Duck Call Room - Phil, We Tried Not To, but We Cried | Remembering Phil Robertson

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Uncle Si, Martin, John-David, Phillip, and Jay Stone gather to laugh, cry, and remember Phil Robertson's life and legacy. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the duck call room. We already getting started. Look, it's a day that we all knew was coming, and nothing could prepare you for it, but we're going to talk about the old man. We're going to talk about Phil. It's why I got sunglasses on. It's why I'm wearing a black shirt. I decided to go full fill, right?

Full feel. And in that regard, I'm going to give you the man. I'm going to give you one of these, the man who perfected the, thumbs up, right? Because everything you've seen posted about Phil to this point, there was a lot of it was one quote,

which is awesome. I'm not going to honor what he said because I can't. Don't cry? Don't cry. That's out. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to honor side. I'm going to cry my eyes out today. Yeah. That's one of them

Robertson things there, Martin. But we are celebrating the life of my older brother, Phil Robertson, the man known as the duck commander. I had a different relationship with Phil, and it was really separate and apart from hunting because I got banned from the hunting blind for life.

So we had a different kind of relationship. He led our men's small group. He taught us how to be fathers. He taught us how to be good husbands. And this was all from a biblical standpoint. And so every week we'd go in and me and a group of guys would learn and learn and learn from Phil. And I moved out to Abilene Christian University and got my degree in Bible. And I came back and Phil wanted to sit down and learn and hear everything I learned.

He said, he said, did they ever get off the gospel, Mac? He calls me Mac. I said, no, Phil, they're pretty much only going to go. He's like, yep, all right, that's what I thought, son. That's what I thought. but our relationship was so different. Here's the weird deal. When he was in his 20th, I'd just say 25 to 28,

the motto was who's the man? Because he grew up tough, hard. Well, no, I call my father and my brother, they're what I would call hard men. Okay, they thought it was weakness. if you was uh what we're doing right now yeah oh yeah no no yeah yeah my father you know no no you know just i mean he fell off an oil rig broke his back and you know feel ended up breaking his back doing something he shouldn't have been doing at his age but it's one of the things about who's a man

and then here's a guy that spent 95% of his life, we would call it in the wilderness in God's creation. And yet for the first 28 years of his life, he didn't know the creator. Well, right now, that's where he's at. He's with the creator.

Okay, and I look at that. It's one of the oxymorons of this deal. for me personally, okay. I'm having a hard time to adjust into it because this, this has been, he's been my, I probably say, I'm the sidekick, you know, and he was the man's star. You were, for 79 years of his life, 77 of mine.

He was Butch. Yeah. And he was a Sundance kid, right? Yeah. I'm really using a naked kid. No. Same thing with Tommy. Tommy was the same way because us three, Tommy, Phil, and me, you know, was two years apart.

Jimmy Frank and Harold were way older, like five or six years ago. And then Judy, you know, she was older. And then my baby sister, Jen. Well, everybody's gone. I'm the last man standing out of my father's family. Okay, and I didn't know that, you know, that dad, mom, Jim Frank, Harold, Tommy, okay, Judy, and Jen, none of them affected me the way this one does. Yeah. Okay, and I'm having a hard time getting my balance back, so to speak, I guess.

Mm-hmm. This one hits hard, hits a lot harder. Y'all, you just, I don't know, I just never thought about it while he's going. Yeah. Well, like Mark started it. Hey, we're all on that road. From the moment we're conceived, okay, and start life, we're all on the road running that direction. Yeah.

Hey, we got a stone walking in. Hey, we, we're going to, we're going to pop out. But while Hunter's getting this set up, are you still rolling, Hunter? look, I'm just going to let you all know something at home. We would love to be able to do this episode without any ads or any interruptions, but this is still very much a business. There will probably be some ads in here. Life goes on, boys.

Bill would say, hey, make haywada sunshine. So, you know, we still got to pay bills. We still got to pay things to do. So we're going to keep it as reduced as we can on ads, but just know there will probably be some. And for that, we don't apologize because this is a business and it is a platform. And we would love to have it without it. But just know, you're probably still going to see it.

So we're going to get everything set up for another microphone. And yeah, we'll be right back after this. All right. We're back. I had to get some things rearranged because we're going to give everybody a chance to be in here today because that's just who Phil was. He meant something to each and every one of us. And the funny thing is something different to each and every one of us. But still all the same because he shared a simple message for 50 years.

50 years of a 50 plus. The same message? 50 years of the same message. And sometimes with kindness, sometimes with straight up bluntness, sometimes because that's the only. thing that you would respond to that was right yeah i mean that's who he was that was the main theme yeah like when they was duck dynasty first was in being born he was sitting in his recliner and they was talking about it tell me here's what we want to do and all that and said well he said he said

after they got through was a spill he said this will never work unless. And then he rinks down beside his recliner and picked up his tethered and falling apart Bible unless this is involved. And the guy from Hollywood said, well, is that part of your life? And Phil said, no. He said, it ain't part of my life. It is my life.

He said, well, it'll be in. And, you know, So I got a lot of phone calls. I'm sure everybody did. And everybody that called, Phil had in some way influenced their lives for the gospel. I got in Slaybaw called him. He was like, I'll never be the same after sitting down with Phil all that time. Well, no, because if you ever go in, if you ever got in a truck or any kind of ride, or either was at his house or in a duck blind, okay, you were a captive audience.

Unwilling, huh? Unwilling. Oh, man. All willing. Either way. But you was going to hear one thing, okay, and that was the message. Yeah. You was going to hear the gospel.

You was going to hear about Jesus, the son of God, the son of man, our Savior, the Lord of Lord, the king of kings, okay? Because once this man that, uh, he was human, but he was human. was more of an animal. If you'd ever met my brother, you would understand my statement. Wow. Well, I'm just saying, okay, because he lived in the woods.

That's why Kay, his wife used to say, hey, when I die, bury me in the woods because that's where my husband is going to be. Yeah. Oh,

man, man, man, you really got it. If you did know him, that, that is, wow,

sir. Well, that's who he was. Oh, I'm not disagreeing. We just thought you were going to say like legend, hero, and you went with animal. Oh, well, I told you he was a hard man. So, hey, he is part, because he's the only man I know, you know, that a dog would

crap in the boat and everybody else would try to get away from it. He'd just take something and, you know, a stick or something and get it out, you know, and I'm over there side of the boat going up. Nothing like that bothered him. All right, look, springtime is here. It's warming up. You know what that means? That means more outside cooking.

And y'all know we love to eat beef around here. And that's what because of our friends over at Triedells beef makes such a good product, baby. Ain't it good? It's so good. Our friend, Sao Robertson would say, buy on the grill. Look, before we got Triedells, getting ready for a cookout, man, somebody had to run the grocery store, do all the things, grab whatever was left in case you were late in the day. And you never really know where that beef comes from.

But with Tritales beef, we skip the grocery store and do it a different way. Tritels comes from a family ranch out in Texas. They're a fifth generation American ranch. So they've been at it for a while. Now, look, the beef comes straight from their ranch and other ranchers they work with who raise cattle the same way. Their steaks are properly aged and shipped straight from the ranch to your door. We threw a couple of ribbys on the grill.

Look, salt, pepper, garlic. hot fire, that's all you need. Look, because I'll tell you what, when the beef comes from people who raise cattle for a living, you can taste the difference. The tenderness and the flavor are fantastic. So if you're stocking the freezer for grilling season, go check out Triedails beef. I know in size case, Christine loves it, which is just a, she doesn't eat meat. She isn't a big meat easier, folks. Yeah. Just go to trybeef.com slash. That's tribeef.com slash support ranch families and eat some dang good steak. Guy had, you know, I don't, I don't think he could smell.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he had, like, COVID before it was cool or something. Yeah, he got something wrong. It was something wrong with him. He was certainly immune to a certain, he was certainly immune to certain odor. One being his own. Yeah, his own. That's right. And, uh, yeah.

Look, hey, when you, you know, he didn't believe in, okay, washing his hunting clothes. Oh. Okay. Look, you wear clothes for about, you know, 60 days, the sweat and everything else, you know. You get a

he had a aroma aroma about him. Oh, man. Yeah, that's one of my favorite one. He was literally John the Baptist reincarnated. Oh, no. Yeah. The Bible describes that

very good. One, crying in the wilderness. Okay. And, hey, like I said, the man lived in the wilderness. Yeah, he, uh, yeah, I never saw him eat any locust, but he would. He would have. He would if he had to. He did like hunting.

