Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1168 | Jase, Missy & HGTV’s Ben & Erin Napier: Refusing to Downplay Faith in Hollywood

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Jase, Missy and Al welcome HGTV’s Ben and Erin Napier for a candid, funny tour of “real reality” TV—how faith shapes decisions, why small-town life resonates, and what it takes to protect your kids and your peace when cameras are everywhere. They trade early-day stories from Duck Dynasty and Home Town, convinced that every hometown has their own version of Uncle Si. A literal lightning strike punctuates the conversation as they celebrate community, craft, and the freedom to be who you are on and off camera. Chapters: 00:00–09:51 Missy Introduces the Napiers 09:52–17:03 How I Met The Robertsons 17:04–25:54 The Laurel, MS Version of Uncle Si 25:55–32:36 Preserving Authenticity in Reality TV 32:37–38:40 Protecting Children Who Grow Up on Television 38:41–49:30 How To Portray Your Hometown With Dignity 49:31–57:18 Standing Up For Faith In a Godless Industry — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. Missy is in the house again. Welcome back, Missy. I've noticed that every time you show up, you bring a friend. Every time I show up, it seems like lately, I kick Zach off so I can get my friend on. Yeah, I think that's... Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing. We're not saddened by that at times because sometimes you know, Zach needs to go work on his vocabulary and come up with some new big words and things like that.

Yeah, he's, he's, Zach's interesting. I think he brings a lot to the table. But every once in a while, I feel like it's my relationship with Willie. It's like, you know, I need a break.

Is that bad, babe? No, not not. It even happens in marriage. Yes, does it does. It happened when we were about to go on air.

Missy was correcting Jason. on something, which is, by the way, Missy, one of the my favorite things about having you own is that you're the only one, when you're married to somebody, you're used to just telling them straight up what you think, whereas other people are being a little more, you know, soft, you know, gloved hands. Well, I'm trying to like help you. Yeah. I really am. I'm trying to help

you be all you can be. Thank you, man. Usually when you say that, I'm really in deep trouble. If there's fixed, there's something's fixed to come mile. When you have the help me, help you, help you, help me. It's not it's not you, it's me helping. Okay. Well, we found out from the last podcast that Missy is trying to help Jayce do his best.

And that's my new favorite line. Do your best, Jess. You know what's funny is after we did that podcast, we went home, living our lives, you know, in marital bliss. and something came up. Yeah, she confronted me about something. I did? Yep.

What was it? Look, I started talking and then I said, look, I'm just doing my best. I actually didn't say it because we had just did a whole thing about it on the podcast. Oh, you want to talk about this right now? If this is where it has to happen, this is where it has to happen. I don't even remember the subject. I just remember I said, I'm doing my best. Oh, yeah.

Well, something about like I told him to take such and such. out of the podcast because, and you gave me the reason, and I said, no, that's not the, that shouldn't be the reason because that's not true. And I gave you the actual reason. And you said, I'm not going to argue with you about this, which in other words means, stop talking. No, but then you left out one phrase. So I did. I said, I'm not going to argue about this. I'm doing my best. No, you did not say that. You said, I'm not going to argue with you about this. You did not say that. But the whole point of me telling that story was, that's what I was doing a little bit. This is why I'm here to correct you because you didn't say that. You might have wished you would have said that,

but you didn't. Jay says selective memory, miss, if you haven't noticed. I say that. I have a different recollection. I'm sure you do. In this moment, having a much greater appreciation for when we first started going to church as a kid, the guy would pray, but he did it every time and he would pray for the preacher to have a ready recollection. Yeah. And I thought of the things that he'd I'm going to start praying about that for you. I thought, what does that mean? Because as a kid, I was like, have a ready recollection. Yeah.

So remember the truth. Yeah. It was like having, it was like being able to be to guide, guard, and direct us to an appointed time and place. It was another famous line we heard. These phraseologies that I just never heard. The Christian E's is what we recently learned. That's exactly right.

That language. Yeah. I'm just here to help, babe. Just here to help. And you're doing a great job. Babe, you complete me. So, Missy, we had you on today. One, it's because we love you and we love you correcting Jays.

You know, it's one of my favorite things. But also, we're going to have some guest on a little bit later. And you are the only one that kind of has a connection and a relationship to them, such as it is. And, you know, it reminds us about kind of how this all began because it's really interesting that none of us really had the idea that we would be on television in a reality show because, you know, nobody could have even imagined that being possible. I mean, we were, we did duck hunting videos. You guys, the wives were not a part of that. It was just hunting, mostly dad and jace, and then a few little stray characters and then every one. once in a while a brother would show up.

