got these OJs.\u201d I was like, \u201cFuck.\u201d Then we went on up to the Mile High Contest. We picked up Rob Roskopp and took him up there. I ended up placing 8th. It was an am versus pro thing. I was the only amateur to make the finals. I made the cut and then Mike Smith made me cry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. How did Mike Smith make you cry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] I was totally freaked out that I had made the cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember who you were skating against?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Christian Hosoi and Joe Lopes. That was the first time I\u2019d skated against Joe Lopes. He was the hot amateur at the contest. Everyone was like, \u201cLopes is going to turn pro and win this contest. Lopes is on fire.\u201d He was killing it. Then he ended up hurting himself, so he didn\u2019t enter the contest. In the finals, it was Smith, Mountain, Hawk, Hosoi and McGill. It was all the heavy hitters that you\u2019ve come to know and love. I think Neil was in the finals, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that feel? Was that a little overwhelming for a little kid to be skating against all those guys?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. It was pretty heavy. I worshipped those dudes. I actually sat at their altars. Then to have someone go, \u201cYou\u2019re in the same league.\u201d It didn\u2019t really register with me. You were talking about defense mechanisms. I was like, \u201cI\u2019m hot and everything, but I didn\u2019t know I was this hot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso 2006. Photo by Adam Wright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You are hot.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] At the time, I had this underlying thing going where I thought that I would never be as good as those guys. To actually be standing on the deck against them, was unreal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that feeling. Don\u2019t you think that once you go through the initial blow of like, \u201cWhoa, this is heavy\u201d, that you come into your own and go, \u201cI can smoke these dudes.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never really came to grips with that. That was one of my big stumbling blocks. I saw other people rise to the challenge and make their marks in competitive skating back then, but I always kind of fumbled along with that. Smith got up on the deck and I was standing up there next to Lance. He goes, \u201cYou\u2019re not even supposed to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No way. You should have just knocked him out.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d think I would have, but it was fucking Mike Smith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more so.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had pictures of Mike Smith on my wall at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just kidding.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had wild hair and he was half drunk. I was just a sober little kid. I was like, \u201cOh, fuck. He\u2019s right. I shouldn\u2019t be up here.\u201d So I climbed back down off the ramp. Lance had to come and get me out of my car. I was choking down tears. He was like, \u201cDude, you fully should be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso, Steve Caballero & Lance Mountain at Desert Dog Bowl Bash 2006. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lance was the knight in shining armor, per se?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, yeah. Lance, John and Neil brought me up. They\u2019re the ones that taught me how to skate, every step of the way. Those were the guys I hung out with. I skated Lance\u2019s ramp and he\u2019d teach me tricks. He taught me eggplant channels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lance is the best.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the weekends, Lucero had his driver\u2019s license before I did. He\u2019d drive me down to Del Mar and we\u2019d skate Del Mar Skate Ranch. John would teach me frontside inverts. He wouldn\u2019t even know how to do a frontside invert, but he could teach it to me. Somehow I\u2019d figure it out and pretty soon, he\u2019d be figuring it out. We all pushed each other. It was good. I had a good childhood experience. I grew up skating with the best skateboarders in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What year was this? \u201885?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then what happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was skating for Santa Cruz for a while. I was winning all the amateur contests. Lance was doing the Bones Brigade thing. He got me hooked up with Stacy. Stacy put me on Powell. I was the number one amateur guy for a long time. I got to film one of the Powell videos. I got to be in that video, and travel around with the Powell guys. Actually, my first travel experience was with Variflex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t count.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We went to Jacksonville to Kona for one of those contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m only kidding. Variflex counts. That\u2019s pushing it though, okay?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs] Yeah. I skated for Powell for a little while and I was super-jazzed. I thought I was going to be one of the Bones Brigade guys. It became apparent pretty quickly that the Bones Brigade was pretty filled up. I wasn\u2019t going to get to turn pro for them. I was in 11th or 12th grade in high school and I started fucking up in school. I was having problems at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wouldn\u2019t participate. I was really shy. I was a weird little emo kid. I was way into punk rock. That wasn\u2019t accepted back then, so I was an outcast. I wore that as a badge of honor. I used it to keep everyone at bay. I had a stepbrother that had psychological and drug problems. He was a mess. He kind of sucked all of the energy out of our house, so I was kind of invisible for a while. I just started acting out and fucking up in school. Skateboarding wasn\u2019t helping much, because I was constantly gone. There was always a contest or a trip. Back then, they didn\u2019t understand skateboarding, so they wouldn\u2019t cut me any breaks at school. I started flunking out. Before I could flunk out, I ended up getting in a fight with my step dad and got kicked out of the house. Then I self-emancipated myself and dropped out of high school. That\u2019s when I turned pro for Schmitt Stix. Stacy tried to help out. My mom got him involved and told him what was really going on with me. He called me and said, \u201cYou need to finish school. We want you to stay amateur for another year.