Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 367 | Godwin and Martin Make Peace With Al & How the 'Duck Dynasty' Producers Shaped Their Lives

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Martin and Godwin show up to settle the feud between the Unashamed and Duck Call Room podcasts. Al admits that the "Duck Dynasty" producers were concerned he was a stuck-up preacher. Martin and Godwin share the stories of how they were hired by Duck Commander. Martin remembers his first duck hunt with Phil and Jase. Godwin relives the uncomfortable things he was asked to do by "Duck Dynasty" producers. Martin talks about why he would never have returned to his faith without Duck Commander. And Godwin and Martin share what it's like to have wives who love hunting. Check out Uncle Si, Godwin & Martin on the Duck Call Room podcast: https://www.youtube.com/duckcallroom?sub_confirmation=1 - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Yeah, so we were supposed to have Si on the first podcast today, so we had to replace him with nurseman, nurseman Chad, because apparently Sy's somewhere traveling. I don't know. So I guess he's not be there for y'all's podcast either. No, no, we've already rescheduled.

So, you've got to have the kid if he's alive and well. That's exactly right. So we have Godwin and Martin. on the podcast. Jayce is traveling abroad to Greece. So we send Jace out, Martin, every so often, just to get stories and come back. Because that usually... The boy's got a problem talking, don't he?

He's going to be able to do that. So, all right, so right, so right at the bat, since you guys are... And Martin, this is your first time on Unashamed, so welcome. Yeah. Guy has been here before. So you guys have... I was calling it our sister podcast. because that's what you call things like that.

But I thought, well, I started calling the Brother podcast because we're all men. So it just seemed to feel a little bit better. So the duck call room, which we started this past year. How long has it been? Yeah, we're all. We're crowding a year now. I think the first one was like the first week of December. And then we did one a week for a while.

And then all of a sudden we're doing two a week. I like it. It's actually in the duck call room, you know, a duck commander. And, of course, from the show's perspective, a lot of our fans, you know, watch the show. So it's very nostalgic. And I run to people, I was just up in Massachusetts last weekend. And I run into most people that listen in a shame have also watched or listen to the duck car room. And, you know, in Si, of course, is there's, you know, doing side things, which makes it great, which is.

Yeah. I'm just glad there's no bell in here. I'm not listening to somebody bang on a bell constantly. That's exactly. We don't do it. So I had to get that route to the bad because Jace is not here. Y'all are in his place, so to speak. So Jace made a comment at some point recently. And I don't know that he mentioned y'all by name, but apparently he referenced your podcast being the kiddie podcast.

And I don't remember the con. Josh, you remember the context of it? No, he doesn't remember either. So I don't know what we were talking about, that he would so, such defame, you know, our brother. podcast by calling you the Kitty Podcasts, but I heard you threw him under the bus, which I loved because that's normally what Dad and I do here. Yeah. Oh, we got to apologize.

Because in the comment section, there were people that blamed you for it. Really? So we fired a few shots at you, too, Al. So look, but look, that's what I said on our podcast. I would never call you the Kitty podcast. Well, I didn't know. Sometimes you got a sharp tongue, too. So don't, don't.

I kind of do. But I was like, well, who- I probably let him down the road and they'll let him take the fall. My deal was like, whoever it is, I'm going to shoot at both of you and we'll just have fun because whoever it is,

don't matter, because we can sit here and look at each other and laugh about it. That's what everybody says. That's what you got to understand about all of us. That's, in fact, it was funny because whenever I was going to first start

appearing on the show, I mean, y'all had already been, y'all had done three seasons before I ever came on the show. And the producers were like super worried about me. they didn't want me on the show, to be honest with you, because I was a preacher. And they thought, oh, here we go.

We already have them to do with Phil. You know? Yeah. And so now we're going to bring the preacher in, you know, so they're imagining, like, even more of the stuff that they're hating. And so they were like, but they were worried that I couldn't, like, play into the banter of what we call throwing one another under the bus, which we do, you know, with equal enthusiasm.

Absolutely. So when they told me that, they were like, well, Al, you know, your brothers, and, you know, and Martin Gowin seemed like they have played into this. You know, they're pretty good about, you know, they call it throwing each other on the bus. And how do you feel about that? I was like, I built the bus. Yeah. Yeah.

I drive the bus. Yeah, that's mine. I had no issues with the bus. You're the lead bus. I'll run or throw you under the bus and make you think somebody else threw you under the bus. So one of our listeners out here, send me a note, and you will and remind me of the context of how I played into the Kitty podcast. But y'all, so y'all had a. segment where you were you ripped into it pretty good yeah yeah we got both of them we got both of you

so my apologies we stayed away from the OG here yeah because we're smart how to respect yeah had a respect uh but no i mean i think that's one of the things that to me is the most fun about duck commander and it like we're it's very much a locker room mentality it's like you never left the sports field because everybody can razz each other and nobody gets her feelings hurt we smile and we try to give as good as we get size original start for his introduction to the world it came about when I said Jay said chase was building the reeds yeah and he said you need to get somebody to help us with these reeds it's a very monotonous job I thought about a few days you know so I said

I tell you what I said old sigh I said the last thing I heard and I'd seen him on and off for 25 years if he got a layoff from the military because the way his military career started, if your grade point average dropped below a C, you've got a letter two weeks later. If you kept a C average, they didn't contact you. But the U.S. military, during the Vietnam era,

if you fell below, if you were attending college and your grade point average dropped below a C, it's been nice knowing you. And we'd go to the, they had it posted on a board. And when you walk by one of the halls, you know, you look up there, everybody's watching it like a hawk because they said, you know, if there's great point average don't stay up, it's audios for me. So you go from the low grade board to the, you're going to be.

