[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. This is one of those bucket list type moments for us. Our next guest is the founder of Buck Commander, CEO of Duck Commander, and stars in the hit TV show on A&E called Duck Dynasty. Meet Mr. Willie Robertson. You guys, this was so much fun, although we may have scared him a little with our excitement. We may have scared him. Yeah, that’s what I said. We might have scared him. But you guys, I love talking to him about how Duck Dynasty got started, interesting experiences with fans, and a hilarious story about him visiting a new church. Also, we talk a lot about his family, including his uncle, Cy, and why does he call his parents Phil and Kay instead of mom and dad like most people? You guys, we can’t wait for you to hear this conversation with the one and only Willie Robertson. I’m Kevin. And I’m Stephanie. And during our marriage, we have dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery, Then doctors telling us that children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage, and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed and restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to… Tell Us A Good Story.

[1:18] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple Podcasts or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our posts across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[1:52] All right, Steph. Kevin. We are. Kevin. Can you freaking believe this is happening right now? We’re excited about this. Oh, I’m so excited. Well, friends, our next guest is probably best known for starring in and executive producing A&E’s TV show, Duck Dynasty. He is the founder of Buck Commander and CEO of Duck Commander. He is also a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including his newest release, Goss Speller. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Mr. Willie Robertson. Willie Robertson!

[2:21] Oh my gosh, Willie Robertson! So freaking excited. How are y’all? Y’all seem energetic. So excited. My wife is energetic as soon as she gets up in the morning here, Willie. And this is without caffeine, mind you. She’s totally fine. No caffeine here. Caffeine-free stuff.

[2:37] Yeah. Well, thank you for saying yes to us, Willie. And so the first thing is, you, of course, were on Duck Dynasty, which is the most watched.

[2:46] Unscripted television show in cable TV history, which may not be broken, right, with the streaming and all of that today. So do you have a story of a moment when the show first aired, Willie, and you’re like, okay, our lives are about to change. This is completely different now when you’re going in public. Oh, wow, you threw me. So you guys started such a conversation yesterday when I saw I was doing this podcast. And I My guy says, just open with a story, but I didn’t have any context for the story. So I started asking everyone, what story should I tell? And everyone was stopped because they didn’t know which one that I should lead with. However, I’m going to tell the story that I finally landed on. But however, since you put it in that context, I will tell another mini story off that. So actually a couple of stories. So the show comes out, I was at the local grocery store, and three people asked me for a photo in the grocery store. And I pull up to Duck Commander, and Jace and Si are standing in front of Duck Commander, which was funny because soon after, you wouldn’t find them just standing out in the parking lot. And I pulled up and I said, boys, our lives are never going to be the same. I just took three pictures at the grocery store. I thought that was such a big deal. So the show came out in March of 2012.

[4:12] By happenstance, I had tickets to go to Augusta National for the golf tournament, which is typically the first weekend in April.

[4:22] Now, Augusta was the perfect place, I guess, for being famous because you’re not allowed to take your phones in. Right. The golf. Right. That’s true. Prohibited. Yes. And so no one had their phones. No one could ask for a picture. And everyone had to whisper. But so many people would whisper, I love your show. I love your show. And that’s the first time I thought, wow, people are watching this, you know, across the country. And so now the story that I decided on, which actually has a lot to do with what you had mentioned. So generally, like this is in the height of the nasty and I was traveling a lot. And so I take a ton of pictures because it’s kind of hard to hide looking like this. You know, I got stared at even before the show, just probably more out of fear. But now people are seeing and it’s obvious who I am so.

[5:08] Generally going to a trip, I’m usually gung-ho, do the event. I’m usually coming home. I’m kind of like, okay, I’m kind of over this. I’m just ready to get home. So I land in the Monroe Airport. I’m going out to get in my car. I walk outside of the doors of the airport, and there’s a young man standing there. He’s leaning against the column at the airport, and he starts screaming, Doug, Dynasty, Doug, Dynasty, and he’s screaming at the top of his lungs, which kind of makes me uncomfortable. And I said, hey, buddy, how you doing? Good to see you. And he goes, man, can I get a picture? And I said, sure, real quick, man. I’m in a big hurry. I got to get out of here. So he looks over at another friend who is about 30 yards away. And he goes, D, go get my phone.