Well, any man that will bite a head of a duck to kill him. Hey, locusts would not be a problem. Which, by the way, I mean, we've all bitten their heads, right? Just because Phil did it, you know. It was just the shock and all. By the way, that crap hurts. Oh, yeah. By the way, me and Philip McMillan,

have not. Oh, y'all ain't done it? As one-timers with Phil and the duck blind, me and Phil, you're not invited back. We didn't do that. I even just watching Phil growing up, like when you saw it the first time, then when you got to dispatch a cripple, like, you know, you're like, I got to bite that thing.

He just did it for the shock and all of it. Well, I know. But if you didn't do it right, that's a bad deal. I'll expect to say that because, hey, you had to bite down. And look, that's bone. Okay, so hey, you got to put some pressure on it. Until you heard it, crack. Okay, you weren't doing it right.

Yeah, the one time I did it, I had brain matter. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Shoot down the back of your throat. Yeah. Outside you live. I said, well. Yeah.

Oh, it was all the bad things, unhealthy or whatever, you know, but hey. But it was just, you know. They're pretty. When you got somebody there hadn't seen it, oh, it was a treat. Watcher. There's a pretty good artery in there, too, that'll give you a shot of blood. Yeah. Oh, gosh.

Yeah, man. I then figured out, you know what, you could just take your hands and push his head together and you'd accomplish the same. You didn't have to use your teeth. Yeah, but it didn't. The crap didn't. It wasn't as loud. It wasn't as impressive.

It didn't look as good. You had a kind of silencer when you done it with your hand. Yeah, it didn't look as good on camera either, you know. So, man, I remember, like, the first time. time I ever met Phil. I got invited to his house church of all things. Like, that checks.

Yeah. And so I was, I was, I was working at TP or whatever and slid down there with old curly, Curly, Curly Don't. Foster. And then I walked in,

I didn't know what to expect, you know, I was like, you know, I mean, I knew of Phil because I lived here. I'm a duck hunter. Obviously,

I watched everything he ever did growing up. But I still didn't know, right? And then you walk in and there he is. in his recliner, you know. And then he's just like, hey, sit down. You're like, huh, that's interesting. You know, then they went through house church,

and then he looked at me and he said, you got a minute? And I was like, yep, sure do. I got a minute. He said, well, come ride with me real quick. I need to go move some boards. We just got to go to something like two or three minutes. And I said, well, okay, I don't mind, you know.

And I said, but I ain't got no boots. He said, oh, you don't need them. And I was like, Oh, it's cool. We're just going to go move some more. You know, I knew enough about water control structures and everything. It's like, oh, we're just going to hop on top of a pipe. He needs some help getting to a loat.

No, no. That was the first day I ever got introduced to the helm hole via tini shoe. Yeah. The lowest place on the whole property. I ain't got them shoes anymore. I never had them shoes after that day. But that's just who he was. And we jumped on that four-wheeler, just a regulation four-wheeler and took all.

and I was downwind to him the whole way. Yep, I was better than something. Man, it was tough. It was, I was like, is this guy really like, man, really? I mean, it's Sunday. He should have taken a bath this morning before he went to church, right? No, I, you know, but that's just who Phil was. But I remember even on the four-wheeled arrive, we stopped at the gate, got back on the gate,

and he's just sitting there because once you got to the gate, you were trapped. That was it. There is no getting out of here without Phil at that point. especially if you ain't ever been there. And he just looked at me and he said, do you know Jesus? And I said, like any good heathen, right? I said, absolutely. You know?

You know, I ain't like, you don't want to say the wrong thing. Yeah, you better. Well, I mean, you're with Phil Robertson on his land on a four wheeler and he's got a 22 rifle on it. Yeah, absolutely. I know it. I mean, yeah, and to be fair, it wasn't an outright lie because I didn't know who Jesus was, but I knew the question he was asking. And I also knew that my answer was no.

Right? But I said yes because I didn't know. And he knew I was lying to him. I mean, he ain't. That was one thing. He was a, it's a good thing he didn't play poker because he could read a human like that, right?

Like he just knew from that. And then we went through the whole deal. Everywhere we stopped, he shared the gospel in nature, which for me being a biology nerd was really cool, right? Like we stopped and talked about different plants. And, you know, I'll forever be grateful for that first time. And then fast forward a few years to getting to work with him

and spend all the time on the land with him. And, you know, I taught him about plants. And he taught me about floods. Yeah, he was picking your mind about the plants that he needed to mess with. Yeah, I was teaching him about plants and how to grow weeds, essentially. and he was teaching me about floods because I had no idea. I didn't know what backwaters did. I had no.

That man single-handedly knows more about the Washtaw River than the Army Corps of Engineers who, quote-unquote, designed it. Phil Robertson knows more about the Wash-Tor. The most knowledgeable man on the face of the earth, aside from Jesus himself, knows more about that Wash-Tall River than any person ever will. going forward because it was his lifeblood. It was everything to him.

You know, some of the things that he did were things that human beings shouldn't be able to do. Yeah. At case and point, when he found out that he needed to thin out those bitter pecans on his property, about 1,200 acres, he didn't call a logger and say, come get these bitter peccas. pecans. Nope. One by one, maybe. He cut them, when they wasn't big, they were what, about two inches, two, three inches.

He had a weed eater with a blade on it. And he, he made sections and he weeded it. I would say over 10,000 bitter pecans. Yeah. He cut them with a weed eater. Then he had Dan behind him with a spray bottle with some, uh, he didn't have Dan

herbicide. That's what I did for. Yeah, as Hackens were. We walked through the woods over there. Yeah. Okay, can you cut it down to the ground? Yeah. Okay.

I will spray it. And we literally, you know, tens of thousands of bitter pecans he cut with that weed eater. Yeah. When I first started here, the bitter pecan was still the number one enemy, followed closely by the beaver. I'll fix that. Yeah.

So I got plenty of times. over there on the squirt bar he wouldn't let it he wouldn't ever let you do the cutting because the cutting was fun but he'd let you stand there and watch him get need up by mosquito squirting chemical on the on the roots he also he also did the same thing with the buttonwilders yeah on the pipeline and the lane and all that i said phil why don't we just bush hog it and said are you crazy how are you? No, no, that's why I see part of animal, I'm telling you. But he also, he called himself a C-plus man every time.

Oh, I'm old C-plus man myself. That's just being humble. He's one of the smartest human beings I've ever known. Yeah, he was sharp. Do you see that post that he made of that old video? I mean, that's a highly intelligent man. Yeah. Well, it takes a highly intelligent man to be humble.

And I'm a old C plus man myself. But like he lived down there and he was an animal. But then, you know, he opened up the Bible and your mind would be blown. No matter how many Bible classes you took, no matter how many times you've been to church, he would, I mean, he'd just flip it open and all of a sudden be at the page that he wanted to be at. And I'm like, I don't even know how he just did that. Oh, yeah. It's because he was so smart.

And he just. Well, if you had asked him, he would. he would tell you a page whatever on the right side about three quarters down yeah you'll find the answer to what you just asked me yeah he uh yes yeah he's the one that taught me i mean he's he's he's the one that told me this he said look here he said you would rather look dumb and your mouth and prove it and be smart than vice versa he said look look, I'm down here. Nobody thinks I know anything.

He said, it's the most freeing thing in the world. He said, if you get up there and you got to start spitting it out, he said, that ain't where you want to be. He said, you just end up right down here. And the man, I mean, for three, maybe four years, I spent a lot of time. I mean, I slept on his couch, like, and at the lodge, because he had a new young laborer, you know, right, that was on the payroll, so Willie wasn't going to say nothing. like he went labor yeah he went crazy one year and decided we needed to do everything at night you know

and so i would i wasn't going i wasn't going to drive back down there after two hours of sleep i'd just go in there sleep on the couch right yes right sleep in the play room wait let me get a little rest yeah let me just get a little rest you know about once a week i'd go home uh you know but i mean he he had me fresh clothes yeah he'd have me 24-7 down there and uh man it was just and gobbin was right there with it because he just went crazy one year he he went moving the deep everything had to be done at night when i would everything done in the middle of the night when i would come in on leave okay to spend you know and that's where i spend it with with him and his family and i i needed a two months vacation when i actually had to go back yeah because it was like he was talking about yeah it'd be nine

o'clock at night. He'd say, come on. Yeah. What? You said, I gotta go check something. He said, he'll take about five minutes. Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one, sign. Well, a.m. in the morning, we'd get home. Yeah. I was in my young 20s, and I would go down there a lot, and he'd have that jukebox jamming. You know, one thing that we had in common, we loved loud music, and Sy's the same way. And he would be jamming the stranglehold. He loved that stranglehold. And he also loved love, love is like oxygen. You remember that song, Zah? Nope. Love is like oxygen.

