➡ The speaker, Willie Robertson, shares his family’s story, focusing on his father’s transformation from a troubled man to a believer. His father, Phil, was a heavy drinker who lost his job, ran a bar, and was involved in violent incidents. However, after a preacher visited him at his bar and his life spiraled further, Phil turned to faith, changing his life and keeping his family together. Willie credits his family’s success, including their business and TV show, to this change in his father and the power of their faith.
➡ The text is about a man who had a significant change in his life, going from darkness to light, similar to Saul in the Bible. He became a passionate preacher of the gospel, known as a ‘gospeller’. The author is writing a book about sharing faith, inspired by this man’s story and the old term ‘gospeller’. The author grew up in a deeply Christian environment and witnessed many people change their lives through conversations about faith. He hopes his book will help others feel less intimidated about sharing their faith.
➡ The speaker reflects on the importance of focusing on others and the transformative power of change, using his father as an example. He discusses the pitfalls of fame and the superficiality of seeking it. He also talks about the divisive nature of politics and emphasizes the need for the gospel’s message of love and unity. He believes that real change comes from personal transformation and not from political agendas.
➡ The text discusses the importance of faith and persistence in spiritual journeys. It shares a story of a man who, despite initially resisting, eventually embraces faith after a series of conversations about life, death, and the afterlife. The story emphasizes that understanding and accepting faith can take time, and it’s crucial not to give up on people. It also highlights the idea that being a Christian involves more than just attending church; it’s about making a significant impact in the world and people’s lives.
➡ The speaker expresses their faith and belief in hope, seeing evidence of it in people’s actions and sacrifices. They also discuss the enduring influence of religious teachings, even after 2000 years, and how it shapes their life. They mention some confusion about recent events, possibly involving Trump, but ultimately emphasize the importance of living in the present rather than trying to predict the future. Lastly, they express concern about their show being suppressed on YouTube and encourage viewers to subscribe to ensure they receive updates.
➡ A man named Willie recounts his life story, from meeting his wife Corey at a summer camp to their marriage despite her father’s initial disapproval. He also talks about their family life, having six children and eight grandchildren, and how they all live close to each other. Willie shares how his wife came up with the idea for their reality TV show, Duck Dynasty, which was initially sponsored by Benelli Shotguns. Despite the ups and downs, Willie and Corey are still happily married 32 years later.
➡ The story is about a successful business negotiation for a TV show. The speaker and his family were offered a chance to feature in a show on the Outdoor Channel, promoting their duck calls and receiving free shotguns. His wife, Corey, suggested they ask for a talent fee, which they got, doubling their income. The show was a hit, boosting their sales and leading to another opportunity for a bigger show on A&E.
➡ The text is about a family show that was initially misunderstood by many, including the family’s own father. The show was filmed in their homes and was seen through the eyes of one family member, making it seem like everyone else was chaotic. Despite the confusion and the father’s disapproval, the show turned out to be comedic and enjoyable. The text also mentions a hunting trip and concerns about privacy in the digital age, recommending ExpressVPN for protection.
➡ ExpressVPN is a top-rated app that keeps your online activity private by sending it through secure servers. Despite receiving numerous data requests, ExpressVPN never shares customer data due to its strict no-logs policy. The text also shares a story about a man who experienced sudden fame and business growth after his TV show became popular. This led to challenges in managing increased demand for their products, but also brought about personal growth and learning experiences.
➡ The speaker discusses his experience being a part of a TV show, where he played the role of a CEO and also narrated the show. He mentions how his family would watch the show together, even though he didn’t usually enjoy watching himself. He also talks about meeting Donald Trump before he became president, during a rally in Oklahoma City, and how he initially supported Trump because he thought a business person would be good for the country.
➡ A man named Willie had an unexpected encounter with Donald Trump at a fair, where he was mistakenly thought to have endorsed Trump for president. This happened after Trump invited him on stage during a speech, asked if he liked him, and Willie responded positively to keep the crowd happy. Later, a taxi driver recognized Willie from the event, but only after Willie revealed his identity. Willie also mentioned a publication called Imprimus that provides unbiased news, which he recommends for staying informed.
➡ The speaker recounts a story about his father endorsing Ted Cruz for president while he was away in Mexico, causing confusion and tension as he himself supported Donald Trump. He describes how he managed to get his father to admit on a TV show that Trump was a better hunter than Cruz, leading to his father eventually supporting Trump. The speaker also shares his experiences and thoughts on the political climate during the 2016 and 2020 elections, noting that he believed Trump would win both times.
➡ The speaker discusses their thoughts on the 2020 election, the importance of being prepared for emergencies with a product called Jace case, and their excitement about the revival of their family show, Duck Dynasty. They emphasize the importance of family time and prayer, and how their show has inspired viewers to adopt these practices. They also talk about their mission as a Christian, based on Matthew 28, to make disciples, baptize people, and teach people, and how this requires having conversations with others.

Yeah, I was on the Five. I remember. No, I was on over. What do they call it? It was the one with the women and, oh, outnumbered. And I was up there. They used to bring me up there all the time because Doug Diamonds was so popular with our viewers. It was popular. Yeah. And the girls. The girls on that show, they were laughing. They said, oh, this guy Donald Trump, you know, says he’s running for president. All that. And. And they’re laughing, and they’re kind of, you know, making like it’s a joke. And he came and they said, what say you, Willie? And tell you what, I think he’s resonated with a lot of people.

And you could just see him like, oh, like they thought I was gonna laugh and be joking. I said, don’t underestimate the power of celebrity. Because I was like, I’m just new to it. But, man, when everybody knows who you are, it’s a big advantage. Because you think about Kamala Harris. She was the vice president for three and a half years. No one knew how to say her name, including her. And she was the vice. When they got elected or whatever it was in 2020, I totally by accident, I pronounced. I called her Kamala. Yeah. Which is what I thought her name was.

And the White House press secretary attacked me as racist, which. Okay, fine. But it really was. I would admit, it was totally accidental. Right. And so this kid on our staff found tape of her calling herself Kamala. And then Kamala, and I just thought, like, who can’t pronounce her own first name? Yeah, that’s. If you were like, I’m Willie Robertson or I’m Willie Robertson. You know what I mean? It would be kind of weird, Right? Hello, I’m Wiley Roberts. No, I mean, I think it’s fair to, like, settle on a pronunciation of your own first name.

So one of the things I was. I’ve never hunted with you before. You. You’ve become famous for bird hunting. You’re an excellent shot. I. I just want to confirm that for people watching, it’s not fake. I’ve got to make my dad and brothers watch this. It’s true. So they know that. No, it’s true. You are, but you’re not. You become famous from television. You’ve. I just want to get right to it. You’ve written this book, Gospel, which is not about hunting. It’s kind of. What’s it about? Hunting for people. Hunting, fishing for people. Perhaps turning darkness into light.

One conversation at a time. Yeah, that’s came with this book. This year. And this was kind of the one I wanted to write. You know, it was like, before I die, I want to write this book, and it’s really about my faith. The faith that was passed down the first chapters, my mom and dad’s story about how they got their faith. We put out a movie last year called the Blind, which was their journey in faith, shot in the late 60s, 70s. And that was a bad. He was a bad guy. And in what way? Oh, he’s just.

Well, he called himself a heathen. He was just a bad dude, you know, just into everything he shouldn’t have been into. He’s married. He’s got this young family. He’s drunk all the time. He loses his job. He ends up running a bar. And all hope, literally, was over. He had kicked us out of the home. He’s a bad dad. He’s a bad husband. What do you mean he kicked you out of the home? He kicked mom and us out of the house or out of the trailer. Really? Yeah. And. Yeah, and so. And the one person who didn’t give up on him was my aunt Jan, his younger sister.

And she’d go up to this bar he was running. Dad has, like, a master’s degree. He was a. Could have went professional quarterback. He played ahead of Bradshaw in college at Louisiana Tech. Gifted athlete, had everything, you know, ahead of him, and just pretty much throws it all away. And so my aunt would go up there and pass out little Bible tracts. She was a very charismatic Christian, and he hated it. He was like, stay out of here. And she begged this preacher to go preach the gospel to her brother. And I write in the book, I can just imagine this conversation, because the preacher’s in Louisiana, the bar is in Arkansas.

And I’m sure it was like, can you share the gospel with my brother? He’s wayward. And he probably was like, yeah, tell him to come to church. We’ll meet afterwards. He’s not coming to church, and you have to go see him. What does he do? He runs a bar in Arkansas. Yeah. Which one? In town. It’s not even in the state. And this guy gets in his car and drives to a bar, walks in. Where was the bar with his Bible? It was in Junction City, Arkansas. And it was rough. You know, it was a rough.

And it was adversarial. Like, the guy goes in. Phil does not want to hear. He does not. He’s not even invited in there. And I knew the preacher up until he passed away. And he says. He says, your dad’s sitting There. He said he’s got a pistol in his belt and a giant Budweiser, and he’s about half lit. And the dad looks at him and says, what you selling, preacher man? And so the guy sits down and nothing happens. Phil doesn’t. There’s no. There’s no conversion. There’s no just as I am bar baptism. Bill just said, I’ll keep that in mind.

And so he leaves. And then. And Phil’s life even goes more in the tank. He ends up. The state police showed up to arrest him. He goes and lives in the woods for six months. I think, like, he was that guy. What were they arresting him for? He had put two people in ICU beat him up over a bar dispute. He just takes off, lives in the woods, says, I’m on my own. And out there is. When he. He. He got really sick. And nobody, you know, everybody was trying to figure out where he was and.

But he was. He’s got a wife and kids at this point, too. Well, then they let. Mom ended up moving to. They moved to Louisiana. And we’re pretty much like, hope he doesn’t die. You know, but it’s over. You know, he’s already kicked us out and. And then he comes dragging back up into that town. And he pulls up to where my mom was working. She has a new job and trying to move on with her life, and. And she’s like, call the police. Like, oh, no. He’s. You know, he’s all beard. He’s living in the woods.

And he pulls up and he’s crying. He said, where’s that preacher? I need to talk to him. And that’s when Phil became a believer right there. So that’s the first chapter in the book. So how long did it take your mom to take him back into. She took him right back. It was amazing. You know, I always said if it weren’t for dad changing his life, but also if it wasn’t for mom forgiving him, and. Yeah, it’s easier to change your life than forgive someone who’s abandoned. Especially when you’re just saying it. Yeah. And who knows? You know, I’m sure they’re.

It probably wasn’t the counseling that we had. You know, they just. Yeah. No. Yeah. And she. But she needed help. I mean, she’s got three young boys, and at the time. Three. And I was the youngest at the time. So in the movie I’m portrayed, I was very particular on who played me in the movie. At 2 years old. You gotta get that part right. Oh, yeah, that’s gotta be a handsome toddler. Was it? So it was. My grandson played me. My grandson played me about his great grandfather. It was awesome. That’s fine. It’s fun to watch that movie, and it’s a hard movie to watch.