So I looked and it was below. He said, boy, it's been nice knowing it. He said, it looked like they got other plans. for me. Well, two weeks later, he got a letter, and it starts with congratulations. Congratulations. You get to go to another. So, Si, Si joined up. I'll say joined up. Heidi, what do you call that? He was drafted. He was drafted. So they got Sai there. I would see him from time to time on his deployments to Germany, to Vietnam. I would see him every once while he just roll in and hunt with us. Tell a few tales. Like the old days, you know.

So that 25-year span came and went. Well, now he's retired from the Army after 25 years, and now I heard that he was over there in Alabama doing something. He was working at a golf course. So I'm looking for a read, man. He was a greenie-year-old. Jay said, find a read, man. I said, all right, so why didn't get away?

He said, because this is laborious. It gets old. So anyway, I called Cy up, and I said, I think he'll come. So I'll call him up, and I said, sigh. I said, what are you doing? he said working on this golf course over here and he told me a little bit about blue winged Till he said but they won't let me kill him

he said he said he'll hit the thing he says it got full of bass he said they don't like deer running around they don't like me hit fishing on and other I said well look I said here's the deal I said if you'll come over here and build these duck call reeds

you be the reed man I said then you'll have to duck hunt stipulation you have to duck hunt every day of the duck season, if you're going to build a duck call reads for me, you have to hunt when hunting season comes.

I was doing that requirement. I said, I'm chumming him. He said, I'm duck on every day. I said, you duck on every day. Instead of going out there mowing the greens, I said, it sounds like a better deal to me, but you call it. He said, I'll be over in a couple of days.

So I thought, well, two days later, I looked up, and he, his woman with U-Hauls, And they have moved from Alabama in the golf course, and they are now part of Duck Commander Duckaw. That's how he got started. I will have to admit it's called a Robertson job interview. He made the first few tens of thousands of Duckaw reads. Cy Robertson is the one who did that.

We had a little good one long machine, not much of one, but now they've moved on and made it quicker, you know. But that was safe. But looking back at it, that's a great. Swedish thing that could have ever happened to it. Well, exactly. He became rich. He became famous and the rest of his history.

Sa was not going to survive the golf course. No. I mean, he's told that on ours, like, that if, like, come in here saved his life. Like, he's like, no, it would have never, you know, they were depressed and mad. But it's funny that Sae effectively, his only two careers he was drafted for. He didn't really have a choice. I never thought about that. You call the man up.

Here's what the deal is. You build the reeds and you have to duck hunt every day of the duck season. That's the deal. I said, you got your little army check there to help you out. I said, I can't pay you a whole lot. I think I told him. I said, 15,000 a year or something. You get 15,000 a year on top of all that.

Big bucks, maybe. Well, I didn't expect him to show up in two days. He was here. Well, he'd been here ever since. Well, you see what now you're seeing what's left to him, you know. Great observation. them are because sigh has always looked up to dad I mean there's no doubt he's he's he's dad's you know the younger brother but in a way that it's always like kind of larger

than life for sigh he's the one that when I raised a trammel net on the Washtaw River I had 150 yard long trammel nets fishing the bottom of the river from the from the bottom up about six to eight feet and now peeling it out of the boat well I had him running the motor and we put them out. We went back the next day to run them, and he said, I got a question that is about July,

wait till the current stopped in the river in August. You know, you can't run this like that, you know, too much current. But when the current dropped out, I fished it. Well, I got about halfway across the river, and I was taking these fish out, you know. And he said, how come you're sweating like that?

I turned around and I said, I'll let you run the next one. So I went on the cross, got the fish, we went down until the next net. I said, you take this one. I said, we're going to answer that question you come up with. So he got about all from here to that wall. He said, good night.

Woo! Whoa. He would just shake it from me. I said, I thought, what about it? He said, hey, there. He said, I don't say how you do this. I said, man, it's tough work, but he stayed the course all the way through. The rest is history.

Well, and I always thought, you know, because I don't think the original creators of the show, they weren't sure what size role was going to be early. And I don't think they saw him like as a main character, which is funny how it goes with TV people. Because, you know, people sit around a table and make decisions about we were all real people at a real company living our life. And everybody had, and then they sit around thinking, you know, this guy's going to be this and this guy's going to have that role. I had about five gurus from Los Angeles movie makers. They come up to me one day and they said, Mr. Robinson, what do you think about a guy who will go right up to the edge of the line before making a complete fool out of himself and an idiot?