Anyway, he loved it. He'd play it all the time. And I never knew what hard work was until I went down there. And I'm telling you, I slept on that couch. I ate Miss Kay's food and almost died working with him. Yeah. Because I wasn't used to it. I was a student, you know what I mean?

But when we went to Vegas for a show, we were, me and sigh, and a couple other guys were sitting with Phil up front. And sitting beside us was Ted Nugent. and old Phil said, all right, Mac, come here, son. I walked the other time. He said, that's old Nudjit right there. Go get him. Bring him over here.

I was like, like that. Like, he's got no question in his mind. Ted's going to come over. I was like, yes, sir. Because I never told Phil, no. I mean, I was like, whatever. Yeah, let me figure it out. Yeah, so I went and I introduced myself and Ted was like, what, Phil Robertson?

He jumped up and he ran over there and he shook his hand and hugged him. He was like, man. And they started talking, you know. That's the only time I ever seen Phil really light up when he met somebody. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Yeah, he, yeah, man. Unbelievable.

And he just had the confidence. Phil had so much confidence. When I would ask him a question, he would just say, here's what you do. This is it, you know. He was very black and white. Very black white. I said, Phil, I can't get my dad, and I was telling Justin this story, I can't get my dad to listen to me several years ago. I want to talk to him about Jesus, but he keeps shutting.

me out. He said, yep, here's what you do. And he gave me a plan that I did not think would work, but I did exactly what he said. I went back to my dad's house. I knocked on the door. He opens up the door. I said, what do you want me to say? He said, what are you talking about? I said, what do you want me to say? What at your funeral? What do you want me to say about your relationship with Jesus? And my dad started crying. And he said, come in here and sit down. And we started right there and had a a conversation that we never would have had because Phil gave me that instruction and he was like, this is going to work, Mac.

I guarantee you he's going to talk to you. And he did and I'm so thankful for that. But that was his message because I have a different relationship with Phil than everybody in here because mine was just I was a church kid and he was the different elder at church because they all wore suits and they'd have meetings

and then here. You was afraid. Just tell the truth. scared the death of the man. Oh, how could you not be? He abolished the dress code at church. When Phil started coming to church, people started wearing camo, dipping snuff, wearing hats.

Bringing in them the bottles was putting in a way of church. No shirt. No shoes. You got rednecks fitting in bottles as far as you can see. And I thought this was the greatest church there was. Hey, getting changed out of the offering, making change. But that was growing up, like, because my pap ball was an elder and all my friends, granddad's were elders.

And then there was Phil and Mack to some extent. But Mac wasn't like as just outright about it as Phil. And all Mac wore buttons on a shirt. Yeah. Phil just show up in a T-shirt. And then he'd go, you know. He was just a cleaner version than Phil. Yeah.

But Phil would come teach like the junior high boys. Yeah. And what's funny is, and I got to be one of them. Oh, how'd that go? You learned all about STDs. But his message was the same. It was, you're going to die. And if you don't keep that thing in your pocket, you're going to die even quicker.

But it was. That was his line, man. It was just so amazing growing up with that guy to look to and be like, what is he all about? Who is this crazy person? And how did he become an elder? Look, I'll never forget. I was running through the back of the church. And I didn't see him.

And he goes, oh, and I was like, oh, gosh, this is it. I'm going to meet Jesus. And he just looked at me and goes, you're a good kid. Keep it up. And he just walked off. And I was like, all right. I'm hanging on to that one. And I've remembered it forever.

Just because he took the time to just tell me I was doing okay. And that's as close as you ever going to get to a compliment. Yeah. And I remember it. And, you know, it's just the impact he made, you know, like we're sitting in, this building. Yeah. Everyone hears job.

Yeah. I'm going to get, I don't want to get emotional, but. Well, that's fine. The, uh, Hey, I do have a fun one, though. I learned a new story. About Phil? About Phil and Uncle Joe.

Oh, wow. So Uncle Joe ran Brett Bakers for a long time. So obviously he didn't call him Joe. He called him Breadbann. Hey, Brett, oh, yeah. Oh, bread man. You were, you were known by whatever you did. Yep.

And so. And God, him. happy if you got any uh... deformities if you were deformity that's what you that's who you become it's just like when we got started Sinky called me Buster Crab on the phone

I ain't heard nobody I didn't even know who Buster Crab was when Phil hung me with that I had to get on the interwebs as he called him to find out who Buster Crab was you know but Joe got into running he ran like a marathon like 10 years ago or something like that

and he's running the I you'd always see him Well, one day he's running and Phil almost accidentally runs over him. That checks out. Yeah. And so this story goes, I'm like, that checks out. And so, you know, Joe, he, us Owens have anger issues. So he throws his hands up in there. Joe goes to approach him at church the next time they're there.

He's like, Phil, what was that? He goes, well, bread man, I saw you running. So the only logical thing is something was chasing you. So I was trying to hit whatever you were running from. We laughed at that, but man, he said, you run it, I'll hit whatever's chasing you. To me, that's so fulfilled. Yeah, man, I don't know. I'm trying to, I mean, you just look back on it.

I remember we, when I first started here, we, I was getting all like the information at at dot commander.com emails, all that stuff. And we got invited to a place to go duck hunting up in Nebraska called Cheyenne Ridge. I'll never forget it. because of the travel it took to get there. And I just, you know, by happenstance, walked in there and told Phil about it. He was like, yep, load up the truck. I was like, do what?

I mean, this was like November, like November 1st, something like that. And I said, what do you mean, load up the truck? He said, I think I'm ready to go duck out and load up the truck. We go. We go. They invited us, we going. I was like, okay. Well, we roll out at about 2 p.m.

we don't make it off a red-cut road before we get pulled over for speeding. Like, legit. On Red-Cut road, it was me, Phil, Jace, and Jep, all in one pickup truck. Four grown men with everything we had in one pickup truck.

On Red-Cut road, we're pulled over. Sheriff's offer walks up there. Of course, this is pre-Duck Dynasty, pre-all that stuff. He walks up there, Phil, got his license, registration. Cops said, you know why I pulled you over and Phil just looked at him?

said whatever you got to do do it quick we're going duck hunting and i was like wait do what like i'm just sitting on the back seat you know like a young fat boy because i mean i about 300 pounds at that time and i'm like what did this man just do to this cop like he just said whatever you got to do do it quick well i got places to beat and i said well we're getting that ticket that ain't no big deal whatever and the cop walked back about you know two minutes later he said mr roverson please slowed down and I hope y'all kill them and then we're gone and we rolled to Nebraska I'm talking about out there Platte River Nebraska. Oh yeah. Rolled for at 2 p.m. from here and stepped out of the truck at legal shooting hours like drove all the way through the night got out of the truck and everybody just

kind of slept on the back seat you would we just rotated around the around the truck everybody take turns driving and we'd rotate around the truck and and Phil was so mad at ducks even then that we, I mean, there was a lot easier way to do what we did, but it wasn't part of the journey, right? Like, it wasn't part of it. That ain't part of it. I know. And that was just so wild for me to see because, like, you know,

you see the videos and you think, you know, and I'm just fresh working here, like all the things. And I'm like, ain't no way, man. A lot of that stuff's edited, you know. No, the man was just plumb mad at him. He was just plum pissed off, which is why I found it so funny that, I don't know if y'all have seen it yet, but the Babylon B article on Phil is one of the greatest titles. I haven't seen it.