And then we became this entity of a reality TV show. And so I find it fascinating that, you know, the whole landscape of reality shows are just made up of people that I would guess mostly never had any idea one day they would be on television. And yet we all did. I think in some weird way now that we're, you know, this is 13 years out from the very first episode, airing of Duck Dynasty.

And we did have a show on the outdoor channel called Bonelli Presents Duck Commander, and that was on for three years. And that kind of set the stage. And I think this was all in just the way God works and getting everyone prepared for that. But it's so strange because, like you said, none of us saw the rise of it happen so quickly coming our way.

But a couple of seasons into it, I remember one of the cameramen who we've known for a really long time because he grew up at our church, actually. He would go off and do other shows because he was doing really well with the Duck Dynasty. And he would come back and he would say, well, so-and-so is trying this show in this state. And so-and-so is trying this show in this state. And every single one of them say, it's like Duck Dynasty, but with welding. It's like Duck Dynasty, but with home interiors.

That's right. It's like Duck Dynasty. And so it was very strange to hear because we're not in Hollywood and we're not in New York. We're living in West Winro, Louisiana, how the impact of true reality and authenticity and being able to make fun of yourself and love each other and look past flaws and mistakes and all of the things that a family should be. Of course, we had a lot of things we didn't show as well. But that wasn't on us. That was basically on the editors. But, you know, it was inspiring, I think, to other people that we might have something here.

And the audience started watching it saying, our family is a lot like that. We're just not in Hollywood and we're not in New York on these big stages doing crazy extreme things. We're just living our life. And now we're kind of validated in doing so, especially if we're looking to the Lord to guide our way. So I think that's what Ben and Aaron have done. done because that's who's getting to come on. I just spoiled that. The Napier's from the HGTV show hometown. But they're our guests today and I think that we're going to find out that they've done a lot of that as well and they've been rewarded for it. And I think you're right, miss,

and they look to us as sort of pioneers to be, you know, southern town, sort of normal folks, as normal, I guess as we are. And yet being able to be ourselves and yet also have something interesting for people to watch as well. It's a feeling. It's a feeling to Americans. It's appealing to, you know, most people don't live in the big city. Most people live in the flyover states. That's right. And in small towns. And this is the way that we live our life. And so I'm glad it's appealing. I'm glad it's like, you know, your your goal in life is not to be in a high rise in New York City, run in the rat race. Enjoy your family, build a family, build a life that you can pass down to your children. And it's actually become very popular again.

the show. And so a next generation of children are watching it. So it still appeals to still appeals to the Middle America. Well, my theory is, I mean, when you think about what you just said, we take the word reality for granted. And I think why people, what people want is something that's real. And the problem with most reality TV is it's. I hated it.

It's not real. So I think that's why it worked because it's, I mean, just like us, we had an argument because we're real people, you know. But I think, and Jay's probably the best compliment we ever received us from crew telling other people that the Robertsons are authentic. You know, they're just like they are, you know, being filmed off camera as well. So exactly. But how many arguments did we have when it first started with the crew? But then how many of the crew when the show ended? were bawling, hugging my neck,

said, I'm going to miss you, man. Yeah, exactly. So it's like, what just happened here? You know, so I think that's the key. And that's why a podcast do well. I mean, because it's real people talking. I mean, just think fake news. I mean, Trump brought that out,

and all of a sudden people like, oh, man, that was a great idea. Well, it was fake, a lot of it, you know. It is still. So people are craving for things that are real. Yes. And authentic without hidden agendas. I think that's right. Well, look, we're going to take a break.

When we come back from our break, we're going to introduce our guest. And Missy, I'll let you tell about these fine folks from Mississippi. We are super excited to invite our guest in. They are fellow reality TV. I hate to say stars, I guess, because we're not really stars. We're just people, right? They're from Mississippi. That would be you calling yourself a star.

star out. That's right. It just doesn't sound right. We're just people that happen to wind up on reality TV. Ben and Aaron Napier are with us. Of course, hometown takeover. Is there a show? Is it? H.TV? Is that right? Yeah, HGTV. We have hometown. So welcome to Unashamed podcast. Thanks for having us. So we found out because Zach is not with us today because he has to be a big shot and take off and do whatever he does when he's not doing podcasts with us.

But he is the one that actually connected with you being on social media somehow and he's the reason you guys are on the podcast today. How have that happen? So yeah, my brother, he said, you know, those of us who are out working, we're not watching

morning shows, we're listening to podcasts all day long. And I was like, you know, well, which ones do you listen to? And he was like, I don't know. I listen all of them. Okay. So I posted it. I think there's four million podcasts.