\u201d I basically laughed at him. I said, \u201cI quit. I\u2019m going to  Schmitt Stix with Lucero, and we\u2019re going to rule the world. The Bones Brigade sucks anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso and Tommy Guerrero at Skateboarding Hall of Fame 2015. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you think you really fit in with the Bones Brigade outfit? Do you really fit that mold?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, I thought I did. We were the ones making the trend. It was the skateboarders. It was our time. At the time, I did think I was Bones Brigade. I was the hot up-and-coming guy. If you\u2019re the hottest best guy then you rode for Powell, which was the hottest best company. I could be me, because it was all about being individuals. They let Tony be Tony. They let Cab be Cab. They let Tommy be Tommy. Everybody was so different on Powell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all the same. Here\u2019s the deal. I\u2019m over the Bones Brigade conversation. I want to know more about you and Lucero at Schmitt Stix. How long did you last there?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then where\u2019d you go?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was back on Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When? \u201887?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. It was \u201886 or \u201887.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso Lien \u2013 1987 \u2013 Photo by C. Morton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Skateboarding was in full force.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. It blew up again. It was starting to get big again. Schmitt came out here from Florida and opened up a wood shop with Dorfman. We saw him in the parking lot at Del Mar. We saw some of his boards. They looked like pieces of furniture. He made really good boards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And still does.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John and I approached him. We said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to ride for you and make Schmitt Stix the biggest company ever.\u201d With John\u2019s artwork, and me as the talent and Lopes and Monty Nolder, we just thought, \u201cThis is going to be great.\u201d I rode for Schmitt and turned pro at a contest in Mobile, Alabama. I got eighth place in my first pro contest. It was rad. Hosoi and the boys came out to watch my practice heats. It was pretty cool. It was like, \u201cGrosso\u2019s turning pro. Let\u2019s see how he\u2019s doing.\u201d People were sweating me, which made me feel good. It was like, \u201cI\u2019ve arrived. I\u2019m a pro now. I\u2019m doing to do this.\u201d The whole pro world was kind of a trial by fire. The money started rolling in. I started smoking pot and drinking and living the rock star lifestyle that I\u2019d come to covet. That\u2019s what everybody did. Mike Smith and Gator were leading the pack. Losi got me stoned for the first time. I started down that path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now you had a model out with Schmitt?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. By this time, my head was so big. I thought I was the shit. They were constantly trying to tell me that I needed to be a team player. Santa Cruz Speed Wheels had the best wheels out at the time and Vision was trying to tell me that I had to ride Vision Blurs and Vision Streetwear. I thought Vision Blurs and Vision Streetwear was lame. So I rode Quiksilver, Speed Wheels Santa Cruz and Schmitt Stix. That didn\u2019t go over well with Dorfman, so we started bumping heads. That bummed Schmitt out. Pretty soon, they were really bummed out, which really bummed me out. Then things got said in the heat of the moment. I said, \u201cFuck you guys. I quit.\u201d I called up Santa Cruz, because they were already trying to get me back. So I went and got a model on their team. I joined their ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who was on that team?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, it was Roskopp and me. \u201cSpidey\u201d rode for them. He didn\u2019t have a board, but he rode for them. They had Jeff Kendall from Bloomington, Indiana. Kendall and I came up through the ranks together. The O\u2019Brien brothers rode for them. They had Claus Grabke. Jason Jessee was pro for them. Jason, Roskopp, Kendall and I were the four guys that had a model at the time. They gave Claus a board too, for their European guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The token European guy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. You had to have that back then. I\u2019m not trying to bash. Claus is an excellent skateboarder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re not bagging on the Europeans. That\u2019s just how the industry was back then. Then you guys started making money, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I was making really good money with Schmitt. We were pulling in $8,000 or $10,000 a month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re kidding me. Duane is rolling over in his grave, and he\u2019s not even buried yet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know. Lucero made me some really good graphics. I was in the right place at the right time. I picked the right board sponsors. Skateboarding popped. All the stars lined up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planets were all in a row.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skateboarding got really big. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso BS AIR \u2013 1989 \u2013 Photo by Geoff Graham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How old were you when you were making this kind of dough?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was 18. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That can be kind of scary.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I instantly got into cocaine and booze. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cocaine and booze?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the \u201880s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How was the whole circuit back then?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was killer. I got to travel the world and hang out with Hosoi and the Gonz, and the Texans, like Craig Johnson, Gibson and Phillips. I skated with Groholski and all the East Coast dudes, Josh Marlowe and Fred Smith. Skateboarding, as far as the people that did it, was still super small. It had died off and everyone was just doing it for the love of it. Then all this money started coming back into it. If you were on the inner circle, so to speak, you lived in a little microcosm. You\u2019d run around with Gator and all these different freaky dudes that were in the magazines. You got to meet these people from all over the place. It was still small and tight knit. For the most part, we all got along. We all, at least, respected one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one ever thought that the big five were the guys making all the money, and you guys were doing all the work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were all painfully aware of that, because of what had gone down with everyone who had come before us. We used to trot that out at Santa Cruz all the time. The powers that be there were like, \u201dNo. It\u2019s different now.