And dad didn’t even want to do it. It was tough for him to go back, you know, and relive that, you know, just pull all those. But we said, dad and mom, too, both. We just said, I think this can help a lot of people, you know, a lot of people who are in similar situations. And so, yeah, they stayed together. And so the first chapter of the book is that. And. And so if you think about, like this, like 50 years ago, that happened. If that doesn’t happen, this family does not stay together. If the family doesn’t stay together, there’s no Duck Commander, there’s no Duck Commander, there’s no Duck Dynasty, there’s no podcast.

I don’t know where I would be. My whole life would look completely different. And so part of the reason for us being still so excited about our faith is because we feel like we owe everything we have to our faith. Had it not been for faith, it would have been over. You know, marriage was over. You know, who knows? So do. I mean, do you remember a time before your father was a Christian? Do your brothers. They do. They do. I don’t really. Everything I remember was. Was great. And. And he went from, you know, darkness to light.

I mean, he literally. It’s kind of like Saw and Paul in the Bible. You know, it was like this old person. Then he just turned and just went. I mean, just full blaze. And he just wanted to share the gospel with everybody he knew, you know, because I guess he had lived. And he said, I live so bad now. I gotta go help these people. And so he became known. He became a known gospeller of. Just known for preaching the gospel to everybody. A gospeller is someone who preaches the gospel. It is. It’s a real word.

It’s an old word. Had you ever heard of it? No, never. I’ve never heard it either. So I’m writing this book. It was 2020, you know, Covid. I was like, I want to write this book. And so it was about sharing your faith. And my wife, who’s way smarter than I am, she comes in because I couldn’t figure out what to call it. And she goes, willie, I found this word. It’s called gospel. Er, and it used to be very commonplace, and it was not necessarily pastoral. It was just like common folk who were just known for sharing the gospel.

And it simply means somebody who shares the gospel with people, either publicly or personally. And it didn’t fall short of me that the word is literally a dinosaur. No one’s ever heard of it. Right. But at one point in America, in Europe, this was a common word, and they were called known gospellers. I found a law, I want to say it was up in the Northeast, where it was like, nobody can stop a priest or a known gospeller from preaching on the town square. It was actually in a law. Like, that word was in a law.

Amazing. That cool. Yeah. So she found the word. So how did you grow up? Like, did you grow up in a world where Christianity was at the center of everything? Oh, yeah, for sure. Number one. Number one. No doubt about it. So it wasn’t like, oh, we should try to go to church. It wasn’t. It was, you know, every. And we had so many Bible studies that it just really went all week, like, because what happened, it was. We would. Once you’re kind of known for that. So people would bring people down to the house for Phil to talk to.

And there was the most wayward people. It was like murderers, the craziest people ever. And I would just. And dad would just go. No matter who they were, he would just sit there on the couch and he’d feed them supper, and then he would jump into the Bible and just. I mean, it was Fridays, Tuesdays, really. All the time. Yeah, all the time. And then dad started teaching Bible classes. So he would teach his Bible class on Sunday mornings, and then he would. But he would just study like crazy. Like, just crazy person this, you know? And my father’s never owned a computer.

He’s never owned a cell phone. He doesn’t have a cell phone. How do you text him? You don’t just like saying, you go find him. So I call and I’m like, there’s. There’s. There’s a dude. There’s a dude down there near. So you call him, but you got to go find him. He’s like, in the woods, you know, and if you want to track him down, you got to go find him. Does he still hunt? Oh, yeah. But it was. But yeah, the dad would just read and study and, you know, he would just thirsting for knowledge.

He loved the knowledge. But then he loved trying to share that. And that’s kind of the point of the book is turning Dartus into, like, one conversation at a time. And that the tagline comes from. It’s Funny how my business mixed with my faith. So we have some new products for deer. And it’s this. This feature where you can you click a button. So right at that time where it’s real dark, you know, it’s getting a little. Damn. Still legal shooting hours. And it just. Boom. It just goes. Turns it into. It’s daylight. It’s crazy how.

What is it? It’s pulling light. Whatever ambient light is, it’s pulling in. Right. It’s amazing. So we had this new product. So I’m looking at all the marketing material and they had on there, turn. Turn dark into light. And when I saw that, I went. That’s the tagline for my book, Turning darkness in light. One conversation time. So through a conversation, meaning had the guy not gone and shared with dad, you know, he was the one that actually planted the seed or shared with dad, and boom, that’s where it started, just that conversation. And then I watched, you know, hundreds and hundreds of other people just through a conversation lead to a life change.

And so. And so what I wanted to do was go through the book and go through kind of how to do that, because a lot of people, they’re so intimidated. They don’t know what to say. And they like the idea of it. And they’re like, well, I hope somebody tells somebody about their faith or about Jesus, but it ain’t me. And I don’t know how to do that. It’s like, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know the Bible well enough. And so we kind of disqualify ourselves from a lot of those for a lot of those reasons.

And so I just tried to go through and tell stories, and I’ll pull stories from the New Testament. Just conversations like, especially conversations like. Especially in the Book of Acts. Like, that’s where you’re really seeing kind of the church meet with the world and just pull the conversations. Like, this is what they said. Then this is how you could share with others. So your family, despite living in a very rural area, you’ve got a duck call business and you’re seriously Christian, you wind up in television, which is like the opposite of all of that. Yeah. So how do you have the.

So the crew comes in for wherever, you’re meeting with the studio executives from wherever. But not from West Monroe, Louisiana. How do you begin a conversation about your faith with someone like that? Well, it was obvious. I mean, I think the faith just comes through in every. It was going to be hard to separate that, separate the faith. And so. But I understood television enough to know that, you know, it can’t just be a sermon, you know, it’s got to, you know, and we learn. The people who run television, I have noticed from spending a lifetime, they’re not super receptive to the message.

They weren’t as. You know, a lot of people ask me that, like, we ended every show with a prayer. And. And I get. I almost get this, like, weekly. It’s like, I bet they didn’t want that prayer. But that wasn’t the case. They. They were like, oh, it’s cool. You know, like, good for them. Yeah, it wasn’t a. It wasn’t a battle at all. It was just a good way to end the show. They knew faith was important to us, and that’s how we ended every show was with that prayer. But there wasn’t a lot of resistance at all from that.

But you’re. I think people. They thought that was the case or wanted to. No, I love it. It’s not. And it really wasn’t. It was like. And then once it works and once it’s commercially successful, what’s the biggest show ever in reality tv? There’s like, oh, we love that prayer. That was our ide. No, no, it. You know, it worked. And so once we talked about how to do it, and my father was. He was so funny with the show. So when I went down to tell him, I said, dad, we. You know, we got this idea of doing this television show, and he hated it.

He’s like, I don’t want to do it, you know? And I said, well, where did the idea come from? I said, it’s a way to get the gospel out to more people. And literally, that’s what I told him. And he says, and sharing goes, I never thought about that. He goes, you think it can. I said, I don’t see why not. He gives a thumbs up, and he’s like, all right, we’ll do the TV show if he can get the gospel out to more people. So you do a show like that. What are the mechanics of it? Because it seems like it would take over your life completely.

It does. So, like, how does it work? It’s a lot of. Well, we didn’t know when we started. Like, we had no idea. I get a. I get an email. This is. So we had done another television show on the Outdoor Channel. And in the same way, like, it was my wife’s idea. Corey said. Corey watched reality television. Is she from West Monroe? She’s from West Monroe. She’s from the city. I’m from the States. So she says she’s watching all this reality television. And she said, willie, I think your family needs to have a reality TV show.

And I’m like, that’s not a compliment. When your wife says your family needs a reality TV show, that says, well, that’s what I said. That’s what. Why I didn’t realize it. And I said, corey, we’re just normal people. And she goes, willie, y’all ain’t normal. And then, so what? She was like, you guys are like. She goes, I’ve been with you for a long time. And where’d you meet her, by the way? Summer camp, fifth grade. Camp Chioka. Camp Chioka, yeah. Her. Yeah. I saw her sitting on the swing. So her grandfather and father were business guys, very successful business guys.

And part of their charity work, they’d built this summer camp. And so now that we’re new believers, my parents are. That was a new thing. Like, now we’re going to church. Summer camp, you know. And we’d never been to church, and we couldn’t even afford it. So when we would pull up to the camp, my mother had no money, and she would be. And so we would have our bags packed, like, we’re ready. And she’s like, all right, here’s the deal. Y’all stay here. Let me go see if I can trade working in the kitchen for you guys to come.

If they say yes, you’re in. If they say no, we’re going back the house. And we’re just like, please say yes. Which. What’s funny is it was. It was my wife’s parents who were making the decision. As it turns out in life, I later married their daughter who ran the camp. It was the same camp I was hoping to get into. That’s amazing. So every time they said yes, and so they would let. And so we would go. And I see this girl, she’s on a swing, so I can see her to this day. And she got this big giant, you know, 1980s hammer.

Who is that girl? And they said, that’s Corey Howard, you know, her dad and them. They. They’re the ones who run the camp. And so I went over and talked to her. I invited her on the moonlight hike, and she said yes. And we went on the moonlight hike in fifth grade. Now, we didn’t keep dating. We didn’t. And we didn’t get married that year. But we waited for you when you got married. 19. 18. You were 19. She was 18. Correct. I proposed to her when she was 17. I was 18. What’d her dad say? He didn’t like it.

I bet he didn’t. He didn’t like. He didn’t like the idea. He wasn’t a fan. They were very well off. They were. Yeah, they. They lived in a neighborhood. And I pull up in this neighborhood, Tucker, and I’m, like, looking around. It’s like, mow grass, you know? Like, you know, they mowed their grass and sprinkler systems, you know, I’m just like, whoa, man, this is crazy. I’m looking around, and there’s not one visible burn pile anywhere. And I’m going like, what are these people doing? Their garbage. I didn’t know there was another way. So we’re gonna have the talk, right? So he’s like, we got.

And I know that, like, we went to church. So I knew her family, and. But he just was like, no, y’all need to wait. And you’re too young. And. And we’re just dead set. We’re like, no, we’re getting married. So he gets. So when we have a meeting, and he’s such a. He’s a smart business guy, and he’s got all these papers. He’s got statistics and papers and files, you know? And I’m just sitting there, white T shirt, like, he’s blowing me away. And he’s making me so mad, you know, because I’m, like, giving him. I’m.

I’m pitching vision, man, you know? What was your vision? Christianity. Like, we’re brothers. Like, come on, man, it’s gonna be great. And he’s like, you haven’t thought about all these things in life. And finally he just goes. He’s getting so mad. He’s like. I thought he’s going to hit me. He’s, like, leaning up on me, and he said, where exactly do you plan on living with my daughter, you know? And I rather. I mean, I said, well, I reckon I’ll pull a trailer up on the back of Phil’s house and was. Live there for free. That was your vision? Nothing? Not the answer the dude wanted to take.

And we’ll burn our garbage in the yard like normal people. But it worked out. Okay. Ready? Ready? So we’re out in the field in South Dakota shooting pheasants. And we’re coming out here to a Milo field you can see behind us. And I was throwing in an Al. Someone else was using a tobacco product. And then somebody. And I’m not going to name names, pulled that out in public at a hunt. And so that’s obviously yesterday. What we have here, Alp, is tomorrow. And we’re going to make that official by symbolically ending the long reign of this product.

