Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1401 | Country Star Jordan Davis Never Expected Phil Robertson to Shape His Life—But He Did

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Country music star Jordan Davis traces the surprising ways his life was connected to the Robertsons long before they ever met, from growing up on Phil’s Duck Commander videos and hearing him preach as a kid to making “Unashamed” part of his faith journey. Jordan opens up to Jase, Al, and Zach about the years he struggled to make it in Nashville, the wake-up call from his wife that forced him to rethink life on the road, and how becoming a husband and father changed the way he approaches fame, music, and the people in his audience. The guys dig into why success so often fails to deliver what it promises and how faith, family, and strong roots can keep someone grounded when the spotlight gets brighter. Learn more about the faith, family, and hard-earned perspective behind Jordan’s music at https://jordandavisofficial.com. “Unashamed” Episode 1401 is sponsored by: https://chministries.org/unashamed — Get a better solution at half the cost of traditional healthcare! https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "Al Robertson" to get 2 weeks free in the program! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Chapters 0:00 Jordan’s Road from LA to Nashville 11:04 Phil’s Impact on Jordan’s Faith 15:33 The Legendary Phil Deer Story 21:17 Jordan’s Full-Circle Moment with the Robertsons 27:01 What Country Music Teaches Kids 31:26 Faith Finds Its Way Back into Country Music 35:44 The Years When Nothing Was Working 39:29 Jordan’s Wife Confronts the Road Lifestyle 43:22 The Dark Side of Fame & Staying Grounded 50:18 Jordan’s New Music — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed, the Nashville edition. Jason, I'll let you introduce our guest because you're the reason he's here. This is quite the story. I introduced you on a podcast buried in the multitude of podcasts that we've done before because I had an embarrassing moment and it was meeting you. so here we are in Nashville Chris Tomlin who I've met at other events and I've had an embarrassing moment with him

because I forgot who he was like the two times I was with him after I met him I'm recognizing a pattern I'm about to say this too there are many embarrassing moments for days because he doesn't know who anybody is he didn't know who Dave Ramsey was

but you I would remember because you have a beard which is the way God made us right absolutely Chris Tomlin No beard. I just And I Matthew West After I met Chris Tomlin

The second time We're at Tim Tebow's event It's just me and him On the shuttle Going to where we're going And I said Now what do you do? I hardly know him

Tell me what you do again man He said I sing Christian songs I was like Oh I'm in you're going to get along right And he's like yeah I met you last time We were here

And I was like Okay So we had a a similar thing. I was coming to the Chris Tomlin Good Friday. What do they call that? I think it is just his Good Friday show. He's been doing it for Galilee a while now. Like 10 years maybe. And so we were kind of running late, which is why I embarrassed myself because, and you know, there's always a back door everywhere we go. So we come in a back door. In fact, the security people, they came out, but they recognized it. So they didn't even. Yeah, they let you all through.

They actually stopped me. I was trying to run Jace down. Sorry to cut you off. They wave Jace in. They're like, sir, so you have to go through this. I was like, oh, make it quick, man. I'm trying to get up to say hello to Hill. I didn't know that part of the sort.

And I forgot how the exact conversation was initiated. We were walking pretty close to each other. Well, I just kind of popped over and told you. I was like, hey, man, I'm Jordan. I'm from Shreveport. I'm a huge fan of the podcast, been a big fan of the family for a long time. And they shared a story about how I saw Phil spoke. He spoke in my church.

Ghaly, this was back probably 2002, 2003, if not earlier than that. In Shreveport? What church you were? Yeah, yeah. This is it, Broadmoor Baptist in Shreveport. Oh, yeah. Does that old Mike Johnson? Does he go there?

Do he go there, Speaker Johnson? He may. Maybe. It's been a while. That's a big one there, right? Yeah, a big one right there, like Yuri Drive. I remember going there. What about Yero, Yero?

Oh, yeah. I remember that. I don't know if it's still there. That place is legit. It is awesome. So what's funny about it is all I heard was Shreveport. And as I thought, well, what are you doing here? I was thinking, well, isn't this something?

I think I made a comment. Yeah. We had to come all the way to Nashville to meet, and you're from Shreveport. And I just, it wasn't occurring to me that you were a country music singer from Shreport because I just thought I would have heard. heard about it. Yeah. Which I don't know why because I spend most of my time.

Because you don't know. Yeah. I don't know. You didn't know who Dave Ramsey was. I'm an idiot. I didn't know who Dave Ramsey was and everybody had such a big deal about it. I told you, I read my Bible. Money is a root of all evil.

This guy talks about money. I'm out. I'm not interested. I thought, not interested. I'm just figuring a guy who did his own investing would know who Dave Ramsey was. I said, I said too. Well, anyway.

So, and then I asked. the question I shouldn't have asked. I said, so what do you do? And you're like, and you didn't say I'm a country music singer. You said, I sing. And I said, well, you're in the right place. You're in Nashville. You thought he was trying to make it.

You thought like he's trying to break through. That's what I thought. I did realize he came through the back door. But I thought, I was thinking, oh, he's a backup singer to somebody. Friend of Chris's. Yeah. Because you were humble in that you didn't say, you know, I'm a country music singer. I'm kind of a big deal.

Yeah. You just said, I'm a. I've seen. That's it. I mean, you can't say I'm, if you've done it, you have to be like that.

