Willie Robertson: The Unlikely Origin of Duck Dynasty, Willie’s New Show, & Why Trump Won

The great Willie Robertson...

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Transcript

Willie Robertson [00:00:00] I was on The Five. No I was on over with it. It was the one of the women, Outnumbered. And I was up there. They used to bring me all the time because I was just so popular.

Tucker [00:00:13] With our viewers.

Willie Robertson [00:00:15] And the girls the girls on that show, they were laughing and they said, it's Donald Trump, he says he's running for President. And they laughing and they're kind of make it like it's a joke. And again, they said, what say you Willie. And I said, tell you what I think is resonate with a lot of people. And you could just see a mindset like, they thought I was going to laugh. And they joke. I said, Don't underestimate the power of celebrity, because I was like, I'm just native, man. When everybody knows who you are. That it's a big advantage because you think about Kamala Harris. She's a vice president for 35 years. No one knew how to say her name.

Tucker [00:00:55] Including her.

Willie Robertson [00:00:56] And she was the Vice President.

Tucker [00:01:19] When they got elected or whatever it was in 2020, I, I totally by accident, I pronounced. I called her Kamala.

Willie Robertson [00:01:27] Yeah.

Tucker [00:01:28] Which is why I thought her name was. And the White House press secretary attacked me as racist. Which. Okay, fine. But it really was totally accidental. Right. And so this kid on our staff found a tape of her calling herself Carmela. And then Kamala and I just like who can't pronounce her own first name? Yeah, that's if you're like. I'm Willie Robertson. I'm Willie Robertson.

Willie Robertson [00:01:54] Wow. Yeah. Kind of weird, right? Hello. I'm Wiley Roberts. No, I mean, I.

Tucker [00:02:00] 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 done with you before. You've become famous for bird hunting. You're an excellent shot. I just want to confirm that for people while it's not fake.

Willie Robertson [00:02:18] I've got to make my dad and brothers watch this. It's true.

Tucker [00:02:21] No, no, no, it's true. You are, but you're not. You become famous from television. You've. I mean, I just want to get right to it. You've written this book, Gospeler which is not about hunting.

Willie Robertson [00:02:35] It's kind of. What's it about? Hunting for people? Hunting, fishing for people, perhaps.

Tucker [00:02:41] Turning turning darkness into light. One conversation at a time.

Willie Robertson [00:02:44] Yeah, that's okay with this book this year and this was kind of the one I wanted to write. You know, it's 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 of faith shot in the late 60s 70s. And that was a bad he was a bad guy.

Tucker [00:03:16] And in what way?

Willie Robertson [00:03:18] He's just. Well, he calls 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's ends up running a bar and all. Hope literally was over. He had kicked us out of the home. It's bad. Dad is a bad husband.

Tucker [00:03:42] Really kicked you out of the home.

Willie Robertson [00:03:44] He kicked mom and us out of the house. Or how the trailer really is. And yeah, and so. And the one person who didn't give up on him was my Aunt Jan, his younger sister. And she. She'd go up to this bar he was running that has like a master's degree, was a kid have went professional quarterback. He played ahead of Bradshaw and 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 my my aunt would go up there and pass out a little Bible track. She was a very charismatic Christian. And and he hated it. You know, he was like, stay out of here. And and she begged this preacher to go preach the gospel to her brother. And and I write in the book, I can just imagine this conversation like because because the preachers in Louisiana, the bar is in Arkansas. And and I'm sure was like, can you share the gospel with my brother? He's wayward and and he probably was like.

Willie Robertson [00:04:48] Yeah, tell him to come to church. We'll meet after he's not coming to church and you have to go see him. What does he do? He runs a bar in Arkansas.

Willie Robertson [00:04:55] Yeah. Which one. In town? It's not even in his name in the state, you know. And this guy gets in his car and drives to a bar, walks in.

Tucker [00:05:03] Where is the bar.

Willie Robertson [00:05:04] Junction City, Arkansas. And it was rough, you know, as a writer.

Tucker [00:05:10] Yeah, that goes back.

Willie Robertson [00:05:11] It goes That said. And it was adversarial like. The guy goes in feel does not want to hear. He does not he's not even invited in there. And and I knew the preacher up until he passed away and he and he says. This is your dad, your dad sitting there. He said he's got a pistol. In his belt and a giant Budweiser and he's about half letting the dad looks and says, What you selling, preacher man? And 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, the oldest that I keep that man. And so he leaves. And then in 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.

Tucker [00:06:00] What were they arresting him for?

Willie Robertson [00:06:02] He had put two people in. I see you beat him up over a bar dispute. He just takes off. Lives in the woods. So this moment an 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 getting a.

Tucker [00:06:20] Wife and kids at this point.

Willie Robertson [00:06:21] Well, then they let mom and dad move and they moved to Louisiana and was pretty much like, I 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, no, he's, you know.

Willie Robertson [00:06:46] He's deer living in the woods. They pose up and he's crying. And he said, Where's that preacher? And they talked to him. And that's when Phil became a believer right there. So that's the first chapter in the book.

Tucker [00:06:58] So how long did it take your mom to take him back into.

Willie Robertson [00:07:02] She took him right back. It was amazing. You know, I always said if it weren't for dad changing his life, but also for one, for mom forgiving him.

Tucker [00:07:11] And yeah, it's easier to change your life and give someone his fans.

Willie Robertson [00:07:14] Basically when you're just saying, Yeah. And who now, you know, was there. I'm sure there wasn't the counseling that we had. You know, they just. Yeah.

Tucker [00:07:23] No.

Willie Robertson [00:07:24] And she but she needed help. I mean, she's got three young boys and I've done three and I was the youngest at the time. So in the movie I'm portrayed, I was very particular who played me in the movie at two years old. Now, you got to get that part right.