Willie Robertson happened to be hunting with us. We don’t have a mechanical fur, but we do have a former US Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania with an arm. Willie’s got a 12 gauge. I’ve got my trusty 20. And we’re going to see what we can do to usher out the Zen air. Yes. So I should say. Alpouch.com for sale now. Alp pouch. Usher in tomorrow a brand new world of nicotine pouches. The American Lip Pillow. On sale now. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Wait, how long did you. 32 years later, we’re still married.

That’s amazing. And we’re great. We. I mean I. So her parents house and my house, literally it’s like a p. I know you don’t play golf. It’s a pigeon wedge away from me. And we were just right beside each other now. Yeah, I see him every day. We’re. Yeah. And I learned most of what I learned in business, I learned from him. How many grandkids did you give him? Eight. Eight so far. You have eight, I have eight. So he is. Oh, how many did. Eight great grandchildren. How many kids did you have with his daughter? How many kids do you.

Oh, how many kids? I have six. Six. Okay. He’s got to be pretty. Just the way you ask him. Sorry, I asked him backwards. Let me just start again. I have six children, eight grandchildren. So yeah, amazing. But yeah, they’re great. And so we live there on the. And we all live right there. We’re just all connected and live beside each other. So how long did it take you to. To win a yes from your father in law? I mean it was after that night. He wanted me to come over to their house. And so Corey was.

She was in college, so she wasn’t even there when all this happened. She was in college. I wasn’t going to college. I was going to seminary. I was going to be a preacher. And so Corey calls and says, dad wants you to come over. And I said he’s going to come pick you up and take you over to their house. I said no. She said, why not? And I said I’ll have to walk home. She goes, what do you mean? I said, oh, it’s going to go bad and I don’t have a ride. I’m going to have to walk all the way back to my house.

It’s like seven miles. I said, no, I’m not telling you to come over here. So he comes over to where I was staying and I was living with my brother at the time. And it was he and his mom and me, we were on the couch together and my mother in law, she was in between us. But I did, I thought, man, I think he may punch me. And I was ready. I may have three brothers. And so I was like, we just gotta fight. Let’s just fight. I was like, let’s go. You know. But then it was after that night they said, okay.

And then I think just six months later we got married and we were driving to the wedding and he said, you know what I said? What? I said. And that’s the way I felt. But now we’re good. And. And I literally never heard another word about it. Like, really? Yeah. He was great. So was your wife that came up with the idea for Duck Dynasty? Yep. Then I had to go tell Phil and then. Because originally it was on the Outdoor Channel. Yeah, what was it called? And I was approached by Benelli Shotguns at Shot Show.

Have you been to Shot Show? Yeah, yeah. So I was approached by them right after she said that. And they were like, hey, are you guys interested in doing a, like a reality TV show with the shotguns? And I was like, Corey just said we should do a reality TV show. And he goes, well, let’s, let’s, let’s have a meeting. And so, so we sat down and they said, hey, we’ll, we’ll pay for production. You guys will be on the show. Thankfully, they had two guys that came in that they had just hired who were who.

They came out of reality television. So he’d hired them for like their, in house, you know, all their commercials and stuff that they do. And we love Benelli. I mean, we love the shotgun. So was like, yeah. And so we’re going through the deals and so right at the end, Corey says, she’s, she’s such a smart business person. And I’m excited. I’m like, hey, this is our business going to go up. So I go to Phil, I’m like, phil. He’s like, oh, it’s a terrible idea. And I’m like, dad, we’ll sell more duck calls. Like we’ll be on the Outdoor Channel.

Plus free shotguns. Plus free shotguns. I was like, plus free other stuff. Like this is the smoke and deal, you know. And so Corey says, so we’re going to go up to Maryland. I think that’s where they’re at Maryland, and we’re gonna have this meeting. And Corey’s. She’d been reading these books, and she goes, well, I think. I think. I think they should pay off a talent fee. I’d never heard that word. I said, what is talent fee? She goes, like, they should pay y’all to be on the shot. Corey, Corey, Corey, don’t get greedy. Like, this is a gift.

They’re paying for production and shotguns. Yeah. And she’s like, well, it won’t hurt to ask. And I said, what? Okay. But I said, here’s the deal. When you ask if you get any weird sense, abort the mission. Get out of it. Do not screw this dude. Because I was like, this is our big chance. You’re going to ruin it by asking for too much. So we go in the meeting, guys going through. He said, okay, we’ll start production here, and we’ll do this and that, and. And he goes, I think we’re about ready to go. And Cory’s one more thing, you know? And I’m like, oh, God.

And she’s like, we’re thinking you should pay the guys a talent fee. He was like, oh, what were you thinking? And she said, we were thinking $30,000 a piece was be for the whole season, and I’m making $28,000 a year. That’s my salary. What were you doing? That was my job. I made 28,000 that. But what was your job? Oh, at the Duck. That was my whole yearly job. I made 28,000. She just asked for 30 for. To do this thing, which would essentially double my pay. And when she said 30, I’m like, oh, my gosh.

Like, that’s way too much. And the guy literally just goes, yeah, okay, no problem. And I’m like, crap, we should have said 50. We just said 50. She said 30. So then. And here’s what kind of CEO I am. So we were excited. So we go back to the house. I go back down to dad’s house. Jason’s there. We’re all in the house, and they’re waiting to hear what happened with the TV show. And I walk in. I’m like, well, boys, we were fixing to do us a television show on the Outdoor Channel. And guess what else? I got us $30,000 a piece.

Like, it was my idea. And everybody just like. We were like, we did it. It’s over. We finally figured out we got free shotguns. We doubled our pack. We have to do a TV show. We have no idea what we’re doing. And we launched into that show. What year was that? This would have been probably 08. Yeah, somewhere in 08. So we launched into the show. We’re able to cut our teeth. So we’ve been making DVDs and hunting videos. Now we go on this TV with these. These boys from reality TV were there. So we really learned how to do television, you know, how to do, you know, what was going to become ultimately Doug Dynasty.

It was a. It was a different show. Like, half, it was just like hardcore guns, you know, and all that good. They were showing their products and. But the other half was just like silly reality stuff that we just came up and I kind of focused on that. My brother and dad. And then they did the hardcore hunting. And then I was over there doing the. Hey, we could show this and we could just. Wild, crazy stuff we were doing. And. And the show was super popular. Like in. In that world. Everybody loved it. And we won awards.

And our sales went up. More people were buying duck calls and our T shirts. So it was like, hey, we did it, man. And I had to sell. Part of the deal was I had to sell half the advertiser. So because then that one, you get your commercial, then you have to go sell them. So Benelli would say, half. And I sold half of them. And it was so funny. Like, it was hard selling, but ultimately it was going to be duck nice. It was hard selling an ad for this thing. I ended up selling all mine.

I would sell my ads, and that was part of the deal I had to do. So then we get an email. I get a generic email information at duck Commander, and there’s no tell how many. They just never even get looked at. Of course, it’s a dude. He said, I’m a producer in Los Angeles. I’ve watched the show. And Outdoor Channel. He saw that show. I think you guys have a really big show. Give me a call, left his number. Secretary comes in and says, I got this email. Somebody said, they’re from Los Angeles. And she said, do you want me to throw it away or do you want me to respond? And I looked at and I said, I’ll respond.

So I respond, say, this is Willie. What? What do you think? And you know, and I get on the call with him and man, he’s a fast talker. You know, he’s la. He’s like this William Tell you this is going to be the biggest show. I mean, I’m telling you, I’ve got something this big. You have a really big show. Like, we got to take this thing bigger. This is on cable. This is on. And I’m thinking, this guy’s full of crap. I’m like. I said, you think so? And he said, willie, you will not be able to walk down the street without people, everybody recognizing who you are.

And I God, this guy, he’s laying it on thick. And so I said, so, what do we need to do if we were to do that? He said, we’ll make a sizzle reel. And unfortunately, we had just done, like, three seasons of this show. So we took three minutes, and then he started pitching around to networks, and there was a lot of interest. You gotta remember, this is the time Louisiana. The tax credits were big, like before Georgia had. Before, Louisiana was kind of the hotbed, and there was tons of shows. I mean, our state is like, there’s so much culture and just fun people in our state anyway.

And so you had Billy the Exterminator, Swamp, Swamp People, Sons of Guns. All these are Louisiana show, bayou billionaires. There’s tons of shows been shot there. So if you had anything in Louisiana, because they knew they could go, say, 40%, you know, in the state. And he saw it, and we were on the Outdoor Channel, he saw it, and then I know where it comes. A, E, A and E. I didn’t really know anything about A and E. I didn’t watch. Even know what it was. And he said, A and E is interested in two pilots.

And I’m like, what does that mean? And he says, well, if they pick it up, that’s where we want to be. It’s a good mixed audience. Like, men and women watch A, E, Big Company, you know, it’s, you know, combined with History Channel, abc, Disney, all this, and espn. And so he said, the problem is if they pass on his dad, like. Because then everybody just said, oh, they passed on. Yeah. And so we shot two pilots for A. And he had no idea what we were doing. And then the film crew got Giant. You know, they sent down this huge crew, and.

And we had no idea. And we just kind of went into it, and I didn’t know what we were doing. So what’s it. And didn’t know if it was good or. I didn’t know, you know, And. And so what was interesting was they didn’t know. They didn’t know what exactly they were getting. So if you. If you kind of looked at a picture of us, you’d be like, I think they thought we, like, grunted and, like, you know, and couldn’t speak English. So they didn’t I think they thought. And they thought it was going to be, like, danger.

Like, alligators are coming out of the water, you know, so they come down and so, hey, so we shot the b. We sent it off. And so they come. We’re like, well, we have good news and bad news. The. The bad news is this is not the show we were ordering, like, at all this. We were all shocked. And we’re like, oh. They said, the good news is it’s way better than what we thought we were getting. And they were like, this is a family show. Because nobody had put us in any category of family show, even though we were family.

But it was like. They just didn’t. I think they thought kind of like, we’re gonna laugh at these. But, you know, these are totally. They just totally didn’t. It was a Honey Boo Boo thing they said. Right. They didn’t realize. Right, that. Because some of their ideas initially, some of them. It was like, the women folk are out, you know, getting the possums, you know, and skinning them out. And my wife’s like, these women folk do not. We don’t even go in the woods. So. So. But they saw. And then there was this comedy, this real.

Because the first show we did on Outdoor Channel wasn’t really funny. And once we saw this kind of comedic thing come out. That’s what I mean, that was what really, I think, set it apart, was, it’s funny. It’s a fun, you know, something laugh. You know, it’s a funny show. What’s the. I mean, what’s the process of filming it? Well, you said your house got descended on by a swarm of producers. It was. Yeah. So we shot in all our houses, especially mine, especially my Myles was kind of the. Cause the show was kind of. We didn’t know any of this going in because we didn’t know what we were doing.