[5:54] Well, at this point, I’m like, I don’t have time to wait for, I don’t know where the phone is. I said, buddy, seriously, I really got to go. And he goes, you got to go? And I said, yes, I have to go. He reaches in his wallet and he pulls out the wallet. It’s like a giant wallet. And he just fans it’s full of cash. And he just reaches in. He doesn’t count it. He pulls out a wad of cash, slaps it on my hand. He said, you still got to go? I said, no, we can wait for D for a second, I guess. I just come with a little more time on my hand.

[6:28] So we chit chatted. And so as I’m leaving, it was like $160 that he had given me. So I came home and my house cleaner was here. And I told her, I said, a man at the airport just gave me $160 for a photo. I’m going to gift this to you. And so they went out to Red Lobster. So I said, I’m sure you can knock yourself out. And it was real money. It wasn’t fake. Real money. I don’t know where it came from. It don’t matter. He had a lot of it. done so yeah oh that’s good well let’s speaking of duck dynasty whose idea was it to start a reality show about your family uh my wife’s really yeah she watched reality television and a lot and when none of us did and i still don’t and uh she says i think your family needs to do a tv show like a reality tv show and i said cory we’re just normal people i don’t know like i.

[7:28] Y’all aren’t normal and i said you don’t think we’re normal and so we had a little debate and then um yeah right after that i was approached i was at the hunting industry show in las vegas and a company came to us who had sponsored us who paid us to use their product and said hey we’re thinking about doing a television show on the outdoor channel which is a small company niche network and wanted to see if you guys were interested in it and i said man my wife just said we should do a show and so we did that show for three years and um it was from that show that was on the small network it was kind of a hunting mixed with reality it’s kind of a hybrid type of show and from that show a producer was in los angeles and noticed that he was watching this show And he was like, wow, who are these people? So he sent an email to the generic information at DuckCommander.com and said, to whom it may concern, I’m a producer in Hollywood. I make TV shows. I think you have a really big show in your hand. And the secretary almost threw it away. But she brought it to me and said, Willie, somebody from Los Angeles, you know, something about a TV show. And she said, do you want me to chalk it or respond or do you want to respond? I said, I’ll call him. And so I called him, hey, it’s Willie Robertson, got an email from you.

[8:51] And he was a real fast talker. And he was saying, man, we can do a show. It’ll be so big. You won’t be able to go anywhere without being recognized. And I thought, man, this guy’s full of crap. He just beat me in line. I mean, really didn’t believe it at all. And then from there, we made a two-minute little sizzle reel because we had that footage of our other show. So we made a little sizzle reel, and he started showing around. And there’s a lot of interest. And A&E comes out. I didn’t really know a lot about A&E, but they came out of the gate and ordered two episodes. And then when they saw the two pilots, they picked up 13 episodes, which at the time was the biggest pickup they had made at the time, sight unseen. Because they were investing a lot of money into a show that they were hoping people liked. Yeah. They had no idea. And there you go. The rest is history.

[9:41] Okay, I have a question. And since you’re talking about the network, was it hard to convince them that you guys wanted prayer at the end of every episode? That was not hard. Really? No, yeah. I think people think it was, but it wasn’t. We didn’t really see the prayer. Like, it wasn’t really a statement. I think it was so commonplace for us. I just assumed most people pray. You know, I didn’t think it would be, you know, rarely on television, anything like that. We just thought it’d be a great way to end the day and kind of we wanted to have this kind of collective thought where we learn from the day. And so we said, we’ll just have the prayer and do that. And so, no, there wasn’t a there wasn’t any pushback on the prayer at all. And so I think people might thought, oh, it’s not going to work. There was a little bit of they would say in Jesus name. Amen. Right. So some of that was edited out in the early parts, but Phil made his thoughts very clear that he wanted that left in. Okay, you always call your dad Phil and your mom Miss Kay. Where does that come from? Instead of mom and dad. Yes! That is a great… I will reference him occasionally as mom and dad, but, you know, I don’t know. We’ve done that since we were young. The only thing I can guess is that we reference him so much because we’re in business together.