Yeah, there's four million podcasts, Ben. That's the latest number. Insane. And he, I posted, you know, hey, which one should we go on? And 75% of the people thought that I was launching a podcast. And every interview we did after that was, so what's your podcast going to be about? I'm not doing a podcast. I wanted to go on podcasts.

But yeah, so then Zach reached out. Someone commented and tagged, several people tagged Unashamed, and then he commented about it. My brother is a big fan, so he's listening right now. This is a very big deal for my brother who's listening. And he wanted, like, we were supposed to be there today, but then it's going to be terrible weather. So we didn't get to come. So we're doing it from Laurel. And my brother and his family wanted to meet y'all so bad.

This is a big deal for me, too, because I'm a fan of y'all. So I'm glad to We have been Instagram friends For a few years Yes We're going to hug each other's next At some point yes

Well good call not coming Because the storm has arrived I mean you could do a slip and slide right now Just anywhere You don't need anything to add to it So how do you become I'm not a social media guy I mean I have all the pages and all

But Missy since we're one Like you You know one plus one one God's math. She kind of, she kind of handles that for me. I can't really remember who contacted who. It's been, goodness, years ago when y'all first started out. But I followed you for a long time on Instagram. And so you can message each, you can message people that follow back. If you follow each other, you can message people. Which is a big deal, because the last time I looked at something, you were like, you followed like 13 people. I know. I don't follow very, I don't

follow very many. So. Because I just don't like all of that. I don't like it all. But I don't like the drama. I don't like the drama. And I don't like it just messing with my head. But I do like what's going to improve my life.

And at that time, I think we had just possibly bought Logtown and 1847, one of the first homes, if not the first house being built in Monroe, Louisiana. And so I was refurbishing what had been renovated in the past and trying to keep the originality of the home. And so, which is what y'all do on your show. And I love it. Absolutely love it. That is the, that was the connection because I remember, you know, we were really excited

that someone from your family had reached out. And I remember it being about an old house that y'all had bought. So that's, that was a long time ago. A long time ago. Well, I think real, what we have in common is we're just real people. And y'all know, you know, when Hollywood comes calling, they're not as familiar. familiar with our culture and who we are? There aren't many people that you can reach out to who know what it's like to be in this

really weird position. And I am going to be inclined to trust a Southerner who's in this really weird position before I would trust someone outside of the South. Absolutely. I don't know why, but that's the truth. Yes. I think you texted me one time. It was in a very busy stage of my life and I was in the airport.

and it was a very long, heartfelt text, and you were struggling at the time with how much to fight, battle, engage with members of production about your faith. And had we ever experienced that before? And I thought, how much time do you have? And how can I encourage you? So I hope that all of that worked well for you, standing up for what you believe and being authentic and transparent, and your faith in God, he's going to take care of you.

So I'm sure that you did that, and you're seeing the results in the fruits of that. Yeah, tell us about that. I mean, y'all know. It's a very, being, having any sort of faith in this industry is sort of frowned upon if it's not faith in the industry. Yeah. And especially right now,

Like, it is, there are so many people that we know who, you know, TV right now in general is very volatile. They don't really know. That's what we hear constantly. Like, you know, it's shifting day to day. And so it's a very scary place for a lot of people. But we're okay with it because, you know, we live in Laurel, Mississippi. being that we love the Lord and we're not worried about what like you know oh well if this doesn't happen I'll go drive a truck for my brother if I have to but I don't know it's I feel like

having any sort of faith it's it's it's like they want to respect it and they're not really sure They're not really sure how. And it's also, they're also sort of mesmerized by it. Like, how can you live your life this way? Which is always interesting. Because I go, Erin and I both grew up. I don't know about y'all, but we grew up church every Sunday. It's just your life.

It is a part of the way you grow up. It's built in there. So I don't understand not having it. Yeah, how you don't have. have faith. And we actually, one of the producers who found us in the beginning, she's of a Jewish background, and we've, we've had some pretty heavy conversations with her because she did not, she was not following her faith. And she told me, we had some conversations where her father had passed away. And for her, based on the way she was living her life, that's it. It's

over. Like, he's gone and that's over. And then, but then she was seeing people who both were friends of hers who were Christian and or Jewish, I mean, and that they had, you know, really strong faiths. And they were okay. Like she said, like, she could not move on because there was no hope. And she was seeing them. And she felt jealous of her friends who had faith.

Yeah. And so she started exploring that again. And I don't know where it went from there. She's one of the best people. I hope that she's found that for herself. Yeah. Well, for us, I think, looking back on it, because the conflict was there,

especially in the first couple of seasons. And because I think it was kind of an idea, because our show is different. I mean, your grid, I think, would be, you know, a little easier to manage, just because at the end of the day, you're remodeling houses, which is very interesting to a lot of people.