But it was kind of shot through my eyes. And so you would have, like, Willie’s dad, Willie’s wife. So you’re watching as a viewer. You’re watching it through my eyes. So I wasn’t supposed to be the normal guy. I’m the normal person. And then everybody else is crazy. You know, chaos is happening, and to some extent, they are crazy. And so, yeah, some people that are just kind of like themselves, like my father just. Dad never understood what exactly we were doing. Like, he never understood the show. He never liked it. He never understood it. He told me early on, he was like, well, tell him we need more preaching on this show.

I said, dad, there’s another Robertson family with a show like that. It’s the 700. We’re not that show. Like, this is. Is. This is not that. Are you related to them, by the way? And he was like, I’m not. No, I’m not. Not that they haven’t asked me for money, so I guess I’m not. Everybody related to me has asked me for money. So you’re like an NBA player. So. Yeah, he never quite understood the show. He. So my dad got to this one. So my dad got so mad one time, he said he wouldn’t be saying.

They just didn’t understand. He thought it was so goofy, and we were just being stupid. And so we sit down. This is my favorite thing that ever happened to agnosty that never got shown. So we had this dinner scene every time, you know. Yeah. And so we’re on, like, episode 80, you know, and, you know, the part of TV is, you know, you got these kids, they come in from LA, they’re 25 years old, and they’re telling you what to, you know. All right, go. You don’t look right. Yeah, it’s just. It’s kind of weird when you become the CEO of your company and do all this now.

You’re, you know, you’re listening to people you don’t know, and they’re telling you what to do. And so I think my dad had gotten past the point of that at this point pretty quickly. So we’re setting all the table up, and we’re just sitting there, you know, we’ve done this a thousand times, you know, and jibs on the table and. Okay, everybody ready? And so little young producers, like, okay, and Mr. Phil, you’ll pray. Action. So we bow our heads. And Phil said, father, I pray for these bunch of heathens from Los Angeles, California, with their latte coffees and their filthy language.

I pray you don’t burn them all in hell for their sinfulness. Amen. We were laughing so hard because none of us knew that was coming. None of us realized. And so we all look up. We’re just, like, looking around. Go, what was that? And this young producer, he never missed a beat. He was like, thank you, Mr. Phil. Now can we do another prayer that we could actually put on television? That never aired. Never aired. Never aired. It was so funny. So, yeah, dad didn’t quite understand the way they’re doing. These cameras are in your house for what, months? They are.

But, you know. Well, it was like walking into here. Yeah, we’re. We’re filming in here. Yeah, that’s a good point. Obviously, you know, and we’re in a pheasant camp in South Dakota. Somebody. Yeah, we are in a pheasant camp. I was a little worried, too, about that. I thought we did a bad idea, so we stayed up too late last night. That’s true. We were telling story. It was so fun and it was. I’m glad we did. So we get up this morning, we go shoot tons of birds, walked around, and then we go, I. I think I ate two pounds of meatloaf.

At least. Yeah, you said at least I ate that. Okay, you did as well. I didn’t look at your plate. Yeah, a lot. And I thought, that’s not a good recipe for doing a long podcast. Not at four in the afternoon after hunting in a big way, man. That was part of my demands, though, because I’ve heard recently about people in their podcasts and demands and contract writers. Yeah. And I said, I demand we have to fly to another state, shoot birds that morning. Yes. This should be every. This should be every podcast. And it was literally in the contract that you signed with us where you demanded lemon squares after.

And I thought, that’s a bit. That’s a little much. Yeah. No, I said, just go. We have to go find somewhere to. Actually, this was your idea. And so. Thank you. I was going to go to Maine. Yeah. But we don’t have any pheasants in Maine. No, this was a better grouse. This was a way better idea. If you could. I don’t know how many birds we shot this morning, but if you could shoot two grouse a day in Maine, you’re the best grouse hunter in Maine. Really? You’re a good shot, too. I’m telling your audience.

I would hope so. I’m telling your audience you’re a good shot. I’m not half as good. I wasn’t surprised. I mean, I knew you hunted a lot. I’m not half as good as I should be after all the practice I’ve had, I’ll tell you that. But no, it’s actually, I missed a bird. Bird got too aggressive with me and it intimidated me. And I always think, you know, when you’re bird hunting, you’re the pursuer, you’re the aggressor, you’re the predator. And when the bird turns it around and tries to fly up your nose, I just. I freeze and miss the bird every time.

And you had the guy, you know, because it’s unnatural. I was here a month ago doing this pheasant hunting. I didn’t grow up pheasant hunting. So we were poor. I have a pheasant come. He literally is coming at my face. And I did know what to do. And I took the shotgun and I went back like I was going to hit it like a baseball bat. And if I had a little more cojones, I would have because the guide said, you should have done it. Oh, it was that close. It was that close. I think he’d been hit.

So he’s coming down and I’m like, he was just so close. And there’s a picture and you see me go like this, but. And you just go right? And then I thought, why didn’t I. Can you imagine if you just grab presence of mine? That’s what separates the most out to that one that just grabbed that sucker out of the air would have been. That’s an Aaron Rodgers move. And I just blew it. And one day I’m gonna. Now I’m gonna schedule like I was months of pheasant hunting. Do I can get that same scenario to happen again? I watched my father get hit right in the chest on a driven peg ch pheasant when I was a kid.

And it knocked him right down. He was turning, talking to someone, and the pheasant just came in and hit him, right? And just bam. And he’s a big man. Did you grow up pheasant? Yeah. Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. Yeah. It used to be only crazy people thought they were being watched all the time. Surveilled the guy mumbling next to you on the bus. But now anyone who knows what’s going on thinks that because it’s true, your phones are listening to you. Tech companies tracking all your online activity in order to profit off of what ought to be private information.

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I’ve come a long way just bootstrapping it. So did you, like, what was it like to go from being maybe locally famous to nationally famous? Yeah, night and day. Because it. But it was, man, I’m so appreciative. So it was like we did just enough to get comfortable enough to figure out what it is that you’re doing. And I love the, you know, the progression. You know, I think zero to he, you know, just like nothing to something. But it was just enough, like, we knew just enough tv and then we had done some, you know, stuff to work.

If we went in Bass Pro shop or what, you know, he was like, ah, there’s Duck Commander, guys. And. But just enough. But then once we hit the really national spotlight, especially to the level our show was, it was crazy. It was just crazy. Not good for you? No, it wasn’t good. Now, in many way, business, it’s not because business went crazy and trying to do everything, you know, because you’re still trying. You have a business, you’re trying to run your business. And then ours was really unique because the nature of the show looked like we were goofing off or everybody in the.

Well, then I’m getting, you know, 50,000 orders. Well, we can’t fill them. And then I got people emailing me. I just saw y’all were goofing off. I just watched the show. It was like, that’s really what we are. Go build some more ducknasts. So then, yeah, I had to go, like, do a video going, hey, guys, look, Willie from Ducknastia. We really are working. It’s not everything you see on the TV show is what exactly happened that day, you know, exactly that day. So it was. It was crazy. It was. We. The first holidays, we crashed our computer, I think three times.

It was so bad because they ordered their product, so we got their money and then it crashed. But we didn’t know what they ordered, so we have your money. We don’t know what you. What’d you do? Just tried to put out saying, hey, call. Call us and say, call. And be like, I didn’t get my order. And be like, why don’t you tell us what you ordered? Well, just generalize whatever you think, you know, just spitball it. You know, we’ll get as close as we can. We’re just trying to ship stuff out. People are like, those are good problems to have.

And I’m like, no, they’re not. They’re terrible problems. They’re terrible problems to have. Just really overwhelmed. Just wasn’t. Wasn’t ready. And to think that when we did this show, we’re having this meeting, and my wife Corey, says, do you think we should order more duck calls? And I said, no, nobody’s going to order a duck call. You know, even if you like the show, why would you need a duck call? I mean, if you’re not a duck hunter, what do you. Was I wrong? Really? People were buying decorative duck calls. People were just buying any duck call.

Like, they just wanted that. I mean, unless you put on a shelf. Well, it was just. They wanted a piece of the show, and that was the piece they wanted. How many duck calls did you sell? Oh, man, like, million and a half or something. Crazy duck calls. Yeah. In the year before, we’d done 50,000. 50,000 to 1.5 million. That’s crazy. It’s insane. It’s insane. We were working 24 hours a day. I had crews, I had everybody who could possibly. How much child labor? Not much child labor except for ours. We’ve made ours work. What did your kids think of the whole thing? That’s what I was.

I mean, I think that’s your big fear. I mean, your fear is. Is how’s it gonna. How does it play with them? Yeah. I always say this year in life, I’ve been able to do a lot of things, and most of the things my kids are gonna do or have done, I’ve already done. You know, college, have children, get married, you know, move. What. I mean, the only thing I had zero experience with was being famous at a young age. Yeah, I understood it at 40, because I was 40 when the show came out. But being 16, you know, I had no idea.

And also, you’ve got the beginning of social media, too, and so that’s new as well. And so, yeah, I think they probably struggled, you know, with some of it and struggled, certainly some aspects of it. Understood the good of it and, you know, figure out a way how to use it. You know, use what it was for. For the good and then ditch the stuff. That was. So they’re not mad about it now? No, they’re not. How many are married? 4, 5. How do you get your kids to get married so young? Yeah, I don’t know.

I didn’t encourage it. You didn’t? Well, that was the day I told you about Corey’s parents. You know, her dad’s mad. You’re too young. This is what made him mad. I said, how old were y’all? 19, 18. Same age. I was like, you’re the same age we were when we got married. So it was interesting that. Because he couldn’t say, oh, we waited and. But no, they wanted to get. You know, they got around the same age and they got married as well. But it’s not like I said, here’s how we do it around these parts, you know, not at all.

They just. I don’t know. You find the right one and then make a commitment and go. It’s pretty great. Yeah, it really is great. Well, it’s great because then you’re young. I got eight grandkids. I’m a young, young grandparent. I mean, it’s fine when you’re younger, you know, you’re not. So how long did the show go? Five years. 130 episodes. Wow. Why’d they end it? There were a lot of reasons, I think. One, it gets more expensive. It just keeps getting more expensive. You know, everything goes up. You know, it’s like your fees go up. Everything goes up.

Well, not just ours. Everybody, you know, production. Everybody’s going, hey, if this keeps, you know, generating income. And. And so I think, you know, it’s. I’m assuming. I mean, I think it’s probably like a baseball player. Like you’re paying a guy $10 million at first base. He hits 25 home runs. We could pay a guy 500,000. Maybe he’ll hit. Maybe he hit 12 home runs and good enough. We’ll save them, you know, and so I’m sure they’re like, we could make other shows. And some of it just played out. I mean, it, like, you just kind of run out of it.

Like, what’s. What do we do now? You know, it’s like you have used that more kids and stuff. It’s like you’ve done so many. I mean, 130 episodes with two storylines is 260 stories a lot. Yeah, we were certainly ready. I mean, we’re ready for a break. It was a lot of work, man. I mean, the first year, man, we filmed. We filmed 10 months that year. Yeah, this is not some couple of month deal, you know, this is not like how many days a week. The first year, we did six days a week, and we did even some Sundays, Sunday afternoons.