Phil Robertson devastated when he's met at Heaven's Gates by 12 million angry ducks. Yeah, which Babylon B is all satire. So like the name of the title just, it made me laugh. I was looking at it. It made me giggle. That's good. That's good. I don't care who you are.

Is that not one of the best things ever? That is good. Oh, man. That is good. And amongst all the emotions we've had since it all came out. When I stumbled across that one yesterday, man, I got plum tickled. I mean, I just got plumbed. Because he's talking about that a lot.

Oh, man. Well, first, I won up. I remember when he was telling all of us about the game warden invited him to speak. And he started for when he drove up. When they finally handed me a microphone, y'all, and he said, boy, that's when I drove up here, and I seen all them green pickup trucks, he said, you know what my first thought was?

You look around? And he said, run. Run. Are you in? Oh, man. Then he said, but hey, I ain't going to have to worry about it when they get to heaven. He said, because none of you suckers are going to make it. Yeah.

I got a question for you. Why was Phil so fixated on riding the hole? Like my said. He's mad at him, man. He didn't. Infatuation with misery. Well, hey, he didn't have but one gear. Whatever he was doing, he had one gear.

they're wide open. Well, I mean. They used to bass fishing. He used to bass fish the same way he duck on it. We would go and be at the lounge, you know, or launching the boat at 4 a.m. And like we'd be, we'd be leaving at seven that night. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. All day long. Yes, Joe. Well, he had that line. That's why when Martin said, you know, when he said, hey, I just finally go, I just tell when we would get through regardless. what time was. I just lay down with cats.

You know what it boiled down to? He finally admitted it. The reason why he liked to hunt from daylight to dark, he said, stone is either this or sit at the house listening to an old woman talk on the phone. My favorite.

The best ones. The best ones, too, even. That's sad. Married the woman and then, hey, you got to hunt all right. Well. Stay away from her. But like the problem wouldn't Kay,

Kay always had a posse. You know? No, no, no. Her girls. The muffins. Yeah, it's like being the boys. The muffins. Yeah.

Kay would, I mean, Phil would say we'd be sitting there hunting. He said, call Ms. Kay and see if him muffins have left yet. And I'm like, well, what does that matter? He said, well, if they ain't done crying, I ain't going back. He'd say, call her up and see if you can hear a bunch of hens, cackling. in the background. His favorite little thing was, was,

hey, boys, hey, look, there's two things that we'll worry about. Hey, women get together until they get to crying or,

or, hey, or stampete. Cattle. When women and cattle standpeat. That's right. When they stampede. Yeah. He,

he had a way with words, man. He loved to tell those women how good their hair looks. You know. Oh, man. That was nice their clothes wear. Yeah.

How good they cook. Yeah. Well, speaking of Miss Kay is staying with us now. Okay. And she's doing good. She's surrounded by her family. That's awesome. People in and out.

I mean, your driveway was hopping. Oh, yeah. Constantly. So she's doing well. And she's eating well. She's back to her normal life. Yeah. Okay, because they look, you know, they got that from mom and dad.

Because there was always somebody else at the house. I made some ribs yesterday. I did. I did too, man. I couldn't pass it up. And then Jace took a bite out of that rib. He said, no. Too tender.

Too tender. That's right. Two tender. That's what Phil would say. Uh-huh. He said, you missed it on that, Stone. And Don would look up and he said, Feel safe.

Way too tender. Yeah. When I took mine off to Smoker yesterday, they broke in half and I just started dying laughing, man. I just started dying. Nope. Too tender. You missed it on them, boys. Too tender.

There's going to be them little things, man. There's going to be, it's wild. Like, just all the, golly, all the chaos that ensued around that man, too. It was, uh, there's so many lines, so many stories. Like, I sat there on my phone yesterday. I'm so thankful. But like the past five or six years when I would go duck hunting down there from time to time, I didn't hunt most of the time.

I just sat there and just watched and listened. So I got to go in back through my phone and listening to Phil Robertson blow a duck call. Right. And I'll never get to hear that again. Well, until we get there. But, like, Phil just, he was different on a duck call than anybody else, too. Like, he is the only one that sounds like that with a duck call. So, like, it just, and sitting there and watching the look in his eyes on the vick,

because the way he watched ducks when they work, like the way he would cut those eyes and all those things, man, there's just a lot of that, you're never going to replace it. So you got to do whatever you can do to make sure you get a chance to see that again, right? And I don't know that there's going to be hunting in heaven. I hope there is. I think we'll be a mildly distracted when we first get there, but we got eternity. So eventually, I think we'll get back to duck up. We'll get you sick.

We'll get used to. Eventually, we'll get back to duck up. Yeah, well, we, I think, I mean, I don't think we're going to step up there and go get in the duck blind. And I think there's a few things, a few other things we're going to do. But I got tickled yesterday morning, like, even the day after he's gone from this earth, and I wake up at daylight, and it's just thundering and lightning and carrying on. And I'm like, boy, they must be whacking them up there, you know. I mean, like, because it just fits, right?

Like just bumb bow bow bow all the fun. What's that noise, Dad? I said, the angels and God are bowling. Yeah, bowling. Yeah, I just looked at it as a good duck hunt on a cold front because I don't think the seasons matter as much up there. I think some of them rules and regs are gone. The old way is gone and the new is in.

You know, green jeans. You know, 12 million angry ducks. Yeah, 12 million angry ducks. The only thing has been funnier is if it had Joe Oliverish's picture there. Because if Joe made it, I bet he met him at the gate and said, how'd you do it? How did you go that many years? Yeah, that'd be one of them one of the eternity and say,

Jesus, do you sure you want this guy in? Yeah, you should. Are you sure? Come on, that's Joe out of there, boys. For our listeners' sake, who's Joe? Federal Game Ward. There it is. The North Louisiana Federal Game Board.

Go through all links. He was famous. He was infamous. infamous. We were coming out of the duck hole. There was a guy fishing on the bridge. Phil said, there he is.

Jake said, who's that? He said, Fed. But came Ward. And they say, this is this old redneck fishing off the bridge.

Phil said, nope. He said, round spectacles. Yeah, he said, hey, you missed it.

Redneck's got on that chase and round spectacles. Hey, the next morning, there he was. He was out there in the bruce. And we didn't say a game down in the 20 years. He said, if y'all killed anything?

Phil said, hey, you've been out there all morning. Washington, did you know what we kill? The guy looked up him, kind of surprised looking. He said, son, we saw, hey, you kept flushing the woodies all morning coming in here. Then he said, how do I get out of here? And Phil said, the way you came. He said, gain on shorter or a better way. And Phil said, no.

You got to go back the way you came. Is he the game? Gordon that W.E. That hopped in the boat with W.E. And to come to the duck blind? No. That's a different one. Yeah, that's a different one.

But they were after y'all, so. Oh, hey. They had reason to be after us. Yeah, back. You know, I mean, I was just, that was just part of life. Yeah. Back BC, that was a, that was a major part of us. Yeah.

Well, that was kind of a badge of honor. Yeah. You know, we, we'd come in. and we'd mama sent us to the store we'd go down and the game water to be in by now, right?

They'd be talking, y'all and we walk in y'all and y'all said, uh, we noticed that white falcon was down there at Grimes''s, uh, pecan orchard.

We said, what about it? Because it's right over there but below the orchard was a duck hole. So yeah, was that it? Yeah, it was at the pecan orchard.

We was in there last night we were whacking them duck. Oh, shoot. You know, we have 15 floating duck blinds, and 12 of them are sitting on Cypress logs. Those cypress logs all came from Schenny Lake, which is how many miles away from Hard Duck, Oh, 20. Via river, probably just under, well.

Too far to move. Probably 20, probably between 20 and 25 miles. But by the time you get down the creek, because you got to go from the creek. That was a feat, and I wish we'd have, you know, we didn't have no money back here.

These are just not normal. These are big Cyprus laws. The river came up. He spent two weeks on Shoney Lake in backwater. Okay. Finding them, tying them up. Okay.

And making a train. He made a train. with his boat. And you got to think about it. Backing out. Pulling like 12 giant cypress trees that are floating behind you.

In reverse. In reverse. In reverse. All the way to the river. All the way of the river. And like I remember the day like it was yesterday. There was about 15 people on the bridge at Jenny Lake. At Spillway.