\u2019 You can\u2019t really defend Duane\u2019s actions back then, because Duane was throttled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no money when he was hitting it, so it doesn\u2019t matter. It was dying as they say. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone was painfully aware that Dorfman was living extremely well and that Novak was living extremely well and that Fausto was living extremely well and that Stacy was taking all the credit and living extremely well. George Powell was living extremely well.  It was all just accepted. That\u2019s just the way it was. There was a lot of talk, while sitting around the hotel room smoking pot, waiting for your practice sessions to start, about how we should all unite and unionize. But it\u2019s the same today. If the top ten don\u2019t show up, then the guys that were getting 20th, 30th and 40th will. The show will go on without the top ten. They\u2019ll just adjust a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso – Sweeper \u2013 1998 – Photo by James Bunoan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

True. But then some questions may be asked. Who knows? No one will ever take that stance. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to take pot shots at Santa Cruz in their ads. They gave me creative control, so I would put ads out that said \u201cDisposable Hero\u201d. That\u2019s when Metallica had that line in their songs. I put the Coke graphic on my board. I did an ad that said, \u201cCatch the wave, because I won\u2019t be around for long. They\u2019ll just throw me out when they use me up.\u201d  I took all these little subliminal pot shots. I was really into biting the hand that fed me at the time. It\u2019s that punk rock ethos that we all know and love so much. They ultimately bit back, and my run came to an end. I foresaw the future. It is what it is. We knew, but we just didn\u2019t know any better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think they cooked the books?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe we all had a little problem with Santa Cruz, but their checks cleared.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. The checks always cleared. They took really good care of me, and I was a real mess. They sent me all around the world. For that, I\u2019m grateful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa Cruz is a good thing. Don\u2019t get me wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. So I worked in the warehouse. Then Lucero started up Lucero Limited. They were bumming on me for being on drugs. They were pretty much going to kick me off. I was really disillusioned with them, but I was fucked up. I was freebasing a lot of coke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get into the drinking and drugs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started drinking so that I could talk to girls. Pretty soon, I didn\u2019t care about talking to girls because\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were more interested in getting hammered. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t get girls anyway. I was too shy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It loosened you up enough that you could talk to the chicks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was my initial reason for doing it. You go to high school parties to meet girls and drink some beers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso at Vans Pool Party 2006. Photo by Ted Terrebonne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Did you have to go to high school parties or were you too busy traveling?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lived a dual life. I had my little Arcadian high school world that I dipped in and out of. I was a semi-celebrity in my town. I liked having a home base, so I was around, but the whole thing went hand-in-hand. It was the \u201880s. You had The Grateful Dead, pot smoking and tie-dyed weirdness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait a minute. Did you say The Grateful Dead?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Don\u2019t you remember when the Dead came back in the \u201880s before Jerry died?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t say I do, buddy. I can\u2019t say that I do. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were out doing your thing, making music and art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you actually travel around with the Dead?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to a couple of shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear it was a super fun party.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell me you put on tie-dyed shirts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m totally guilty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] This interview is now over. I\u2019m just kidding.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m wearing a tie-dyed shirt in my first skating Indy ad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s so rockin\u2019. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was into it. I had super long hair. I shaved my eyebrows off and wore tie-dyed shirts. I was all over the board. It was a full identity crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How rad.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get into the drug thing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a combo. We were smoking weed and that led me to drinking at home. That led to drinking on the road. John and I got heavily into drinking beer, and traveling up to San Jose. We were trying to get the San Jose girls, because San Jose had a really good scene. Then I had a stepbrother that was really fucked up. I\u2019d hang around my house and my brother was into doing coke. I tried it. I thought it was awesome. The next thing you know, I\u2019ve got a $500 a day habit. I\u2019m smoking the shit, and I\u2019m not showing up to contests. I\u2019m not skating, and I weigh 155 pounds. The skateboard was in the corner with dust on it. The phone was ringing, and Santa Cruz was pissed that I wasn\u2019t in Buenos Aires, Argentina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t believe you wouldn\u2019t go down there with all the\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought if I went down there, I\u2019d have a heart attack. I had cocaine psychosis. I thought if I went down there, I\u2019d die. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were saving your own life by staying here and smoking the bad shit up here?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the rationale at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought if I went down there, I would disappear and die. I was going to stay right here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And disappear.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I tried to explain that to Gavin O\u2019Brien. He was like, \u201cOh, man. You\u2019re fucked.\u201d They tried to intervene on me. They tried to get Salba to wrangle me in. I moved into Salba\u2019s house for a while. Then my brother\u2019s girlfriend ended up having a seizure there on Mother\u2019s Day. Salba\u2019s parents had to come out and talk to the cops. I had all this drug paraphernalia and coke in the house. That pretty much ended me living with the Alba brothers. I think they had Salba on payroll as team manager to try to rein me in. He was older and wiser. I obviously looked up to him. It was like, \u201cHey. Give this kid some direction. He\u2019s lost. He obviously looks up to you.\u201d To Steve\u2019s credit, he tried. I just couldn\u2019t hear it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Salba, Omar Hassan and Jeff Grosso at Vans Pool Party 2016. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You didn\u2019t want to hear it at the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I wanted to, I just couldn\u2019t. I was in the \u201cSpeed Wheels\u201d video and I\u2019m just freebased out of my skull, drinking tequila and shaving my eyebrows. I had people coming up to me on the street and quoting me to me. I was thinking to myself, \u201cIf you only knew the whole story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m interested in the whole story. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They came down to film the video, and I was locked in my room for two or three days. I wouldn\u2019t come out. They were just sitting there waiting for me to come out and skate. Finally, I wake up from this three-day bender, and I walked out of my room. They instantly started rolling cameras on me. Salba is just shaking his head, \u201cNo\u201d. I\u2019m just babbling incoherently. I go out and jump in the pool. It\u2019s in the video. I do a flip off the roof and I\u2019m just babbling nonsense to the camera. I\u2019m swimming in the pool. Then I\u2019m lying on the couch watching \u201cBonanza\u201d, and talking about how I\u2019m going to get paid. I was like, \u201cThis is the life of a pro skateboarder. All I do is lay around and wait for the checks to roll in.\u201d I was just being arrogant and cocky and drugged out. Then they take me out and try to get a meal in me. All I did was sit there and drink tequila. Salba was kind of drunk, too. He was like, \u201cLet\u2019s make you look like Richie Stotts from the Plasmatics. So I shaved my eyebrows off, and he gave me a Mohawk. They filmed the whole thing. The whole time I\u2019m just babbling incoherently, all drugged out. I couldn\u2019t skate because I was all fucked up, so the skate footage they got was just sub par. There\u2019s a little bit of skate footage in the video and it\u2019s just horrible. I\u2019m going like, three feet out. They had to clip it all together, because it\u2019s all bail shots. It\u2019s just horrible. It was just all this drug talk, like, \u201cI\u2019m on the forefront of fashion.\u201d I was just saying all this bullshit. It\u2019s just me on drugs. It\u2019s kind of sad, really. I\u2019m sure if Salba watches it now, he\u2019s like, \u201cFuck. That\u2019s kind of sad. You\u2019re a fucking idiot, Grosso.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso at U.S. Bombs Video Shoot. Photo by Scott Perryman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What year was this all going down?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was \u201888 or \u201889. I was so far gone by then that I didn\u2019t think it was ever going to end. I had no concept of what was really going on. I wasn\u2019t making plans for the future. I\u2019m a high school drop out. It was like, \u201cI\u2019m a pro skateboarder, and the party is never going to end. I\u2019m indestructible.\u201d I\u2019ve got all these older skateboarders around me, like Salba, who was really working at it. He was getting photos, gathering footage, skating and really being diligent about his career. He\u2019d been through the wringer before. He tried to tell me. I just laughed at him. I\u2019d say, \u201cIt\u2019ll be different for me.\u201d I was wrong. 1990 hit and vertical skateboarding was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s my take on it. I grew up in Arcadia, and Spidey grew up in El Monte, which is the city below me. He had a little ramp in his backyard. Spidey was my road dog for a long time. It was me, Eric Nash, Spidey and this guy, Steve Keenan who became the photographer for Santa Cruz. He\u2019s a really good photographer and a really good friend of mine. He tried to take me under his wing when I got kicked out of the house. Eric Castro was another dude that really tried to help me out. We all hung out together and rode Spidey\u2019s ramp. Lance would come and ride it. It was this piece of shit little ramp. There was this kid there. We called him \u201cSlam Man.\u201d The kid sucked. He could barely skate. He wanted everyone to like him so bad that he\u2019d just go for anything. It was Mark Gonzales. \u201cSlam Man\u201d would ride the bus up from town. We rode with him, and hung out with him. He slowly started getting better. He was showing up to contests. Then Lucero and I coaxed him into entering this freestyle contest in West Covina. We were like, \u201cJust drag your little parking block out there and do street plants on it.\u201d And that\u2019s what he did. He got dead last, but everybody watched. We noticed that everyone was watching. Everyone street skated. Everyone was into it. That\u2019s what you did when there was nothing else to ride. Then we went to another contest out in Virginia Beach, VA. Mike Vallely was there. He was just a little kid. He had all the pros and Stacy watching him do street plants in the parking lot. Kids didn\u2019t always have access to 32 foot wide vert ramps, but they did have access to street ramps and parking blocks, so that\u2019s what they rode. Guys like us that specialized in vert skating quickly became antiquated. We were old hat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that feel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, you\u2019re in denial about it. The first time that I saw Natas Kaupas, he showed up at Oceanside. All of a sudden, Skipper was showing back up. We were like, \u201cFucking old man. What are you doing here?\u201d They had Natas with them and all their little weird SMA boards. Natas couldn\u2019t even ride. He\u2019d just run at walls with his board in his hand and bounce off the wall and land on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso at the Soul Bowl in Hermosa Beach. 