That's right. I'm just, I make sense. Well, people ask me and I'll be, so what do you do? I say, well,

I speak and build a podcast. And, you know, then they're, because they don't recognize them, and then you get to talk and more

that, oh, you're one of the Duck Dynasty family. Well, yeah, but I don't say, I'm the oldest son of the Duck Dynasty. I mean,

that would be like, two. You're like, I'm on the Duck Dynasty guys, But I didn't make the big bucks here in. Yeah. I got in on the tail end of it.

At this point, well, Zach and out of the tail wagging the house. The number one question of my life, the number one question I get now is, hey, you look like that guy, Jace on Duck Donaghan.

You look a lot like that. Jason is older. Well, well, they don't say that, but they're thinking that. And I'm thinking I'm a lot older. And so I just say,

yeah, I get that a lot. Yeah. And I just leave it there. And we go on our own. Yeah. Because I think, you know,

it's not worth it. it. But so then, but you said something, what stopped me in my tracks? And you said, I've always had a dream to be on y'all's podcast. And when you said that, it stopped me in my tracks. And that's when I was getting my phone out, because I thought, it just, I've usually viewed that as a Holy Spirit thing when, because I thought there's, there's something here. You're from Treeport. You mentioned my dad. My dad had just died. I mean, it had just been not very long. And when you said that, I thought, well, this is, this is great. What are the chances? There's thousands of people here. What are the chances we walked through the door?

So that's why I gave you my number. What's funny about this story. So when I, now I've lost my family. I don't know where I'm saying. So after you saw me, chaos, because now I'm like, where am I supposed to be? I sit down. Missy's like, where have you been? What are you doing? I was like, well, I was giving that guy my number. She's like, you gave him your number, random like some stranger that's what she said random stranger

I said he walked in the back door he's got something he's in the club yeah yeah yeah look so we don't know anything else we forget that

and then we're kind of learning what the Chris Tomlin Good Friday's all about and he's like we have a special guest and I didn't know that was a secret it's a secret who the special guest is going to be

so we get all into that he makes it a big deal about it. Lo and behold, when he introduced the guest, and even though I had met you, the name has now, it's not ringing a bell that I just met you. Yeah. Have we said your name yet, by the way? We haven't said his name yet.

You're listening. Now we've got everybody on the edge of their seat. I know. They're like, they're such a letdown. Do you want to, I feel like now we've made such a big deal. No, announce the names of the man. Our special guest is the same. special guest that was at the Tomlin concert.

Jordan. Jordan Davis. That's it. Davis. From Shreveport, Louis. You almost forgot his name. I think he did.

I knew Jordan. Jordan Michael. No. Once again. Once again. Montel, Jordan. Jordan Davis. In the moment, I got the spotlight on you.

The truth is, the people that listen to this podcast, they, I guarantee you, they're in. They know who doing. No, man. That was such a cool. And that was all true. It was cool whenever I wasn't expecting that, but Jason did say that. He was like, man, I usually don't do this.

But, you know, I feel like the Lord's telling me to give you my number right now. We swap numbers and text the next day. Oh, we did. So it's cool. Well, because I didn't finish the story. When you came out, I was so shocked. I think I just met this guy backstage. He's the special guy.

Oh, he's the guy. And I thought, this guy just came rolling in here about 10 minutes before he was. I was really late to that. Yeah, because that's what threw me off. I thought, he was almost late to being out here. I was like, I like this guy rolling. And then I thought, I asked that guy what he did. He was the premier guest.

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at C.H. ministries. org slash Unashame. How long you've been in the business? I've been here 14 years now. I moved to Nashville

in 2000, yeah, 2012. To new music? Yeah, yeah. To write songs. And my family was, you know,

always in music. My uncle's a songwriter still here in Nashville. Yeah. My brother's a songwriter. So like country music was always around. I went to school at LSU, worked in environmental field for about a year after graduating,

and then moved up here to write songs, but never dreamed of doing the artist thing. That really wasn't. I really just wanted to write, you know, have other people record my songs. And I think it comes out of like, you know, I was here for six years before anything started going. So eventually I was like,

well, man, if I can pick some side money up, you know, playing writers' rounds or shows. And I kind of just fell in love with it. And that's kind of when I kind of started getting noticed on the record label side and ended up signing a deal in 2016. Could you sign with? I'm with MCA, MCA records. Well, you know, it's now, I feel warm-hearted because you came from Louisiana.

And hopefully you're still an LSU fan. Even with your new coach, y'all. Are you guys proud of that? What are you talking about? We'll see. We'll see how proud of it. For somebody who, I mean, the story I heard is he's reinvented himself. And for a guy who really believes in new creation, I think we ought to give him the benefit.

No, this is the jilted lover over here. He's spurned Florida to come to LSU. I did want him. I was hoping to go to Florida. They were bidding. Since he didn't go to Florida, I think the guys are heated. Yeah. No doubt about it, man.

There's no redemption past that. What are you talking about that? But I wanted to ask you, because we haven't talked about this, because I was wanting to see, because you said that when my dad spoke, I wanted to get in that on the faith aspect, because I believe, you know, I look at it from a godly point of view, and you sing about Jesus in some of your songs in God. And, I mean, there's that element.