That spillway. Yeah. We're coming. Being in, I'm running up down the logs if they hang up on anything, I ain't pushing it off. He's bouldering backwards, yeah. We look up and they said, what are you guys doing? Phil said, take him to the river. He said, yeah, he's going to get that, that craft to the river.

Phil said, hey, just hide what? We could barely, we had to push up on the boat where the boat would go down. to get that motor under the bridge. That's where the water was at, okay? It took us two years. We floated it halfway, and the water was falling out. Well, it got too low.

We couldn't go any further. So we tied them up, yeah. It was two years later, flood water come back up. Hey, we got it down the river, took it on his land, and he took just, you know, okay, I'm going to have one here.

We'll have one up there. on tie two or three logs together before he warned him before he was going to have his blouse. And we're still hunting on those cypress logs to this day. I remember the first time down there, first backwater I experienced with him, watching that man move a floating duck blind was the most incredible.

Well, I was excited. That's the most incredible feet. He's way better at it than Jay says. Oh, oh, no. Well, the man would have two boats tied to it, but one man operating it, And I was in the boat. I said, well, you need me to do.

He said, I need you in the middle for balance. And so I would just sit in the middle of the boat. And then he would run from the boat to the log to the other boat to the back and forth and never missus. If I'd have tried to do that, I'd have been dead. Like, I'd have been swimming in 17 foot of water and feels just like a cat. Even, you know, he was twice my age. And it was just the most incredible thing I have ever seen pulled off. Well, I would have to check with the yearbooks.

I think he weighed playing when he was playing quarterback at high school. He weighed 175, maybe 180. And I actually tackled him, tried to tackle him one day. That didn't work out, did it? No, no. It was like hitting a tree. Because when I hit him, I hit him perfect, hit him below the knees, and I was going to wrap my arms around him and take him down.

Well, he's done a little spin maneuver, slung me one way, and then through a pass to the halfback going around the end, picked up about 15 yards. But it was just like running and hitting a tree. He was, I mean, the boy was strong. Like when Kay found the house down there on the river, two of them, he used to look just like Popeye's a sailor man. his forearms were twice as big as his biceps.

Oh, man. And that was just from pulling a soft cotton rope on a hard aluminum boat. He had literally cut a one-inch groove in that hard aluminum. Yeah. I got a picture of them grooves I took the other day. It's that aluminum. Which is insane when you think about it. soft cotton rope.

Yeah, soft cotton rope. And it cut an inch groove in hard aluminum. You know what? Speaking of that, being so tied to that river, I remember, it was actually the flood that caused us to move into this building. We were working down there. We were sitting in the duck call room,

building duck calls, doing all the things. The duck call room there, the little shed up beside it. In between the house. Phil come running in there and grabbed me, He said, come go with me real quick. And I was like, where in the world are we going?

We're pretty much on an island here at this point. Like, where are we going? Of course. Willie's the boss, right? Willie the boss, but Phil's the boss. So whatever that equals, you do. And so there I took off a Phil and we're walking towards a water. And I'm like, what in the world?

Will we go get in a boat and take off? and we're going to capture a piece of styrofoam. That he saw. He was sitting there in the kitchen cooking us lunch because that's what they did every day. He looked out the window and saw the styrofoam getting ripped down the river by the current that broke out from somebody's dock or houseboat or something. And he was not going to let it go. And by the way, y'all had any idea how much waterlogged styrofoam can weigh?

that was well that's why he thought he got me and I was like Phil we just got to tie this thing up man like we can't get this I mean it was as big as the boat and I said what are we going to do with this he said well we're going to get it back and we're going to cut it half then we're going to go shove it up under the end of that one duck blind it's got a little list to it you know so sure enough we tied it we're motoring back against the current get it up there with hacksawls and just saw all the sire he was like I think it's about this big and he's just eyeball and stuff And then, of course, when we take it over, it fits perfect. Like, no, no, he wasn't a carpenter, and he'll tell you he's not a carpenter. Oh, nothing square.

He knew the dimensions just off of his head. Like, yeah, that ought to be about right. And we, but I mean, that man, they'd nothing go floating down that river that was of use that he saw that he didn't go get. Like, I mean, he got so many hydraulic fluid buckets. That's where he even had a piece of equipment that took hydraulic fluid. If it come floating down the river, son, he went and got that yellow bucket. Like,

I mean, and we sat on them for too many hours, which one of the reason our backs are all trash, because we sat on a four-gallon hydraulic fluid bucket. He's got the world's largest collection of propane bottles. Yep, that too. I figured that's why we would go out.

I really did. An explosion? No, no. I'm serious. I really did. Yo, because look, you know,

this shit. Like, we'd be sitting there and talking about it. He just. Just every once in a while he hit him, he had to grab four or five of them empty bottles, or propane bottles, let's take him out. Oh, well.

Because, hey, we had 15 in that big blind. Oh, I know. Hey, we had three big duck blinds size up for the yard. You could have, we had beds in our kitchen. Oh, but if that one had went, oh, we'd have went to heaven a, hey, I mean, quickly. We never would have felt a thing. Yeah, because that thing had like 20, 20 of them in there.

No, year four last, I told Anna, I said, well, I said, there's about a 50-50 chance I'll survive duck season. It's either going to be from a tree limb killing me, a propane explosion. Cotton mouth, bouchy. Cotton mouth or sigh or Phil going to blow my head off of the shotgun. Oh, man. They got later in the years duck hunting that shotgun just, It eased a little closer to you, wasn't it? I told Jason, I said, we got to kill them before they get over here.

Both of them barrels right over the top of our head. And Phil would say, well, y'all should have killed them. Yeah, I got to. That's why, again, that's why I got so many videos on my phone because the last thing I was going to do was stand up. Like, Phil got to where standing up was optional. Duck out. Yeah.

The one time I hunted with Phil, my goal was, do not get in the way. just sit here. Well, I took that too hard because they were all putting out decoys. I didn't know what to do, so I was just trying to hide and not get in the way. And Stone all of a sudden said,

well, you just going to sit on your butt and watch us do all the work? And Phil was sitting beside me and looked at me and did that. And I was like, I'm sorry. And I started running and do him. I was like, I don't know what to do. You know, funny.

Anna told me Bella was there with Anna the other day with Bill and Kay. And Bella told me this, and Phil all of a sudden just started yelling at somebody, like barking orders. We couldn't figure out what he was saying. But he was telling, he said my name. He said,

and then he's talking about the decoys or not right. So he was telling me where to put the decoys from his bed, which I thought was, that's perfect. Boy, that is a fitting. Because I can't tell you how many, times hit spill and that old man sitting right there barking orders from the duck blind point after i've done put all the decoys out point they said nope you need to move point 40 of them

over here and hey point they move them over they never have made attention to me at all i say boys y'all had to check the wind i said y'all throw them out you know you got to move them later well later they'll have to move them yeah you're hard-headed rascals yeah yeah Yeah, because you ain't. I ain't hard at it. Oh, man. I mean, he's the person who is. Get along with it.

Do what I tell you. That always feels like, bounce on out there. Bounce on out there. Move and plugs real quick. Bounce on out there. Bounce on out there. Roll them. Roll them over this way.

That way they end up right in front of me. The first time I helped Jay put out decoys. Sy was hollering something while we were putting out decoys. I said, what's he saying? Jay said, don't pay them. notation to him. He's the idiot. Oh, hey, hey, here's the deal.

About three-quarters of decoys are down there in front of Jason. Well, yeah. And I said, hey, look, you told this. You know, hey, just a few. Don't fuel for everybody where me and feel are, you big dummy. Oh, my. I mean, there's just so, there's so many. And then they wonder why we had to shoot down that way.

Yeah. You can cycle get his. Yeah. Well, they learned it from Tommy. So, you know, I know. I was fix that. Tommy was the worst of all. One.

One. Yeah, one. What? That was another man, though. Hey, golly. Man, you, you, Robertson's a while, man. Y'all are something. Y'all is.

Well, Tommy could not enjoy the hunt as he was working. A lot of truth to that. Yeah. But he got that from being side by side with your brother. Because Phil rarely said idle, no matter if we were duck hunting or what. He did not sit idle. It was. Some of the.