Just getting it, man. We were just. That’s crazy. Ten months, six days a week. It was hard. It was hard. It was a lot. But we were just, you know, at that point, we’re like, figured out. And then they were just. It became so popular. It must have gotten close because they wanted more evidence. They were just like, we need more, we need more, we need more. And so it was like, keep making them. Keep making them. And so finally we’re like, time out. You know, renegotiate. And so part of that, we went to Monday through Thursday schedules.

Gives us a day off, at least a day to go to the hospital. I mean, to go to the doctor, to go, you know, stuff. You know, stuff you need to do. Because it’s not like you worked every day, but you’re on the schedule for that long. So some days you may not be, you know, you may not be on that afternoon, but you won’t know until it comes out, you know, on the schedule, kind of where you’re at. Did you ever feel misrepresented by the show? No, because I, you know, I kind of played a part.

Like I had a part that I played on the show, and it was kind of consistent of. It just kept me. It was authentic. I mean, it was like, I’m the CEO, I’m the head guy. And so I think in order to make some of it work, you know, you kind of had to have a bad guy, you know, somebody. I mean, it’s kind of the sort of comedy comes from, you know, it’s like. You think about, like, the stories you think about in school or in church growing up, you know, what are the funniest things? It’s when you’re gonna get in trouble, right? Of course.

It’s like, oh, it’s so funny. Like, you can’t stop laughing. So some of that was kind of like that, you know, let them do stuff. And then I’d be like, this is so stupid, you know, and like. Cause it was stupid, but so just kind of, you know, so for my role in it. And then I was also the guy that narrated you through the show, so I had to keep you. I had to keep you up on what was going on because. Because People get confused. They get. And if you get confused and if you don’t, if you can’t figure a show out, you’ll just change the channel, of course, because it makes you feel dumb.

Yeah. And you’re like, oh, I can’t watch this, you know, because I can’t figure it out. Did you watch the shows? We did. I did. I don’t. I never like watching really myself and I don’t like watching speeches or other stuff. But we watched that one together because half of the show I never knew what happened because it wasn’t the parts I was in. Right. Meanwhile, down at the river. And so I didn’t see that stuff and it was hilarious. I’ve been watching it going, this is so funny. Because I didn’t know what I was watching with everybody else in the world.

And so it was so funny. God would get so tickled at some of the stuff they would do. So we would watch it together. We, like, my family would all get together and the kids were younger, so it was cool for them to be able to, you know, kind of see themselves on tv. How are they treated at school because of it? Different. I mean, everybody’s treated different, you know, but they were. It was probably wor. You know, good. Probably good and bad. You know, they didn’t go to school as much as, like they were out of school a lot.

So we had a teacher there on set just because it was a lot of days. So they weren’t. They just had to do a lot of the school. Sadie did a ton of school from the house just because that’s what she had to do. But they were in a Christian school and they were pretty lenient. I mean, not on the grades. They were just lenient on. They let them play sports and they could still participate and stuff like that. You know, even though they were kind of doing school from afar. What year did it end the show? 12 to 17 maybe.

So it would have to end itself. I mean, at some point you’re going to run into the political problem. Right? Show like that. Yeah. When you say political problem. Well, I mean, I don’t know. You know, you, you live in Louisiana, you run a hunting related company and you’re Christian. So you’re probably going to reach a different political conclusion. You’re probably going to be pro Trump. I mean, just judging by all that, that is true. Yeah. There was Trump. Yeah. Most of the show was President Obama. That was. Yeah, he was the president. And yeah, Trump was right there.

Did you address it on the show? Don’t remember that, Trump. No, no, we didn’t. We didn’t because it kind of wasn’t that kind of. It wasn’t like really reality like that. It wasn’t like you didn’t see stuff from. Right. The. Like, I remember we would be filming at a grocery store. We’d have to turn the magazines around because we would be on the COVID of the magazines. We’re filming the show around. They’d be like, hey, it’s too fourth wall. Yeah, it was a little. It was a little. But yeah, Trump was. No, that was right when Trump.

Yeah, I kind of. That’s. I stick my toe in the water a little bit on that one. On the air. You did. No, just in life. Yeah, just with Trump and. Well, yeah, I mean, it’s a different world now though, right? I mean, well, in my mind, I was a little naive. I just thought, well, this is cool, you know, I like Trump. I like when I first heard about thought, oh, that’s what we need. We need a business guy. We need. We gotta get away from these politicians. We need a bit. That’s exactly who we need.

And. And he had a reality TV show. So I was like, hey. He’s like, so, yeah. And so I meet him. You probably never heard the story. So first I met him, I was doing. I was in Oklahoma City. My son was speaking at something. I can’t. I went to hear him speak. We had been elk hunting. Not my son, but me and a buddy were elk hunting and the dude has a plane. I said, hey, can we stop in here? My son’s giving us speech. Yeah, cool. So we. We go in there and see him.

We’re at lunch and this guy said, hey, guess who’s in town? I said, who? He said, trump. He’s doing one of his rallies. This is back 15, and, you know, he’s doing these rally. He was at the Oklahoma State Fair. And I was like, oh, we gotta go. We gotta go to this. This is awesome. You know, And I had just met Don Jr. Who’s a hunter. And that’s how. Certainly is. That’s how we. We met each other. We just met and talked. And so I emailed him or texted him and just said, hey, your dad’s doing this rally.

I was gonna go check it out. And he’s like, cool, I’ll set it up. And I remember I got a police officer because I was like, there’s no way I can go this Oklahoma state. But, like, I’m gonna get mobbed at this place, you know, And I may be more recognizable than Donald Trump in Oklahoma City at this in 2015. And so I show. I have this cop with me. I get. There’s an RV in the back. So it’s like a outdoor. You know, there’s giant crowd. You know, it’s outdoor thing. There’s an rv. So I get on this rv, me and my buddies and.

And my cop friend. And there’s these other people in there. There’s like cater person, there’s a few people. And this, this is funny story. There’s a dude on there, and he comes up to me. He’s got an earpiece, but he’s like got beach shorts, you know. Who is this guy? I said, what do you. He said, can I get a picture? I said, yeah. I said, what do you do? Because I didn’t know who worked for Trump. Trump’s not there yet. And he goes, I do all kind of stuff, you know. He said, do you want to see my gun? Now, I’ve been around.

You’ve been around enough. Has any security person ever asked you, do you want to see my gun? No. No, that’s not a no. It’s not a thing. And I’m looking at this cat going, what in the world? So I take a picture and Corey Lewandowski gets on the bus. He goes, if you ain’t with Willie, get off the bus. And so these people start getting off the bus, right? And so here comes the whole entourage, you know, And Trump gets on first. I met him. He’s like, will, hey, look at this. Willie, did you say the crowd is huge? He goes, even for you, it’s huge, right? I mean, this is a huge crowd for somebody like you, you know, And.

And so I’m kind of laughing. My buddies are just like, this is the funniest thing ever. I look back on the. You can ask Corey this story. I look back, that dude who said he had a gun is talking to Trump. He didn’t get off the bus. And he’s got like, his book or something. And I could see like Trump does. He just looks. And that’s back when he had those, like, giant security guards. You know, this is. He wasn’t the president. You know, he used to have those, like, six foot nine guys. So Trump just gives us look.

There’s a look here. They come to me and go, is that dude with you? I said, no, he’s not with me. I said, and he said he had a gun. And when I said that, oh, they grabbed this guy, like, by the buck and Just threw him off the bus. And Trump said, these spies are everywhere. And so I was like. And they’re all looking. I could tell, man. And I looked up myself, what kind of operation y’all running here within. That really made it bad, because then I’m making fun of their security. But it was a true story.

Like this dude, who was he? Thankfully, I had the cop. It was a detective from Oklahoma City. So later, a week later, he calls me, says, willie, he said, I found out about you, about that guy. He brought the porta potties in to the fair. And he tells the fair director, anything else I can help you with, I’ll do. Well, they start putting him to work, doing all the. He has an earpiece because they’re telling him his whole thing was he wanted to get Trump signed his book. He did the whole thing. He goes, he didn’t even know you were going to be there.

You were a bonus. Because he was excited. He got the picture of me. Isn’t that wild? That’s amazing. So I’m on the bus. So Trump’s fixing to go speak. Well, when I went to this deal, my wife, I said, look, Trump’s speaking. We’re going to go over and check it out. She says, willie, do not. Do not get on that stage. Until I said, don’t worry, I’m out of this. I’m not getting involved. Bobby Jindal was running. He was a friend of mine. I was like, no, no, no, I ain’t doing any of that stuff. And so Trump, before he gets off the bat, he goes, willie, did you want to get up and say anything to the crowd? And I said, no, no, no, Mr.

Trump, I’m good, man. I’m good. I’m. I’m. You go ahead. You know, but I thought, you know, I thought these politicians, you know, but I thought, well, he’s not a politician, so maybe he won’t do it. So I go out there, Tucker, I’m like. He gets on the stage, and I thought, if he’s going to do. He’s going to do it right off the bat. And so there’s a stairwell. And so I’m kind of hiding in this because I don’t want to. I don’t really want to be seen at this point. You know, I’m like, somebody be like, there’s Willie Robertson.

I’m like, no, no, I look like him, you know, And I’m kind of like, leaning the stairwell, and I’m thinking, ralph, the bay is going to go like, hey, guess who’s Here, you know, nothing. Trump just goes into a speech. He’s China. He’s there. He’s 30 minutes deep by this time. I’m. We’re kind, we’re laughing. We’re like, this is the funnest thing ever, you know? I never dreamed he’d be the president. I was like, this is cool to see, you know? And Trump, 30 minutes deep, he just stops. He looks around and goes, where’s Willie? And my heart stopped.

I went, oh, my gosh. Please tell me he knows another guy named Willie at the Oklahoma State Fair. And he just starts walking down the stairs. He goes, where the hell’s Willie at? Where’s he at? You know? And nobody knows who he’s talking about. Everybody’s going, who’s Willie? And my buddy’s going, willie, you gotta go up there. And I said, I can’t. I can’t go up there. Like, I’m not prepared to go up on the stage. And he’s like, he’s calling for you on the stage. So I pop up on the stage where everybody goes crazy.

Like, it was like, oh, my gosh. I walk over, I was like, I’m waving to the crowd. And so I leaned, I shook his hand. I said, hey, good job, Mr. Trump. Kill him. It’s awesome. And I go to pull away. He doesn’t let go of my hand. He just holds it. And I’m like, you’re in the Trump trap. And I’m going, oh. And he’s holding. He goes, hey, hey, hey. He goes, hey, I got something. He said, do y’all know who this is? And everybody goes. He goes, this is the biggest television star in America.

Everybody’s going crazy, you know? He said, willie, Robert, duck down this thing. He said, I got one question for Willie, you know. Yeah. And I’m like, oh, please. He goes, do you love Trump? And just hands me the microphone. Do you ever feel like you can’t trust the things you hear or read? Like every news source is hollow, distorted, or clearly just propaganda lying to you? Well, you’re not imagining it. If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that legacy media exists to distort the truth and to control you, to gatekeep information from the public.