Tucker [00:07:37] Yeah. That's got to be a handsome toddler.

Willie Robertson [00:07:39] Was I was. My grandson played me. My grandson played me about his great grandfather. That was awesome. As far as 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 to both. We just said, I think this can help a lot of people. You know, a lot of people were 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 there's 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 commander, there's no doubt, Commander, there's no Duck Dynasty. There's no podcast. I, 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 fate. Had it not been for faith, it would have been over. You know, marriage is over. Yeah, who knows?

Tucker [00:08:44] So, I mean, do you remember a time before your father was downtrodden? Do your brothers?

Willie Robertson [00:08:49] 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 in Paul in the Bible. Yeah. It was like this old person. And then they just turned and we just went, I mean, just for 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 and I got to go help these people. And so he became known, became a known gospel or of just known for preaching the gospel to everybody.

Tucker [00:09:24] A gospel or as someone who preaches the gospel.

Willie Robertson [00:09:26] It is it's.

Willie Robertson [00:09:26] A it's a real word. It's not. It's an old word. Do you ever heard of. No, never. I've never been. So I'm writing this book. It's 2020. You know, when 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, Well, I found this word. It's called Gospel Hour. 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 they were called known spellers. I found a law, I want to say it was up and it was up in the Northeast where it's like nobody can stop a priest or a known god speller from preaching on the town square. It was actually in a law like that word wasn't a law. Let me see. Yeah. So she found the word.

Tucker [00:10:30] And so how did you grow up? Like you grew up in a world where Christianity was at the center of everything? Yeah, for sure.

Willie Robertson [00:10:36] Number one. Number one. No doubt about it. So it wasn't like, we should try to go to church. It was. It was, you know. And we had so many Bible studies that it just really went all week, like because what happened, 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.

Tucker [00:11:02] Wayward.

Willie Robertson [00:11:03] People just like murderers.

Willie Robertson [00:11:05] And the craziest people ever that would just and that would just get it, that 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 bar and just I mean, it was Fridays, Tuesdays, Really. All of them? 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 take. But he would just study like crazy, like this crazy person. And this is, you know, and my father's never owned a computer. He's never owned a cell phone.

Tucker [00:11:36] He's never a cell phone. How do you text him? You know, just like saying.

Willie Robertson [00:11:41] You go find him. So I call and I'm like, there's there's.

Willie Robertson [00:11:46] There's a dude. There's a deer down there near.

Willie Robertson [00:11:48] So you call him, but you got to go find him. And he's like in the woods, you know, And you, you've got to if you want to track him down, you got to go find him. Does he.

Tucker [00:11:56] Still hunt?

Willie Robertson [00:11:57] Yeah. But it was But yeah, the dad would just read and study and, you know, he would just just thirsting for knowledge. He'd love the knowledge. But then he loved trying to to share that. And that's kind of the point of the book, is this turning darkness into light one conversation at a time. And that that the tagline comes from It's it's funny how my business mixed with my faith. So we have some new products for deer and it's this this feature reading 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.

Tucker [00:12:37] How What is it?

Willie Robertson [00:12:38] It's pulling light. Whatever ambient light is, is falling down. Right. It's amazing. So we had this new product. So I'm looking at all the marketing material.

Willie Robertson [00:12:46] And they had on their.

Willie Robertson [00:12:48] Turn, turn dark into light. And when I saw that our that's the tagline for my book, Turning Darkness into Light one conversation time. So through a conversation, maybe had the guy not gone and shared with that, you know, he was the one that actually planted the seed or shared with that and and boom, that's where it started. Just that conversation. And then I watched, you know, hundreds and hundreds of other people. Just the conversation lead to a life change. And so and so what I want to do is go through the book and go through kind of how to do that, because a lot of people, they're so intimate, 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. I don't it's like, I don't know where to start. I don't know the Bible. 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 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, what they said then this is how you could share with others.

Tucker [00:13:59] So your family, despite living in a very rural area, you've got a duck call business and you're serious, a Christian, you want to be in television. Yeah. Which is like the opposite of all of that. Yeah. So how do you have the. So the crew comes in from wherever you're meeting with the studio executives from wherever, but not from West Monroe, Louisiana. Yeah. How do you begin a conversation about your faith or something like that?

Willie Robertson [00:14:26] Well, it was obvious. I mean, I think the faith just comes through in every 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. Right. And we we weren't saying the people.

Tucker [00:14:41] Who run television, I have noticed from spending a lifetime, they're not super receptive to the message.

Willie Robertson [00:14:48] 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 that almost get this like weekly is like, I bet they didn't want that prayer.

Willie Robertson [00:15:01] But that wasn't the case. They they let us.

Willie Robertson [00:15:03] Go, you know, like, good for them. Yeah. It wasn't a wasn't a battle. It was just a good way to end the show. They knew faith was important to us. And and that's how they well, that's how we ended every show was with that prayer. But there wasn't a lot of resistance at all from that. So you're like, I know. I think people they thought that was the case.

Tucker [00:15:24] I wanted to know I love this song.

Willie Robertson [00:15:26] And it really.

Willie Robertson [00:15:27] Was. And it was like and then once it works and once it's.

Tucker [00:15:30] Right, the commercials.

Willie Robertson [00:15:32] What's the biggest show, as you know, ever in reality TV? There's like, I love that brand. Yeah, that was all out there. You know it 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, you know, I got this idea doing this television show, and he hated it. So I don't want to do it, you know?

Tucker [00:15:55] Well, the idea came?

