the funniest part to me was Opie stating Ant was human garbage, then crying that Anthony made him look bad while repeatedly and emphatically stating that he didn't like Anthony at all and that Anthony had "problems" he needed to work out...

But the door is still open! If you want to do something with the man who called you garbage and intimated that you were an alcoholic racist and borderline pedophile, come right aboard!

Hey, if you want to work for the company that terminated a 10 year business relationship with you over a holiday weekend via email, hung up Wanted posters for you, barred you from the building and blackballed you so hard your agent told you that you would never work for the company again, well, you just gotta figure that shit out, brother man. Its on you to get a gig with the company that publicly stated you were a reprehensible racist and potential violent threat.

It's been a while since I listened to that crybaby-fest, but didn't Opie also grumble something like "I just don't like you, Anthony. I don't like you, haven't for a while"

I'd imagine for someone like Opie having to share the limelight with another person would be excruciating. I don't doubt he hated Ant but it would be purely for not always getting to be the center of attention. All the racist, pedo and alcoholic accusations were just convenient excuses for Opie to hate Ant.

Even as late as the early 2000s, Ant and Jim got cheered while Opie got booed at live appearances. The jealousy Opie has for Anthony upstaging him is immense.

Can confirm - was at a few live gigs.

Even where the audience was "nice" to Opie, everyone lined up to meet Anthony and Jim. Opie was just around with a few stragglers.

Lonely Opie dot Net

not that he deserves it or not, but my god that would be excruciating for anyone to endure. and we've all heard the moments where he's broken down over the years and just stated, "yeah, i know ant is the favorite and everybody hates me."

He's always been very clear on his awareness of it. it's gotta hurt, i'm not unsympathetic about it.

Did he seriously get booed or were people just quiet when Opie's name was called?

booed on many occasions. Chants of "Opie Sucks," the whole thing.

Which of course he does, but you can't blame Opie for resenting the fans loving Ant and Jimmy and tolerating him at best, that is, when they aren't slamming him online, trashing him with phone calls and heckling him at events. Could you imagine being the least liked member of a show for 15 years? That must have been barooodal.

I thought, for the most part, the fans pre-Ant-firing (besides maybe a year or so before that) thought of Opie as the ship-steerer and not being as hateful towards him as they are now. I guess not.

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I'd imagine for someone like Opie having to share the limelight

Nobody listened for Opie. Nobody ever listened for Opie. Ant and Jim are far from perfect but you can put their flaws out of mind because they are funny together on the radio. Opie was a simpering, whining cunt and he just spoke to make noise. He didn't go to school to do a funny talk show, he went to school to spin records. You combine this with a naturally unfunny jock (ie a sports jock in school, not a radio jock) type person who has no real interests and channels his mother's narcissism and chest size, and you get someone who makes millions a year.

Agreed - can't think of anyone who listened for or because of Opie.

He can't interview and doesn't know how to be funny. Listen to old O&A shows - he always brought things to a screeching halt.

The one thing he was probably good at was creating the challenges (Whiffle Ball Bat, 55 Gallon Drum, Eggnog) - but those haven't been possible on air since 2002. He needed to reinvent himself - and he didn't.

It's amazing to me how easily you could ignore Opie in the old shows, with how glaringly obvious it is now.

I've just been listening to old shows and never realized the number of interruptions and his "jokes" were almost always stuff he'd read off instant feedback, and very few of those were even funny. Several times when Ant and Jim were on a rip, he'd stop it dead in its tracks with "dogshit sniffer says ............" (insert unfunny comment Opie LOLd at uncontrollably)

Fuck Opie but seriously why would either one want to work with each other? Travis and opies daughters will be 17 before we know it and old man cumia has a history with friends daughters....

Opie has the emotional stability of a teenage girl.

One moment he is calling the other person human garbage and saying they don't like them and never did, the next moment he's literally crying and lamenting the loss of his best friend.

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another humdinger of a contradiction...

"I fought for Anthony" was what he said for 9 months and offered no specifics. Yet he did say he "didn't give it his all" and that he saw Ant's firing as an "opportunity." would somebody who saw Ant's firing as an opportunity fight that hard?

The show that they did when they went back on air with the "visual element" was such a bad PR stunt. It was hard to buy Opie's tales of righteous indignation and "devastation" over the firing and his role as an incensed warrior for Anthony when he had such a shit-eating grin on his face. he sure looked pretty excited and content to me.

The thing that Opie said that was most honest, and is most likely the truth, is that he did fight for Ant because he didn't know if he'd be fired as well.

yeah ,he couldn't keep the grin from his face.

ME:Ant wants to go it alone for awhile...i really believe that.

Ant lost what he has described as a dream gig to do a podcast for an uncertain amount of pay and inferior visibility in show business.

If all you knew about Ant's blowoff of a firing and banning from the building was what you heard from Opie, you might think Ant just chose to amicably walk in October after the contract was up.

I was clear from the start Opie didn't "give his all". If he did, either Ant still had a gig on SXM or Opie had been let go too. I think it is pretty obvious that Ant just could not be saved.

However, the first show back he had a message for Ant from his meeting with Greenstein: The door is not closed.

What did Ant do? Appeared on a white supremacist radio show. And then started taking shots at Opie.

Jimmy on Newsweek:

“I never at one point thought Opie didn’t want to keep him. When Ant got fired, no one’s first thought was, Let's save Ant. It was, Oh my God we are getting fired too. I get why Anthony feels this way, but there was never any indication that Opie wasn’t fighting for Ant.”

he admitted in that he didnt try to get ant back. he said they did all they possibly could to keep troy quan and it worked, but he didnt "do all he could" to keep ant and it didnt work. I think its pretty obvious if he pushed a little harder he could have gotten ant a suspension or something, but he didnt. Intentionally.

I honestly don't think him lobbying for Ant could get Ant back at Sirius. I think Opie should have been honest at first about that. He would still get hate for that but I don't think as much as he got for lying to his audience and to his ex co-host of 20 years.

ant and jim need jim on TACS in the ny studio, bennington needs to abandon sirius, ant needs to get a few more shows on his network, and then sirius can just sink into the ocean when it finally loses howie.

I'm pretty sure people are mishearing what he said. He said "I didn't give it my all?" as a question as if he's a teenage girl and you're her father accusing her of not trying hard in school. It's right in line with his sarcastic tween girl sense of humor. NOT!

I heard it as "I didn't give it my all????? BUT I CERTAINLY DID!!!!!!!!!!" because he's delusional enough to think he gave it his all by completely collapsing for the money.

The thing that Opie said that was most honest, and is most likely the truth, is that he did fight for Ant because he didn't know if he'd be fired as well.

yeah ,he couldn't keep the grin from his face.

ME:Ant wants to go it alone for awhile...i really believe that.