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Hillsdale will send in Primus right to your house. No charge. All you gotta do is ask. Go to TuckerForHillsdale.com and subscribe for free today. That’s TuckerForHillsdale.com the only way this stays a democracy is if the citizenry is informed. You can’t fight tyranny if you don’t know what’s going on in Primus helps. It’s free. Don’t wait. Sign up now. That’s the Trumpiest question ever. Tucker. My brain is going so fast. I’m like, because here’s the situation. We’ve got 10,000 people here. They’re all there to see him. They see me. And now he’s asked me this super awkward question.

I’m like, I’ve already endorsed Bobby Jindal. I’m like, what am I supposed? I lean up to the mic and I go, yeah, yeah, I do like me some Trump. And everybody cheers, you know? And I said. And Trump’s behind me with his hands on my shoulder. He’s ready to, like, if I say the wrong things, throw me away. And I said, here’s the deal. Me and Mr. Trump have three things in common. We both had successful television shows, we both were successful at business, and we both married people that look way better than we do. Thank Oklahoma City.

I’m so walk off to the deal. And I’m still just, like, literally kind of shaking from the whole experience. And I get in the stairway, and my buddy’s going, oh, my gosh, I can’t believe that just happened. And my phone just immediately starts going crazy, just buzzing, buzzing. And so I’m looking at it, and I’m like, oh, no. You know, what have I started? Now it’s all my buddies going, oh, my gosh, we just saw you on tv. Oh, my God, you’re on T. And when I’m sending a screenshot, Trump’s behind with a sign, and he’s behind me like this.

And then there’s my wife’s. And I went, oh, no. And she said, did you just endorse Donald Trump for president? And so I just screenshot the picture with Trump. I sent it to her, and I said, no. Why would you say that? She was like, do not get on stage. And. And there I am on the stage. And the next day, I got in an Uber car in Oklahoma City to go to the airport. I’m sitting right beside this driver, little old guy. He looks at me, goes, what’d you fellas do last night? And I said, we went to the Oklahoma State Fair.

He goes, so did I. He goes, I went to see Donald Trump. I said, did you? He goes, he’s going to be the next president of the United States. I said, you think so? He said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We believe in him. He’s going to be the president. I said, do you see that dude that got up in the middle of the speech? I’m just part of. He goes, you know who that was? Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty. He flew in just to endorse Donald Trump for president. And I said, really? He goes, oh, yeah, he’s a huge fan of Mr.

Trump. Yeah, he’s a big television guy. And I mean. And I said, sir, do you know who I am? He looks at me, goes, no idea. I said, I’m that dude. I’m Will. I was on the stage, and I thought he was going to freak out. He goes, you had a different bandana on. I said, I did have a different bandana guy. He goes, yeah, yeah. I didn’t recognize you with that other bandana on. That’s how I met Trump. Have you ever met him again? I have, yeah. I saw him a couple more times. He did.

Well, Don Jr. Came to the house and hunted that one. We set up. We set up Phil. Well, Phil made me. So Matt, my dad. So Dad, I go, so Don Jr. Is going to come duck hunt with us. He goes, I’m coming down. Let’s duck hunt is perfect. We set it up. Well, I’m going to Mexico for my anniversary. Four days. Four days. I’m in Mexico. So I go to Mexico. Yeah. And your phones are all jacked up down there. You know, it’s like numbers come in. So I’m leaving the Mexico. Mexico airport, coming to America.

I get this call. I don’t. But it doesn’t say who it is. I answered. This dude is talking so fast. I’m like, he is nowhere within a thousand miles of where I live in the south. It was a northern accent. He is. And I’m like, now, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, slow. Who is this? He goes, it’s Don Jr. I said, hey, what’s up? I said, we own, huh, Don? He goes, I don’t know if I can come. I don’t know. I don’t know. We’re still, we’ve got to figure out. I said, oh, what happened? He was like, because of what your dad did? Like, I’ve been gone for four days.

I’m like, four days. What. Who has he offended? What has he done? And I can understand this about my dad. He lives on the end of a dead end street, does not have a cell phone, does not have a computer, but somehow he can get messages out all over the world, like instant. It’s amazing how he can. How he can do this. I’m like, what did he do? He said he endorsed Ted Cruz. I said, no. I was like, where did that come from? He goes, there’s commercials. I said, there’s commercials. In four days, he has met Ted Cruz and he has endorsed Ted Cruz and there’s commercials.

He goes, yes, they’re playing right now. So I pull up the commercial. Feels and feels in the dark, blind. So it’s Ted, and they’ve all got face. Got this face. Doesn’t look like he’s in play. He’s like. He looks scared to death. Everybody’s like, shoes in their back, spits come out of their mouth. And then there’s Ted Cruz. And so Phil McGregor goes, we’re voting for Ted Cruz. He’s a brother in Christ. We’re all voting for him. And insinuating, like, we’re. We’re all like, the whole Duck Come Out Duck Dynasty crew is the vote for him.

I’m not there, obviously. I’m in Mexico. I went, oh, my gosh. So I call the house. Mom answers the phone. I said, mom, where’s Phil? He’s in the woods. I said, well, crap, I gotta talk to him. She goes, well, you can go try to find him. I said. She goes, what’s wrong with you? I said, he just made a commercial with Ted Cruz. Nobody. These are things you have to tell me. Like, you know what I’m saying, you have to let me in on. And she goes, oh, no. He knew. He was going to be mad over that.

He knew you liked Trump. But, you know, Ted Cruz showed up with a bunch of TV cameras and I don’t know that. Next thing I know. And I said, well, mom, he said, we’re all voting for him. We’re not all voting. And she goes, no, no, no. He didn’t mean all you boys. He meant all the Christians. I said, mom, I’m a Christian. Well, you know what I mean. So, okay, so we set up. So Don Jr. Finally, he’s like, all right. Because he was like, I’m not coming down there if you’re endorsed, you know, it was.

It was awkward. So I said, oh, we’re going. We’re going to set up dad. Good. So we’re going to burn him on this one. Don Juan come down, duck hunts, and, you know, he’s lights out. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I knew it. So you know his hoog now. So Dad’s blown away. You know, it’s good. So by what. What a good shot Don is. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so. So I reach out to Hannity. I said, handy. I said, put me and Phil on the show. I’m backing Trump. He’s backing Cruz, apparently. And I said, I’m going to set that sucker up.

So we get on the show. Dad and I are going after it. And I said, hang on. I said, I got one question to ask Phil, since we’re on this show. I said, you. Phil recently went duck hunting with Ted Cruz, and he also went hunting with Trump. I just said Trump. I didn’t say Doug. I just said Trump. I said, dad, who exactly is the better hunter? Phil said, ain’t a doubt about it. That cat from New York can shoot, son. So I got him saying that Cruz wasn’t a Kentucky, because I asked dad, he said, oh, yeah, he couldn’t hit the broadside of the bar.

And finally Cruz dropped out, thank goodness. And so then Phil came on board. Has he been on board ever since? He has been. He has been. I mean, is there anyone in the world that. I mean, I think things have changed since then, of course, but, like, the world that you live in is probably pretty much 100 Trump at this point. Yeah. I mean, down there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it’s. Well, now it is, for sure. I mean, like, did you have a lot of friends voting Kamala Harris? Yeah. I mean, well, just because I know a lot of people outside of Louisiana, so.

No, I mean, in Louisiana production. Yeah. All my TV friends. I mean, yeah, I’ve done tons of tv. I mean, so, yeah, I’ve got friends all over who were. And we had great debates, but it’s the way it should be. Like, we debate, we love each other, we’re friends, we’re, you know, and I can certainly look at Trump and call them like, that doesn’t make sense, or that’s not how I feel, or that’s not what I would say, or that’s ugly or that’s unkind or whatever it is. And so. And this year, I was staying out of it.

I really was, because of the book because when I wrote this book and I said, I don’t want to get pulled. I want this message to come out. I want the mess of the gospel, and I don’t want it to get gummed up. And I understand, because I was the first speaker in the 2016 convention. I was the first. You were. You don’t remember? No. That powerful message that I gave. Golly, Tucker, where were you? I think I was just in a cloud of euphoria. I was the first speaker, and you. And now you gotta remember 16.

When I went out there, they were like, all right, look, we don’t know how this is gonna go. Remember? Because they were fighting. They were. They didn’t know where they were gonna walk off or. Oh, yeah. So they were like, good luck, Willie. Because I was the first guy out. Like, I was the first guy on the stage. And Don Jr. Called. He said, hey, my father wants you to speak at the convention. I was like. And I was gathering my breath to say no, because I was just going to be like. Because in my mind, I thought it was like, 45 minutes.

I was like, I don’t have 45 minutes in me on politics, you know, And I’m going. And I said. I said, let me check my schedule. That’s what I said, let me check my schedule. And he goes, okay, well, check your schedule and they’ll get back with you. So, like, the next day, someone calls. Some lady calls and says, hey, so we’ve got you scheduled. You’re the first speaker. And I’m fixing to tell her, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn’t. I didn’t say yes, you know, and she goes, you’re the first one up. You go for three minutes.

And I went, three minutes. That’s a commercial. But, yeah, of course I’ll do three minutes, you know. And so I was. Yeah, I was the first speaker in the 16th. What’d you say? I can’t even remember. I mean, it was nothing. It was like. I really don’t. Did you think he was going to win that year? I did. Did you think he was going to win this year? I did. Why? Well, I thought he had a really good. I mean, I was a little. I called it at 8:33 central time that night. When I saw Virginia, North Carolina, I said, sober.

Virginia was close. I was like, it’s over. Yeah. I mean that. I just. I wasn’t sure about North Carolina. That was the only state. That confuses me sometimes. But Virginia. I mean, I think he was winning, like, you know. Yeah. Like early on I was like, oh, it’s. And I told my family, I texted my friends, and Trump wins, it’s over. But yeah, I had a good, I had a good sense about it. It just, it felt like it did in 16. It felt like I was just kind of looking at the culture and looking at what people were saying.

I was like, he’s got a lot of people that are, you know, because it wasn’t as, it wasn’t as weird as it was before. Like, that was kind of cool. It was like you weren’t ostracized as much. I mean, 16, I mean, there was, it was, People did not like him in 20. Oh my gosh. But you had that Covid, I mean, the whole Covid. And I said that year, probably earlier that year, somebody asked me who I thought was going to win. I said, oh, Trump. I said, trump’s got this. There’s no way he can lose.

The economy’s strong, we’re safe, we’re not in a war. I said, that’s it, that’s game over. I said, unless something really weird happens. I said that, like they manufacture a virus in China. And then the weird thing happened and there you go. And. But I went to bed last time thinking, I went to bed in 20 thinking. I was like, oh, it’s over. She fell asleep before they shut down. I was like, the polling places. And I was like, oh. So here’s a question you shouldn’t have to think about, but probably do. What would you do if your family needed life saving medication and you couldn’t get any? You hate to think you’re going to face that.