Willie Robertson [00:15:56] From us. It's a way to get the gospel out to more people. And literally that's what I told him. And he says in sharing it, we never thought about that, you guys, you think it can? I said, I don't see why not. He gives a thumbs up and he's like, All right, what did the TV show? Living with the Gospel, have more people?

Tucker [00:16:12] 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?

Willie Robertson [00:16:19] It's a lot of what 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, and the same way like now it was my wife's idea. Corey said Corey watched reality television.

Tucker [00:16:40] Is she from Western Road?

Willie Robertson [00:16:42] She's from West Roswell. She's from the city. I'm from the States. So she says she's watching all this reality television. And she said, Well, yeah, I think I think your family needs to have a reality TV show. And I'm like.

Tucker [00:16:55] That's not a compliment. Well. When your wife says your family needs a reality TV show that.

Willie Robertson [00:17:01] As I said, surely has an attack. That's why I didn't realize it.

Willie Robertson [00:17:05] And I said, Corey, we're just normal people. And she goes, well, I know why. And so she was.

Willie Robertson [00:17:12] Like, You.

Willie Robertson [00:17:12] Guys are like. She goes, I've been with you for a long time.

Tucker [00:17:16] And where'd you meet her brother?

Willie Robertson [00:17:17] Way summer camp, Fifth grade. Why can't she? Can't she okay? Yeah. Her. Yeah. Sorry. Sitting on the swing. So her grandfather and father were business. Very successful business guys. And part of their charity work they had 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've never been to church.

Willie Robertson [00:17:45] So that was like. 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 shoes. Here's the 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.

Willie Robertson [00:18:03] If they say no, we're going to back the house and we're just like, please say yes. What's funny is it was it was my wife's parents who were making the dessert.

Willie Robertson [00:18:11] My as it turns out in life, I later married their daughter who ran the camp. There was the same camp I was hoping to get into.

Tucker [00:18:18] That's amazing.

Willie Robertson [00:18:20] So every time they said yes and so they would. And so we would go and I see this girl, she's on the swings. I can see her to this day. And she's got this big giant, you know, 1980s. And I was that girl. And I said, ask or Yeah. Or, you know, her dad and them, they're the ones who run the camp. And so I went over and talked to her. I invited on the moonlight hike and she said yes. And we went on the hike in fifth grade.

Willie Robertson [00:18:46] Then we didn't keep dating. We didn't.

Willie Robertson [00:18:48] We didn't get married that year, but we.

Tucker [00:18:51] Waited for you and you got married.

Willie Robertson [00:18:53] 1918.

Tucker [00:18:55] You were 19. She was 18.

Willie Robertson [00:18:56] Correct. I proposed to her when she was 17 and I was 18.

Tucker [00:19:00] What her dad say?

Willie Robertson [00:19:02] He didn't like it. I bet he didn't. He didn't like. He didn't like the idea.

Willie Robertson [00:19:06] He was in love. They were very.

Willie Robertson [00:19:10] Well, they were. Yeah. They lived in the neighborhoods.

Willie Robertson [00:19:15] And I pulled up in this neighborhood back, and I'm, like, looking around.

Willie Robertson [00:19:19] Like, mow grass. You know.

Tucker [00:19:21] How they moved their grass.

Willie Robertson [00:19:23] And sprinkler systems? And I'm just like, man, this is crazy.

Willie Robertson [00:19:27] I look around and there's not one visible burned power anywhere. And I'm going like, What are these people doing? They're garbage. I didn't know there was another black he So we don't have the tile, right? So he's like, we got and I know then like we went to church, you.

Willie Robertson [00:19:50] Guys, I knew your family and but he just was like, No, I need a way and you're too young and. And we're just dead. Say, Well, I know get married.

Willie Robertson [00:19:58] So yeah. So we have a meeting. And he said, He's a smart.

Willie Robertson [00:20:02] Business guy and he's got all these papers, he's got statistics and were some files, you know, and I'm just.

Willie Robertson [00:20:09] Sit there, you know, white t shirt like blow me away and he's making me so mad, you know, because I'm like, giving him. I'm page and vision, man, you know.

Tucker [00:20:19] What was your vision?

Willie Robertson [00:20:20] Well, Christianity like we're brothers. Like, come on, man is going to be great. And he's like, You haven't thought about all these things in life.

Willie Robertson [00:20:28] And finally he just goes, He's getting so mad.

Willie Robertson [00:20:32] And he's like, I think he's going to hit me. Yeah. He's like.

Willie Robertson [00:20:33] Leaning up on me. He said, Where exactly do you plan on living with my daughter? You know.

Willie Robertson [00:20:41] And I'm right. 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.

Tucker [00:20:49] That was your.

Willie Robertson [00:20:50] Vision, not me. About the answer. The date on the ticket and we'll burn garbage in the yard like normal people are. But. But it worked out okay. Ready? Ready.

Tucker [00:21:11] So we're out in the field in South Dakota shooting pheasants, and we're coming out here to a mile of field you can see behind us. And I was throwing in and out. Someone else is using a tobacco product and then somebody I'm not going to name names, put that out in public at a hunt. And so that's obviously yesterday. What we have here, Elk, 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 the mechanical fur, but we do have a former U.S. senator, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, with an arm. Well, he'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. Yes. So I should say out pouch.com for sale now pouch.com usher in tomorrow. A brand new world of nicotine pouches. The American lip pillow on sale now. The warning this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical so long that.

Willie Robertson [00:22:36] 32 years later we still may.

Tucker [00:22:38] Be saying that.

Willie Robertson [00:22:39] Great. We I mean, I. So her parents house and my house, literally it's like a piano. 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 them every day. Yeah. And I learned most of what I learned in business. I learned from.

Tucker [00:22:58] Him. How many grandkids did you give?