1999. Photo by Charlie Middleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did that make you feel about the direction that skateboarding was going?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We just laughed about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you feel about the street plant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was into the street plant. I did them all the time. I was an invert guy. I loved inverts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An invert on vert is one thing, but doing a handstand on the street is another. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. But you have to realize. It was a novelty thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was at a contest and saw that, and I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s it. I have to throw my skateboard away.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was thinking it was funny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Lou Retton could have done a street plant. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] Your question was, \u201cHow did I feel about it?\u201d We were in denial about the whole thing. All of a sudden, they were saying, \u201cThese are the new dudes. This is the new thing.\u201d I was like, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be kidding me. Natas Kaupas can\u2019t even do an axle stall on a 4-foot quarterpipe. You\u2019re telling the world that he\u2019s a better skateboarder than I am?\u201d Later on, Natas became unbelievably good. I\u2019m not talking smack on Natas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand what you\u2019re saying. I just hope Natas understands what you\u2019re saying.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t mean to pick Natas out. There was the thing with Mike V and the streetplants. He wasn\u2019t really well rounded at first. The next time I saw him, he was skating vert and ripping. Gonz was the \u201cSlam Man\u201d. Then all of a sudden, one day, I had to call him \u201cThe Gonz\u201d. Everyone was like, \u201cThe Gonz. The Gonz.\u201d I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s motherfuckin\u2019 \u2018Slam Man\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] How did you take all this in?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in full-blown denial. I literally could not believe that it was over for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did that make your substance abuse heavier?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Basically. Skateboarding became totally lame. We tried to go to the street contests. It was all fun and games, but the real fun was out in the parking lot with the scumfucks. We were trying to get the local girls in whatever town we were in. We were getting drunk. Fuck all the other stuff. Those guys were new and up and coming. They were hot and hungry, and we weren\u2019t. We were in denial about how skateboarding was changing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How old were you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was 22 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pro-Tec Pool Party 2005. Photo by Ted Terrebonne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And your career is over?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Pretty much. Right around that time, I went to ride for Black Label, before it was Black Label with Lucero. It was Lucero Limited. We were really excited because we were going to change the face of skateboarding. It was a family. For me to go skate for Black Label, it was a nice transition. John was going to help me die easily. I even had a retirement model come out on Black Label. It had a guy tipping his tip hat and saying, \u201cFarewell, Grosso\u201d. He retired me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were retired at 23?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I had moved up to San Jose to try and get off cocaine. I got hooked up with Ross Goodman, Todd Prince, JJ Rogers and the transplant San Jose dudes. The Kennedy ramp was going full tilt. I\u2019d go up there and skate with the city guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get into heroin?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That came a little later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about Joe Lopes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey helped me out when I was down and out. He was another one that took me under his wing. He said, \u201cThis is how it can be. You don\u2019t need to do certain things. You don\u2019t need to be a certain way that you think you need to be.\u201d I had a little self-esteem issue. Joey put me on the right path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me break it down for you. Everybody does. Some people hide it better than others.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Lopes got me laid one of my first times. Lucero got me laid the first time, right after I turned pro. The next girl I slept with, Lopes hooked that up. They were like, \u201cThis is how it is. This is how you do it. Follow us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey had a fun charisma. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I lived with him at his parent\u2019s house for like a year. We skated, partied and acted like fools. I loved Joey. Joey was the best. He was a completely underrated skateboarder. The guy would give you his right arm if you asked him. I hung out with him and Fish a lot. We did a lot of traveling and had a lot of good times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Grosso at the Vans Combi. Photo by Ted Terrebonne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite moment in skateboarding?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like one moment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s not get too crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I qualified second in this contest in Houston, Texas on the Hurricane Ramp. Everybody was there. It was all the biggest names. At the end of the day, going into the finals, I was in second place. That was pretty rad. I went out that night and did every chemical known to man. Salba gave me mushrooms. Reese Simpson gave me ecstasy. Gibson and the Texas guys gave me coke. I blacked out doing shooters at Lula\u2019s. I ended up naked in some fat girl\u2019s house in the outskirts of Houston. I woke up at one in the afternoon. When I got to the contest, I was still high as a kite, cooking on ecstasy and mushrooms. Everybody was bummed. My board got ripped off. I had to ride a borrowed board. I broke my elbow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s sounds more like a miserable moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds miserable, but it was great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coke, mushrooms, ecstasy\u2026 Did I say coke? Who cares? Coke, again. And a whole lot of booze. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. We were doing kamikaze shots, too. It was cool for me to be in second place, because I was an underdog. Phillips was in third. It was Houston, Texas. It\u2019s Phillips. It\u2019s Texas. I\u2019m at Lula’s that night and everyone is like, \u201cYeah. Grosso.\u201d It was like I\u2019d already won or something. I knew I wasn\u2019t going to win, but I had a really good sense of community. I felt loved. Everyone was buying me drinks and giving me hugs and giving me praise. It was awesome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe their strategy was to make sure you didn\u2019t win. That\u2019s a theory, not a conspiracy theory.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can never not have a good time in Texas. I\u2019ve gone to jail in Houston. Every time I go there, it\u2019s chaos. There are naked girls, drugs, booze, and the coolest people. I just have a blast. I haven\u2019t been there in a long time. I\u2019d love to go back. I had a great time there. It was awesome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened next?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schroeder and I did a Black Label tour that we paid for out of pocket. We basically scummed it. We were completely out of money. We were broke by the time we\u2019d landed. We lost all our money to Chicken and Belmar gambling. We were there for six weeks and did the whole thing penniless. That was a good time. Hosoi helped out a lot on that one. He took us under his wing. We got to see France, Germany and Amsterdam. We screwed hookers in Amsterdam and smoked hash. That\u2019s always a good time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you ever think, in your wildest dreams, this would ever happen to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. The way you dream about it and the way it really is, it\u2019s so much more than you can ever imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You owe a lot to skateboarding?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I owe it my life. I am skateboarding. Skateboarding is me. The little wooden toy is a kiss and a curse. It\u2019s everything. It\u2019s the best thing that ever happened to me and the worst thing that ever happened to me, all rolled up into one. It completely defines who I am. I\u2019ve had a skateboard in my life since I was 8. It\u2019s the one consistent thing in my life. I have always owned a skateboard. I can be penniless, homeless, and own no clothes and have to steal a pair of shoes, but I will have a skateboard somewhere. If I\u2019m strung to the gills on heroin, I have a skateboard. You gotta have a skateboard. Whether you\u2019re riding it or not. There it is in the corner. Isn\u2019t it rad? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso at the Desert Dog Bowl Bash 2006. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What happened through the \u201890s?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to San Jose to get off coke. I ended up just drinking a whole lot up there. We had a little hell house that a bunch of pro skateboarders lived in. We drank and fought. We did everything that pro skateboarders do. I got fat and old. I wasn\u2019t skating. I needed a change of scenery, so I talked to Lucero. He was like, \u201cCome down here.\u201d I came back and bummed out in Arcadia for a while. Skateboarding was pretty much dead. I was hanging out with Schroeder a lot. We were skating Transitions Skatepark in LA. We had a really nice vert ramp that his brother had built. We\u2019d skate down there with Ron Chatman, Mike Vallely and Gonz. It was fun. We did our own thing. I was still drinking heavily, and then Lucero asked me to come work for Black Label. I moved down to the beach, yet again. Then I hooked up with Ricky Barnes, Lucero and Lohrman. They had a really good scene going. The San Juan bowl was going on. Everyone was hanging out and skating. Then, Chicken and Belmar built their bowls, so we had their bowls to skate. We were just doing our own thing and reading \u201cBig Brother\u201d magazine, and saying, \u201cSkateboarding is so weird now.\u201d I worked at Black Label and struggled along. I was supposed to be the sales rep, but I was horrible at it. I was always drunk, or on the nightly speed hit. I started doing a lot of speed, because I was drinking too much. If I did speed, I wouldn\u2019t be such a drunken asshole, which people were starting to bum on. I got really wrapped in doing speed and that lead me to some bad places. I started going to jail. I was hanging around with weird speed freak people. Meth is a fucked up drug. Pretty soon, there were hypodermic needles around. I\u2019d moved in with Christian Fletcher. We were all doing our own thing. The next thing I know, I was shooting dope. Then I was selling skateboards out of the back of Black Label, and robbing John blind to support my habit. I wasn\u2019t doing the work that I was supposed to do, so he had to fire me and kick me off the team. I just wandered around, strung out for a few years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cab, Miller and Grosso at Vans Pool Party. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Were you skating then?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d go ride Belmar\u2019s and Chicken\u2019s. In my head, I didn\u2019t have a problem as long as I could skate well. That\u2019s the psychosis of it. I was like, \u201cYou can say what you want about me. I\u2019m an asshole.\u201d I kind of relished the image that I had built for myself. I was clinging to it really hard. I wasn\u2019t aware of the reality of the situation. I was like, \u201cI still skate. I still rip. Do you still skate and rip? No. You don\u2019t. Who are you to tell me anything? I may be shooting two or three grams of heroin a day, but I can stall Andrechts. Can you? That\u2019s what I thought. Shut the fuck up. If I want to get high I\u2019ll get high. If I want to skate. I\u2019ll skate. Don\u2019t tell me I need to get a job and pay rent.\u201d I was really bitter and lost. Around \u201897, I hit the wall. I started overdosing and all the stuff that comes along with drug addiction. The cops picked me up. That\u2019s when I really started to try to clean my shit up. I went to rehab, and started to pull it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many trips have you made to rehab?