[10:59] But yeah, I don’t know if it was like, that’s just the way I referenced him in stories. I’ve been like, well, Phil thinks this and Phil, you know, and so I’ve just described him so much as Phil. So it’s not a, you know, even I think in the South, I think we definitely have those. But for whatever reason, we call them Phil and Kay ever since I was a teenager. And they never saw it as disrespectful. Okay, I have a serious question for you. Why is television so hard on marriages? When I look at reality TV, right? It’s your family. It’s Chip and Joanna Gaines. Those are like the only two families I can think of, Willie, who haven’t ended in divorce. Why is going on TV so hard and challenging on marriages? I thought you were asking, why is watching reality TV so hard on marriages? You’re actually saying being on reality TV. Yes.

[11:51] You know, I guess I would think, I think marriage is hard, whether you’re in television or not, you know, there’s a high divorce rate, perhaps because it’s the fame and the, you know, your life changes. Yeah. And then you have fame and notoriety, perhaps more money, you know, your notice more, maybe that’s it. And, you know, I think I heard a stat like in Major League Baseball, at one point I heard that the divorce rate was 90% of baseball. And it’s probably because there’s fame and there’s money that comes along with that. And then you’re on the road a lot. And so I think it could be a lot of different reasons, but probably it’s that.

[12:27] Wholesale life change because you’re not prepared i think if you’re an actor you are probably preparing for that and you’re you know hoping you get it and so somebody can go on the journey i think sometimes with television it just happened you know just like you want to go from normal job to you know now it’s in your your own people magazine so i think that can affect people in different ways you know they can kind of perhaps go to your head or you know create some problems okay so i’m gonna ask you to share a story here if you don’t mind so about a year and a half ago Willie, we talked to Andy Irwin, okay, who’s down in Nashville, who apparently is friends with you. I mentioned his name this morning, ironically enough. Oh, really? I probably referenced him today, which is amazing because it’s the morning. Fantastic guy, right? He was fantastic, right? So as part of researching you for this conversation, I ran across the conversation you had on his podcast recently. And you shared a story that I would love for you to tell. Oh, yeah, he asked me so many sneaky questions too.

[13:25] Can you share the story with Steph about the time you attended a new church and the pastor started preaching and you decided to just throw a dip in in the middle of the sermon?

[13:38] I was so mad at him for bringing that up. I shared that with him in pride, not in pride, I was just telling him this story. And then he asked me about it on the podcast And I’m like, you sucker. It’s a funny story. And so, yeah, it was super embarrassing. So, yeah, I’m at a new house of worship and it’s only like my second time there. And obviously, everyone probably knows who I am when I showed up. And so, yeah, I’ll have to admit there was a situation where I happened to have a dip of snuff in my mouth as I was walking out of the building.

[14:21] But I had a coffee cup, and so it looked like I was just sipping on coffee. Corey and I were walking out. She was talking to another lady. And I turned around to say hello to one of the pastors. And I said, hey, good job. And as I turn back around, the door hits me right in my face and my hand. And it knocks the cup out on basically the lobby of the church building. And there was no doubt. It wasn’t coffee. Yeah there was no doubt so i go down i’m like on my knees i’m thinking oh man this is so embarrassing and i’ll never forget cory just looks down at me and she said you’re so disgusting and just keeps walking like she never missed the day she’s like you’re so disgusting and then and so i’m like brushing up and so i thought well maybe nobody knows because this is everyone was pouring out of the church building. And then later that evening, Corey shows me a Facebook thing. Somebody put it on Facebook and said, yeah, I was walking out behind Willie Roberts in the church and he dropped his old dip gum over the lobby of the church. So thank you, Andy or everyone, for now exposing this story even more.

[15:37] That was so funny. You know what humbles you? God always has a way of humbling you in the best way possible. It was one of the stories when I was thinking, that story did cross my mind I was like I love that story but I didn’t really want to tell it did you go back to the church Oh, yeah. You did? Okay. So it wasn’t like, hey, Corey, we can’t go back there. I’m sorry. We cannot go back there. They were forget and forget Christians. Yeah, they looked over my… Oh, crap. That was so embarrassing.