We depend on our supply chains all the way from Asia to here, thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. But let’s be honest, that chain is fragile. Just one weather event, one container ship accident, an unexpected crisis, a war. We’re on the brink of a couple and suddenly you can’t get the medication that you need, that your family needs. Now people are going to tell you, don’t worry about it, calm down, everything is fine. All right? But why not spend a little bit of money to make sure everything actually will be fine? And that’s where the Jace case comes in.

J A S E case. It’s not paranoid, it’s planning. The Jace case is a simple portable supply of emergency medications, ones you actually will need that you can keep at home so you’re totally prepared. It’s better to be too early than too late, though at this point, nobody thinks we’re going to be too early. With this. Check it out for yourself. Go to jace.com j s c.com and use the code tucker for a discount. That’s jace.com promo code tucker. You should do it. We have. Did anyone in that, you know, in Louisiana have questions about that election? 2020.

All of them. It’s kind of what I thought. We’ve all got questions, but I don’t understand what it is. Like, I was like, I’ve listened to people over time. There’s tons of people who question that stuff. Always they quit, you know, like, you know, they question, like, was it done right? Was it, you know, I mean, I didn’t realize it was a crime to question just to make sure. Hey, did everything John do that? Right. Because it seemed strange. You know, maybe it wasn’t, but it was strange. Yeah. Yeah. I think the people in Louisiana are all up, you know.

Yeah, it was pretty obvious. Got a few cities were waiting, though. Well, we’ll let you know tomorrow. How much are we behind? Yeah, they had to tally the number of votes they needed. So what’s the new show? Yeah, we have a. We are getting back into production. It’s kind of like the next generation of Duck Dynasty. So my kids are older. Well, so since 2017, 2024. Yeah, a lot’s happened. The cast has grown up and then everybody else is still around. And so. Yeah. So back with A E, we met and they said, hey, you guys interested in kind of redoing the show? And felt like the time was right.

Met with the family, prayed about. It was like, I think so. The kids were excited and said, yeah, let’s show, you know, realized Tucker, what, You know, we talk about the long show and it’s like, it’s hard work, whatever, you know, I mean, it’s a lot. But, man, when you talk to people and they tell you, like, how much that meant to them and how much, I can’t tell you how many people just like, it was what my dad and I watched together. And when my mom passed away, it was like the last, you know, it was the only thing that we could laugh at together and we watched as a family.

Now I have like 25 year olds even here. I mean, these kids are like, you know, when I was 18, I watched every show y’all had and was just, you know, watching the prayer at the end, just watching our family be positive with our, you know, the roles were correct and it wasn’t a lot of, you know, just darkness and stuff that people watch. And it wasn’t just a train wreck. And so it’s really inspiring. You’re like, oh, man. You know, it’s good to make something. Especially when it came out originally, you know, it was a pretty much a little bright light amongst a lot of, you know, some dark stuff out there, some dark tv.

So. So I think when you can do that and you can provide that for people, there’s no pressure at all from your corporate masters to change anything or make it. No, I mean, I actually. I mean, to be honest with you, I feel stronger now than I would then, because they know who we are, you know? Yeah. I mean, they know we’re all about. It’s not like. I mean, back then, they didn’t know. They were like, I think they’re religious. I think, you know, like. But now, obviously, over the past. Well, crap, since 2000, you know, last 12 years, you know, where we stand, you know, what we’re.

What our morals are, you know, what’s important to us. And. And we have a lot of followers, you know what I’m saying? Like, we have social media for. Sadie has millions of people. You know, my kids have followers. They, you know, so a lot of people are interested in that, and it’s. It’s. They’re interested in. I think they want to be entertained, but they also, you know, I think they learn stuff. I think they can watch and learn. You know, a lot of people that watched our show were like, we never prayed. Like, we never prayed before a meal.

We didn’t even know, you know, and we started trying that, you know, probably more often than not even the praying. They rarely ever sat down and even ate together anymore. That’s a gone. That’s the saddest thing. They were like, we never even. We never even had dinner. Everybody’s just grabbing it and going, you know, meet you there. Meet you at the deal. Go to the ballpark. Get. You know, and so this whole idea of just sitting down and just spending time with each other at dinner was becoming a foreign concept. And so I think people can learn, and they can be like, oh, that’s.

You know, maybe they can’t. They don’t have the family we do. Maybe they don’t have. Maybe everybody doesn’t live there like that, but they can kind of live through that and kind of, you know, start their own, you know, traditions or doing something more as a family and realizing the importance of it and. And then also just taking a break and not, you know, I think what I love about Doug Dynasty was we didn’t take ourselves too seriously. We had fun we laughed and, oh, God, I mean, do we need that? I mean, we need. Yeah, need some.

You know, everybody’s so sick. I think if you had written this book 10 years ago, it would have seemed pretty weird, you know, why is the reality TV show writing a book about spreading the gospel? Right. Does not seem weird. Now. Do you think the country’s changed? I think it’s changing. Yeah. I think it’s. I think it’s certainly changing. I think people are looking for answers. That’s why I wrote the book, I think, because I think we get so lethargic. And some of this was even, like. Even in churches, they get. They just get lethargic and they get off.

You know, you got to know what your goal is and what kind of. What you’re here for. And what’s your mission? You know what your mission life. Well, and I take my mission from Matthew 28, which is labeled as the Great Commission. And Jesus says, go out and make disciples of all nations. Baptize people. Teach people. Three things, three specific ideas. Make disciples. Baptize people. Teach people. So those are the last things he said before he left. Like, make sure you do this. So when that’s your mission, you just think about what you’ve got to do to accomplish those three things.

You’re probably going to have to have conversations with people. Yeah. If you’re going to make a disciple out of them, if you’re going to baptize them, if you’re going to teach them, you’re going to have to have some sort of conversation. And so what I find is people. If your mission in life is as a Christian, if you’re like, well, I try to go to church as often as I can. I try to be a good person. Nothing in and of itself wrong with that, but that’s not a mission. And what happens is the mission becomes a little self.

I go to church so I can listen, so I can learn, so I can try to get through my week, you know, and everything becomes inward. Those three things Jesus said were outward. It’s out, out, out. Other people, other people, other people. Not just you, it’s other people. And again, back to my father, who was sitting at a bar. The guy drives up there, why? Why? He’s not going to be a member of his church. He doesn’t have any money. He’s a reprobate, you know, who’s got a terrible reputation. What drove him to drive up there that hour, drive, walk into that bar? What drove him to do that? It was just for him Just for that guy.

Yeah. And I thought. I thought, wow, I don’t know if I would drive, but I’d be like, you know, but he did that. It literally changed my life. It changed my whole family’s life. And if that would have been it, I’m not a big prosperity guy, like, and look what God has done, you know, look at what he gave us. It paid off. Didn’t matter if it just changed our life and kept our family together. Worth it. Everybody knows that we aren’t worth it. I got to see my dad and grow up with two parents. Worth it, you know, and you look over time as.

Then dad took that and then never went about this for money or fame or anything. In fact, really pushed that away, more than embraced it. Even when I told you the show, and he’s like, no. You know, and that was. That was a little different, too, with us. Like, we didn’t go. An email was sent to us, A company came to us. The network came to us. We weren’t trying to go, become famous. Right. And so you see a lot today, you know, people are like, I’ll do whatever it takes to get famous. You know, and so there’s no authenticity there.

It’s like, we want you to do this. Fine, I’ll do it. Will I be famous? Yes. Then I’ll do it. You know? Why would you want to be famous? Why would who? Anyone. Oh, I don’t know. It seems like a lot of people. I mean, from. Yeah, people want to be famous. What do you think of being. You are famous? What do you think of it? It has its good parts about it. What are those the people I’ve been able to meet? Yeah. I wouldn’t know you if I wasn’t. Yeah, well, you wouldn’t have invited me on this podcast had I not had a TV show, you know, So.

I don’t know. I ran into an elevator in Nashville. That’s true. But you thought I was a homeless guy. I did. You put money in my coffee cup filled with dip. Spit, anyone? I did. I spit in my cup. And you said, he looked at me. You said, did you spin your cup? First words you said to me, you said, did you spin that cup? Anyone who dips in an elevator is a potential friend of mine. That’s how I feel about it. And you started doing your little maniacal laugh, and you started laughing so hard, and it was so funny.

Because of all the people I was expecting to see, it wasn’t cheating that you do. I didn’t expect to catch Willie Robertson, dip it in an elevator. But that was it. I was. I was. I was headed to my room. I had been promoting this book, and. And you happened to be there as well, which is how this all ended up. And I think God, you know, I don’t know. I think God works like that. I think he puts people together and, you know, just seems too weird to me. Not so. I think there’s those opportunities that people have and they meet, and some you take advantage of, some you don’t, some you miss, some you’re like, oh, crap, you know, And.

Yeah, but I just. I don’t know. I mean. Well, I. He did that in the Bible, you know. Yeah, there was. There was things moving around, and so. So it could be for that person, could be for someone else, could be for something completely different, you know, some situation that maybe needs to. To get out. And so. But it was interesting that I had written this book. I had decided this year I’m not jumping in this, even though it’s so tempting. Everybody tried to get me to, you know, get involved. Let’s go, you know, and. And I’d really just said, no, I’m not.

And I. I’m just going to promote this book. And then. And then I meet you. And then you said, hey, you should come on the podcast. And it was scheduled for a few months ago. And I went, I’m going to get pulled into the politics. I was like. I said, I’m going to get pulled into this thing. And. And then as it turned around and spun around, we still did podcasts after the election. And then, you know, and that was kind of the commitment I made. Just don’t get so involved because I didn’t want the message.

I don’t care what. I really don’t care, like, if it’s the gospel or some political agenda. I’m going with the gospel every time, because this is the power. This is. You know, if we can change people’s. You know, I just saw it. I mean, it changed me, but it. Like somebody like my father can change people’s lives and turn them into completely different people. And so that’s what I want to get to people. You know, politics turns people into completely different people, too, but rarely for the better. Right. I mean, it. It has its place and it.

You know, and I’m not casting aspersions on people who, you know, want our country to be, you know, a great country. And. But we’re, you know, I’m not even one that says we have. We have to. Everything’s gotta be like, you have to have Christians in every position. I mean, I mean, no, that’s okay. I mean, we can work together and figure that out. Let the gospel do what it does and let, let politics do what it does. And let government so almost like render under Caesar what is Caesar’s. And Exactly. Exactly. Where do you get that? Yeah, because.

And that’s the thing had back to mission. So I’m into that mission. Make disciples, baptize people, teach people not to. You know, I think if Jesus wanted us to just make sure your government is. He would have talked about it. Right? Said, yeah, let’s lay out a plan and all that. Because it was, you know, under these governmental things that he was going to end up being crucified anyway. So. And those things are. They’re. They’re of the world. I mean, they’re, you know, they’re here and they come and they die and they go away and they change and, you know, stuff happens.

And, you know, I was like, if we. If that’s where we end up. And I do think there’s a lot of darkness for sure. But they need the gospel. They don’t need a better program from D.C. you know, and that’s what will change it. Oh, wow, look, now families are staying together and, you know, it’s not going to be. It’s not going to be that way. And it’s going to be when the church wakes up and decides to go out and have that kind of mission, you know, is to go after. But we can’t hate each other.