But, you know, they wanted us. This was like going to be about us and our personalities. And so we kind of figured out pretty quick that they kind of came here to make fun of us. And just kind of the southern culture. And we were like, well, why don't you just laugh with us? You know, we don't like, we don't want to, you know, go out there and do silly human tricks just for a laugh. And I think what brought them around is when they met Uncle Si,

because they realize he just really is crazy. You don't have to try to get him to go do something funny. He's in Laurel right now. Is he really? Bree, who is keeping our kids right now, her uncle is who hosts Cy every time he comes to Laurel every year. It's homes of hope. Yeah, homes of hope.

Homes of Hope. Is there someone there supervising that right now? Yes. He's fully supervised. That's why it's a half-dow school. Yeah, because he's here. So to that point, though, what you were just saying about, they realize like, oh, no, he's crazy.

And so these producers in New York have a similar, because originally they wanted to do a show similar to that about us, but this producer, she worked for the company that owned HG, TV. And so she was looking at maybe doing it for like a GAC or some other network. And we were like, we don't know about that. You know, that's not, our lives are not that interesting. And she was like, well, no, it is because it's fascinating to me that, you know, all the crazy people that you talk about in Laurel, they exist here in New York. We just ignore them and pretend like they don't exist. did you make them the uh you put them in the christmas parade every year and like well yeah and

because you know every small town especially in the south has you know the uncle sigh they have they have a crazy uncle it just comes with the package in our neighborhood there was a retired doctor he's the one i think of every time he looked a little like rick moranus from honey i shrunk the kids i believe that he was and he he had gray hair he was forced to into retirement. He was wearing a neck brace. Every day he would walk the neighborhood, like for exercise, wearing a neck brace, back. Black cowboy boots. And black cowboy boots. And he would have a golf club for his walking stick. And he had this little dog that walked with him. It was like, you know, like a poodle mix, like very small dog. He would use the golf club to hit pine cones on his

walk. And he would make the dog, he would hit him as hard as he could. And the dog would go get him and bring it back to him. He'd scream at that dog. He'd cuss at it and yell at it. What happened to that guy? I don't know. It was years ago. Sounds like a bake-it-of-a-new reality show.

Whoa. Listen, I, we loved it. He existed at the time when HGTV found us. They were like, tell us about your town, and we told him about him. And there was the lady in the hat who walks her dog without a leash. We have very strict leash, very strict leash laws in Laurel, you know. She has no leash, and she never wear shoes. Never wear shoes.

She wears a big straw hat and walks her dog. And then she's barefoot all over town. And then we had. But surely these things happen outside of the South. Oh, yeah. These are the people we send to the HOA meetings. You know. They're like, boy, because you get them.

And let them have a voice. And the people in New York are like, no, they live in the building, but we don't interact with them and talk about them. And yeah. So it's interesting that, so to your point that you felt like they were coming here to make fun, our first director, who we absolutely love. He just directed the last season of hometown takeover, Jim McPherson. We love this man.

And he kind of taught us how to be in front of the camera. And he comes, he told us, like, he was coming here from L.A., took the job, kind of like he he was excited about the job because it was a new experience, but he also, he said, like, I had in my mind what this was going to be. This was going to be this sappy country bumpkin.

Show about this town that they grew up in and how much they care about it. And it might actually be that. I think it is. Sounds pretty accurate. I'm loving it. He got here and when he, and he was not like in his mind, he was going to be a one and done, like he was going to direct season one,

and then he would leave and never be back in Mississippi. He had never been to Mississippi, and so it was this experience for him. And when he was leaving, he had had such a good time and made so many friends that he was just sobbing, leaving, because, you know, from season to season, especially early on, we didn't know if it would happen or anything for a season two. and he directed two more seasons with us and then only left because he had an opportunity to go work in his actual hometown

where his parents still live. And so... But he was like, I got it all wrong. It was a romantic comedy. That's what this show was supposed to be. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. It's so crazy hearing y'all talk

because we had all those similar experiences. They always wanted to go out in the woods, but it was more for them than us. Yes. Because they were like, wow. And we were shooting guns, you know. Back then you could, well, we were shooting live rounds, which was crazy now that I look back with all the things that have happened. I mean, because I, I mean, I remember one night at a camp out while we were filming a snake popped its head out of a little hole in a log.

Well, Sa saw it. Well, he had his pistol on him because we were around a campfire. Well, he went and shot like six times into the hole. You know, and nobody believed it was a real snake because, SIE, you only believe about half of what he says. And they didn't believe it was live rounds because they thought, well, there was. Yeah, it was a set. But it wasn't. Yeah.