Willie Robertson [00:23:01] Eight. Eight so far.

Tucker [00:23:05] You have a high rate. So he has.

Willie Robertson [00:23:08] How many great.

Tucker [00:23:09] Great, great grandchildren. How many kids did you have for this daughter? How many kids?

Willie Robertson [00:23:15] How many kids has six.

Willie Robertson [00:23:17] So he's got.

Tucker [00:23:22] To be pretty.

Willie Robertson [00:23:22] Just the way you ask.

Tucker [00:23:23] Sorry I asked you backwards.

Willie Robertson [00:23:26] Start again. I have six children.

Willie Robertson [00:23:28] And eight grandchildren, so. Yeah, I mean, but yeah, they're great. And so we lay there on the. And we all live right there. We're just all connected and live beside each other.

Tucker [00:23:37] How long did it take you two to win? A Yes from your father in law?

Willie Robertson [00:23:41] 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 and so Corey calls and says that I want you to come over. And I said, he's going to come pick you up and take you over their house, us. And now she said, Why not? And I said, I'll have to walk home. She was already massive. This is going to go bad. And then I'll have a ride.

Willie Robertson [00:24:19] I want to walk all the way back to Miles with like seven miles.

Willie Robertson [00:24:23] I said, No, I'm not.

Willie Robertson [00:24:24] Gonna 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, she was in between us.

Willie Robertson [00:24:37] But I did. I thought, Man, I think he may punch me.

Willie Robertson [00:24:39] And I was ready. And I have three brothers. And so I was like, if we just got to five, let's just play.

Willie Robertson [00:24:45] I go, let's go, you know? But then it was after that.

Willie Robertson [00:24:49] 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, it was great.

Tucker [00:25:08] So is your wife picking up the idea for Duck Dynasty?

Willie Robertson [00:25:12] Yup. Then I had to go tell Phil, and then because originally it was on the Outdoor channel.

Tucker [00:25:18] Yeah.

Willie Robertson [00:25:19] Close it. And I was approached by. But now shotguns at shot. So they've been shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was approached by them right after she said that and they were like, Hey, you guys mentioned doing a, like a reality TV show with the shotguns. And I was like, Corey just, 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 just hired who were who they came out of reality television. So it had them from like their in-house, you know, all their commercials and stuff that they do and we love. But now we we love the shotgun. So I was like, yeah. And so we're going to the deals and so right the end courses 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've got a film. I feel he's like, it's a terrible down on my that we'll sell more.com. Like we'll be on the outdoor channel like let's.

Tucker [00:26:21] Free shotguns plus.

Willie Robertson [00:26:22] Free shotguns. I was like, plus free other stars like this is the smoking deal you know And so Corey says, So we're going to go up to Marilyn. I think that's where they have Marilyn. And we had this meeting because she'd been reading these books. And she goes, Well, I think I think I think they should pay off. A talent for. I'd never heard that word. I said, What is talent this year? Like they should pay out to be on the show as a career quickly. 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 say, here's the deal. When you ask if you get any weird sense aboard the mission, get out. Do not screw this up. So I was like, because I was like, This is our big chance. You're going to ruin it by asking for time. So we go in the meeting, guys go. And they said, okay, we'll start production here and we'll do this and that and it goes. I think we're about ready to go. And of course, I have one more thing, you know, and I'm like, How can I.

Willie Robertson [00:27:26] Go like that? And she's like, We're thinking you should pay.

Willie Robertson [00:27:31] The guys a talent fee. And he was like, what? What were you thinking? And she said, We were thinking $30,000 a piece this way for the whole season, and I'm making $28,000 a year. That's my salary. What are.

Tucker [00:27:46] You doing?

Willie Robertson [00:27:47] That was my job. I made 28,000.

Tucker [00:27:49] But what was your job? At the. At the ducks.

Willie Robertson [00:27:51] That was my whole yearly job.

Willie Robertson [00:27:53] I made 28,000.

Willie Robertson [00:27:54] She just asked for 30. For to do this thing, which would essentially double my pay. And when she said 30, I'm like, my gosh, like, that's way too much. And the guy literally just goes, Yeah, okay, no problem. And I'm like, Crap.

Willie Robertson [00:28:11] She said, 56. And she said that better. And so then and here's what kind of CEO I am. So we're excited. So we go back to the house. I go back down to Dad's house.

Willie Robertson [00:28:24] Jason's there, We're all in the house. And they're waiting to hear.

Willie Robertson [00:28:27] What happened with the Davies. And I walk in, I'm like, Well, boys, we're fixing that. There was a television show on the Outdoor Channel. And guess what else? I got us $30,000. I like it with my dad. And I just like we were like, we did it. We it's over. We finally figure it out. We got a pretty shotgun. We dealt with our back. We have to do a TV show. We have no idea what we're doing.

Willie Robertson [00:28:52] And we last into that show.

Tucker [00:28:54] What was that?

Willie Robertson [00:28:56] This would have been probably eight.

Willie Robertson [00:29:01] Yeah, somewhere in eight. So lots 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. We're there, so we really learn how to do television, you know, how to do, you know, what was going to become ultimately Duck Dynasty. It was a it was a different show. I have it was just like hardcore guns, you know, and and all that. 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 I was over there doing the, Hey, we could show this and we got this wild, crazy stuff. We were done. And and the show was super popular like in that world, and everybody loved it. And we won the awards and our sales went up. More people ran the cars and our T-shirts. So it was like, Hey, we did it, man, and I had to sell them.

Willie Robertson [00:29:59] Part of the deal was I.