[16:14] All right, Steph. I’m going to test you again here. What is your favorite book of all time? Obviously, it’s the Bible, Kevin. Yes. Nailed it. Very good. This time, you didn’t say the book we wrote called You Met Her Where. But it’s still a really good book. That is true. And it would make a great gift for friends or relatives on their birthday or for Christmas. Friends, you can order your copy of our book titled You Met Her Where at KevinAndSteph.com. And we will make sure to personally sign a copy for you or whoever you want. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story. All right, Willie. So for all of our guests, I like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished. And Steph’s not aware of any of these. okay so i’m going to share some fun facts about you and your family and please keep me honest if any of these are wrong please let me know but this should lead to some fun stories all right steph you ready about where did you get these from um the internet so they all have to be true.

[17:10] Okay so they’re okay i’m sure they are yes all right steph fun fact number one in willie’s autobiography he wrote that when they first started filming duck dynasty his uncle sigh would clam up in front of the camera they had to put a hidden camera under a shirt on one of the desks to film him, once his uncle saw how funny he could be he became more at home in front of the camera uh huh is that true, sort of okay did you say when they started filming duck dynasty yes it was actually before that it was so remember i told you we had a tv show yes yes and uh actually this goes back to when when i took over the company we were making dvds and so we knew saw was so funny and so we would try to get him wrapped up but he wouldn’t do it so i put a hidden camera yeah under a cloth on a table and we got him all wrapped up and then we showed that and then he got tickled and laughed but it It was actually way before Duck Dynasty. Okay. Once Duck Dynasty hit, I think he had figured out that he had some sort of unique talent just to be himself.

[18:13] Okay. To continue this. Okay. So once Duck Dynasty hit. Yeah. Because of the large number of female fans, Cy had to post a picture of himself with his wife, Christine, on Facebook. So fans would know that he was not single. Okay. So Willie, that had to be like the last thing you would think of when you’re filming Duck dynasty that sai is going to have all these crazy female fans right and be a ladies man yeah i think i think that’s true yeah gosh okay so along those lines what is one of the most interesting experiences then you’ve had willie out in public uh that was actually the one that’s usually when i tell the one i told earlier about uh do you go get the camera uh there were there was another funny one time um so there was a a girl asked for a photo and so i handed the phone to cory and so right before cory takes the picture the girl kisses me on the cheek, But she like holds it. And so Corey just puts the phone down and she’s like looking at this girl. And the girl looked at Corey and said, just take the picture. And Corey went, oh, well, and just took the picture. She did. She did. She kissed me on the cheek. Yeah, she just took it. It was like too much to explain. So she was like, whatever. Steph, I don’t think you’d handle that that well. Oh, girl. No. You wouldn’t handle that well at all. No, I wouldn’t. No. You’d probably smash your phone. I might have smashed.

[19:33] I might have owed her a new phone. Yes, I would have. I’m like, oh, honey. No, ma’am. No. Well, I had an old assistant that, so we would be going through, like, there were a lot of people asking. If someone was really rude, he would grab the picture, and he would just literally take a selfie of himself and then hand it. Oh, really? So by the time they discovered it, they just had a picture of him. Of your assistant. Oh, that’s awesome. Rare situation. Rare if they were really rude or obnoxious. Oh, I love that. Take a picture of themselves. I like that. All right, Steph. Fun fact number two. Okay. According to an article I read on ESPN.com, in the 1960s, Willie’s father, Phil Robertson, was an amazing athlete. He was an all-state baseball and football player in high school before becoming the starting quarterback at Louisiana Tech for two seasons. His backup quarterback in college was Terry Bradshaw. No! For those who don’t know Terry Bradshaw, Terry Bradshaw was an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback. He was the number one pick in the NFL Draft in 1970 and then won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah. He was Phil’s backup.

[20:37] So, your dad, Willie, had the talent to play in the NFL, which blew my mind, right? When you see your dad, the beard, all that, that’s not what comes to mind, right? That he could play in the NFL. He then had four sons, including you. Which son is the best athlete? And I’m not gonna fact check you here. So, feel free to make up any story you want, but of you four boys, which is the best athlete? That is a great question.

[21:04] It’s obviously between two of us. That would be me or Jace. Okay. And even though I played football longer, even entering into high school, but I got hurt. Okay. And I did play high school basketball. Jace never played high school sports. But I actually will say, even though I had a more athletic career, I think Jace is the better athlete. Is he? Interesting. I think we were both good athletes when we were younger. But, yeah, Jason was a good athlete. I think he just probably wasn’t as confident as I was to play sports. And Dad never really pushed us in sports. Dad wasn’t the guy. He wasn’t the guy who was pushing us into athletics. Who’s the better hunter? Yeah. It’s according to what we’re hunting. Okay.

