"We're gonna put a foot in the asshole of the situation," laughed Busta Rhymes shortly before taking stage to perform with De La Soul at the ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards recently in Los Angeles. It was the biggest night in action sports, honoring the heroes who push the sport and the music artists who inspires them. "I get to rub elbows with those guys who I normally don't get a chance to see," says an always-excitable Busta, an avid fan of skateboarding and BMX. "I used to try messin' around with bikes and stunts, you know, the halfpipes back in junior high and then I broke three fingers, and that was a wrap."

Sporting Motocross pants was Darryl Hannah who presented the award for snowboarder of the year. A snowboarder for ten years now, Darryl admits, " I love it because I don't have to wear a knee brace when I snowboard and I don't have to use poles!"

The inaugural award show went as smooth as expected with each athlete thanking their sponsors and on more than one occasion, Metallica for helping them push their perspective sports. Metallica, whose now three members received the Artist Contribution Award, were visibly having a good time and enjoying their lack of responsibility at the event. "I'm just psyched to be at an award show where we're not playing," joked Lars Ulrich. (Later, upon acceptance of their award, Lars too, would thank his sponsors Absolut Vodka and the Colombian Drug Cartel.)

"There's always been a good relationship between the punk rock that we grew up playing, and skateboarding, surfing, moved into snowboarding and BMX," said Noodles from The Offspring who gave away the award for BMX Rider of the Year. " I think there's an aggression with the music that goes hand and hand with a lot of these sports, and compliments each other very well." Exactly the sentiment when Ozzy reunited onstage with the original members of Black Sabbath to close the curtains with Paranoid. The band that skateboarder Danny Way calls "The most inspirational rulers of all time," and B Real recalls, "I believe I hit my first bong to a Black Sabbath song."

Maybe the biggest accomplishment of the night was pointed out by Tony Hawk in his acceptance of the Action Sports Achievement Award when he says, "I'd like to thank ESPN for not using the word 'extreme' anymore."

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