And, of course, I believe, well, that's why people are drawn to you. I mean, there's a reason this is the great thing. of selling book in the history of the world. Despite our messes, and there's something authentic about that. And so in my mind, that's why this is working. But I was just wanting to see, like, your journey of faith and how that's kind of been a foundation, because it's hard to become a hit country music singer.

Yeah. I mean, you know, luckily I was brought up in a family. My two grandpaws were, I mean, the strongest Christian men I've ever met. and really, really pushed early on. So I got, you know, got saved in an early age. I think I really kind of found my faith, my eighth grade year in middle school at a disciple now. You know, that's kind of when it switched from what looked like a book of rules to a relationship with a father. And, man, that was, and what was so special and what's so special about this.

this is, hey, you know, as much as we've traveled, you know, this podcast, you know, Unashamed has been my Bible study. And then also, too, being from North Louisiana and being able to know of y'all's family. And this was way before Duck Dynasty hits. Back to the old Duck Command. You know, back to the Duckman video. The Messy. You duck hunt?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big Duck Hunter. Yeah, one of your record covers was it let it go. Yeah, yeah, throwing out decoys. Yeah, yeah, he's one of us. Oh, yeah. And I mean, a lot of that is y'all's family. You know, it's, you know, about that time, you know, that eighth grade year was when we've kind of first started getting into duck hunting.

You know, we deer hunted in Homer, not too far from you guys. And we didn't have any deer, but we had this one little pond back there that would hold wood ducks. And my dad was finally like, hey, man, let's go chase some of these wood ducks around. So me, with my change and my faith with the Lord at that time, kind of coincided with the time I found waterfow hunting, which was the time that Phil Robertson was the guy. And, you know, being right down the road in Monroe, you know, kind of like y'all were saying, all I knew was the videos, you know, like you'd go and somebody'd have a duckman video and you'd, and you'd, watching in the video him flipping the deer and that was all like you know that was like you mentioned that yeah yeah that was like legend yeah you were one yeah it was almost larger than life yeah some of those stuff yeah you know i'm saying like especially if you loved on because we're duck

hunters and the most i mean that went viral before viral was a word i think and uh because we're duck hunters and the most famous thing we ever had was my dad shooting a deer because most people stopped because we didn't realize this till later you know we got gotten a little trouble about this because in some states you can't shoot a deer while your duck hunting yeah so we were like oh no go check the Louisiana law we put it out first and then hired a lawyer to say have we broken a lawyer and fortunately thank the Lord we are not as long as he was walking yeah and not swimming and it was close yeah but he was walking she it was a I think it was a little uh button button yeah but you missed he just clipped

him on that first shot. He stepped up to the hole. We'll fail from the grave. We'll say, no, I didn't miss. No, I didn't miss. The deer stepped down as the shot was fired and it took a patch of hair. Yeah. But you had in slow most, you could see that hair just.

You could see it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the odds of us on that scene, me sitting there beside him, and the guy we had filming that, it was his first day. And he's up in a tower. And he got it. My dad built this tower to duck hunt out of.

Yeah. And it was so unsafe. We put a cameraman. We hunted there. That's how we feel about production. Exactly. We hunted there one time and then everyone thought we will die if we continue to on here.

So he puts his cameraman over there. It had to put up a sheet of plywood so it case some stray shot got over that way. I mean, that's how much our production. I mean, you're talking about a dangerous job. Well, it was so interesting. So just think of it from our. perspective, we would go home every day after a hunt and watch the raw footage. Well, here's this guy's first day.

We're wanting to get to this deer. Yeah. Because my dad makes that shot, and it was so spectacular, I thought, because I'm not an actor, what do I say? Because we're filming. Yeah. And I look over at him, and he's just, he's already sipping his coffee. He's sat down and just, I mean, like a legend, man.

And I thought, he's not even excited about it. And I'm like, you got some more of that coffee? That was it. Which makes the video. It's what makes that. The real story is then we spent 20 minutes trying to talk about it. And we thought none of that really worked. Just do the coffee.

I was like, let's just do what happened. But we're watching this footage. This guy, and it was your old buddy. They got whipped on the back of a car. He was my best friend. Night of drunken revelry with my brother out. My dad whipped four guys. Oh, Phil did it.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We got drunk. I was 15. They were like 17. We've told the story. We've told the story. We've told it many times.

But he basically gave him the choice. Like, you can stay and get what he gets. We're like, like, almost grown. Or you can never come back here again. Yeah. He chose to come back here. And they all chose to come back in the crowsman. And he became a cameraman.

And one of the guys was funny because he was a, like, new guy to your group. Yeah. And my dad didn't even know who he was. And so he said that while he was. whipping. I don't know who you are. You tell your parents you got a weapon. Why you got a whipping. Yeah. I don't know. He had that syllable. Salamic beatings. He got the out. He's like, this is the one I want. That's what he's that. He's right. We had stuff some stuff in our shorts, you know. Well, they put some empty snuff cans in there. To kind of absorb some blows.

Luckily by the time he got to me, he kind of worn himself out. He's wore out. But what I was going to say is it was all blurry footage out of focus. The whole time until he got to the two ducks we shot before the deer and the deer, which is all we shot that day. Yeah. And it was perfect. Yeah. And I was like, that's crazy. There is a God.