But he will stop. And I said, well, before he makes a fool of himself, he will stop. I said, probably wisdom. He's a wise man. he said no he said you know what you call that and the one that'll step across that line and act of food he said they said you know what you call that i said dumb he said talent and i said i never thought about that i said so what are you saying said your brother is way more talented than you are because you'll stop before you make you're idiot enough

but you'll stop before becoming a complete fool. He said, your brother will step across that line and relish the thought. I said, well, I just never thought about talent being, that being, he said, it's called talent in the movie business. He won't step across it. He'll run, but he'll run. Once I heard that, I said, now I understand. So, Cy, ever since he started, whether the camera's on or not, he steps across the line

and acts of food, and you're like, what? Well, and he embraced it, which was so good. But you know Don Rickles and all of them? They had that knack. That's right. Just to act like an idiot, but it was funny. Right. Or Jim Carrey.

You're thinking about all the successful people. So let's take our first break. Cy's a redneck version of that. Yeah. It's a redneck Jim Carrey. Which in my mind is dangerous ground. But I mean, hey. As long as they keep it there, don't try to get serious.

Jim Carrey has got all serious now and he's not fun anymore. He's not. No. So I was going to ask you all about that. That was one of the questions I had to ask. go was the show itself because, I mean, y'all worked for the company. Martin, tell how, because this is your first time done a shave. So tell the audience, you have a very interesting way.

Speaking of getting hired, how you came to that, Commander. Tell that story. Yeah, I was just, so I was working at Tiner Peachters, T.P. Outdoors, a little local place. Willie had taken over the company and started getting all the stuff, the shotguns and all that stuff came through us. So we became friends. He seemed to have the most business sense out of the brothers. I don't want to knock on you out, but, I mean, I just looked at Willie.

I said, I bear no ill will. Will needed to be running the company. Jason wanted to do it, and I'd rather freak. It was the best choice. Well, Willie was a dream. It still is a dream. He is a dream. So, I mean, he's the guy you want in an entrepreneur role on that deal.

But he had taken it over. So all the stuff started coming through us. I was working there. met him through that, started playing poker like so many people have done with Sy and Jace and Willie and then we started playing golf. And then I was in graduate school and I just called him and was like, hey man, like I've got to like let my brain just chill. You have like mind-numbing labor I can do.

So you ain't got paid me. You ain't got like legit. I'll just do it. I need something to like just get all this stuff out of my head. And he was like, huh, free. free work. Yeah. He's like, yeah, come on out there.

And you're a big old boy, Martin. So he's, I imagine you doing a lot of work. Yeah, so I got there. My first job, I was not compensated for this job, mind you. But I, Duck Commander had gotten kicked out of Walmart, essentially. Like they weren't on the mod anymore. But the guys at Walmart said, look, our individual stores can order. So if you call them and they order, you can still keep your stuff.

Which is ironic because that's how it began with Walmart. Yeah. Driving around on the market. Driving around in my pickup. That's right. And so I got handed a spreadsheet with sales numbers from every Walmart. And I don't know if you know how many Walmarts there are in this country. 5,000.

It's more than two. It's greater than two. So I started at one and just worked all the way down. Hey, I need. And also the hardest part about calling Walmart is getting in touch with the sporting goods. manager. Yeah. Jump through those hurdles.

That person's hard to find. Yeah. I mean, could you imagine on the PA sporting goods call on line one or however they used to do it? You know, so I had to go through all that. I mean, one store would sometimes take you an hour to get to talk to the person. But I did that. And within like three months, they're like, all right, you guys are back on the

mod because they were ordering so much. They were having to do all these direct orders through our stuff or through Duck Commander stuff. They're like, all right, back in the mod, whatever. So I was like, yeah, man, I got us back in Walmart. Look at there. But I sat in that office on that telephone for a lot of hours just trying to get to them. But then after that, I started.

He was like, well, try these other dealers. So, you know, and the world was kind of leaning towards technology. And they were like, well, just send me an email. So I was like, crap, I ain't got an email. I mean, what am I going to do? Get them send it to Martin, you know, whatever at ULM.DU. You know, like, no, that's going to be dumb. They're like, who's this guy?

So then I was like, hey, whoever, I'm going to do. I think it was Becky or Angela. I was like, I need an email address. So then I got Martin at Duck Commander.com. You're still not working. Yeah, I'm still not working. I haven't been paid a dime. Yeah, I haven't been paid a dime.

And so I got that. And then I sent Willie an email from it. And he was like, oh, crap, I guess I need to hire you if you have an email address here. So, you know, and now, I mean, I have legit worked every job at Duck Commander, other than the bookkeeping, which, I mean, I felt like I could do that if I had to. But, you know, yeah, I mean, I've swept floors. I've packaged duck calls. I've built duck calls.

I've sold them. I've done it all. And, you know, now being the general, it was just a winding road. And I didn't, when I started that, I didn't have any aspirations to work for Duck Commander. I just needed something to do. How long? Going back to his roots. How long has that been?