Myphonious, funniest moments is, okay. You know, they were all, you know, Phil was the head one. All schizophrenics. Paranoid. Paranoid schizophrenics. Just, you know, anytime that someone would cut, you'd hear a saw, the next thing you're going to hear is spray paint. Anybody that was spray paint where you cut a willa,

there's something wrong with him, okay? or if he hear it cracking. So hey, leave a brush along. Yeah. I heard that. That was the line. And I said, well, hey, if you and your kids would stop cutting down a tree and put you where I stand, you know, I wouldn't have to break this brush.

Yeah. That was a line I got the first time I went hunting down there. They're like, you sit there. So I wouldn't stand up. Well, I'm big man. I wouldn't stand up. Stuff started breaking. And all I heard from the other end of the block, easy on my brush.

Easy. Easy. I'm like, easy with a brush boy. I'm just standing up, man, but I'll sit back down. No problem. The whole I was giving was just big enough for a shotgun to fit through. Yeah, that's fine. Like, I'll sit back down.

I know you work you, but I never appreciated how hard he worked on brushing and blouse. Well, I was down there cutting brush with him in July because that's when I found out that if you cut willas in July, the leaves will stay on them a lot longer than if you cut them during September. So Phil always had a pile of brush bigger than this room, ready to go at any point. If he told you to do something, it might sound stupid.

Yeah. Gus me, he had a purpose and it, it had a reason to do it. Let me tell you what's hard to do. Get fired up about brushing a duck blime, it's 97 degrees in July outside. But that's why he said, we've got to go with daylight.

We got to go that way. We'll work until about. When it's real early and it's cool. We'll work until about 9 o'clock. He said, and then we'll come back out at, So if that tells you, we're going to work on that, then you're going to go build a duck call. From 9 to 6. I'm going to cook you lunch, then I'm going to lay down and take a nap.

You're going to go back and build a duck call. And then when you get done, you're going to meet me right here and we're going to go back over there when the heat breaks. When the heat breaks. I've done got me a good nap and got, it's only 94. I've charged my battery. I used to laugh. No wonder, sigh, takes so many naps. Well, he'd say that, that heat.

about to break and I'd say all right but I was young single it didn't matter like I didn't have nothing I had nowhere to be other than whatever Phil Robertson needed me to be doing at the time and so it was man but again he got to do the fun part he did the cutting I did the totes so you know but I tell you what you learn how to stack brush right because if not you got your butt chew and even in you learn how to tie them elastic ropes from 1972 that he still had and if you dare got a nod in it you would get your butt chewed again so he was a very particular man who had a way of doing things that got the worst butt chewing you could get from field is if he broke his boat paddle oh no and if you belong to him you get your butt tore up over a boat paddle oh oh any anything you

break yeah you think get your butt work i called uh we we okay that's why al i told al this i said i said now you have got some really good friends i said because if it's been me when that crazy rascal come talking about hey you either hit the road right now don't ever come back or come on stand and get in line i'm gonna tell you butt up i said i would have been gone you know w e was was the ring leader of that him and how versus one one kid was there filled him know who he was and the story yeah he just grabbed him He'd done whooped everybody else. He grabbed him. He said, I don't know who you belong to that, buddy.

Yep, bam, baya. He said, I don't know who you are, but you tell your mama, I tore your butt up. Aren't they all like 16? Oh, yeah. They were teenagers. Mm-hmm. But, you know, what it was is, hey, they went to a neighborhood, okay, and got them some beer and got drunk. Yeah, they went to the camp down the road.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hey, as soon as that happened, they, you know, they got filled. because they knew what he thought about alcohol. When's the last... He had met Jesus. When is the last time you talked to W.E.

When I was up there... So you know the kids you're talking about, right? No. No, I'm just saying that the one you're talking about in that store... 60. Dropped off a package at W.E.'s house not long ago. Really? Working for FedEx or UPS, one of them.

And he come in there and said, are you D.W. E. Phillips, like from Westmanoe, Louisiana. And he was like, yeah, why? He said, I had no idea who he was. And then he said, I was the other one. Yeah, I was the one that, you know, got my... Talk about a small world. Like, you know, like, I was the one that Phil whooped his butt.

And they were 16. Now they're 60. Yeah, now they're all, now they all crowding 60. That's, but man, he, the other, I got a good one one time from it. a falsely accused of sinking his boat. And me and Gobbin got boat, me and Gobbin both got it for that one. Yeah, you honeyboy, you honeybun eaters from fat boys.

Then fat boy. Honeybond eaters. He said, that's what happened. That's what happened when you eat the honey boy and boy. You get fat and you stink the darn boat. No, he said, I'll tell you the exact quote because there's one I'll never forget. He said, yeah, them two fat boys over there.

Like, we weren't right there. Me and God were standing two feet from him. and he's them fat boys over there sunk my boat. And I was like, Phil, Phil. You never had to worry. Phil. There's a lot of things in my life I've done. I'll give you that.

I did not launch your boat without a plug in it because I'd have sunk before I ever got to the boat house. Like at this point, I was 315. If that plug ain't in that boat, I'm going to be deep. I'm going to need deep in water. It's getting the water. I'm going to be knee deep in water before. Before it even gets out of the back of them. And then come to find out it was Jimmy Red's kids.

They finally feel. best up. You know what I didn't get an apology? You know what I didn't care about? An apology. You know what he didn't expect? Yeah. Because the problem is,

now I'm not going to have anybody else call me fat boy in a loving way. If they call me fat boy, they're going to mean it. Then he's going to get the end of the storm bill. Phil really meant it in a loving matter because he would love to do the same thing to Ms. Kay's group.

Yeah. He would walk in the house. He said, Stowe Miss Kay's running with these heavy sisters these days And they're all sitting there Yeah And they'll laugh, they would laugh He's the only person I know that could pull that off

Well he's just like a, he was just like your football coach man Like he did all these things It was all out of love Wasn't none of it malicious like I mean And you knew that from him Like you knew that even if he called you an idiot it was to make you better. It wasn't to be derogatory towards you.

Oh, that's what they was trying me when I was growing up. That's what it was. They were training you. Here's what I'll say. I think with you, Sa, they really meant. Hey,

you'll tell you what? I didn't care. They can't kiss my butt. My father warned him, he said, hey, you better leave him alone one of these days. He's going,

you're just going to push him too far. He's going to pick up a basketball basketball back. That never happened. You know, he almost woke me and Jason. We were 25 years old. We went frogging. Oh, there ain't no limit to it. No, ain't no limit. We went frogging. And when we got back, there was a cotton mouth on the boat dock dock dock. Well, we looked around. We didn't have a gun. So I handed Jason Phil's boat paddle. And it was one of those old, it was an old boat paddle, those old, that it wouldn't one. And Jace lined up on it. He lined up on that snake. And when he come down on it, that boat paddle broke in half. So,

Jace looked around, he said, see if you can fix that boat paddle. So I got a brace. I got halfway fixed it. The next day, we're in there building duck calls. Phil comes in and says,

which one of you idiots broke my boat battle? And I'm taking medicine, boys. And James just sat there. He didn't say a word. And then he finally said, well, there was a snake, you know, we got to have nothing to hit him with. And Phil said, hey, that ain't no snake club. That paddle, then he went on a rant about where the paddle came from, what kind of wood it was made out of.

Then he called us an idiot again. And I thought there for a second, he's fixed to whip our butts. Yeah. And if you'd have said the right thing at the right time right then, he probably would have. Oh, I'd say, if the answer had been wrong, yeah, you'd have got to go. But then Jayce told the story about when he was a kid, he got his butt whip for losing the boat paddle, and then went back out on the river and found it.

And he said, I'm still bitter about that. I mean, there's just, golly, there's, man, there's just too many, man. There's just too many people. Yeah. It's ours. You think about how many people he baptized down on that river. And how many people in this town have stories about him? I tell him all the time.

I said, hey, when you wait out there, you're stepping on dead bones everywhere. Oh, I guarantee you. Yeah, it's the, you know, one of the, you know, we always talk about social media and how beneficial it can be and how detrimental it can be. But after that, getting on there and seeing all the memories and all the people tagging you and stuff and the impact that that man had, that his, you know, we like to call it a ripple. His ripple. Title wave. Yeah. Yeah, we're not even to the ripple part of it. Yeah. Like his won't be a ripple for another hundred years, right?