Yeah. This guy got this. So you guys know that I've been on a weight loss journey for now. It's been over a year and a half. I kind of jumped into it, 80 pounds overweight, thinking something needs to be done. Our good friends at Ph.D. weight loss came along, and they helped me realize that if I stay where I was going, I was going to be in terrible shape and may not be on this earth that much longer. It teaches you how to get your body working with you and not against you. And they do that over a lifelong span.

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I don't have a CPAT machine anymore. I have more energy. I love to walk and get outside. All these things have happened because of PhD. And so I want to encourage you to give these guys a shot right now if you're wanting to lose weight. When you call and mention Al Robertson, you'll get two free weeks and they'll pay for the cost of your food. That's a $1,500 value. Call them at 864-6-4-9100.

That's 864-6-4-1900, or you can go to my Ph.D. Weightloss.com. Because the goal isn't to lose weight once. It's never having to start over again. Again, that's 864-6-44-1900, or you can visit them at my PhD weightloss.com. You on the early years. But, yeah, I was, you know, and then, but obviously at that time, I just knew Phil is a, really, all the Duck Commander guys is just these kind of rough and tough duck hunters um you know everybody was blowing y'all's calls and you know you don't look at you know at that time duck you know nothing was out so it's kind of just

like all right this guy's this guy's a tough duck hunter i bet this guy gets after it so when i found out that he was coming to shreveport but coming to a church it was kind of weird for me where i was like oh okay i've been watching this guy but like i don't know how would he fit in a church yeah i don't know if this guy like kind of fits there. You didn't have a reference point for a... Well, no, because I mean, like, you know, you didn't know... And at that time, it was just a duck hunter to me, you know? And we never really...

You would have to... It's kind of like the show, too. You would have to kind of assert, like we'd put a bioverse or something of them. It wasn't like it was... No. It wasn't like, you know, in your face, spiritual or religious stuff. We realized that that was our... Yeah, you show up thinking you're going to see it.

I'm just kind of like, okay, he'll blow duck off. Maybe like, maybe this was the only place that they can. could come to to like so and then I end up here in his testimony and I'm just like oh wow like this is a this is not how old are you and do you remember I was probably what teenage yeah 12 13 maybe oh wow so like yeah maybe even younger than that but you know and and it's so and for me it's even cooler now that y'all you know become what the family's become and the show's had the success it's had that was the exact same I want to say you were there Jace

I can't there's a few maybe a few guys that weren't you know I can't remember exactly because I think it was I was just kind of so blown away by like Phil speaking yeah but man showed up in a white t-shirt I mean just like just like you see you say white you mean white

off white off white because they were all saying but I mean and I think too like not just because I'm from North Louisiana, but when Doug Dynasty did take off, you know, in the early part of like, you know, the questions from around the world of like, man, you think these guys are really like that. You know, it was so cool for me to be like,

no, no, no, no. Hold up, y'all. It's worse than you. If I could have taken a photo back then, I would have, and I would have showed you that they looked exactly like this in 2002, 2001, as they do on the TV show. And I wanted, and that's kind of what,

what in the fast realm or fast, you know, quick story of getting a chance to kind of tell you that at the Chris Tomlin thing, just how much, you know, feel meant to me, how much this podcast is meant to my faith, you know, being, being as much as I travel, it's been a, it's been a really cool. And this is a full circle thing for me. It's funny. My wife this morning was just like, are you nervous? And I was like, what about what? She was like, I mean, these are like your guys. she's like you know I've heard you listen to them more than anybody else so like you get to go beat him what's so funny Larry fleets said the same thing last year we had him on we were here and he he listens he listened to the podcast and he said you know I don't get nervous about you know singing or

whatever he said I'm a little nervous today you know because they're like it we're his guys you know because he listens to us like you do which is the same way I mean I get nervous every time I do that because you're our guys I mean we're at the end of the day what we're presenting is this lifestyle that and I don't want to get on a rant but Hollywood has just avoided yeah for decades and we're doing the same types of things I thought this morning my daughter sent me a picture of some cook fish and I was like what does it mean and so then she started typing so she last night caught cleaned cooked and ate her first fish that she did the whole process.

No way. Yeah, because the last time she was in town, she wanted me to teach her how to clean a fish. Because me and her are fishing buddies. She loves to fish, and she's really good at it. Yeah. But I used a butcher knife because when I was a kid, I was taught with a butcher knife.

But I did cut myself many times, and I had to go to the hospital because it's pretty dangerous, you know, with a huge butcher knife. So I was like, you need an electric knife. They came over this thing called an electric knife. They're pretty handy. And so she told me the story as we were going along. But so she gets Jay to teach her how to do it with an electric knife last night.

And, of course, she spent most of the text out saying, Jay's negative and rude because he was griping at her. It felt like a Duck Dynasty episode. Is this Jay Stone? Yeah. It was like, well, you got a bunch of, you know, because she had one bass, a couple of brown. He's like, these things, you got one good one. Yeah.

She had one big crappie, you know. And she was like, you're just being negative. And she actually, in the text was like. He says that about you, by the, he calls you a fun sucker. Fun sucker. Yeah, I know. But she was taken up. I know.

He doesn't do his face. She was taken up for me, you know, because she's like, I don't know how you deal with this guy. But a reason I'm telling a story is because, look, I was as proud this morning that my daughter did that. Yeah, man. And I'm like, this is what we do. I mean, she is proud that she went through the survival process. And I don't know. I just thought that, you know, us telling those stories and getting that out there,

whether it's songs or shows or about who we are and the way we're raised, I just think it's special. Yeah. Because it's family-oriented. She's gone through that whole process. I'm really proud about that. You write a song about it. Yeah.