11 years. 11 years. 11 years since I officially got a paycheck. So probably closer to 12. It would probably be 12 now. You know what's interesting, Martin, is because, and we've said this all along, we've always felt like Duck Commander, the company, was a divine touch. It started with dad, you know, his life was straightened out,

and then all of a sudden he just had this vision for what he's going to do. So obviously we've seen God's hand on that. What you just described, and I didn't realize that, I didn't know all that story, is that, you know, when somebody goes to get an MBA or whatever, you're in a hotel chain, when you go to get hired at one of these places, you've got a master's, you're going to run the place. They put you through every, you know, you spend six months with the housekeeping people. You sit six months with the people out front with the bags at the front desk because

they, if you're going to run it, they want you to know every aspect. And that's what happened with you without anybody really planning it out. Yeah, I didn't know. I just always operated. My parents taught me, like when you had a job, make your boss try to figure out what they do if you didn't show up tomorrow. So like every job here, like whatever needed to be done, yeah, I'm in. I'll do it.

I don't care. Like, because I just wanted to be a member of the team. Like, how do you best fit a team mentality, which is so lost in today's world? Oh, no doubt. Even with the people we hire, they come in and, you know, it's that famous line of, that's not my job. Like, oh, time out. You're right. That's not, and this no longer is either.

So we'll see down the road. That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. I don't do well with that line. So in the duck call world, I have no idea. Where are we? Where are we, Martin? We're probably still, yeah, we're still number one volume.

We're on duck calls. We're well. We're healthy. We're doing really good. You know, we had the Duck Dynasty climb, and as interesting as the climb was, so was the fall. But the new normal was still bigger. It was still normalized up from where we were prior to. the show and then now we're still

because of you know CV and all this mess the outdoors is still climbing and now we've branched off into the turkey calls the deer calls the fishing stuff just the stuff that we do anyway. They have a without us really realizing that working on each one of

these birds we'd get it we finally come up with a wood duck call old catfish powell got out there messing around he worked for us for a while he said what about this? He would do with a shotgun cell. Yeah he blew that thing. I said, I said, that sounds like a wood duck there, pal. I said, let me see that. So we went from there, but we established all these different calls for Pintail, Mallard,

start with Mallard, gadwall, wood duck, teal, whedging. So before it all ended, we had done the research to have pretty well all the ducks that fly that are worth even getting into. We developed a call for them, which just came out of. of that. And then what was interesting is the brand or the brands have grown because then you had Willie was interested in deer hunting. So that that opened the door for the Buck Commander brand. Then you guys fish. That's you guys in Stone. And so there's your feet of. Now you all run a lot of which one is the biggest thing. Amazon one like that or? Oh, hands down. Yeah. Amazon is taking over the world. But I mean, even with Amazon, we're still, you know, it's always a toss up between

Academy, Bass Pro, and now the fleet farm stores up north. Those are like our top four. And they, you know, if we lost one of them, it'd be a big deal. But, you know, that's one thing that when I took over, I tried to, like, pride ourselves on was customer service. Like, you get one chance with these people. So they all like us. And they, to them, it's really cool, like, when I go to a meeting because I was on the show. So it's like, it's like a little cool factor of, like, sit down. They ask the normal questions. What's Phil doing? I really like that. You know, so like, but you build these relationships with the buyers and then all of a sudden, like, your business just continues to grow because when they kick somebody out. Right. And now they say that we got turkey calls or

somebody goes out of business. They're like, well, we've worked great with those guys. Let's give them a shot. So, you know, now we're taking place. By the way, we never, most, all these companies, they sell to people they used to call distributors. But I never, I tried them a little bit but I said, I don't know. I said, let's just make good duck calls, and we'll get them out there as fast as we can. I will, and Walmarts in particular, they did make us a national product. Yeah. When they started, when you finally talked to them, and I started out, it's a pickup truck,

they said, wait, you think we're going to buy these off the street? Is that what you? I said, Colonel Sanders started with one chicken and his buddy. One lay. I said, and his buddy, he fried it, and his buddy took a bite of it and said, Colonel, that's some good chicken. I said, he started somewhere. I said, that's what we're doing.

Oh, that's hilarious. Well, that's why I would say it was more driven by the divine over necessarily. So, God, but how did you end up in the, I remember when you come down, I mean, this cake cooked the meal every day at dinner and lots of fried chicken and roast and gravy and deer meat and ducks and swore? I learned pretty quick to show up. around 12 o'clock. So when did you come on board? I'd work.

I'd work. It's been, I've been here going on 22 years. And I've been hunting with y'all. Who converted you? You did. Did I? Well, he meets a lot of people. Phil said.

For a while, we had a kind of a code. If you don't convert them, it'll end up biting you. Well, hang on. Let's take a break. So John was, John, when he became a Christian, then he and I became neighbors. And he was up there pulling them, what are they called, the swing shifts? Yeah. Where he was having to work.

You worked at the paper mill. Yeah. And you did that for 20? 21 years. Oh, really? You had been. I've been known. I didn't know that.

I told them. Well, this is my favorite part of the story, by the way. When you asked me, we was duck hunt, we was in the lake blind, me inside. You and Jace was over at Benny. Yeah, Benny's. And there was a lot of ducks. He said. Benny Prance.

He's still after him. Yeah. He said, I think we can finish the video here. Get gobbling and size. So Kay called me. And she said, where y'all at? I said, I'm hunting. She said, y'all got to go to Texas.

And I'm like, well, if I got, dude. I wasn't even working for you. I mean, I was helping, but. Sounds like a common theme. Yeah. Well, I come. I didn't get paid for. I did.