Like, just because he was so bold and so up front about the gospel. Yeah. And that's what, that video that Stone brought up, it's feel about our age probably, 30, 40 years ago. and you hear him say, Almighty God in the flesh, the creator of the cosmos, and it hit me.

My wife looked at these years, are you crying? I said, yeah. Because the reason God gave Phil Robertson a platform is he knew he could trust him to just tell the gospel. Don't fancy it up. Don't worry about the Hebrew.

Don't worry about all this. Don't worry about this. Don't worry about that. You could trust that. Phil Robertson would get in front of one person or a hundred thousand people and say, I know the way off this earth there is hope. You're all going to die and Jesus died too, but he came out of the ground. And then he would say, if you got a better plan than that, I'm all ears, but I doubt. Yeah. But I've looked. If you can beat it, you can beat it,

I'll listen. Please share it with. And he's been saying, as you look back like, I've heard it at WFR. I've heard it on an event. It's the same message. Like he never switched it up. No. He didn't have to. He understood that's the only message people needed to hear from him.

You're right. Like I thought about him and John the Baptist met. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he said I ain't getting off of it. In the last 24 hours, I don't know how time works up there, but those two guys met and they're the same guy. That proves my point about he is animal. What's that? because I'm telling you, he understood the creation, like you were talking about.

He was part of him, I'm telling you. Yeah. Because he understood the creation and where he got it from, no. I loved how sharp Phil was because this big muscle-bound guy, like weightlifter guy, huge. And Phil was talking to him and studying with him. And the first thing he asked him was, he said, let me ask you something. He said, you got all these muscles. How are you going to get them out of the ground?

very direct very direct very no it's a good question when you think about it he started right there and shared the gospel very very direct i remember the first event i worked here this this is how far back this me phil k and godwin went to a sportsman show in natchez mississippi set us set us up a little old booth over there selling posters and duck calls and and all the thing but even then that was my first time in public with phil phil sat at that table for eight hours a day right there we were pedaling duck calls trying to make a living and he sat right there and he had that bible by him and if anybody dared walk up that he he recognized needed it that bible went up he wasn't worried about selling no duck call i was there to do business you know

but Phil was there to go fishing. Yeah. He was a fisher of men. He may have been a duck hunter, but he was a fisher of men. And if he looked up through them sunglasses and recognized, I think this person needs it. Guess what they got.

Yeah. They got a full-blown gospel sermon right there. And I don't care if that person just walked off and Phil recognized the person behind them needed it. They heard what he was saying. Phil gave it right back. He wasn't going to. on somebody being a hearsay. Yeah.

He was going to give them a direct account at me and Kay and Gobham were over there just laughing. I mean, like, because that's who Phil was, you know. I'd say this. At that time, Kay still had a perm, man. She had, she had, she had big, she had big perm going on. And I remember she would like, it's so funny because Phil, there was about three places Phil would eat on the road.

Arby's. Good place. Subway. against that and I mean that's just and he would eat a pizza so like every night Kay would just go to the little bank bag

and hand me and God with some cash he said can you go get me and feel something to eat you know I mean it was just the wildest thing like it just and the thing of all the places we've been all the things we've done together and you know I mean it's just crazy Martin that's where Si gets it

because when he's doing shows he does the same exact thing and I didn't know that I mean, I would assume it, but, Sa, you do the same thing. You'd stop people and don't care how much time it takes, you're sharing the gospel with them. Yeah.

Yeah, Phil would. He would, you could just see him. I would see him in the line of people. You know, and this wasn't a big line at this time. Like, we were just duck hunters. Like, wouldn't the,

the Benelli show had just started. So, like, it wouldn't, none of the, none of the hoopla was there yet. Aside from the people that were like me, that grew up watching Phil, like, that was there, but you could see him just sitting at that deal as he's signing a poster, signed a duck call, but he ain't looking because he knows how to spell his name.

He ain't worried about that. That's actually back when he wrote Phil Robertson, before he just went to fill with an exclamation point. But he would be sitting there signing it, and you could just see him survey in the line. Like, who am I going to get? And buddy, as soon as they take a step forward, boom, it'd come open. Well, that's why. And here we go, you know.

it's crazy about thinking about because I always ask myself where did it come from but he was on the river all the time when he was fishing to provide his family with what he had to have

but he taught because everything he done connected to the creation everything he's done So that that that that that that crawfish story the bird and the beast every one of the kids got that every one of the kids he even hey say he yeah and they filmed that hunter just said he did too

no no I'm serious but he did you know hey it's that's why I said he's he's half animal I'm telling you I use the dogs that every time one of them dogs come in around When I was rocket. Yeah. Well, Bullfrog asked me, she said, what are all these dogs doing around here?

I said, I'm glad you asked. Oh, man. I use that as what they call it, a segue. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. As a matter of fact,

here we go. But it's a lot of, it's a lot of good stuff there. Oh, yeah. You think about it. It's how Jesus did it. Yeah. You see that bird over there?

Yeah, let me tell you about him. He doesn't worry about it. When I was sitting, when you walked by this morning in a truck, a dove lit on the high line. I was sitting there and I was talking to Jesus. I said, you're going to have to help me out during this, okay? I'm having a, I ain't quite got my balance back yet. So, yeah, because, you know, it's just,

that's why the phrase I hear most often when I'm leaving somebody after talking to them or preaching to them. Is it, well, I just can't see this God you're always talking about. And I always the same answer. I said, well, I pity you, ma'am, or sir. Because I can't look anywhere. I can't go anywhere.

I can't do nothing that I don't see it. Amen. The seasons of the year. Yeah, yeah. That's what Phil always used to get with me, the seasons. He would say, Well, let's just say, all right, we're in the, we're in the rebirth. Well, no, no.

Come fall, he's like, we're headed to the cross. He said, all right, here's the winter. We're into death. It's the deal about, okay, wait a minute. You don't believe, oh, you got a problem with resurrection? You don't believe that he could raise dead man? I said, you need to pay attention this winter. I said, when it starts to go towards spring, I said, hey,

open your eyes and I said hey you better be looking you better be looking and looking every day because it happened so fast that you'll miss it I said there's a resurrection like you ain't seen lately coming yeah it's called spring yeah I said hey everything's dead there's no flowers dead hey then guess what I'll wake up and guess what my black pickup truck is solid yellow It's called pollen.

I said, you look around and there's flowers everywhere. All your trees are in bloom. Every tree's got a flower, you dummy. There's the dummy. There's the dummy. Big dummy. Well, you know, Saan likes to tell stories when he gets nervous, Jay. And so when we...

If he's nervous, he's talking. And especially when the game wardens are questioning him. But when we went to go see Phil, and we went a couple weeks back, and I'm so glad we did, Phil and came. And, you know, Phil recognized Si immediately.

He wasn't sure about who I was at first. And then Cy started telling stories. He's talking about fishing. He's talking about catching all these fish. The only thing Phil was saying is, Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Cy, let's go.

You're taking me out. Let's go to your house. get me out of here. Get me out of here. So all you had to do, Philip, was say, I'm the guy that raised up and shot when the 40 till. And didn't kill nothing. You don't know that.

Yeah, I do. No, you don't. You can't. No, you don't. That's why you was banned for life. Hey, I'll say, Philip, look, here's what I tell you. It's better being known for the guy that raised up and shot too early than the guy that took a dump and wiped your butt with a life jacket.

That's right. And then put it on that, but not where you go in the blind, you took a dump. Yeah. Okay. Oh, that wasn't me. And wipe your butt and don't throw it away. That's what I'm saying. You'd rather be the guy to shot too quick than that guy.

Oh, yeah. So. But he'll say, what kind of man? But the cool thing. It used to be who's the man, not what kind of man. Now, who is that? Yeah, what kind of man would do something? But, you know, he didn't know who me.

He didn't know who I was at first. But then as I was telling that story about all them fish, he looked over there at me. And he called me Mike, you know. He said, Mac, you believe this, all this about the story size telling. And he was laughing. And I was like, no, Phil, I never believe any of his stories, you know. But before. He said he was stretching that one a lot.

Yeah, he was stretching that one, Mac. And before we left, he hugged me, he knew who I was, and he told me he loved me. That's the last, that's the last time I saw him. And that's how I wanted to remember him. He had a good day the day we were there. He did. He did. Dan was telling me if you better go see him now.