You know, it's awesome. Well, it's been that, you know, even kind of maybe Last week or a couple weeks ago, Thomas Rett is a buddy of mine and a fan of you guys. And he was inducted into the, or had his like star, like Walk of Fame star here in Nashville. And we got to go up there and, you know, he gave a speech. And one of the things he said that stuck with me that day was like, he kind of wrote a letter to himself at like 19 about, you know, what would a guy at 19? Me at 19 think about me getting this Nashville Walk of Fame star. And one of the things he said in that was, you know, I want to thank my fans.

And I want to thank, more importantly, I want to thank the parents to feel comfortable enough to bring their kids to my show. That's good. And I was like, wow. Like that was like. Kind of made my hair stand. I mean, he said a lot of things that night that, you know, like kind of stuck with me. But that was the one where it changed. It changed the way I went out that next weekend and played shows.

I mean, you're like you're looking at your set list. You're looking at what you're saying about. You're kind of like, man, would I bring my 8? year old daughter to my show. And yeah, but yeah, I mean, it's what it is. It's like, you know, it's family. It's sharing that and, and passing it on down the line. I thought about that.

It's like, you know, these stories that we ingest, which come in the form of music, come in the form of the movies. And typically it's in the quote, unquote, secular space, which is why I've encouraged my kids, like, because we, they dealt with us. How do we, you know, we're Christians. We feel called into country music. Yeah. And I'm like, I think you should do it.

Because in God's economy, there is no secular space. It's all his. And the stories that you tell, they shape the imagination. And I had this crazy experience this year. I went to Texas, a friend invited me out to his ranch. And he had this guy come out and he was buddies with that was a cowboy poet. His name is Red Stiegel. This guy, like famous cowboy poet.

He's older now. But he just said, so we sat around a campfire and he pulled out his guitar and he'd strum and he'd tell the, he'd get these points. and they were just, I mean, all of them, they just make you want to cry. They like the best. And there's one that's called, it's something about like this land or this ranch, and it's about this generational ranch of this granddad taking his grandson out there. It's like, hey, pretty much everything you see, like, you know,

and the guy's telling the story, and it gets the end of him. He's like, we've had this thing, has been in our family for five generations. And I'm telling you right now, it ain't going to stop with me. And like, you hear this story, and I'm like, man, he did more in that, three minute, three and a half minute point to make a case for private property rights, you know, to a story that any economic theory or textbook could give you. So the power of the song, the power of what you're doing to shape the imagination of the good life. It is, it really is like a true ministry that you're in. Oh, man. Like that's, I mean, we probably

all could, you know, pick a favorite song. And not only could you recite every word, but you could probably tell a spot where you're at the first time you heard or at least i know i can like you know those songs that kind of stop you in your tracks what's that for you what's what's what's one for you man there's a song called sam stone by john prine john prine's like my favorite i mean he's the song came home from his wife and family yeah and i just remember you know we were driving to the deer and this is when i like my dad would play you know christopherson john prine jim crocey all these songs when we were driving to the deer camp. And I just remember listening to these songs and being like, what is this guy talking about?

And, you know, my dad would hum along or sing. And then at the end of the song, I would ask him like, hey, dad, what is, you know, there's a line in that song that says gold rolled through his veins. And I was like, yeah, what does that mean? And he's like, well, you know. I'll tell you about that later. Yeah. You know, but like that kind of like sticks with you where you're just like, man, the, the,

the emotion of it and the power of what lyrics can do to not just take you you know yeah it's fun to listen to but like can take you to a totally different place um i have a song called church in the chevi that uh came from driving to church with my grandpa in east texas and uh you know it it and i always say it's his bible would be he had a single cab you know i don't know what year but this old chevy beat up truck and he would have his bible on the center console and i just had this image burnt in my brain of my grandpa driving, you know, pine trees going out the window, his hand on the wheel, and his Bible there. And like that, it takes me there every time I sing that song.

But yeah, music's a, it's a special thing. Oh, yeah. It seems like there's been a surge in, you know, because to me, the reason I never got in the country music is it just seems so depressing to me. You know, the time that when I was at kids. kid. I mean, I love the Hank Williams Jr. Country Boy can survive because that's what I was doing. Then my dad

was like, it's got two cusswords in it, you know. I mean, but I was like I like this. Oh, no. But he was okay with comfortably none by Pink Floyd. He's a big rock and roll guy. He's a rock and he's listening. The Hank was just too far. Way work. When I rebelled against my dad, I'd listen

to country kids. George Jones, David Allen Coe. He did. And he just didn't like. And then the brothers would listen to my stuff, you know, like, secretly. But they can't sing, you know. He just had all these arguments against it. But then he met Doris Straight and kind of changed him around.

And it really changed my perspective, too, because I thought. He actually did a duet sort of. Yeah, he sang the Christmas song, Christmas cookies. And I thought, it's pretty, I mean, Phil's got a cadence. It's really good. You know, his whole, like, presentation is a cadence. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I hate to tell you this, it went platinum.