Willie Robertson [00:30:00] Had to sell half the advertisers. So because then that that when you get your commercial, then you have to go sell them. So but now I have and I sold half of them and it was so funny like it was hard selling. But Ultra is going to be as it was, you know, it's hard selling an ad for this thing. I end up settlement. 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 that, commander. And there's no telling how many. They just never gave and get looked at. Of course it's a duty said, I'm a producer in Los Angeles. I've watched the show on 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.

Willie Robertson [00:30:52] And she said, Do you want me to throw it away.

Willie Robertson [00:30:56] Or do you want me to respond? And I looked and I said, our response, our response to this is, well, what what do you think? And, you know, and I get in the car with him and man, he's a fast talker. You know, he's la he's like, this will tell you this will be the biggest. Show me. I'll tell you I've got something this big. Yeah, yeah. And like, like you have a really big show.

Willie Robertson [00:31:16] Like you got to.

Willie Robertson [00:31:17] We got to take this thing bigger. You know this because this is on cable. This is all. And I'm thinking, this guy's full of crap. I'm like I said, Do you think so? And he's like, he said, Well, you will not be able to walk down the street without people, everybody recognizing who you are. And I've.

Willie Robertson [00:31:33] Got like, I've laid it on thick.

Willie Robertson [00:31:35] You know. And so I said, Well, so what do we need to do if we were to do that? He said, We'll make a cesarean, of course. And we had we had just done like three seasons of the show. So we did three minutes. And then he started pitching around the networks and there was a lot of interest. You got to remember, this is the time. Louisiana, the tax credits were big, like before Georgia had Louisiana was kind of a 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 an exterminator, swamp, Swamp, people, sons of guns. All these are Louisiana show by 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 this 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&E. I didn't really know anything about it. And the I didn't watch even know what it was. And he said A&E is interested in two pilots. And I'm like, What does that mean? Well, 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 and a big company. And I just, 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 that because then they're about to say, they passed. Yeah. And so he shot two pilots for a and they 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 an already know what we were doing. And so what's and didn't know if it was good or not. I didn't know, you know, And and so what was.

Willie Robertson [00:33:22] Interesting was they didn't.

Willie Robertson [00:33:24] 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 granted didn't lie at all.

Willie Robertson [00:33:33] Right. You know, and yeah, I couldn't speak English, so they didn't I think they didn't they thought was going to be like danger, like humans. Alligators are coming out of the water, you know, So they come down and so, hey, because so we shot.

Willie Robertson [00:33:48] The buyers, we sent it off. And so they come, right. Well, we have good news and bad news. The the bad news is this is not the show we were ordering like at all. We were all shocked. And we're like, they said, the good news is.

Willie Robertson [00:34:00] It's way better.

Willie Robertson [00:34:02] 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 families, even though we were family. But it was like they just didn't I think they thought kind of like, we're going to laugh at these. But yeah, these are and they just told.

Tucker [00:34:18] Me it was a Honey Boo Boo thing.

Willie Robertson [00:34:19] They said, Right. They didn't realize, right that because some of their.

Willie Robertson [00:34:23] Ideas when they initially some of it was like the women vulgar out, you know, getting the possums and skin in the mouth of my wife's like these women do not we don't even know what she.

Willie Robertson [00:34:38] Said. So but they saw and then there was this comedy, this real, because the first show we DeNardo 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 funny, you know, something you can laugh, you know, it's a funny show.

Tucker [00:34:58] What's it I mean, what's the process of filming it?

Willie Robertson [00:35:03] Well.

Tucker [00:35:04] You said your house got descended on by a swarm of producers.

Willie Robertson [00:35:08] It was? Yeah. So we we shot in all our houses, especially. Man, my miles was kind of them because 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 Mars. And so you would have like, Will is dad will his wife. So you're watching that as a viewer. You're watching it through my eyes. I was supposed to be the normal guy. I'm the normal person. And then everybody else is is crazy. You know, this chaos is happening. And to some extent, they are crazy and so sad. Some people, they're just kind of like themselves, like like my father. Just that he then never understood what exactly we were doing. Like in the never understood the show. He never liked it. He never.

Willie Robertson [00:35:53] Understood. He told me.

Willie Robertson [00:35:54] Early on, he was like, we tell him we need more preaching on this show.

Willie Robertson [00:35:59] And I said, Dad, there's.

Willie Robertson [00:36:00] Another Robertson family with a show like that. It's the 700.

Willie Robertson [00:36:05] Or not that show like this is. This is not that.

Tucker [00:36:08] Are you related to them?

Willie Robertson [00:36:09] But he was like.

Willie Robertson [00:36:10] I'm not No, I'm not.

Willie Robertson [00:36:12] Not that they haven't asked me for money, so I guess I'm not.

Willie Robertson [00:36:16] Everybody related to me is.

Willie Robertson [00:36:17] Asking for money.

Tucker [00:36:18] Like you're like an NBA player.

Willie Robertson [00:36:22] So yeah, he never quite understood the show to my dad. I get is once my dad got so mad one time he. He thought it was so goofy and we were just being stupid. And so he said, this is my favorite thing that ever happened. Dog Nasty that never got so. So we had this dinner saying every time, you know. Yeah. And so we're on like episode 80, you know, and you know, the prior TV is, you know, you got these kids, they come in from L.A., they're 25 years old and they're telling.

Willie Robertson [00:36:52] You what to do. And I go, You don't look right. Yeah. It's just it's kind.

Willie Robertson [00:36:56] Of weird when you become a CEO of your company and do all this now that 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 well past the point of that at this point pretty quickly.

Willie Robertson [00:37:10] So we're setting all. The table up and we're just sitting there. You know, we've done this a thousand, you know, and JB's on the table and like.

Willie Robertson [00:37:18] Okay, everybody ready? And so little young producers like, okay.