Yeah. I knew then. And I said, nope. I said, I ain't going to go go see him now. Yeah. I said the same thing. They said, you need to go up there. I said, mm-mm, mm-mm.

I'm going with my last memory of him being of us talking. Yeah. Like of us talking about ducks and all the things, right? There's two times when he's actually shocked me. One of them was when he went overseas. and he actually stood on some of the beaches over there, you know, that was tourist spots for World War II.

You know, when he come back and he said, oh, by the way, I owe you an apology. Well, you better write that day. Oh,

yeah. I look and I said, oh, something's dead very wrong here. Yeah. You okay, brother? He said, I,

he said, I appreciate your service. There you go. because he said, I didn't know what you boys went through. He said, but when I got on them beaches over there, he said,

yeah, I owe you to apologize. I appreciate you serving our nation. So it's just one of them things that life is tough. It really is. Yeah. But the good point is, okay,

look, the animal I'm talking about is with the creator. Okay, and they're both happy. okay because look there's no more tears there's no more sorrow okay he's put his time in okay and i think the last 50 plus years he put it in with god okay so barton and everybody in here has been saying okay he never missed an opportunity that if he had one person okay that one person was going to hear about Jesus Christ, the Messiah,

okay, and our Lord and Savior. And he done it in such a way because he was just a good old country boy. He said it in a way that nobody could miss it. Keep it pretty doggone simple. Yeah, it's the song that the musicians and artists sing, I'm a simple man. Bill Rawson was a simple man,

but a very complicated one. a very, uh, very knowledgeable band. Okay. He had two degrees. He is very smart.

Okay. And imagine all, imagine all that he knows now. No, no. Yeah. See, that's the thing. He knows stuff to,

uh, you know. He was brilliant here, even though very, overall pretty quiet. He was brilliant here. Yeah, but now. He spoke when he

needed to. And you know what happened when he spoke? People listened. It's like they all, they all shut up. Everybody shut up. Yeah. Except for side. Well, look. Yeah, but sigh was his hype man. That's right. Storytelling never never shuts up. One of, one of my core, one of my core memories of this life will always be every time Phil preached at Wifee Road or class, Sai was his hype man. Yep. Because sigh thought Phil was talking only to him. Like, side thought him and Phil were in the duck bind together. So side there in the middle of the thing.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. I mean, side would just, it was like him and Phil were the only two in the room. Well, now, hey. It was so good, man. Well, no, no.

Because look, when I sing. Yeah. I'm serious. When I sing, I don't hear nobody else or, you know, that's evident. This is between me and the Lord. Amen, buddy. That's why I went Jason those day. You have to say it because, hey, you kind of feel waiting.

Hey, you've got it right, but you just didn't put enough emphasis on it. Because after Jason's preaching the other morning, when he said, okay, come on, if you need Jesus, come on down. Y'all and I said, boy, what he's trying to tell you is, come to Jesus. And I said it loud. No, no. He just said, I like you at it. I said, well, I was just thinking it needs to be, you know, more impact. Just one more time.

One more time, I said, I want to make sure that what you had said they didn't miss. Batman and Robert for Jesus. Cy, a heck of an audience when you need a crowd. Hold on. I'm here to tell you. And, hey, he'll take over your story before you know it. Oh, bad. I love it.

Gosh, dang it. I mean, at some point, we've got to wrap this episode up. This one, one episode will never be enough. We're going to talk about Phil for the rest of our lives. Yeah, to capture what Phil Robertson meant to each and every one of us. us and to all of you listening out there right like uh i would say this if you have some film memories you'd like to share shoot them to us hello at duck commander.com we'll we'll we'll uh hello at duck call room been a long week yeah i'm sure we have hello at duck commander dot com to it's

hey i'm going to add this to you guys okay yo everybody jesus this is jesus talking i'll never forsake you or leave you okay Jesus is always with you. The age priest on it the other day, and he said, okay, the Father is for you. Jesus is with you, okay? And look, the Holy Spirit is inside you. There you go.

Folks, that is a win, win, win situation. And it's the only wins. And hey, in this wicked world we live in today, if you doubt that, hey, there's wars all around us. People are dying for crying out loud, unnecessarily. Okay. Man needs to learn, okay. There are two commandments that really matter.

Love God with everything you've got. Okay. And then turn around and love your neighbor. And as Phil would say, if you do those two. Yeah, if you do those two. The other ones take care of themselves. Yeah, the rest of it will fall in. He said, he wrapped it up.

He said, he went from 10 down to 2. He said, you know why? Because those two cover the 10. Like he made it, again, so simple, so clean. Because here's the deal. Let me tell you why I've always told you when we speak about death. Death is nothing but a change of address. Okay.

And if you doubt that, you need to go to Ecclesiastes, the last chapter 12, and read it. When you die, this earthly tent is going to go in the ground and return to the dust that it came from. But the spirit goes back to the Almighty who gave it. You don't know about that, you need to. Okay, because everything else is crap. put it bluntly okay and if you don't know what crap

it is stung oh man okay because hey the you know give me the conclusion the conclusion

here is fear God and keep his commandments because that's all there is we're talking about the creator my brother has left this earth the tent fleshly tent he was in okay

it wasn't any good shape. Back was broke. He didn't have a quality of life, and I'm thankful that God Almighty called him home. Amen. Thankful for mercy. Hey, he's where he's surrounded by those that love him. That'd be the father, son, and holy spirit.

Okay, because they've done everything for him. Okay. And he's home with a creator right now. I've told you. animal but he's half and he's happy because he's with a creator right now he's half animal but he's fully restored he's fully restored and hey all he's waiting on is the glorified body that he's going to get whenever jesus comes back to get his people amen okay and hey that's the day i'm waiting on yeah right now i'm kind of out of like a fish out of water but hey i'll make it through it okay

because me and the Lord talked about it about 15 minutes ago before I come in here. Amen, buddy. Okay. And we're going to go. Like I said, everything else is a bunch of dung. And we're going to go fishing. We're going to go. We're going to go do some things to get out of.

So you're not alone. Yeah. Even though. That's what I wanted to make the point of God, what I go was okay. You're never alone. If the father is for you, the son's with you and the Holy Spirit lives inside you, you big dummy. wake up come to your senses okay you're with the man okay and that man is jesus christ

jesus was a human being that walked his face of his earth but he was also the creator okay amen you can't beat him boys you need to join him i know i know phil you told us not to cry but you know things happened well hey even jesus wept when he he lost his friend knowing he was coming back. We know Phil is restored. We lost our friend. These are not tears of sadness. Okay?

These are tears of joy. These are tears of victory. Okay. And there was hair on my body standing up right now. Look, the war has been worn. There's still skirmishes going on. But hey, God has done won the battle. So you know what's a scary thing?

thing is I look at my three kids and I know Phil is in there somewhere. And that scares me to death. I know some of that bad is in there, but I look in in my youngest one's eyes and she's got that wild eye like y'all got. I'm thinking, you know, what a legacy. But you see your woman, tell her I appreciate it all she's done for, for Kay and Phil. Yeah.

Okay, because she's kind of, you know, it takes strong will woman to take your business. She is, she is that. She is strong and stubborn. No nonsense. That's why I texted. I texted her last night. I tried to give it a little time because I was trying to think of something impactful to say. And I just came back with three words.

I love you. Like, for her. Well, a friend of mine. For Dan the butler for crying out loud. His wife died and when I showed up for the funeral, I said, hey, I don't know what to say to you. But I love you and I'm here if I can do anything. Tell me. But I don't know what you're going through.

Yeah, I just decided. I don't know how to help you. I decided to go with what Phil always wrapped up everything with, right? I only tell you this because I love you. I love you. Hey, I'm out. And then he would walk off. Whatever stage he was on, that's how he ended it.

He ended it with two things. He ended it with a super clean representation of the gospel. And he ended it with, I love you. Like, that's crazy, right? Because at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Those two things are the only ones that matter. Those two things. Everything else doesn't matter.

Don't even make it. It ain't there. It ain't there. So you know what, in a fitting way to wrap this one up, we're going to end it with a super clean representation of the gospel. And Johnny D. is going to try to read it. First Corinthians 15.3. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance.

That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. We only tell you this because we love it. Yeah. And that is the end. Those are stories. So get on board.