I was. I did work for your part down a little bit. Right then. And we got up there and you looked at me. You said, you're about ready to quit that meal, ain't you? And I was thinking in my mind. But, you know, I had a family and everything,

and it was a pretty rough decision. I mean, it was. Well, because you were going to make less money. Make less money. But it was something you loved to do. Of course, behind the scenes, guy, and I was working on your behalf to get you plugged in. Because, you know, Lisa and I had become.

So your hiring got you in the duck line too, which was Frans' benefit. Well, when I started meeting up there after I obeyed the gospel, Allen invited me to come hunting one time. And I guess, you know, I didn't act like a fool, so I got invited back. We talked about that on the first bike. It's not easy to get your first foot in the blind around here. It was pretty intimidating getting in the blind for the first term. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to set out this first volley and watch and see what happens.

I don't even think I put a shell of my gun my first time. I got up. I didn't shoot. You ain't fool of me. I was just looking around how everybody was operating. And when you said cut them and they jumped up and they was ducked, I was thinking, could agree what worked what happened every one you get on is dead that's all I'm going to have to get fast because there was so many people it was a lot it was de mint was in there curly was in there

we had a little crew for the filming so we were talking about this on the podcast here y'all are you all appreciate this because last year was phyllis's first year to hunt with us and so you know when we hunt together for as long as we have everybody instinctively knows what everybody's about to do. And so I'm watching poor Phyllis. She's trying to get into the flow, but she has no instinct for it because she hadn't learned it yet. So, you know, it would all happen and she would jump up and be looking around and

self her. And she was getting so frustrated because it kept happening. I said, I would try to help her. I'd be like, all right, now, when you watch down here, when you see Jay's, when it's about to happen, then you've got to just flow into it. But the instinct of duck hunting is what people don't realize. if you're really good at it, I guess. Well, it's, I got it.

We got her down to our cripple killer. Yeah. The O.C. I said, now this is, y'all don't shoot this duck. This duck was swimming away, you know. I said, all right. I said, Phyllis, there's your ducks.

That start right there. Boom. About two and a half feet high. I said, I said, you shot way over. You see where your shot went? She said, boom. She shot three feet under. I said, she said, how do you know exactly where it's shooting?

I said, there's a little bead out there. Put that bead on that duck's head, and aim a little low. Try him again. Boom. Get the ricochet. I said, you have struck, honey. You got him. Oh, that's fantastic.

I don't got to where whichever the wind's blowing, you know, size, I mean, it feels on one end of the blind and Jason's on the other. And it depends on the wind who calls the shot. So, whichever, that's the one I'm watching. I'm watching all time. I'm down and I'm watching because I'm watching for that hand to go to the gun. When the hand goes to the gun, it's time to get ready to get a. But you can't watch, Si.

No, don't watch Sa. In your years of hunting down there, who claimed most of the ducks that die? Oh, Sae. I ain't ever killed one down here. What are you talking about? Never in my life. I did it so much that one of the videos we did. Actually, he was in the title, the article.

claiming ducks because he does it so well. Oh, Sye said a shotgun down. Three out of three. I don't know what you boys did. I know. How many times do you shoot? I didn't.

I still got three of them. That's the way Sye is, you know. Of course, now everybody, when dad considers us, Martin, he calls us, me, Jace, Stone, the young bugs. And we're all looking at each other like. And they're all gray-headed.

We're not young. I mean, we're younger than him. I don't got into old gray-haired bunch now. Comparatively speaking, I guess you are. but, you know, exactly. So, by the way, I mean the stone, by the way, just a thought, but that particular growth in a duck line,

you could see that for a quarter of a mile. For you listeners, he's pointing to John's going to tell you, man. I'm going to have to come up for something black and at least maybe temporary. I put a face pain in it. Yeah, it happens. You want to get it to like a Spanish moss. That's right.

He's all right. I was white. Phil saying they can see it. You can't see out of the middle of that duck blind if you want it. You can't see out. I know they can't see him. That's exactly right. I mean.

We put a lot of brush to hide the whiskers, that's for sure. Yeah. The first two bunches every morning, you're just making a hole. That's exactly right. You come up the first time, you come up the first time and jockey with your shoulders to get your hole out. The second time you shoot the bushes down. And then now, okay, we can hunt. Yeah.

But that first bunch, no, you, I mean. There's paranoia. run amok and it always has been. So two things I want to mention Martin. One is you mentioned you first started out playing golf with us. And so I only knew you as Martin, but I assume that was your first name. I should have known because we tend to call people by the last name. So someone asked me, they said, hey, you know, I met this guy and he said, my cousin's been playing golf with you.

I said, who's your cousin? He said, Justin. I said, nope. No. I don't know any Justin's. Not him. Well, he said he had been playing with him. I said, well, a lot of people say they do stuff with us.

I've never met a Justin before. So later on, someone would call you Justin. And, of course, by this time, I knew Martin pretty well, I said, is your name, Jess? Well, man, with two first names. When I first started working down here in the duck call shop, when it was still down here at filling K's, I was still doing cell stuff too. So, like, I'm wearing two hats trying to figure all this stuff out. And somebody calls on there and ask for Justin. Well, Jace just hung up on.