And it was us singing. Now, we had, who's the famous producer? Buddy Cannon. Oh, buddy Cannon. Sorry, but, yeah, love that guy. But I thought the fact. So obviously, you know, he knew what he was doing. Yeah.

Well, right. So it's, you know, he made him look like a genius. It was the Dunn Dynasty people. Yeah, he just took some of Robinson platinum. George Strait. And I can say that. Yeah, somebody, some famous singer one time got up when we were doing something with him. And he said, embarrassingly, they have a platinum album, which I ever was.

And we were like, but what I was going to say is there seems to be a shift now where people are open about their faith. Despite all the mess, I mean, all the mess is real. We're pretty good at making messes. But, you know, we sang about it for 40 years. What's this solution? And I think now you're seeing that more than any other, despite all the mess that we have going on. because I learned that when I was doing events when we started off after Duck Dynasty,

well, very few churches were inviting me for the same reason we talked about. They only knew me from Duck Dynasty. So they thought I was going to get up there and be silly and tell a few jokes, which I do and blow the duck calls. But then here comes Jesus in a presentation. Everybody's looking around.

Well, some of these venues, me and Willie did one. It was at a country music concert. It was actually in Canada. Thousands of people. I'm pretty sure me and him were two of the 10 sober people at this thing. But we did that. And I was amazed at how everybody, I thought, because I was a little nervous, I thought these people are hammered.

But next thing you know, they're raising their hands, you know. And I thought, because deep down this human, you know, us as humans, we have that need. And that seed has been planted. And it was really moving for me. And I thought, well, I'm just, it worked. So I'm going to do it. And I think I see that now. And you probably see it too.

Oh, yeah. Your music is on that line of what we've been through and something greater. And I mean, also, too, you know, I don't, this wasn't just, this wasn't all my doing either. You know, I think I told you, I'd, this wasn't in the cards for me in my mind. You know, I wanted to move here, write songs, give it a few years. If it didn't work out, I'd move back to Louisiana, get a job, you know, doing something probably oil and gas, you know, and figure it out, you know. So it makes me think like, oh, okay, the Lord had different plans for that. Yeah.

I mean, there was many, many years before it started working for me, I can't tell you how many times I went to my brother's house, broke down, just like, dude, I can't. I already moved to town later. I feel like life's passing me by. All my friends are getting married. stuff's going on. I'm still here bartending, you know, barely making rent. And he's like, man, just hang it out one more year, one more year. And, you know, so for me, it's kind of like, all right, the Lord gave me this. You know, he gave me a chance to speak about my faith, to write about my faith, and, and, you know, hopefully, you know, have that one person that

comes to a show that hadn't been brought to church or, you know, whatever, here's by dirt or something. And, you know, I always say before I play that song, that song's about my faith in Jesus, my family, my friends. Maybe that's what he needed to hear that night. And, you know, and again, that's kind of something that Thomas has helped me with is, like, you know, approaching a show as opposed to going into a show and thinking, like, all right, man, let's get these guys, like, this feels good. Like, let's go out there, you know, 90 minutes of, just.

just loud, have fun, rip it up, let's go. As opposed to being like, hey man, maybe say a prayer about like, hopefully I say something tonight that reaches the person that it needs to reach. Well, it worked on me because when I left the arena, I haven't told you this part of the story. We had rented a limo because we took our grandkids. And, I mean, this was my wife's idea. But they basically gave us a disco limo.

I mean, this thing was the cheesiest thing. you've ever seen. Like a party room. With the lights. I got my two grandkids. I was like, really, babe? This is what we're going to. You did have a bunch that note.

He had a crew. Oh, we had a crew. And so when I, I mean, after I'd embarrassed myself for the 10,000 times, that's the first song I listened to, the Buy Dirt, you know, and I just thought, oh, my goodness. He's riding around his limo. He's a disco ball going. you can't make this stuff up. So that's what I sent you a text because I was like,

I need to repair that broken relationship. Did you go through a period? Because the business would kind of chew you up a little bit. I mean, Larry talked a lot about when he was on his testimony. He was like, you know, I did the country music thing. Went out there and what he said? I did music to develop a drinking problem or something like that. Yeah, something like that.

But did you get into like, I mean, how was your trip? Did you kind of stay, you kind of stay on the right trajectory? No, I kind of, I kind of veered towards Larry for a little bit. Yeah. You know, you want to, you think you're a rock star, you know, and, and I think it just kind of, A, you know, getting married, having kids. That changes that a lot. Oh, yeah. How many kids you got? I have four.

Oh, wow, man, you got a fan. I saw that. I looked that up today, and I was like, whoa. Yeah. So you woman's like, we ain't doing that. Well, no. And they're like six, four, two, one. Yeah, seven, five, three, one.

Seven, five, three, one, yeah. But the change was really my wife where she was kind of like, you know, you go out, you know. Did you meet her here? We met New Orleans. Okay. At a buddy's wedding. Yeah. But like, you know, it becomes such a pattern, you know, and showtimes at seven, meet and greets at six.

All right. So first drinks at 5.30. Yeah. And then you look back on it, you're like, oh, man, I've been, like, four or five drinks a night for, like, the last four nights in a row. Yeah. Like, but it was really my wife a few years ago that was just kind of like, is this, like, this feels a little bit more of like a something that you're enjoying a little bit more than I think you should. And then you're just kind of like, you're like, yeah, but I've been doing this for like six years. And she's like, exactly. Yeah. And then you realize that's why I got put her in your life. And then you're just like, oh, like anybody, no one else but her could have had that conversation with me.