And what's crazy is it was live rounds. And look, as soon as we wrapped, the snake came out of the hole. He missed it, six rounds. Yeah. Yeah, he missed it six times. I said, number one, look at this log. I was showing all the camera crew. I was like, here's where the rounds hit.

I said, number two, he's a terrible shot because he missed it six times at about a foot. And the look on their faces when that snake was, then they all took off running and screaming. But I was like, yeah, this is welcome to our world. One thing that I wanted to ask you about, because we went through it, was a little bit of the anxiety

when it first started, when you first started having your babies. And our youngest was five when we started filming Benelli Presents Duck Commander, and that was on the Outdoor Channel. And they did an episode where it showed the name of our school, our private Christian school, where they were doing an episode at the school and all that. And I just got real nervous about it.

And I went up to the main producer, the director, the showrunner, and said, I just, I'm having a hard time with this. I don't know that we should run that. And I said, I'm just worried about the safety of my children at the school. and he said, look at that over there. And Jace was talking to a couple of guys across the yard. And he said, would you mess with that? And just Jace in his beard, knowing that we have guns in every corner of our home,

our children know how to respect them, they know not to touch them. We don't lock them up in safes. They're literally hanging beside every doorframe in our house. And that's the way that our kids were raised. And to me, that's just normal. Yeah. But to Hollywood, that is huge difference. I was a scary man to people in Hollywood.

So what about y'all? Did you have those moments where you thought, I don't know if I should do this for the safety of my children? We've just basically completely left them out of it. Like they're in the show. They're always in the opening. They exist. But we were trying.

They don't want to be on TV. Yeah. Helen doesn't. don't ask them to. The only time you've ever seen them on TV, it was because we had absolutely no other child care option. In that moment. In that moment.

Well, ours didn't want to be on TV either. And then I said, well, they'll pay you. And, boy, they lined up. They were interested, Doug. Yeah. Well, Helen's not old enough. She's just now, like, we're, you know, she's in the last couple years. She's earning her own money lately.

She's been earning her own money. And our other friends, their kids, One of Jim and Mallory's daughter is on the show, and they pay her for her appearances, and it's going into her college fund and all this. But Helen's just like... She didn't even want people to know that hometown exists, I think. Yeah. It embarrasses her for people to bring it up.

Well, y'all bound to be noticed in every corner inch of your town. I mean, I was going to ask you about that. How has that been? How has the support or lack of been? So locally, the support is huge. And no one, we're just, I've lived here my whole life, so no one treats us differently. Yeah, the people who are from here, like, I'm, I am more famous for being married to Phil Raspberry's daughter than I am for being on TV.

Yeah. But the, and they also, they look out for us. I mean, there are some people that, you know, will tell people where our house is, our house is very easy. to find and there are some people who will God give you the address like oh it's right here and but for the most part people protect people protect us and you know it's my barber drives by my house every day and people come into the barbershop and we'll ask him like you know we're being lives and he's like I honestly don't know it's somewhere in laurel but I don't know so it's locally we're just

you know we're just regular people and but there is a it's tricky to go out go to town with the girls because I'm funny about anyone

I'm funny about them thinking that we're special or something about the girls thinking the girls thinking that there's something different about us because someone might ask to take a picture so I feel very rude and like I've got to find the right words for this but if I'm out with the girls

and someone says, can we take a picture? And I say, I don't actually do that when I'm out with my girls. And they say, well, they don't have to be in the picture. And that's not really. That's not the point. That's not what I'm saying. Yeah. And then for me,

it makes them feel weird. I take my eyes off of them and I have this recurring nightmare that I do that. I take my eyes off of them. I take a picture and I smile and then they're gone. And I never find them again. I don't know why I have that drink so much. Ransom. Ransom.

That's literally what happens. Y'all remember that Mel Gibson movie? from those? Yes. Holy smokes. Don't watch it. Your kids are older now. They are probably right off.

Well, that's where the Dateline episodes come in handy. Do not go jogging in a park by yourself. Thank you. Yes. It's like when you're going to Europe, don't watch Taken. So I was going to ask you this, an association, what you were just talking about, because, you know, our hometown is our hometown. And as you described, people already knew you there.

And it was really interesting for our show because, again, I think Jason is right a little bit different genre and how we were going about it. But also, it's sort of what's going on in your realm of television when you come out with it. Because in our case, Jersey Shore was very popular at the time. We were talking about 15 years ago for us when this kind of process started. So a lot of times people were kind of embarrassed by the people that came on television to represent their area. And I remember back in these days for us, the paper was still a big deal. Now, I don't think we even have a paper, you know, because everything's online. But back then, the paper came out and they had an editorial in our local News Star World about our show about to premiere.