He was like, huh, bomp. They called back again. He hung up again. And then finally, I don't even remember, it was one of the buyers or something, I think, for Gander Mountain at the time or something like that. And then finally said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I need to speak to Justin Martin. And Jay's turned around and looked at me. He's like, your first name's Justin?

I mean, I had been playing golf and hang the same deal. I mean, we'd known each other for a few years. Right. You know, and it was, he was like, huh, never knew. I didn't either. And so, I mean, but yeah, that story, it, it, goes all through there. And it's just like the first time I got in the duck call shop, it was Gander Mountain.

They ordered 3,000 green miles and 3,000 Sarges. And Jace was, when I called and told him, they wanted it in like 72 hours. He was like, no, bonged up. So I asked Willie, I said, what I do? He said, we just go down there. So I drove down there. And he was like, well, he said, just me and Gobin, we can't build all this. Like, what are you expect?

I said, well, I'll help you. He said, can you even blow a duck call? He's like, I haven't even heard you. I said, when I hunt with you, no, I'm hunting with duck commander. No, I'm not blowing a duck car. But yes, I can't. So he threw me one. He said, let me see what you got.

And I blew it. He said, I don't know, sit down. And from that point on, I never left that chair. My office got moved. We cleaned you a spot off. My office got moved from Brownlee Road to down here, mouth of cypress road. Because you were a team player. Yeah.

Let's take another break. So to ever tell you all the story about the Benny Doodoo, who used to be one of our camera guys from Buck Commander. So I don't know who gave him. Was Willie gave him that name? Oh, yeah. Benny Doo, Jimson.

I mean, he had a bunch of name. So I'm sitting there because I worked at Duck Commander for about three years in there when we were doing the show. And I was in that first office right by the reception area. And so I was sitting in there and working on something. And this, I hear somebody,

you know, I always hear people come in and they asked Linda at the time, Linda was wearing there. They was like, is we're here to see Ben Mongold. And I was thinking, too, I was thinking, who is that? And so, Linda said, I'm not sure they, who is this person? They were like, Ben Mongo.

And then finally, she said, oh, Benny, Benny Do, do. And they were looking at it. So by this time, I'm looking out the door trying to figure it out. So Benny walks in and he meets them. As they're walking by my office heading back to where he was, they were like, why do they, son, why do they, it was his parents. They were like, why do they call you Benny doo-doo?

Benny said, I think it's a hazing ritual. You have to survive your first nickname around here because like, when I started running around here, it was Buster Crab. Phil was big on Buster Crabb. Then he started calling me Buster. And then it got to friar.

Yeah. Friar Tup. Friar Tum. And then horsehead. I mean, you name them. I've had them around here. Of course, I was just like, like, hey, I guess their terms of endearment, so I'm cool with it. It doesn't bother me at all. Well, it teaches it to answer to a lot of questions.

Yeah, yeah. It was, uh, that was funny. And we got our new guy, Clint, so we're going to have to hang him with something here before along. Well, now it falls to you guys because there's not many of us left, you know, in any of the day-to-day operation. So you're all going to have to come up with the nicknameing, the whole deal. No, I'll let Clint sit in the blind one time with Phil, Phil, feel a-hanging with something. Hilling him or something. He's probably going to start at Jimson.

That's his go-to for everybody until he gets to know. So before Josh, we had a guy named Connor that was our engineer for the podcast, and dad called him no name. No name. No name. And that's what he was the whole time. I couldn't take of his name. Oh, no name over.

And so Connor, when he left, he went to work at another place. He was out of here. And he called me. He said, hey, this is no name. I said, so you're taking that wish. you you're gonna just it's gonna live on hey why not I mean yes didn't remember that oh no legs ham I remember him oh and heaven forbid if you got red hair oh yeah because whatever you are add a Y and followed by red yeah that's right Billy Red

Jimmy Red that's all the the people that have come out of hog hair Louisiana they're all red-headed wonder why the land where family trees don't for Oh, my good description. So I want to ask you how somebody on the show. We were talking about kind of how we were going in and then kind of expectations. But, I mean, we had done, all we had done was hunting videos. None of us had really been on television except for the little stint with Realtree. So what was that like from y'all's perspective?

Because obviously there was a, I mean, you guys were not, you're not family, but you are family. You're forever family. And you're part of the company. What was that? How was that experience? How did it affect you then and how does it affect you now? Because y'all still do appearances, right? Y'all just did something this weekend.

Yeah, we just got back from Florida. Matter of fact, I think that's one of the funnest things that come out. We get to travel everywhere and meet people. America's pretty awesome. You know, everywhere. We meet people just like us everywhere. When you go now, is it mostly to, do you speak or do you, I mean, is it a spiritual setting? Is it just sometimes a little bit of everything?

It's going to be a spiritual setting if you get me. I mean, I think that's one thing that even this whole crew taught us was like, once you make that change, it's hard not to talk about it. Right. You know, like, and it doesn't matter the venue then. And they almost expect it, right? Oh, yeah. Most of them are like, you know, beast and stuff like that.

And, you know, at all these church deals. And like that when we were, me and God, when we were just at, was 1100 people in north of Pensacola, Florida. and it was called sportsmen giving back. So hunters, like, they raised a bunch of money for charity. They raised over $100,000 at night. Good. So anytime you get to do stuff like that, I mean, I think it's, I mean, I think it's awesome.

