Artie Lange says he was fired from ‘Crashing’ after drug arrest

Following his recent arrest for possession of heroin and cocaine, Artie Lange says he has been fired from HBO’s “Crashing.”

“Since this HBO show ‘Crashing’ premiered, which I just got fired from — I might go to jail,” he admitted to “Len Berman & Todd Schnitt in the Morning” on Thursday. “I’ve had a lot of success and a lot of happy times, but when I do the failure stuff … that’s all TMZ wants to talk about, and they get it out there and I lose my job. That’s what happens. [‘Crashing’] was the one time critics actually liked what I did. Well, that’s the last time you’ll see it.”

But the network says otherwise.

“HBO has not fired Artie Lange. ‘Crashing’ has completed production for season one and has been recently renewed for a second season. Scripts for season two have not yet been written,” read a statement to Page Six.

The 49-year-old’s struggle with addiction, which he says began when he was a teen after his father’s death, have been documented since his time on “The Howard Stern Show.”

“Have you ever done heroin? Don’t. You shouldn’t do it, but there’s a reason people get addicted to it: I don’t want kids to hear this, but it feels amazing,” he said. “That’s why you get addicted to it. Then it becomes a living hell after a while, that’s the problem. It’s an epidemic around the country. I go to AA meetings around the country because I do standup, and you see these kids [who] look up to me in the sense that, OK, I’m a junkie, and I made a living in show business. And that’s all kids want to do nowadays. They want to be a Kardashian,” he explained.

“And I said, ‘First of all, guys, I wasn’t into heroin when I was 19 and 20 like you guys are, I would have never done anything if I was. That came on later in life when I was on the road, and I worked very hard to get where I am. I have some talent and I worked hard to do this … Trump talks about it a lot, every politician has to address it — something’s gotta be done about opiates. It has to start with doctors. I mean, I’m 49 and it’s ruining my life.”

When asked about how he obtains his drugs, Lange cracked, “Sure, I have a regular dealer, you can’t just get stuff on the street, it’s not good at all. It’s like, really bad, and you get sick from it because they cut it with Fentanyl and baking soda. I have a regular guy in Newark … He’s not American. He’s not in favor of Trump’s immigration plan.”

He quickly added, “I don’t want to be glib about the drugs, I do make jokes about it, but I don’t want some kid to hear that I’m joking about it. When I get arrested, I have the ability to get clean … I stopped drinking in front of people.”

In February 2017, Lange spoke on “Crashing” co-star Pete Holmes’ “You Made It Weird” podcast about his addiction, but said at the time that he was clean.

“Part of my adult life is doping,” he said. “If a kid’s gonna do a drug, I beg them just not to do opiates, because of the withdrawals, it becomes a part of you. It’s like not having oxygen.”

“Crashing” producer Judd Apatow tweeted the same sentiment as HBO — that Lange was not fired from the show. Apatow’s rep told Page Six, “I can’t speak for HBO but I can say that Judd stands by his tweet and we have no additional comment.”