And it was so funny because they were like, well, you know, the Robertsons have been here. They've been an established business in our community and a part of, you know, our lives. But we hope that we hope that they respect our value. It was like it was like they were. excited, but at the same time, a little bit nervous. Is it going to be honey boo-boo with beards, you know? So it was really interesting to watch that. So your people are proud of you.

Is that safe to say in terms of what you've accomplished? I'd say most of them are proud. I mean, there are some that. And I want to say how I'm very thankful for the way HGTV really does only ever give Laurel and Mississippi the best and most positive portrayal possible. Yeah, that was actually our, the director I was talking out. He came to work one day and he was like, I got to, we're going to play a game, everybody. Name every, he said name any show or movie or book from pop culture. That has ever, that has described Mississippi in a 100% positive light.

And it doesn't exist except for our show. And, you know, in everything, there is that moment where it's like, you know, remember when they did that? like, geez, yes, that happened. And we're sorry it did.

But it's local, yeah, like we said, locally, for the most part, everybody's proud and they look after us and they take care of us.

And then on the flip of that, like there are, there are places that, that we won't film because we don't want to lose that place, which is sad because, like,

our special family. family spot where we eat and where we, yeah. And there's so many cool ones. And our producers would be like, wouldn't it be fun to film a scene there? And we're like, you just can't. Yeah. I'm sorry. That's like my other house where I go to eat supper like three times a week.

I can't. And there was a place that this girl was strung out and she'd crash her car into the, into the gas line of our favorite cafe and then walked away. It's a gas station and restaurant and grocery store. I mean, y'all have these places. We know. This one was like the best food. It was a great restaurant.

They did their own. They was a butcher shop. They did their own. And it's way out in the middle of the county and out of the country. And it burned up. It burned nearly the whole building. And they were going to rebuild. and everybody locally started tagging us and all the local groups on social media.

We're like, stop, don't, don't do it. They need to redo this on the show. This would be a great story. And people were coming up to us in stores and saying like, hey, you think that HDTV'd be interested? I'm like, I know they would be interested. But then I can't go there again or not as much. You just have to be careful about the things that you share on a TV show. because then it belongs to everyone.

I think that's wonderful that you're protecting the ones around you, too. And you're protecting your own life for the future of your children as well. I wish we'd have done it. We weren't that smart. You couldn't know. You were really pioneers in all this. Well, I think, you know, in an effort to be ourselves, we just went that route, you know. And now what I was going to say earlier, I forgot what I was going to say,

we had such a conflict in the beginning. But I'm actually thankful for it because I think it made our show better because we would have these huge arguments like in what we're going to do or whatever and we would always go to authenticity. We're like, we are who we are. This is what we're going to do.

And it just didn't go well. But then when the cameras were rolling, we just did that. And we were like trying to win the argument. Like, I really believe people wanted just see how we really are. And so that's kind of why I think we had less protection, because that was our mantra. We're just going to be ourselves. And it actually galvanized our family. And so that was just kind of the way we did it. And because I thought if this works in it,

and we have to do more episodes and more seasons, I can be myself. But I can't be something I'm not. And you keep asking me to do that. And I, let me put this in Spanish for you. No. It's the only Spanish word I know. Tim, our camera guy, worked on one of y'all seasons, and he said that who they are on camera, who you see on the show, that is them. And which is for us, people are always, you know,

people ask us what it's like making a TV show. And for us, it's year round. I mean, it is, you know, because we're renovating houses. And so it takes time and it drags out. And so it's a full-time job year-round for us. And so our crew is they're very much like just our friends. Like it's who we work together. Most of them we've been together with for many years.

Yeah. And so you've become too comfortable. Yeah. You can. Yes. You can be. So the way your show works, you basically, y'all, y'all go look for a house. I mean, it's been on my TV many times, but I have attention deficit.

It's okay. We never get to watch TV at all. I think people who make TV don't get to actually watch it. Well, thank you for saying that, babe. See, I'm not a weirdo. But Missy will have it on. But she shares a similar passion with you, Aaron. She loves, I mean, I think by looking at the husband,

here, we see that y'all are project-driven. Let me try to make this work. I really think, which I'm thankful for Ben, because, look, somebody sent a picture where you dressed up like my brother. Everyone thought that Ben and Willie were the same person in the year 2013. Everywhere we went, they'd be like,

you know who you looked like? That was my Halloween. Yeah, well, I was offended at first because I thought, why did he pick Willie instead of me? But then I thought, well, based on body type, I was going to say I'm a little thicker. But look, you did something. I'm going to give you a compliment.