You know, there was a time, for my perspective, you know, I remember when they were talking about it. Like, they said, no, we ain't going to show y'all hunting. Yeah. And I think we all had the same opinion as Phil. Like, but that's what we do. How's that going to work? Yeah, how's this? That ain't working.

You know, and I remember, like, the first. first one, they showed up and they were like, well, look, it was May. I think it's hot. Yeah. They said, well, we need you out in the woods trying to catch a duck. I was like, well, that's fine, but there ain't no ducks around here. It's May. They're like, what are you talking about?

Y'all hunt them. I'm like, yeah, but they go that way. They go north. And then they come back down here. I said, you know, I guess we can go buy one or something. They're like, well, no, just the look of it. And I was thinking myself, this is, this is a lead balloon stuff here. like this ain't ever.

And then they just started, you know, they figured out what rednecks like. They just started blowing stuff up. Yeah. And next thing we knew, we blew up with it, you know. But at the end of every episode was, you know, like Duke's a Hazard,

pushing down on the TNT box. Something blew up. I always, when I speak, I always tell people our show was some part Mayberry Street, you know, Andy and, you know, Bernie and Cy, and then some part,

Walton's because of the family, and then some part, Duke's a hazard, because it was rednecks having fun. Yeah, absolutely. Reddnack's going to watch. It was pretty, I didn't know what to think when we first done it. I look at picture shows different now.

I would see how, you know, that was the pretty interesting part. It completely ruined reality television. To see how many people were back there and what it took. And it was kind of intimidating a little bit. Well, let's take our last break. So John, I noticed with you too, you know, everybody kind of had a role. Martin is a smart guy. He's a biologist.

He's our kind of family biologist. By the way, Lisa, just last week we sent a picture like, we see something somewhere and we're like, what is that? And I said, send it to Martin. And he always knows what it is. He's a nerd. I checked him a few times early because I thought, well, he could just tell me that, and I'd never know.

But he was, he's always right about me. The man knows his species. of anything. Well, I figure if you're going to be the best, you've got to know you pray. You need to know your quarry and you need to know everything about them. It's just like if you were going to be a golfer, baseball player, anything else, you might as well put the time in to figure out what makes them that. And, you know, that's just kind of something.

And I enjoy it. At heart, I am a nerd. I mean, I was getting a master's degree in biology for crying out. You don't do that for the paycheck. I can assure you. But so Martin's role in that. that and we would ask him still do, like question because he knows about honey. So, but so on the show, he was kind of the wise acre.

He'd throw in the comments. But with Godwin, which is funny with me, knowing you so well. So you're a deep person that, I mean, people would know that from watching the show. They tried to keep you at a shallow level, which you played it. I mean, you did it. But I remember you calling me a couple of times because, one, they wanted you to, you got sprayed by skunk or something. And so they wanted you to take your shirt off.

And you were worried about it. You were like, man, if I go down this road, it's kind of what you were describing earlier. You were up to that line, and they wanted you to cross that line. And you didn't know because you got family, you got people that you don't want to say, what happened to John God when he went nuts on this show? So what was that like?

But you did it. You remember what I told you. I said, John, if you're going to do it, let's if you don't want to do it, just say no. Because, number one, they can't make you do anything. I said, but if you do it, go for it and just go Chris Farley. and who cares. Well, I stayed off the beach up to that point

because that's what I was telling my woman. I said, no, you. When that happened, she said, you just took your shirt off in front of a million people. We're going to the beach. By the end of it, she's taking your shirt off in front of 15 million people. You jumped in that hot tub, son, like you ain't seen lately. Yeah, but a hot time.

That's different. So, now, Martin, I don't know if you've had this same experience. So John and I went to Oregon a couple years ago. And there were 1,100 people at that event. And I knew what was going to happen because I had spoken there the year before. And I told them about John. And so you actually went together. John spoke at the Beast Feast, and I preached the next day.

And I watched the audience. It was fun because I know John's speech, and I'm sitting in the audience. And he gets up and starts going into it. And I can tell these people are like, you know, they're expecting him just to, one-word clip things like the show. They're expecting my hand smell like taco meat. Exactly. And they're shot because they realize that John is a deep person, deep spiritual man.

And so when he goes through the whole thing, the response is always huge because it's unexpected. Like they did not expect that when you got up there. So that was one of my favorite things is to watch that. And it was the same way this past weekend at this deal we went to. I don't think they were expecting us to share the gospel at all. they thought we were get up there tell Duck Dynasty stores, basically be stand-up comedian, which were really good at that too.

I mean, but, you know. And you give them a little of that. I do say that. Oh, absolutely. You keep them laughing, keep them engaged. But before you get out of there, like, I mean, our job is Christian just to share. Like, so, you know, and with me and Godwin, it's always fun because, like, our stories are so similar.

And A, employment and B, the transition into being a Christian. So, like, we can play off of each other. You can interchange our stories in the names, and they're very similar. I mean, I wasn't running around with Tony Neal at the Western Club. But, you know, I had 20 other people I was running around with at a different bar. So, like, you know, I mean, they're just very interchangeable. And so it's always, like, I love getting to do stuff with God. Well, and even, and that's the neat thing, because you guys did it even before, before it was a show.