Willie Robertson [00:37:23] Mr. Feel your pray action.

Willie Robertson [00:37:26] So if our heads.

Willie Robertson [00:37:28] And Phil said, Father, I pray for these bunch of heathens from.

Willie Robertson [00:37:34] Los Angeles, California with the little coffees and their filthy language, I pray you don't burn them all in hell for their sin for this. Amen. No, no, no. We were just. We were laughing so hard because none of us knew that was coming. None of us realize. And so we all look. We're just like, Look, here I go. What was that? And there's there's young for days that never missed a beat. It was like, Thank you, Mr. Phil. Now, can we do another prayer that we can actually put on television.

Tucker [00:38:08] That never aired.

Willie Robertson [00:38:10] Never had, never aired. It was so funny. So yeah, Dad didn't quite understand.

Tucker [00:38:17] What I mean. These cameras are in your house for what they.

Willie Robertson [00:38:20] Are, but, you know, you know. Well, it was like walking into here.

Tucker [00:38:26] Yeah.

Willie Robertson [00:38:27] We're. We're filming in here. Yeah, that's a good point.

Willie Robertson [00:38:29] Obviously, you know.

Tucker [00:38:31] And we're in a pheasant camp in South.

Willie Robertson [00:38:32] Dakota, so my. Yeah, we are not pleasant 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. True. And it was. I'm glad we did. So we get up this morning, we got to shoot tons of birds, walks around and then we go out. I think I had 2 pounds of meatloaf at least. Yeah, at least I. You did as well. You know, I didn't look at your.

Willie Robertson [00:38:59] Plate a lot, and I thought, that's not a good recipe for.

Willie Robertson [00:39:03] Two too long. But, yes, it's like.

Tucker [00:39:07] Not in for the afternoon after hunting.

Willie Robertson [00:39:09] In a big way.

Tucker [00:39:11] Did you? That was.

Willie Robertson [00:39:11] The last part of my demands, though, because I've heard recently about people in their podcasts and demands and the.

Tucker [00:39:17] Contract writers. Yeah.

Willie Robertson [00:39:18] And I said, I demand we have to fly to another state, shoot birds that morning. Yes, there should be every there should be every podcast.

Tucker [00:39:27] 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.

Willie Robertson [00:39:34] Yeah. Not so does this go we have to go. Find somewhere to. Actually, this was your idea and so thank you. My idea. I was going to go to Maine.

Tucker [00:39:43] Yeah, but we don't have any pheasants in Maine now.

Willie Robertson [00:39:46] This was better this way. I mean, this was a way better idea.

Tucker [00:39:49] If you could. I don't know how many birds are shot this morning, but if you could shoot two grouse a day in Maine, you're the best grouse hunter in Maine. Really?

Willie Robertson [00:39:56] You're a good shot, too. All right. I'm telling you.

Tucker [00:39:59] I would hope so.

Willie Robertson [00:40:00] I'm telling you that you're a good shot. I'm not happy. I wasn't surprised. I mean.

Willie Robertson [00:40:04] I know you had a.

Tucker [00:40:05] Lot. I'm not half as good as I should be after all the practice of that, I'll tell you that. But no, it's actually, I I Mr. 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. The bird turns it around and tries to fly up your nose. I just. I freeze and miss the bird every time.

Willie Robertson [00:40:27] And you had to go.

Tucker [00:40:28] You know, it's unnatural.

Willie Robertson [00:40:29] I was here a month ago doing this pheasant hunting. I didn't grow up pheasant hunting, so we were poor. So I have a pheasant. He literally is coming out my face. Yeah. And I didn't know what to do. And I. I took the shower and I went back like I was going to hit it like a baseball bat. And I. And I, if I had a little more Cologne as I can, the gods said you should have done it. You know, it was that close. It was that close. He had I think he'd been hit. So he was he's coming down and he's like, he was just so close. And I there's a picture.

Willie Robertson [00:41:05] And he's going like this, but he just goes, so right.

Willie Robertson [00:41:09] And then I thought, Well, I don't know. Can you imagine if you just grab presents of mine? And that's what separates the most out of that one. The just grab that sucker out of the air.

Tucker [00:41:22] Would it be that's an Aaron Rodgers movie.

Willie Robertson [00:41:24] Blew it.

Willie Robertson [00:41:26] And I one day I'm going to now I'm going to schedule.

Tucker [00:41:29] Like I was.

Willie Robertson [00:41:29] Months of pheasant hunting, though. I can get that same scenario that happened.

Tucker [00:41:33] I watched my father get hit right in the chest on a driven pan shoot for pheasant when I was a kid, and it knocked him right down. He was turning, talking to someone and the pheasant just came and hit him. Right. The family's a big man.

Willie Robertson [00:41:44] Did you grow up alone? Yeah. You did?

Tucker [00:41:46] Yeah. Yeah. We weren't poor. Poor too. Yeah, we.

Willie Robertson [00:41:50] Were. Super poor. Middle class. Yeah. How did you get off from McDonald's to go work there? I've come a long way. Just traveling.

Tucker [00:42:03] So did like, what was it like to go from being maybe locally famous to nationally famous?

Willie Robertson [00:42:12] Yeah. Night and day. Because it was. Man, I'm so appreciative. So we it was like we did just enough to get comfortable enough to figure out what it is that you're doing. And I loved the, you know, the progression. Yeah, I think zero two he was just like, nothing to something. But it was just enough. Like we didn't just have TV and then we had done some, you know, stuff too, where if we went in Bass Pro Shop or what, you.

Willie Robertson [00:42:38] Know, it was I was.

Willie Robertson [00:42:40] The commander guys and. But just enough. But then when once we hit the really national spotlight, especially to the level our show was, it was crazy. It was just crazy. It's not.

