Dax Shepard reflects on disastrous interview that got him banned from Late Night with Conan O’Brien

Comedian described the drunken interview as ‘career wreckage-y’

Dax Shepard has opened up about the infamous interview that resulted in him being “banned” from Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

The Parenthood actor and comedian made headlines in 2004 when he gave an interview on the O’Brien’s talk show.

Speaking about the interview – which he now described as “career wreckage-y” – Shepard revealed that he had been “blackout drunk” during the Conan pre-interview, in which producers set up anecdotes and clarified talking points for the host.

He went on to reveal that he had to be woken up by hotel security just 20 minutes before the taping.

Shepard described the consequent disastrous interview on a forthcoming episode of The Pursuit of Healthiness with Blake Griffin podcast, as reported by USA Today.

“I show up on the show, I don’t know what [O’Brien] is talking about,” he recalled. “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.”

In the interview, the 46-year-old – who has been open about his problems with substance abuse – slurred his words and accidentally flipped a coffee table in front of him.

“Now the audience dug it,” said the comedian. “It was fine for the audience. But for him, what a disaster. I didn’t know any of the stories [he wanted to talk about]. I broke a coffee table.”

(Late Night with Conan O’Brien)

Shepard added that the incident resulted in him being “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,” he said.

In September last year, Shepard revealed that he had relapsed after 16 years of sobriety due to pain medication he had been taking for several motorcycle injuries he had incurred over the years.