You did something that I thought was impossible. A guy of your stature actually made Willie look skinny when I saw the picture. I thought you looked like a skinny version. We have some height on his side, I think. Yeah, I think that saved the day. How tall are you? I'm about 6.1. I have the body type of my dad.

But like all my brothers, Al included, because mom, mom, if you've ever seen my mom and dad in person, my dad, I guess before all his difficulties, was this towering man, 6-4-210, 220, and my mom might be 5-1. Maybe. She's more like 5-foot. She's about 5-foot, just real small. Now, she's kind of big, but if you're 5-foot-tall, you know. Yeah, it's hard not to be.

Yeah, it's hard not to be. And really top-heavy. So, Jeff, I. Al and Willie have more kind of the body type of my mom, but they're like, what are you, Al 510? Yeah, we're all about 5'9 and 5'2. What's the order, the age order? Al's the oldest.

He's five years older than me. And then I'm actually older than Willie by like a year and a half. No, like almost three years difference. 69 to 72, Jay, said me do the math. That's me and you there a year and a half, two years apart. this stuff. Well, he's my bigger brother, but... Younger.

Yeah, but he's younger. But everybody thinks Willie is older because he, you know, runs Duckman, and he was actually my boss, which was really weird for years. And then Jep, who is the surprise, so he's what... He's 10 years younger than you. He's 14 years younger. It's just like Ben's brothers. So my older brother is four years older than me, and then my younger brother is two years younger

than me and then 10 years later we had a surprise jessie oh y'all are just like us yeah did you have a surprise sister show up well hey you never know you never know so yeah we had a surprise sister that that came on the scene what three years ago it was actually in 20 20 six years man it was actually a crazy story because uh she was birthed I guess the year my dad came to the Lord well he came to the Lord like in November well you know, he, once he became a new man, he moved on. And so, and he never knew that he had a daughter until 2020. She was, she was 44 when she found us, yeah.

Yeah, and she basically just kind of looked it up on the ancestry thing. And then went to her mom, went to her mom, and her mom said, it's a secret I've kept until now. And then that's how we met it. Yeah, so my dad never knew. And she was actually named after my dad, you know. Yeah, Phyllis. is her name.

Billis is her name. So the only sister we had was Jebb. He was our... Well, that is true. He's kind of a softy. He has a real soft heart. Is your younger

brother like that, Ben? Is he kind of the butt of the jokes? Or how does it work? Aaron loves the, like, because it's, you know, same parents, four boys. The four of them

have a lot of commonality. but they're so extremely different. And you're made from the exact same DNA. Raised by the same people. Oh, it's crazy times. And Jesse, the baby,

you cannot ruffle his feather. You can't. You can't. You can't hurt his feelings. That's pretty much. He can get his, he's just easy going. Whatever.

Whatever. Mm-hmm. Whatever. Like they will, they will pick on him to the point where I'm like, y'all stop and he doesn't care at all and then um i wonder if willie and tom because my brother tom he's the one who told me to do the podcast he's the truck driver yeah he loves to pick and play and make fun and he is the biggest of all of us he is an actual giant he's yeah six seven six

eight and does he have like diva like qualities um he diva like qualities yeah well that's my i mean my brother Willie. Uh-oh. Well, he's the only one that when he's holding something back. When he walks into the room, he's like, hey, I just want to let you know, I'm here now. That's kind of what I mean by that. He wanted to call our show instead of Doug Nassi. His name for it was Bayou Big Time.

So that tells you all you need to know about Willie. Bayou, Big Time. Bayou, Big Time. Because he's, I mean, he's big time. He's doing the show, you know. Yeah, he's big time. Tom is actually big time. He's a giant.

Like the size of the door. frame. He's very, which he and I both like growing up where, because I'm six, six, and we were very, and we're big. Like, we're not just tall. We're big. And we were always afraid of this stereotype that big people stink. And so we're very like, he and I have showered.

I've never heard that. I hadn't either. Oh, boy. Well, that may be a Mississippi thing. Maybe we just thought it. Yeah. And so we were always like. taking multiple showers

well you're always the ones that play the sports you're always sweaty and working and working hard and six I mean how many times have you hit your head every day I mean if you're working in Jayce I'm curious if you and Ben are the same in the

lineup right do you feel like you've always had a desire for everyone to just have a good time and for people to be happy and to be the fixer Well, I was like that for a while, and then I went through a stage of, well, y'all just leave me alone. And now I'm back to the kind of lets everybody have a good timing. And, yeah, yeah. He's a middle, your middle child.