[21:54] Well, duck and then buck. Deer. Yeah. Yeah, I would say me, the deer, obviously, and Jason, the duck. Okay. All right, Steph. Next fun fact. Willie was on an episode of the same year. Hang on, hang on. Go ahead. Now let me, so there’s one more area. We both are golfers. Okay. So we haven’t played golf in a while with each other. We did go out on Father’s Day of this year. Okay. And Jay shot a 76. Oh, geez. Wow. Yeah. And he got smoked. I shot a 73. No! So at this moment right now, I’m the better golfer. Okay. By score. Is that nine or 18 holes, Willie? That’s 18. 18. So you guys are really good golfers then. We were that day. Wow. That’s impressive though, Willie. Yeah. 73. That’s impressive. All right. Next fun fact. Willie was on an episode of The Masked Singer. He was unmasked as a mallard on the show, which should have been a dead giveaway. Yes. But Willie, how hard was that to do? To sing on national TV in probably a super hot costume in front of a live audience. How hard was that to do? One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Really? Hands down.

[23:05] Why is that? I thought it was fake. I thought, you know, I mean, I’ve done a lot of TV. So I thought, oh, OK, I know how this works. Yeah, I was really excited to do it. And then when I got out there, like, no, you really got to sing. And you’re right. It was so hot. Like it was I was just pouring sweat. I bet I lost five pounds each performance because you’re sweating so bad. And so it was so bad. The sweat would just run into my eyes. And so and here’s what’s really hard. I couldn’t see. Like I couldn’t see below here. Okay. So I couldn’t see my feet. I couldn’t see my hand where to put the microphone on the costume. Couldn’t see the stage. And you’re moving, you know, and you’re dancing.

[23:46] And it’s all 100% legit. If you screw it up, you just screwed it up, you know. So you’re trying to memorize the song, sing it like you’re supposed to sing it, move, dance. Then they go, then make your way back to center stage. And that’s where you land. but okay i can’t see center stage so i was playing off of a monitor that i could see off the back wall well in rehearsals the tv was on and when i came back out the tv was off so i’m trying to find that space uh but no i was proud of how i you know i’m going to the semifinals so what was funny was the costume was so heavy and big so i was nine foot six inches tall uh with that with the head on and so you would you would get you kind of off balance that was the hard part was moving And so when I was dancing, I felt like I was really blowing it out. But then when I watched it on TV, it looked like I was in a swimming pool.

[24:41] Like a barely movie. But I thought I was like, man, this thing out. Well, what a fun experience. I was out there for probably, shoot, a month and a half.

[24:52] So it was a long run, but we had a blast. Corey came out, and we had just tons of fun. And it was my mother-in-law’s favorite show. I never watched it. I never watched the show. So speaking of, the only person I’d seen on there, because I went back and watched it when it first came out, was Terry Bradshaw. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. When I saw that, I thought, oh, that’s cool, Terry Bradshaw. So I watched it, and I watched the clip of him. Because the problem is you don’t know who’s on it. Yeah. So by the time you know, you’ve missed it, right? Right. Yeah, I never really watched the show. So when I first started, they called me Duck. Okay. That was my nickname. It was going to be Duck. And it’s a really big deal because they will not call you by your real name like they would get internally fined with each other really if you accidentally said they’re yeah because they’re trying to keep this and it’s super secretive it’s they is no joke like when you pull up to the deal you’ve got a visor on you’ve got oh my gosh yeah it’s it’s you know they don’t want they don’t want people knowing and there’s because there’s paparazzi everywhere so they were calling me duck And then at some point, pre-production, they said, hey, we’re going to change your name to Mallard. And I said, well, that’s cool. I said, but we’re in this meeting in L.A.

[26:09] I said, that’s cool, but I’m not a mallard. I’m a wood duck. Everybody was so confused. And the lady said, there’s different species of ducks. Yeah.