That’s the problem. We can’t hate each other because that’s the deal, man. I can’t. And I saw that so much in this one. God, I got roasted. I mean, people would get my face. And if I said the run, like, if I said, oh, I’m not. I’m writing this book and I’m not doing as much with. And people would just be like, what? This country is over. We’re not going to have a country tomorrow. And. But what I don’t like about the tiger, it’s. That’s like my fault. It’s like they’re telling me it’s my fault that I’m like, how’s it my fault? You know, and that’s where we got to.

And then it was just bullying everywhere. Everybody’s just bullying everybody. I mean, you certainly saw that with, you know, the Democrats being bullying, or you better vote this. You know, like, we’re telling you what to do. And I’m just not Good at people telling me what to do. I’m like, yeah, I know what to tell me what to do. Don’t tell, you know, vote for I’m vote. But now it’s like, no, you gotta do more. You know, you’ve got to go out and, you know, and do all this. And I understand their passion and all that, but we’ve got to let people.

And some of that’s the. It’s. Their job is to win the vote. You know what I’m saying? It doesn’t answer the deepest questions, like, what happens when you die? Right. It doesn’t address that. So when you die. Yeah, yeah, when you die. When you die. So my last question is, if I do think a lot of people are all of a sudden wondering, like, is there something beyond what we can see, hear, feel and taste? I mean, is there. You know, is there a spiritual realm? Is there a God? And people all around me are asking those questions.

What would you recommend to them? Like, how to pursue that? Something stirs in you. You think, wow, maybe I should learn more. Right? I mean, I found those answers in the Bible and particularly in the New Testament. That’s where I found those answers. It comes down to the faith. Like, you’ve got to have this faith, and you’re going to have to jump and believe something that you can’t see. It’s interesting how people can’t do that. I remember I was talking to a guy one time. I was having one of these conversations. I don’t know if this story’s in the book, but there’s a lot in there.

We’re having this story. And he’s like, I don’t. I don’t believe in faith only. I don’t see it. I don’t believe it, you know? And he was. He just got married. And I said, and we’re at a. We’re at a hunting camp. I said, where’s your wife right now? He’s like, she’s at home. And she’s. I said, I bet she’s with another guy. And he said, no, she’s. I love how you proselytize. Yeah. And he said, no, she’s not. And he gets. I can tell he’s mad. He’s like, well, yeah, he’s been married like six months.

I said, oh, no. For sure. She’s. She’s with another guy. Like, no doubt. And he goes, no, she’s not. You know, what are you. What are you doing? I said, how do you know she’s not. He goes, because I trust Her. And I said, so you do have faith in something that you can’t see? And he went, I’ve never thought about it that way, was atheist. He was. He said, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in any of this stuff. And that was. So. It was just a small move, though. We moved him off of that position.

Now we have moved him to. There are some things that, even though I can’t see it, I have faith. And I. Why do more preachers not start with that? I bet your wife’s sleeping with somebody else. That works. Maybe they don’t go to enough hunting camps. I mean, for me, though, what else? I mean, like, he’s an atheist. What else to say? Okay, good luck with that. Let me know how that works for you. I mean, I’m trying to think of Paul says in the New Testament, Paul, who knew the gospel better than anybody, who’s a writer, and he says, pray for me that the mystery of the gospel can come out of my mouth more clearly.

He’s praying that it can come out more clearly. And my question is, why? Why is he. He knows this stuff. Like, he wrote it. He’s writing because some weren’t obeying it, some weren’t giving. He’s got. So you have to keep coming at, like, keep asking more questions. Keep. Maybe I’m not asking the right questions. I did that. There’s a story in the book, a beautiful story of a guy that I just kept. I kept trying to. He had problems with his brain. Like, he had lesions on. I thought he was gonna die. And I was like, he’s gonna die.

And I don’t think he’s a Christian. I don’t think he’s a believer. And so I’m just like, hey, man, if you thought about heaven. And he would say the same thing every time to me, well, he who hath not sinned cast the first stone. That’s what he would say. He was quoting a scripture, and I knew what that meant. That’s redneck for. I don’t want to hear what you got to say. I’m not interested. And I was like, so I could have thought. Well, I tried. I get to heaven, I tried. Remember I told you four times? And every time he would just divert, divert, divert.

Wall. And so finally, we’re in a car, we’re in New York City working on a business deal. We’re talking about money. He’s super rich guy. We’re talking about money. He’s already smoking. He’s like, we’re gonna make so much money. I was just like. It was just like he was so excited about it, you know? I look at him and I asked. I said, how. I said, how old are you? And he said, I’m 58 years old. And I said, I bet you’re going to be dead in 14 years. He just looks back, he goes, what? I said, I bet you’re gonna be dead in 14 years.

He goes, why would you say that? I said, the way you live. I. You know, I said, but you’re. I mean, I’m just guessing, but I said, have you ever thought about that? Like, what’s going to happen then? What happens then? I said, we just did an investment. What do you. Are you investing anything beyond here? There’s just here. He goes, I’ve never thought about that before. You know what? He didn’t say, he who had not sinned cast the first stone. No, it’s. We got past that. We finally got past that. And I was like, if we get past that.

And so we get to the. We get to the hotel, we’re in Manhattan. And he goes, can you come up and tell me more about that? I said, yeah. So I’ll go to my room. I got my Bible. I got his room. Now sit down. And that’s the ver. I got, like, seven verses. It’s not a lot, just. And I start reading them to him. He just stands up in the hotel room. Forget it. And he yells at his wife. She’s in bed, because I’m getting baptized. And I was like, man, it’s midnight. We’re like, we’re in Central Pine.

I don’t know where. I gotta go find some water here, you know? And. Which I was ready. I was like, we’ll go find some. And I said, well, let’s go. I guess we’re in a hotel in New York City. I said, we’ll go find somewhere. He said, no, no, I got to tell everybody. I got to tell everybody. I know that. What’s fixing to happen. This is the same guy I’ve been working on for years. And he’s like, he. You know. And now he’s saying, I got. And he emailed everybody. He knows everybody. So finally, like, a month later, I show up to his house, the big house.

There’s people everywhere. People from New York, people from la Florida. People have shown up because he said, I’m getting baptized. Come watch this. And so I get there and I walk up, he goes, Everybody gathers around. He goes, willie, tell him what you told me of that hotel room. That night. And I said, yeah, no problem. So I go through that. So his wife gets baptized, daughter gets baptized, he gets baptized. Is anybody else? They just start screaming in that blue jeans, taking their boots off, just over and over and over, just like, what’s happened in the Bible.

You see that in the Book of acts. It’s like 25 people that night over that one, that conversation. But I didn’t stop that conversation. When you don’t hear it, you just. You keep on. And plus, I’m still there. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes, sometimes it takes two hours. Sometimes it takes 20 years. Because I don’t give up on anybody. Because they didn’t give up on Dad. I would have given up on Phil a long time ago. I just said, forget that sucker. He needs to go to jail, you know? But that dude didn’t give up. His sister didn’t give up on him.

That guy went up there and talked to him, and it changed my whole life. And so I never give up on anybody. You never know. You never know when that time is. And they’re like, oh, no. And they’re ready. And they’re like, so we’re just really planting the seeds, Tucker. I’m just planting the seeds because I’m ready. I want to make disciples. I want to baptize people, and I want to teach people. That’s what I’m doing. So everything I look at in life, where does it fall in that category this book does? The TV show does, the stuff my kids do, the family stuff, all of it can fall through there.

And that’s where I want to. It’s way more than going to church and having some look and being a Christian. Way more than that. That’s like an hour a week. That’s not. That’s nothing. Like, I’m like, you take. How about this? You take your hour, don’t go to church. I want you for the other six days, and we’ll go change the world, you know, but people got a missing. They got a. They got a bad idea on that. They’re thinking, isn’t it just like, you show up an hour. I mean, try that in your marriage. Try that with your kid.

Try to see them an hour, you know, and see if that gets you enough to get through. And so it’s just a bigger idea, and it’s a bigger concept. And then when you’re in that. Mom. When I. When I’ve. When you’re there with people and you watch their lives change, and then you watch the fruit of that come out of It. It’s a good. It’s like a high. I mean, you’re just like, that’s what it’s all about. You know, that’s the kind of stuff to. Where you’re then going, There is hope. And so I live my life based on.

There’s hope in something beyond. If it’s not, it’s not. And I’ve hopefully lived a great life. I have great friends. I’ve. You know, my faith and the principles of the Bible has probably kept me out of a lot of misery and hell and, you know, bad stuff and. But I’m thinking that there is. I see evidence everywhere. I see evidence everywhere. You know, like what I mean, I just. I can see it in people’s lives. I can. You know, if Jesus lives in us, the Holy Spirit lives in us. I can see it in their lives.

I can. Can. I can see this. I can see people doing this. I’m like, why would you do that? Like, why? Look, there’s no advantage. It’s not financial advantage, exactly. I’m seeing them share and do things and sacrifice. And I see that for each other. Yeah, for each other, for other people and for. You know, I can see it. I can. I can feel it. Like, I can at times. I feel stuff, too. I feel, you know, like, it just seems like I’m like, wow, that’s a lot of. I. Yeah. I can’t help but think something was going on with Trump.

Like, there was a lot of weird. Turn your head the right way doing this. We were shooting birds today. Yeah. How close is that? Too close. I mean, to. Who knows what would happen? Who knows what today would look like? You know what I’m saying? Like, who knows? So it just. I. You know, I’m not. I’m just saying, look, like God was doing something there. I don’t. And I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know. You know, but that’s the faith part. I think sometimes, Tucker, we’re out. I think we think our goal is to try to figure it out.

No, like. Like, we’re like, we have to know. We got to read the signs and we got to. Everybody was wanting to know, like. Like, what’s going to happen, even with our country, like, where will we be in 20? Or it’s like, we want to know, but there’s too many factors. Like, you haven’t. It’s impossible. It’s impossible. You can’t figure that out. You got to live. I can always look back and it makes sense. I’m like, oh, wow, that made sense. But looking forward, that’s the. And if. And that’s the message that I’m going to. But somebody’s been sharing this message for 2000 years.

We’re halfway around the globe from where it happened and still talking about it. True. They had no money. They had no fame. They weren’t soldiers. They weren’t, you know, they didn’t speak the same language. We’re speaking a different language. We are sitting here today halfway across the globe, and we’re still talking about it. I’m still writing books about it, living our lives on it and professing it. It just. That’s a big deal. Like, I haven’t seen that with anything else. Most everything else, 2,000 years ago, we don’t even know what it is. They’re go, gone. You know, it’s just gone.

So we don’t know their names? No, not at all. Willie Robinson. Thank you very much. Awesome. So it turns out that YouTube is suppressing our show. I know. Shocking that in an election year with everything at stake, Google would be putting its thumb on the scale and preventing you from hearing anything that the people in charge don’t want you to hear. But it turns out it’s happening, so what can you do about it? Well, we could whine about it. That’s a waste of time. Not in charge of Google. Or we could find a way around it, a way that you could actually get information.

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