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been in rehab twice now. I started getting sober in 1997. It\u2019s 2006 and I\u2019ve got about six months clean right now. Some people can get sober and stay sober. Other people struggle with it. It\u2019s something that I have to work at it on a daily basis. If I don\u2019t stay right with myself, and try to stay small, I get in my head and I think the world is out to get me. The next thing you know I\u2019m loaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you tell a little kid that\u2019s just starting to go through all of this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter what I say. I didn\u2019t listen. You can\u2019t really hear. I had people that went through it themselves that I respected immensely, try to sit me down and tell me. They were like, \u201cYou\u2019re headed down the wrong path. This is what happened to me. Don\u2019t you believe me?\u201d I believed them, but I was like, \u201cYeah, but that\u2019s not going to happen to me. I\u2019m going to be different. You don\u2019t understand. I know what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m in control.\u201d I learned later that I have a disease. If I start drinking or doing drugs, it just takes over. I get obsessed with it and I can\u2019t stop. I\u2019ve proven it to myself time and time again. It would be nice if we all learned from the people that paved the road before us, but unfortunately, everyone has to go down their own road. I would hope if someone were doing that stuff, they would stop and think, \u201cWhy am I doing this to myself?\u201d We\u2019re all basically killing ourselves. I smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. I think, \u201cI shouldn\u2019t do that.\u201d Cigarettes are bad for you. They don\u2019t get you high. They don\u2019t do much for you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m on my third pack, Grosso.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] You have to handle your own life the way you see fit. The thing to know when it comes to drugs or anything, is that none of us are alone. You think that no one has ever been through what you\u2019ve been through and that no one could ever understand, but there are people out there that do understand. There are places to go to get help. Don\u2019t give up. I used to be a really weird suicidal emo guy, and I\u2019m stoked on life now. I just got married. I have a cute little house, a car and a really good job. I go skateboarding a few times a week. I\u2019m jazzed. Coming from where I\u2019ve come from, I never thought I\u2019d enjoy anything ever again. I was like, \u201cHow do you enjoy life without drugs?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I got sober, I was like, \u201cYou mean I can\u2019t even smoke weed or drink a few beers?\u201d I couldn\u2019t imagine it. I thought there was no way I could do that, but it\u2019s totally possible. It\u2019s up to everyone to figure out if drinking and drugging is a problem in their lives. If you\u2019re miserable, change it. I used to think, \u201cI\u2019m miserable. I deserve to be miserable.\u201d Well, I didn\u2019t deserve to be miserable. If there\u2019s someone out there thinking they deserve to be miserable, because they think they\u2019re a piece of shit, or they feel like they deserve it. They don\u2019t. Everyone deserves to be happy. People can change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso at the Vans Pool Party 2013. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How was it when you entered the combi bowl contest at Vans?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heard a lot of people say that it was the best skateboard contest ever. I had a blast. For a cement pool contest and the level of skateboarding now, everybody came with their \u201cA\u201d game and rolled the dice and did their best. It was amazing skateboarding. I was super stoked at how well I did. I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d do that well. I was hurt and stuff beforehand. I made a shit load of money, so I could buy my girl a wedding ring, and get out of debt a little. It opened up some doors for me. I got a shoe deal out of it. Everyone\u2019s like, \u201cGrosso\u2019s back.\u201d I never had a shoe before. Not that I deserve one, but these people said, \u201cLet\u2019s put your name on a shoe and see how it sells.\u201d I got married and we want to have a family and we\u2019d like to buy a house. My dream has always been to have a pool in the backyard, so I can look out my window and see some friend of mine throw a frontside air and then go, \u2018Yeah. I\u2019m going to go skate.\u201d I\u2019d BBQ, ride the pool, play with the kids, feed the dog, kiss my wife and call it a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How long do you think you\u2019ll keep skating?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know. My health is pretty fucked up, but Duane had the raddest quote. \u201cIf you can walk you can skate.\u201d I\u2019d like to say that I\u2019m never going to quit. I watch you guys and take notes. My love for skateboarding hasn\u2019t diminished at all. I still love to go skate. I can still learn new tricks. They\u2019re new to me, anyway. I just learned tailslides. I think that\u2019s the coolest thing in the world. It\u2019s a basic trick, but for me it was like, \u201cFuck, yeah.\u201d I didn\u2019t learn Smith grinds until I was 30 years old. It took me 12 years to learn Smith grinds. I never did 540s when I was a kid, and I tried, too. You had to do 540s to be competitive, but I didn\u2019t have the balls back then. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want you to call me when you do the 900.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that ain’t going to happen. But that\u2019s what\u2019s rocking about skateboarding. It doesn\u2019t matter how old you are. We can all progress in our own way. Every time I go skate, it\u2019s still a new deal to me. It\u2019s new, fresh and exciting. As long as I get that feeling of excitement from it, I\u2019ll keep doing it regardless of how my back or my hips or my head is holding up. I love skateboarding. I took skateboarding for granted when I was younger. Big time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Grosso, Megan, and Nicole Zuck at Vans Pool Party 2006. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everybody does.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I have to work for a living, when I get a chance to go skateboarding and hang out with some friends and do a couple of 50-50s, I\u2019m stoked. I relish in the fellowship of it. I like just hanging out and talking shit with a couple of buddies, trying to impress one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there anything else that you wanted to really talk about?