Did the TV make you, make you, like, leave me alone? I think so. It got crazy, you know. Ben's very much in his Leave Me Alone era. Which, you mean, it's not extreme, but it's. That's about right, though. That's when you are, when our kids were their kids. age. Well, it's just such a, it was such a roller coaster because I never, I think our biggest

argument when we were first married was, she was like, I mean, do you have any ambition to make a little more money? There just wasn't a lot of money in the duck all bit. But I was just like, I'm like, God or take care of us if he wants us to be rich. But I was thinking, we're never going to, we're never going to have the things that you're inferring. So, but. Well, and you, you And y'all grew up, I mean, I've read a little bit, like there were, I mean, there were times where your parents didn't have anything. Oh, we paid their bills and we didn't have anything either. I didn't come from any money either. Man, we were poor, we were poor white trash.

The only thing that was, we were kind of proud of it, you know. We live off the land. We roam. We're free people, you know. We were, they were growing up, like, I witnessed my dad on two occasions, lose everything. like financially lose everything. And the first time was, it was taken from him.

And then the second time was when he became a pastor and he, he let it go. It was like he was a truck driver. And for the first time since he had lost everything, he had finally amassed like he had multiple trailers so he could haul multiple things. He was working for himself. He was his own man. Owned a house and land.

On the house and land. and a very modest house. A station wagon and a suburban and a pickup truck and they all three ran. And boy, we were like, we were doing it. And then walked away from it and became a preacher. And I mean, like, we, I remember overhearing a conversation about his salary from the church. And my grandfather was, you know, on the SPRC or the finance. committee or something at the church.

And they were, he and my dad, this was not the same church. But he was asking my dad like, hey, how do y'all do it at your church? And my dad said, well, it's real simple. They give me, you know, one church, he had two churches. And he said, one gives me a thousand a month. The other one gives me a thousand a month. And it's one check each month from each church. And I did the math.

I was like, oh, okay. So David, it's 24,000 a year. And I'm thinking like, whoa, big money. Yeah, our biggest shopping day Our biggest shopping day was every time the river went up And most of the amenities we got We got it from floating down the river

There was no law for that If it broke loose and it comes down by your lot You can go out there and get it So the same week In like social studies We were studying the poverty line And I remember it said For a family of four in America

The poverty line was 25,000 a year at that time. And I was like, wait a second, there's, we're a family of six and we're only making 24,000 a year. Wow.

And so it's, so we had similar upbrings. Yeah. Oh, well, we're, we're out of time. But you guys,

we're out of time. That's what happens. We have here. That's, that's the beauty of podcast. You were talking about a bit. The beauty of podcast is, this is a great conversation that goes by really quick.

But y'all, y'all need to come and visit us and let us show you. you are Logtown Estate because I would love to show that off and get more. I can see both of us on the map behind you. We all fit onto that map right there. Oh, yeah, yeah. But it's very hard to get there for some reason. Well, it's the weather.

It's the weather. It is. Twice. Twice now. The weather has kept us from coming. Well, we have a lot in common. I mean, that's where I was going with that earlier. Y'all both are designed.

The only thing is you build stuff and I only tear it up. That's the only thing I'm good at. You build dark halls. Well, I do that. guess, but that's nowhere near a house, you know. But tell us what's next for y'all and how we can help promote what y'all are doing. Well, right now it's just the rest of hometown season. Is this nine?

Is that what we're calling it? You know, we have a different number internally than the one people. Yeah, they messed it up somewhere with streaming. And so now the number that we're told is a different number than the one that's on TV. But anyway. seasons are just marketing anyway. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

New seasons will keep airing for a few more weeks, and then we'll have a new. I don't know if y'all know this, but we're sitting in the offices of our factory. Our factory is on the other side of the wall behind you where we build Butcher block countertops and cutting boards and rolling pins and all sorts and candles. We didn't make all our candles here, but we shipped them all over the world. Yeah. That's awesome. So where do we find that stuff? You can find it all at Laurelmercantile.com or scent library.

Like, sent. Uh-huh. What was that? That was a lightning strike from our end. Someone screaming outside. Wow. Wow. We hit the building.

Wow. We had a lot. I've been waiting for 1,100 podcast to have a lightning strike. moment and we just had it. The lightning just struck this building and how we still have power is fascinating. It's a good thing you know, didn't come today. Yes. But we appreciate it.

We wanted to. I really want to be intentional. We'll do this again, but we'll do it in person this time. Absolutely. Absolutely. You guys are always welcome. Hometown Takeover, Ben and Aaron Napier. Thank you for coming on Unashamed.

Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by. leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.