Like my brother, my parents, my friends, my band leader, my producer, whoever could have been like, hey man, like, dude, you know, four or five drinks last night and the night before. And I just like, yeah, there was music. Like, I'm tired. I miss home. You know, I don't want to, you know, like, other than her showing up on the road and saying like, hey, we need to talk. And I knew the second she said that. Yeah. It was kind of like.

Did she show up? Something was up? Does she show up for this conversation? No, no. She was just out that weekend. It was actually a ward show in Vegas. And came back to the hotel one night and woke up the next morning. She was up drinking coffee in the living room.

And she was like, hey, can we talk? And I was like, yeah, here it is. And you knew right then. And it was, you know, and I think like you wake up with it. And I mean, I knew way before that. but but yeah it's been you know luckily i was always able to you know i never let it get too far out of hand but uh but yeah i mean you you kind of want to you think you want to live that life and then um and then you see where it where it leads to and the problems you know that it can cause

and then you look you know you come home and you look at your kiddos and you're like all right they don't need to see dad doing this. We just think about how many people through the years, I mean, very famous guys that we, you know, very big stars, how much it derailed so many relationships and broken marriages and estranged children. I mean, there's just all these famous stories in Nashville about that always being a part of it, whether it's drugs or alcohol or infidelity or all of it. Yeah.

And it's always the same old trope that the evil one uses. every time and it usually starts small and it gets bigger until it gets out of control and then all of a sudden somebody walks away somebody's unfaithful and here we go think of all the movies it's the rise in the fall me my uber driver today yeah he said i got a question he said you know you see all these people who become famous and then they usually make a movie about the fall he's like i notice your family's a little different what do you attribute that to which led to a very good Jesus discussion. But it was the same things you're talking about.

Our movies are about the rise. I mean, we were already falling in the rise. You have the same temptations, and we're not perfect. And, you know, during that process, you know, we could tell you the same story. But it's like you have these moments of clarity. You're like, all right, if this came from God, what are we going to do with it? Yeah. And you have these come to Jesus meetings and realize you're looking at your kids and their kids.

and their kids and what are we doing? I think it produces songs right by dirt, you know, which was awesome and very clever. Thank you very much. Yeah. No, it's a, it's been a, yeah, I mean, I should just try to always view it like that, you know, I didn't, none of this is for me, you know,

I was given, I was given a gift and I always kind of say, like, I just hope that when I get to sit down in front of him, you know, he can say like, all right, You know, he did well. Yeah. You know, obviously, I know I've screwed up a lot, but if anything, not to glorify me, but to point people towards Christ. Oh, exactly. It's that faithful deliver.

So I think about, there's a documentary. It's either the Festival Express or The Last Waltz, which I think that was done by Martin. What's his name, Martin, Sorskezy? Scorsese. Yeah. But it's about the band. The band, the band. Yeah.

And it's either that one or the other one, but there's the main one of the league of tars is they're interviewing him, like post after the whole thing's kind of gone. They've done their big thing. And he's talking about the road. He says, it's just an impossible way of life. And he names like all these people that the road,

he says the road took him. But you think about like Elvis, the king of rock and roll, like died of the drug overdose. Michael Jackson. The king of pop drug overdose. The prince of, of whatever he was,

Prince, died of a drug overdose, Whitney Houston, queen of R&B, OD'd. And all around the same age. Yeah, Hank, Hank William, Sr. I mean, Kurt Cobain, you go down, like,

and I think that because, like, in music particularly, if you get to the top of that, that mountain, then you've done it all, everything, and you're kind of, it's kind of a different type of celebrity.

I think musicians are, you get, you're in front of, you know, thousands of people, and they're just like, I mean, cheer you want right you get the top of that and you're looking around you like I've tasted everything and there's like I think they get you just get to the end of it you're like and this is it didn't deliver yeah

and so you medicate yourself from that reality but that's a slow kind of fade into that but I it's encouraging for me because I mean that's what you know obviously my family's famous my kids are doing music I've thought about that a lot yeah like how do you not how do you can you do this and and maintain your relationship with Christ, I do think you can. But Jordan said it with the rooted. I mean, like, I love that picture you described of your grandpa and that, that, those are roots, you know, that have grounded you because those are memories that God, you know, had in your life. Yeah.

And so that's why those moments with your wife is just to continue. Because, like you said, I'm looking to my kids. I want them to have those same memories. I mean, the same thing. And that's what keeps you on that road. And just the accountability of what you guys are doing with this podcast, with friends in the industry. I've got so many that are, you know, faithful guys that I can call

and be like, hey, man, you know, pray for me on this. Yeah. And, you know, I've said it a lot, but like Thomas has always been that guy for me that, you know, checks in on me, checks in on my marriage, checks in on my faith walk, checks in on shows, you know, the comparison game of what music can be. We're able to kind of bounce that off of each other. Man, it's like the last thing he wants to know about is like,

hey, how's music going? Let me check in on everything else first. Because it's a lot tougher gig, what you're doing. You can't say that because people are like, what are you mean? You're on top of the world. You're tough gig to me. I go around to events about Jesus.