[26:22] And she said, well, I don’t think anybody’s going to notice us then. We will. Somebody will probably will. And so I thought, oh, it was your show. I don’t care. so uh we did the we did the first show and i called my parents and uh that i who i did tell i said yeah i should watch the show you know you may be interesting uh who’s on it and so uh my i get my mother on the phone she goes oh you did so good we didn’t even know you could sing like that and i said oh thank you and she goes but your dad’s really concerned you know that you’re a wood duck right not a mother and i said yes yeah i know mom they didn’t know she said well your dad I was really worried that she didn’t know the difference in the ducts. That’s the thing he noticed.

[27:04] Steph, how hot would it be? I’m just thinking of as a mascot. Yeah. You can’t wipe your brow. Yes. If you’re sweating profusely, it’s not like you can stick your hand underneath and wipe it. It is what it is. Yeah. You can’t even shake your – kind of shake your – but you couldn’t even do that. You just had to wear it. Right. Just let it go down. yeah they were guessing it was maybe 130 or 35 degrees or you know in that in the cause there’s no ventilation so i heard some people try to put fans and especially the bigger costumes that were giant you know fortunately i was able to move my arms and legs so some of them they can’t even do that so okay it’s it’s that would be tough yes but a fun show what a fun show all right steph next fun fact okay last year the movie the blind was released which is the true story of phil and the robertson family so willie i love how you put in there it’s not based on a true story it is a true story right it is a true it is a true story and i watched the movie earlier this week and one it’s fantastic two there were scenes that was tough for me to watch because there were moments where it reminded me of me and things that i may have struggled with in the past and so one thing you’ve talked about is one moment. Can you talk about the one moment that changed your family forever when the pastor talked to your father?

[28:28] Yeah. So in the book, I just wrote about Speller. I’ll start with that. The genesis of the first chapter is the story of Phil and Hay and their conversion. And so it really, and probably during the making of that movie, because we actually made the movie. And so making that movie, it just really struck me. And I thought, I never thought about it quite So deeply was that the guy gets in his car, drives to another state and goes into a bar and has an adversarial conversation with Phil about his life in the gospel. He only did that because my dad’s sister and Jim went to his church, right? And so this guy’s a pastor. And just to think back, like, Phil was not going to probably ever be a member of his church. He didn’t live in the same city. He didn’t have any money.

[29:13] He only went just for the sake of sharing with someone else and trying to help them out of a situation. And it wasn’t like my father wanted to have the conversation. He didn’t. He didn’t want to have anything to do with this. But the guy has the courage to go do that. Share his faith. Phil doesn’t respond. It wasn’t like there was some bar baptism or, you know, just as I am over the jukebox. I mean, nothing like Phil just said, I’ll keep that in mind, but he planned that seed. And so, and it wasn’t until months later when Phil actually found himself even in a deeper hole than he was even in there. But the marriage was over. Phil had kicked us out of the house, which was portrayed on the blind, which was true. So it wasn’t until Phil was then being chased by the police and running from the law that he came back and said, can you tell me that story again? Maybe there’s something I need to make a change. And so Phil obeys the gospel. My mother forgives him and the marriage stays together. And so if that would have been the end of the story, it would have been worth it for me because now my parents are back together, our family’s together. But if you take that and keep going with the story, Phil was then able to lock in on his business, which was building these duck calls. He had this dream. Fast forward, a TV show is made.

[30:32] It’s a huge hit TV show. There’s a prayer at the end of the show. We have that movie. We have podcasts. We’ve had many books, the ministry Sadie does. So this is not theoretical. This is literally hundreds of millions of people all over the globe have been touched in some way by the fruit of the gospel. And I can trace it all back to that one conversation that that guy got in his car and drove to a bar in a different state to share his faith. Had that not happened, it even affects you too, because we’re talking in a space that we wouldn’t even be talking. I don’t know what my life would have looked like. I probably never would have seen that again.

[31:10] My whole life would be completely different. So looking back, I just realized the amazing power, and that’s why I wrote the book, which was Turning Darkness to Light, one conversation at a time, that’s the tagline. Because I was so impressed by that. And so that’s why I always look for opportunities because I think, man, Who’s the next guy like that? Who’s the next guy like that? Because you really couldn’t see it. The only person who saw something was my aunt, who was Phil’s sister. She told that preacher, she goes, if you convert Phil, he’ll convert a thousand people. Now, how she saw that, I have no idea. You know, this guy was so bad, just a reprobate. It was somebody that you would probably tell your friends to stay away from him. And yet, this guy did that. And then it was true 10,000 times more. You know, like so many people have been influenced by the gospel. Because once he got on board, it was a similar kind of story. Like I guess Saul and Paul was like really bad and then just the complete opposite. And I think Phil was certainly that person.

