On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am-the duo welcomed in studio guest Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty to talk about his past, Duck Dynasty, the Gospel, and his new book.
Towards the conclusion of the show, Robertson recited some scriptures from the Bible and encouraged Nashville to make Jesus number one in their lives.
Gill: Today we’re talking with in studio Phil Robertson. He’s authored a new book, The Theft of America’s Soul and talking about blowing the lid off the lies that are destroying our country. He’s detailed ten lies that are blowing things up. Now I mentioned just before the break that Phil had an athletic background before he got into more duck hunting and fishing. Terry Bradshaw and you were teammates. He stayed in the football ranks you went the other way. And your knees hurt a little less than his.
Robertson: Well, I was first string, Bradshaw was second string. So before my last year I sat down in the locker room with him, I sat down with him and I said, “Bradshaw, I said, look. I’ve weighed this thing. I said, You want to play pro ball right? Yeah. I said, Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to step out, you’re going to step up. You’re second string now, first stringer me will be gone. I’m going to chase ducks and allow you to run and allow large violent men chasing you. (Gill and Leahy laugh) And they’re trying to hurt you when they catch you. You understand what I’m saying? I just looked at it logically and said, “I don’t think that’s the road I’m going down.” Well he was liked stunned and he said, “You mean you’re quitting? I said I’m quitting. I’m going to the woods.” So I ended up chasing ducks and he ended up with large violent men chasing him. I ran up on him forty years later and I said, “Bradshaw, what about it?” He said, “You’ve done pretty well chasing ducks. And I said,” Well you’ve done pretty well having large violent men chase you. And he said, “Well listen. You haven’t heard my injury list. (Gill and Leahy laugh) So he started talking about tissue separated from bone. Break this, they broke this, they broke that. So anyway, I look back at it and I’m like, I haven’t done bad.
Gill: Being the hunter instead of the huntee turned out pretty good.
Robertson: I know this, I ended up rich and famous and someone says, “How do you feel about that?” All the money I ever amass can’t remove my sin. And all the fame I ever get can’t raise me from the dead. So if you look at it logically you’re like, hmm, better put Jesus number one. Forget the fame and the money and all of that. Life is short and full of trouble and there’s a grave waiting for us and if there’s no resurrection we ought to be pitied as the apostle Paul would say.
Gill: When the Duck Dynasty folks first came and said we want to do a TV show on your folks, did you in your wildest imagination think it would end up like it did? Take off like it did? Bring the fame and the fortune like you talked about?
Robertson: My exact words were when they got done with their pitch. They flew down. A&E flew down from New York. We’re talking to the executives we want to make a TV show of a bunch of rednecks shooting ducks. (Laughter) They gave us the pitch, I held up my bible and said, “Does this go in there. Is this on the show?” They said, “Whatever you do Mr. Robertson, that’s what we’re going to film.” So they leave and my sons and their wives said, “Dad, what about it?” And I’m like, “A bunch of rednecks shooting ducks. I said boys, I don’t think it will work. I said, However, I said what if the almighty is behind it and wants to give us a platform to reach more people for the Lord? I said, what if he’s behind it. I said if that’s the case it will go ballistic. So I said you guys decide what you want to do I’m up to whatever you decide. So they decided let’s do it. I joined them. It was one of the biggest hassles I’ve ever gotten in my life. (Laughter) Think about it, left wingers from LA and New York City all day every day filming you. It’s nightmarish. You know what I’m saying?
Gill: Do you miss it at all?
Robertson: Cooped up with left wingers for five years!
Leahy: You miss it a lot?
Robertson: No I don’t miss it. I’m glad to see…
Gill: It did give you a platform that you guys never could have imagined.
Robertson: Tens of thousands have been converted to Christ because of that little TV show. They’re still coming. They’ll come down there. We have to vet them of course. It’s a mean world out there. But we vet them and they say, “Mr. Robertson we want you to marry us because we shacked up, we know it’s not right. We heard you speaking on the matter. So we need to make it legal before God. We need to marry and we want you to baptize us. So I get a preacher down there, I’m not a preacher and a licensed preacher, we marry them in our living room. Walk to the river after we’ve shared the Gospel with them and baptize them in the Washita river. Come up and have a meal, eat some craw fish or fry some catfish. Have a big meal. And they go back to where they come from. Listen, nationwide that’s going going all the time.
Gill: And you haven’t had a single alligator problem?
(Laughter)
Robertson:Â A lot of them say, “Are there any cotton mouths down here or snakes down here?” I say, “I’ve killed most of them, you’ll be alright.” (Leahy laughs) I notice if it’s at night they kind of shutter before I take them down.
(Gill chuckles)
Leahy: Yeah. How many times have you done that people come and got married in your house.
Robertson: Oh, more than I can count.
Leahy: No kidding?
Robertson: If you added them all up and looked at the vehicles it would stretch up the road for miles the people that have come to my house. Based on the TV show so we preach the gospel to them convert them and they’re on their way.
Gill: Now the Theft of America’s Soul, your new book details ten lies you say are destroying the country. What’s been the response to the book and are you going to do a sequel with the next ten?
Robertson: Well, I don’t know whether there would be another one or not. I mean we might write another one. But I just wrote this one because of the scriptures you read. I mean there will be terrible times in the last days, second Timothy. Two about verse twenty some odd in there. Watch, terrible times in the last days. See if this sounds familiar. I wonder if the Bible is relevant. This was written two thousand years ago. People will be lovers of themselves. Lovers of money. Boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy without love, unforgiving. And you start reading down that list and you say, “What in the world?”
Gill: Kind of looks timely two thousand years later. When you look at the book, we want to get the book. Where do they find you on social media? I know you don’t run your own your own cell phone and stuff. But where can folks find the book and find you?
Robertson: Since I’ve never owned a cell phone and I’ve never clicked onto a computer. I would just simply say anywhere books are sold. (Gill and Leahy laugh) Someone said, “How do you function without a cell phone and a computer Phil?” I said, “Very peacefully.”
(Leahy chuckles)
Gill: It’s scares the ducks anyway (Robertson laughs) so it doesn’t do you any good. You aren’t going to find any on there anyway. Phil Robertson, great to have you in studio with us. God bless you. God bless your family. And continue your great ministry. And together maybe we can turn the tide a little bit in this country. God’s hand is big enough to help all of us. We appreciate you.
Robertson: You bet ya. Jesus number one Nashville. Let’s go for him!
Listen to the full segment here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