But even doing the show, Mountain Man became a Christian. because of the show. I mean, really, because it started, and he was on that one episode, and then he started hanging out with y'all in the duck call room, and next thing you know, he's a believer. And so that's really what it's all about. And again, this show, this, not the show,

the company was founded with divine intervention. I mean, we believe that fully. I probably wouldn't be a Christian if it weren't for this company. I mean, obviously, I was raised in a church and all of that. We all were, but we left. Yeah, we left it. And I don't know that I would have. have returned had it not been working every day surrounded by gobbling jay syphil i mean that

essentially you can look at i mean it saved my life yeah especially on an eternal aspect so you know it's like you know i but it was divine yeah i was getting a graduate degree and i finally i was about done with it and i had to make a choice duck commander or finish this thing and i've yeah i thought about it's a good thing through all of this you know there's been no tyrants you know what i'm saying like somebody banging on you all the time, you know. Right. None of that. It's a very organic situation.

So the last thing I want to ask you about, because something that's unique about the two of you, from all the rest of us in our crew, is that you both have hunting wives. None of our wives have ever cared anything about hunting. They were forced to go once for the Manelli show. And Lisa was like, I know now why I don't do this. It's just confirmed everything that I believe.

Everything I always worried about. So what's it like being married to hunting wives? Because now Paula wasn't always a hunt. She wasn't always. She shot bows, you know, in the yard. When Joe Hanna was young, she shot bows. And we'd go to these local tournaments and do that. And once Joe Hanna got out of the house, she looked at me.

She said, I think I want to shoot a dick. I said, well, okay. So I got her, one of them pop-up blinds, and I put it down there by the flag, you know. And here comes one. she puts it and that just that got her it's like everybody else she was hooked she was hooked and man she was uh it's pretty exciting i guess it would be because i'd just about quit hunting because i'd go sit with her and i'd film her or whatever right it's just exciting to say her expression. The last deer she killed, she was just, she was just so tuned. She said,

there's Jemongi drums in my ears. I love it. Yeah. And Brittany's a hunter. Brittany is. She wasn't raised around hunting, but I knew early on in our relationship, I was like, I'm taking her hunting so that she can see why this is, what it is in my life. Like she needs to understand that whether she likes it or not, I don't care. Right. Like I'm not going to force her to hunt. And then she went. And I remember the first duck she killed, the gadwall drake, she was out there.

It was cold. Buddy, it was cold. I'm talking about cold. And her face was like starting to change color. I was like, come on, let's go. Like, we need to go the house. Like, you're cold. Yeah.

And she was like, no, I'm sticking it out. She's hardheaded, but she still is. And so am I. But she finally, we finally got a gadwold down. there in the decoys and it's a miracle she killed the duck because at that time she didn't tell me she was shooting right-handed but she didn't tell me she couldn't like close her left eye or nothing to give her a little aim so she shot it across the guns I mean it's a miracle duck I think he died of a heart attack um you know but anyway but from that point on she was like oh I get it now

like and it started clicking with her and she she just enjoys it and she you know she's gotten to the point it was fun for me because it was a new person hunting it was like taking a kid right like because she's getting to experience things for the first time right the first time that bunch of 50 teal got right and she was like I couldn't even shoot you know and it was just kind of cool to watch that and to watch her now mature into a hunter like I can take her and put her on a deer stand by herself or I can you know now when we go duck hunting she's like you think we ought to move these decoys I'm like ha ha ha ha ha ha time out or or she'll give it till you sure are calling a lot I'm like, hey, hey, hey.

She's not turned into a critic. Yeah, one day I just hung my calls up and hung them on a tree. I said, go ahead. Now, that's what you know. That's when you know she's a true hunter when she starts criticizing what you're in. So it's fun, and she loves to eat it. And, you know, last night we ate fried backstrap. And so she likes seeing it go full circle.

I don't think, I think if she didn't see it go full circle from the prep work to the hunting to the cleaning to the eating, I think there's a lot of that that she would be like, No, I'm out on. But there's more and more women joining, hunting, crowd. We were talking about that in the last podcast. That's why I wanted to bring that up because these guys both their wives, which I think is fantastic. I mean, I love it that it's, and you know, I'm big on relationships,

which I had the honor, the seven years ago this come in May of tying the knot with Brittany and Martin. And it was at the peak of popularity of the show. And we were actually all down in Fort Morgan, Alabama, on double secret probation. so nobody would know where the wedding was. But that was a, it's been a beautiful thing to watch the growth of. Yeah, man, it's almost seven years. I got it all figured out, don't know?

Yeah, exactly. Well, that marriage would teach you something new every day. We'll speak more in about eight years. Yeah, not one. Well, look, your podcast is not, it's a brother podcast. It has been erroneously called a kiddie podcast. This is an adult podcast. And the dad and I both been on, it's great.

So if you haven't checked out, the Duck call room. If you're an unashamed listener, you'll love it. It's a lot of fun, a lot of laughing. And these guys are great. So thank you all for coming today. And we had some fun. Yeah. Y'all ain't laughed this much ever. No, no. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to Blaze TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.