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know. That\u2019s a lot right there. I owe a whole bunch of thanks to a whole bunch of people, but I\u2019m not going to list them all off. They all know who they are. I\u2019ve been really fortunate to have a lot of really good people touch my life through my skateboarding. They\u2019ve gotten me to the place that I am now. I\u2019m really grateful that I\u2019ve had all those people in my life, because I\u2019m stoked on where I\u2019m at right now. I owe each and every one of them, because they\u2019ve all made me who I am. I wouldn\u2019t be here without them. There\u2019s Keenan, Castro, Schroeder, Lucero, Lance, Blender, Nash, my parents, Nash\u2019s parents, Keenan\u2019s parents, Bill and Trish, the Lopes family, Joey Lopes, Fish, Ricky Barnes, all the Huntington guys, Chicken, Belmar and the list goes on and on. It just seems like at every major crossroads in my life when I really needed it, there has been someone put in my life that has been able to give me a little direction and send me on my merry way. I\u2019m stoked for all those people. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do without them. I\u2019d be lost. I\u2019d be dead. I tried that. You\u2019ll find out on the other end of it, that life is a much better gig. Thanks to Greco, too. Greco called me one time when I was all down and out. He was like, \u201cDude, you have to get it together.\u201d I was like, \u201cNo shit. Really? Why don\u2019t you send me some money and maybe I\u2019ll get it together, Jim. Send me one of those Vans checks.\u201d [Laughs.] I never got a Vans check, but the sentiment was nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that\u2019s better than money.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Life is a trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yes. It is. We\u2019re just beginning the journey.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I\u2019ve got another 20 years in me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll probably be tortured and have a little longer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got Swiss cheese for a liver. We\u2019ll see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Old School Skate Jam at Skatelab. Photo by Lang Shepherd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Livers can heal themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what they tell me, except for those little buggers in there eating it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those can be killed, so the happy ones can replenish. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Laughs.] I like your optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the only thing I have in my life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think? Is that good?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was excellent. We should skate again soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Let\u2019s do it this weekend. I\u2019ll give you a call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u00a9 JUICE MAGAZINE #60 CIRCA 2006]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTOS BY DAN LEVY, ADAM WRIGHT, STEVE KEENAN, C. MORTON, GEOFF GRAHAM, JAMES BUNOAN, TED TERREBONNE BRIAN FICK<\/strong>, LANG SHEPHERD, SCOTT PERRYMAN, RHINO<\/strong> & ANTHONY ACOSTA.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Josh Brolin and Jeff Grosso at Juice Magazine filming Love Letters to Skateboarding and the Tony Alva Movie in 2019. Photo by Dan Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s Note: Juice Magazine would like to extend our condolences to Jeff Grosso’s son and all of his family and friends and loved ones and to the family of skateboarding worldwide. We will miss Grosso and we will never forget his great contributions to skateboarding. Thank you, Grosso. R.I.P.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
R.I.P. Grosso. Photo by Gish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few words in tribute to Jeff Grosso…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last image I saw of Jeff, he was dancing around with his son, Oliver, and I that moment I thought that was the definition of pure love and happiness. Jeff gave back so much to skateboarding through his love for people and those who have inspired him in his life, from growing up in the skateboard world in the early days. His attitude and approach was always written on his sleeve with zero filter! His soul and passion was representative of what a lot of us felt in our hearts spark by our childhood dreams. This is a huge loss and I hope his family knows we are all here for them! Rock and roll boards sides forever Jeff!\u201d \u2013 Murf<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Skateboarding lost a great one today never to be replaced. Long live memories of Jeff Grosso. Long board slides in heaven brother. I’m gonna miss you.” \u2013 Danforth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is a heavy crew sessioning in heaven right now.” \u2013 Jesse Martinez<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The world has lost one of skateboarding\u2019s most revered characters with the passing of Jeff Grosso. Jeff had a lust for life that embedded itself into the fabric of skateboarding through his relentless passion for our beloved art. His opinions and attitude were always served fast, real and straight with an edge of unpredictability, like hanging up on a backside air when you least expect it. Take the slam and pick yourself up with a sinister satisfying smile on your face knowing you are going to go for it again. This, in my opinion, was Jeff Grosso, all heart and no filter, just the way skateboarding is in its purest form. R.I.P. Jeff Grosso.” \u2013 Dan Levy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s with heavy hearts that we share the news that long-time member of our Vans Family, Jeff Grosso, has sadly passed away Tuesday morning. Jeff is the epitome of skateboarding. From curating content that highlighted the global community of skateboarding, his unique and raw commentary of the skate industry, to mentoring up-and-coming athletes \u2013 there was nothing that Jeff wouldn\u2019t do to uplift skateboarding and the people around it. To say Jeff\u2019s impact on our brand, our people and skateboarding was unparalleled, would be an underestimation of how much of a role Jeff played in the lives of us all. We\u2019ve spoken with Jeff\u2019s family and will continue to support them throughout this difficult time. Many of you have worked with Jeff closely, and our hearts are with you all as we mourn the loss of a dear friend.” \u2013 Doug Palladini & Steve Van Doren of Vans<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we search for the best way to pay tribute to one of the most influential skateboarders of our time, we could think of no better way than to share Jeff Grosso’s own raw and unfiltered words with you. This interview took place in 2006, a few months into a life of newfound sobriety for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/JeffGrosso-Photo-DanLevy-JuiceMagazine.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78082"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80100,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78082\/revisions\/80100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}