Legendary daredevil Evel Knievel died on November 30, 2007 just days after announcing his meeting with Kanye West that led to a settlement over the rapper’s video for "Touch the Sky."
The 1970s motorcycle stuntman has had a myriad of health problems in recent years, including diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. He had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his many spills. He also suffered two strokes in recent years.
Knievel, 69, died two days after it was announced that he and Kanye had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel’s trademarked image in "Touch the Sky."
The video features the artist as "Evel Kanyevel" trying to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon. Knievel failed in his attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974. West’s attorneys argued the video amounted to satire, covered under the First Amendment.
"We settled the lawsuit amicably," Knievel said last Tuesday in a joint statement released by West’s label Def Jam. "I was very satisfied and so was he."
Knievel also expressed concern for West in the wake of his mother’s death on Nov. 10.
"I know he’s had some tough times the past few weeks, and I hope things work out," Knievel said.
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