Tucker [00:42:52] Good for you.

Willie Robertson [00:42:53] Now. It wasn't good now and many where business it's not because business went crazy and it trying to do everything you know you're still trying. Yeah. You have a business you're trying to run your business and and then ours was really unique because the nature of the show look 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.

Willie Robertson [00:43:23] I just saw your goofing off. I just watched the show. It was like like that's really what we go build some more.

Tucker [00:43:28] Done.

Willie Robertson [00:43:28] So then, yeah, I had to go like do a video on how you guys look and well, from back last year, we really are working for you, but it's not everything you see on the TV. So what exactly happened that day? You know.

Willie Robertson [00:43:39] Exactly that day. So it was it was crazy. It was 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.

Willie Robertson [00:43:58] So we have your money.

Tucker [00:44:00] We're watching what you do.

Willie Robertson [00:44:02] Just try to put out a call, call us. And so I can't be.

Willie Robertson [00:44:06] Like, I don't get my order. I'm like, why don't you tell us what your. Well, just just generalize whatever you think, you know, spitball it. You know, we'll get as close as we can.

Willie Robertson [00:44:17] We're just trying to ship stuff as people like. Those are good problems to have. And I'm like, No, they're not. They're terrible. They're terrible problems to have. Just really overwhelmed, just wasn't wasn't ready. And and to think.

Willie Robertson [00:44:30] That when we did this.

Willie Robertson [00:44:31] Show or had this meeting and my wife course says, do you think we should order more duck calls? And I said, No, no, nobody's going to order a duck. You know, even if you like the show, why would you need a duck? Call me if you're if you're not a duck hunter, What do you. Was I wrong?

Tucker [00:44:47] If really people were buying decorative dolls.

Willie Robertson [00:44:50] They were just any Scott Like, they just wanted that.

Tucker [00:44:53] I mean, unless you were on a shelf.

Willie Robertson [00:44:55] Well, it was just the they wanted a piece of the show, and that was that was the piece they wanted.

Tucker [00:45:00] Duck calls that you saw.

Willie Robertson [00:45:02] Man. Like million and a half or something. Crazy duck calls. Yeah. And the year before we'd done 50,000. So 50,000 to 1.5 million.

Tucker [00:45:13] That's crazy.

Willie Robertson [00:45:13] It's insane. It's insane. We were working 24 hours a day. I had crews. I had. I had everybody who could possibly.

Tucker [00:45:21] How much child labor?

Willie Robertson [00:45:24] Not much. Child labor SAT for hours and hours. Worked.

Tucker [00:45:27] What did your kids think of the whole thing?

Willie Robertson [00:45:30] That's what I was. I mean, I think that's your big fear. I mean, your fear. Is, is how is it going to 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 going to do or have done, I've already done, you know, college. I have children, get married, you know, move well, 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 41 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.

Willie Robertson [00:46:15] Yeah, I think they.

Willie Robertson [00:46:17] Probably struggle, you know, with some of it and 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.

Tucker [00:46:30] So they're not mad about it now.

Willie Robertson [00:46:33] No, they're not.

Tucker [00:46:34] How many are married? Four.

Willie Robertson [00:46:37] Five.

Tucker [00:46:40] How do you get your kids to get married so young? Yeah.

Willie Robertson [00:46:46] I don't know. I didn't encourage it. You didn't? Well, that was the day I told you about Cordy's parents. You know her dad's mad.

Willie Robertson [00:46:55] You're too young.

Willie Robertson [00:46:57] That's what made him mad. I said, how were you?

Willie Robertson [00:47:00] 1985. Sounds like you're the same age we were. We I married.

Willie Robertson [00:47:06] It's interesting that because he couldn't say, we waited and. But now 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're doing around these parts, you know? I know. They just. Now, I don't know if I'm the right one and then make a commitment and go.

Tucker [00:47:28] It's pretty great.

Willie Robertson [00:47:29] Yeah, it really is great. Well, it's great because in your young lung, I've got eight grandkids and a young, young grandparent. I mean, it's fun when you're younger, you know, And not.

Tucker [00:47:42] So how long did the show go?

Willie Robertson [00:47:46] Five years. 130 episodes.

Tucker [00:47:50] Why they ended.

Willie Robertson [00:47:54] There were a lot of reasons, I think. When it gets more expensive, it just keeps getting more expensive. You know, everything goes up, you know, like.

Tucker [00:48:06] Your fees go up.

Willie Robertson [00:48:07] Everything goes up. Well, not just ours. Everybody. You know, production, everybody's on high. If this keeps, you know, generating income and. And so, you know, it's I'm assuming I mean, I think it's like a baseball player like you're paying a guy $10 million at first base. He hits 25 home runs.

Willie Robertson [00:48:26] We could pay a guy 5 or 1000. Maybe he'll hit. Maybe we hit 12 home runs and good enough, we'll save them. Yeah.

Willie Robertson [00:48:32] I'm sure that you're like, we can 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 are we doing? You know, it's like, Yeah. Is that more kids and stuff? It's like you've done so many 130 episodes with two storylines, 260 story as a last, you know? Yeah, we were certainly ready. I mean, we were ready for a break. It was a hustle. Lot of work. And I mean the first year, man, we filmed. Yeah, we filmed ten months that year. Yeah. This is not some couple of month. The, you know, this is not.

Tucker [00:49:09] Like how many days a week?

Willie Robertson [00:49:11] The first year we did six days a week and we did even some Sundays, Sunday afternoons. Just get them. And we were just.

Tucker [00:49:21] That's. It was ten months, six days week.

Willie Robertson [00:49:23] It was our it was our to the lot. But we were just, you know, at that point were like, figure it out. And then they were just it became so popular.