It's kind of a lonely life. you're just not really with people. But I want to say this, Zach triggered a sermon here. You know, the Bible has a redneck vibe to it in this one thing. I'm hearing snickering that from. That's amazing. You're talking about writing a song about something. That right there is.

Here's the story. Write a song about this because it's the whole reason I gave my life to Christ. I was born in Louisiana just like you were. And, you know, my parents were living disastrous lives. and the whole thing was a disaster. But when my dad came to Christ, and despite having two master's degrees and all this, he decides to commercial fish the river,

serve God, and just do it with his family. And so I have all these great memories of fishing and hunting. And so when I did become famous and the temptations of, oh, this is what famous people do, I'd go back and realize it's not going to be as fun has me and my dad fishing. I mean, those were my treasured memories. So here I get to the Bible in John 21.

Here's Jesus. Has his 12 disciples. They do all these things. He basically becomes famous for dying and coming back from the dead, which is probably the most famous thing he could actually did. Yeah, that's kind of a big deal. That's a big move right there. What is the redneck vibe?

How to get you know to ride here is a redneck vibe? The first thing he does, after he's raised, he organizes a fish. trip with his disciples and has a fish fry and i'm like you can't get any more redneck than that on the bank and he and what that told me though is now my dad's my dad's been dead a little over a year i know there's coming a day when that experience because jesus has some question he said you want to have breakfast and they they caught the fish the excitement it brought back the memories of the greatest fun you can have hunting fishing we're born in that state and then

And then he's like, let's do it again with a guy who was dead three days before. And so I think about that. I'm like... That's pretty special, man. It is. I'm like, my dad... Peter got so excited. He thought he could walk on water again.

I guarantee. Look, you know what I'm going to tell my dad when I see him again? I'm like, you ready to go fishing? Yeah. That's in the Bible for a reason. He's going to have the spots picked out, right? He had a new body. Like, why is he eating fish?

He doesn't have to do it to stay alive. I mean, it's got to be in there for a reason. season. Yeah. And so songs like by dirt. You think we will eat fish in heaven? Oh. Well, he did. Well, we had what had, well, I haven't had a heavenly. I wouldn't doubt it. That's why I think heaven and earth coming together to do stuff like that. Will we eat me? Well, we eat. So you think that that we'll be, that's the big discussion. Even that it's presenting these questions is what's fascinating about it. I mean, and the great thing, too, is whether we are or not, it's going to be special. We won't be disappointed.

I wanted to say this earlier when you were talking about the limo. I've never told this story before. I would never tell it when dad was alive because I wouldn't want to embarrass him. But when we went back to tech and for them to honor him, he didn't want to go. And I had to talk him into it. And finally, because Bradshaw was going to be there, they were interviewing him. He didn't want to go. Because he's always felt like he didn't measure up in their minds, but he didn't care.

But it's like now we're going back because I don't want to go back. So if I talked him into it, and he said, but get a limo. We're going in a limo. And it shocked me because we used to ride around in them because they sent them, but none of us ever really liked it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I was like, really? I mean, it shot me.

He said, yeah, we're going to show up. We've got to look like we've been somewhere. And so I got a limo. That is a country music song. How do you like me now? And that's what he was doing. He's like, if we're going to pull up. I'm sure it was still the off white t-shirt with the came-o.

He was. He looked just like he always did. That's funny. But I've never told that story before because, like, he probably would be embarrassed if I would tell him. But now that he's gone, I could tell him. Yeah. So I know you got a new song coming out. Or I think it's out now.

It's out now. It's out now. It's out now. Yeah, a song called mess. Oh, mess. I thought you said, I thought you said meth earlier. No way. That's why I said.

I really did. I thought you said meth. It's such a North Louisiana. Man. That's what's a thing. So we did this whole podcast. He thought he had a song I was plugging called Beth on the other show. I didn't know what it was about.

Well, if your own meth, it would produce a mess. It would qualify. I'm sorry, man. That's called mess. That's another embarrassing. So I'm assuming we're going to try to make something of the messes. Yeah. Well, no, unfortunately, this song is just a mess.

It's just the best, yeah. No, but it's cool. I wrote this one with my brother, which has been really special for both of us, too. I mean, especially talking to y'all, families, everything. So it's another song that we've written together. And actually we wrote By Dirt together too. So, you know, two brothers that moved up here and didn't have much going on and had been able to kind of scrap out a pretty cool life so far.

But yeah, it's been, we're working on a whole new record that will hopefully be out sometime next year. But yeah. And then touring up through the end of the year. I saw your schedule. You got a busy man. Yeah. Well, carve out a date. Now that I've embarrassed myself, I'm hard to be friends with because I do so many stupid things.

But, and let's go duck hunting. Let's go. Back to our reeds. I'm, make that promise. And we'll, I'm in. We take off every November, December, January, we don't tour for one reason and one reason only. There you go. We chase ducks.

We actually have a lot in going. I was in the ninth grade when I came to the Lord, but same story. you know. Well, that'd be great. No, I'd love to love to get down. Yeah. Done deal. And seriously, guys, man, thank y'all so much for what y'all've done. I don't think you all know the impact y'all've had on not just me, buddies, the Bible study, the stories, the faith walk is really, it's awesome. And y'all have truly changed my life with this podcast. So keep it rocking, man.

Man, that makes us. That's very humble. It means a lot. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being here. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you.

Keep singing. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. 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.