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[32:45] Well, final fun fact. This is speaking about his book. Willie is also a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including his newest book titled Gospeller. So Willie, first off, I appreciate you throwing in a word that I’ve never heard of, and that’s super hard to pronounce as your book title. I had to look this up, and I saw multiple interviews where, basically, interviews were jacking up the name of your book, Gospeller. So can you tell people more about your book and where that name actually came from? Who did I say his idea was to have a TV show? Corey. Your wife.

[33:19] There you go. Y’all were listening. so guess who found that word for my book your wife story so i was toying around with this book on share your faith and so cory she goes and does just a simple google search and she comes in and she goes well i found this really cool word and it’s called gospeller now i’m no linguist uh and that at little did i know that would be the biggest thing was how people pronounce it because it’s it looks like gospel but um cory is an english major and she said if you would have put two L’s, which is an alternate version of the word. She said, if you’d have put two L’s, everyone would have caught it. Gospel oh right having just one out yeah grammatically that’s the way it sounds but um so it’s a real word it’s uh it used to be very common it was in um it was in america like people were what they were called known gospelers okay it was just kind of regular working people who were just known for sharing the gospel and the word simply means someone who shares their the gospel either publicly or personally and so um kind of a covid thing where i was i ended up teaching a bible class on on how to share your faith and it’s something i was always passionate about and uh so i kind of got all this data and because i was talking to people and they were uh giving me all the reasons why they couldn’t and so i’m up there trying to teach them how why you can and why you should and then uh i was telling a friend about it he goes.

[34:44] You should put that in a book he said he was just fascinated by especially how i drew it all out on my board and um yeah and that’s where it started and it’s it’s by far my favorite book that i’ve done it’s the if nothing else just for my kids and people i wanted to capture those stories of just some of the the people i’ve talked to over the years that you know again you must like feel yeah life had changed with one conversation yes you know it’s all these crazy conversations that come up that don’t happen typically they don’t happen in church it’s just it’s when you’re out and people have questions and so you give them the answers and say yeah i just want to kind of give at least the way i do it and you know there’s different methods but the message stays the same But yeah, that’s why I wrote the book. Oh, I love that. Well, friends, for more information about Willie, you can go to Instagram. It’s at real Willie Boss Hog. Twitter or X is at Willie Boss Hog. Of course, you can go to DuckCommander.com and his book, Goss Speller. You can get it wherever books are sold. And just so you know, I still watch Duck Dynasty. We get the Duck Dynasty channel we found out here about like three weeks ago. We’re like, oh my gosh, there’s a Duck Dynasty channel. Did you know that there’s a Duck Dynasty channel?

[35:51] Yeah. So I spoke this year, I think it was in South Carolina and I go and that somebody had, they had a house and they were like, Hey, well, we got somebody like on a golf course at their house and it was like an Airbnb. And so I go in there and I’m unpacking my suitcase. I hear my voice. Like I hear, I’m like, is that me? And then I hear Uncle Si and I go in there and they thought it was so funny. They had it on that channel with me in the house. And so it was probably like 11 o’clock is when I got there. And, man, I sat there at like 2 o’clock in the morning. I got sucked into it. You watched it? Yeah, and I’m watching the show and I’m laughing. And what I discovered was by watching it again over all this time is I was like, it’s a really good show. It is. It is. I’m there dying laughing. Because a lot of the stuff I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten what happened and how it all kind of went down. But, yeah, I didn’t know there was a channel. Well, Willie, thank you so much for saying yes to us. We were so excited to talk to you and all the stories that you could have. Thank you for doing this with us. We appreciate it. Well, I think of all the things we did in our lives, storytelling was something we really learned. I think from growing up with no money, we had three channels. There was no computers, no cell phones. So we really had to get good at telling stories. And I think television and even podcasts, it’s really just about telling stories. Television is the same way. It’s about telling stories. So thank you guys for promoting that. And I love what you guys do. And thank you for inviting me.

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