Tucker [00:49:33] It must have gotten cause.

Willie Robertson [00:49:34] They wanted more. Everybody was like, we need more, we need more, we need more. And so I was like, keep making them, keep making them. Then so finally were like, time out, you know, renegotiate. And so part of that we went to Monday through 30 schedules gives us day off at least a day to go the house. I mean to go the doctor to good 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, may not be on that afternoon, you know, till it comes out, you know, on the schedule kind of where you're at.

Tucker [00:50:03] Did you ever feel misrepresented by the show?

Willie Robertson [00:50:08] No, because, you know.

Willie Robertson [00:50:10] I kind of played a part like I had a part that I played on the show and it was kind of consistent. 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 the bad guy, you know, sometimes. Yeah. And 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, one of the funniest thing is this when you're really in trouble, right?

Tucker [00:50:42] Of course.

Willie Robertson [00:50:42] It's so funny. Like you can't stop laughing. So some of that was it was kind of like they, you know, let them do stuff and then and then I'll be like, this is us, you know, And like, because it was stupid. But it's that's kind of, you know, so for my role in it and, and then I was also the guy that narrated you through the show. So I had to keep you had to keep you up on what was going on because because people get confused. They get. And when if you get confused and if you don't if you can't figure a show out, you're just change a channel, of course, because it makes you feel dumb. Yeah. And you're like, I can't watch this, you know, because I can't figure it out.

Tucker [00:51:18] Did you watch the shows?

Willie Robertson [00:51:20] We did. I did. I don't. I never liked 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 go, This is so funny because I didn't know what that was. I was watching it with everybody else in the world. And so it was so funny how I would get so taken 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.

Tucker [00:52:04] How were they treated at school because of it?

Willie Robertson [00:52:08] Different. I mean, everybody's treated different, you know. But they were it was.

Willie Robertson [00:52:15] Probably were.

Willie Robertson [00:52:17] 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, say they did a ton of school from from the house just because that's what she had to do. But they were they were in a Christian school and they were pretty lenient. I mean, not on the grades they were 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.

Tucker [00:52:49] What year did it end the show?

Willie Robertson [00:52:54] 12 to 17 maybe.

Tucker [00:52:56] 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.

Willie Robertson [00:53:03] Yeah. When you say political problem, well, I mean.

Tucker [00:53:06] I don't know. You know, you. You live in Louisiana. You run a hunting related company in your Christian name. Probably going to reach a different political conclusion, probably to be pro-Trump. I mean, just judging by all.

Willie Robertson [00:53:20] That, that is true. Yeah, that was Trump. Yeah. Most of the show was President Obama. That was yeah, he was the president. And yeah, Trump was right there.

Tucker [00:53:29] Did you dress that on the show? Remember that, Trump? No.

Willie Robertson [00:53:33] 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 was like you didn't see stuff from.

Tucker [00:53:43] Right.

Willie Robertson [00:53:43] The like, I mean, we would be filming at a grocery store. We'd have to turn the magazines around because we would be on the cover.

Willie Robertson [00:53:49] Of the magazine cover on the show. Yeah. And then they like, Hey.

Tucker [00:53:53] It's two fourth wall coming.

Willie Robertson [00:53:55] Yeah, it was a little.

Willie Robertson [00:53:56] It was a little bit. Yeah. Trump was no, that was right when. Trump Yeah, I kind of I stick my toe in the water a little bit on that one.

Tucker [00:54:06] On the air.

Willie Robertson [00:54:06] You did know just in life. Yeah, just with Trump and.

Tucker [00:54:10] Well, yeah, I mean, it's a different world now, though, right? I mean.

Willie Robertson [00:54:13] Well, my mom was a little naive. I just thought, this is cool. You know, I like I like when I first heard about thought, that's all we need. We need a business guy.

Willie Robertson [00:54:24] We need a guy you with these politicians, we need a bit.

Willie Robertson [00:54:27] That's exactly who we need. Yeah. And and he had a reality TV show, so.

Willie Robertson [00:54:32] I was like, hey, it's like. So.

Willie Robertson [00:54:36] Yeah. And so I made him a fighter. So first time I met him, I was doing I was in Oklahoma City. My son was speaking at something. I went to hear him speak. We had been El cunning, not my son, but me in a buddy where Al cunning and the dude has a plan. I said, Hey, can we stop in here? My son's giving a speech. Yeah. So when 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 done one of his rallies. And you know, he's doing these right. He was at the Oklahoma State Fair and I was like, we got to go. We got to go. This is awesome, you know? And I had just.

Willie Robertson [00:55:25] Met.

Willie Robertson [00:55:26] Don Junior, who's a hunter. And that's how I. That's how we met each other. And we just met and talked. And so I emailed him or texted him and said, Hey, your dad's doing this rally. I was going to go check it out. And he's like, Cool, 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 going to 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, the giant crowd, you know, it's outdoor thing. There's an RV. So I get on the RV, me and my buddies and then my cop friend, and there's these other people and there's like, cater person. There's a payroll. And this this is funny story. There's a dude on there, and he comes up to me, he's got an earpiece in, but he's like, got. Beach, short sizes.

Willie Robertson [00:56:32] You know. How does 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 work for Trump.

Willie Robertson [00:56:42] Trump's not there yet. Yeah. 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. I'm looking at this cargo. Well, so I'll take a picture. And.

Willie Robertson [00:57:05] Corey Lewandowski is on the bus. He goes, if you will, 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 out first. I met him and he's like, Really? Well, this is the crowd is here. 2000. He goes, Even for you, it's huge, random. And there's a huge crowd for somebody like it. And so I'm kind of like my buddies are just l

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