Uncle Si & the Boys | The Blind Movie Podcast | Ep 2
Uncle Si & the Boys | The Blind Movie Podcast | Ep 2
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00:00 This is Uncle Si.
00:01 The Roberson family is telling it like it is,
00:04 our true story in "The Blind."
00:08 It's in the theater starting September 28th.
00:11 Here's the next episode of "The Blind" movie podcast
00:15 with my nephews, Alan, Jase, William, Jep, Zach,
00:19 and me, their favorite uncle.
00:21 - Jase, you little--
00:23 - I didn't figure out who the people were
00:25 at the end episode until Missy explained it to me last time.
00:29 - Hey, props to Max's feather beddings, that was me.
00:34 - You were playing your mom's husband's dad.
00:36 - I felt first it should have been a date.
00:38 - That said a lot to me.
00:41 Just the inner trauma of this guy.
00:43 I don't know what word that's called,
00:45 whatever philosophy you call that,
00:47 but inbred in nepotism, some sort of weird attraction.
00:52 - I felt like there should have been a date there,
00:55 but you already had the date earlier.
00:58 - It was weird playing my dad sitting next to my mom.
01:02 I was like, this is getting--
01:03 - 'Cause I didn't think y'all should have kissed
01:04 like that on the movie.
01:05 I didn't think that was appropriate at the dinner table.
01:08 (laughing)
01:10 - All the kissing and fondling and just--
01:14 - Zach just kept saying, "We're acting, we're acting."
01:18 - Trust me, we've got an actor's card for that.
01:20 - You know what the Greek word for acting is?
01:24 - What's that?
01:25 - Hypocrite.
01:26 (laughing)
01:28 - There you go.
01:28 - Ooh, man.
01:29 - Boy, Dave's just dropping the mics here.
01:32 - Man.
01:32 - He has some bumper stingers going today.
01:33 - Are we rolling?
01:35 Of course we're rolling.
01:36 - Of course we're rolling.
01:37 - We're done.
01:38 Well, that's it, guys.
01:39 Thank you for hanging around the podcast.
01:41 We hope you enjoyed it.
01:42 See you in the duck blind or at the movie the blind.
01:44 (dramatic music)
01:47 - Well, here's where you messed up
01:55 when you said, "Yeah, I'm gonna do the next interview
01:57 "after Sadie."
01:59 (laughing)
02:00 The bar was high.
02:02 - Well, Jase walks in and says,
02:03 "Are you doing the interview?"
02:04 I said, "Yes."
02:05 He's like, "This is gonna be fun."
02:06 Welcome to the next episode.
02:08 We're here talking about the blind movie.
02:10 And we got to watch it last night as a family.
02:12 So now we're gonna interview the four sons and Uncle Si.
02:17 There's a lot of emotional scenes, a lot of fight scenes.
02:23 And I know not all of you have early memories of it,
02:26 but I thought maybe start with the sons.
02:29 What are some of y'all's earliest memories of life
02:32 with Phil and Kate?
02:33 We're talking about pre-Jesus.
02:35 And what do you guys remember about that?
02:38 - Well, mine go back, I can have flashes of memory
02:42 even back to Tech, even back to Vetville.
02:45 They had a little duplex type thing they lived in.
02:48 And I still remember, and probably just 'cause it's so vivid
02:52 'cause normally families wouldn't have this,
02:54 but when I would walk in, when you first walked in,
02:58 there was like this low hanging thing inside,
03:00 like a bar, I guess, or beam.
03:03 And there a lot of times were deer hanging there
03:06 and a number three wash tub underneath the deer.
03:09 And Dad was gutting these deer.
03:11 I'm assuming it was out of season.
03:12 I don't know what was going on
03:13 while we were cleaning deer inside the house.
03:14 - Yeah, it was out of season.
03:16 - Oh, there you go.
03:17 But I still have those flashes of memory of that.
03:20 So I was like four years old and can still remember that.
03:24 I remember Bradshaw coming over a lot
03:27 and hanging around the house.
03:28 He and Dad were buds.
03:29 So some of those memories I have even before we left
03:32 and moved up to Junction City.
03:34 So mine go back that far.
03:36 - Yeah, you probably have the best memory,
03:38 but Jase, you had some vivid memories as well
03:41 from that time period.
03:42 - Yeah, I mean, it was a blur
03:45 and I'd kind of tucked all those memories away
03:48 thinking that I would never have to relive them.
03:51 Not that they weren't dealt with,
03:54 but y'all came up with this movie.
03:56 And so you pulled me back in,
03:59 but I guess I remember more of the big stuff.
04:03 I remember our dad kicking us out of the house that night.
04:07 I could literally see how it all happened,
04:11 which I'm glad they didn't show exactly how it happened
04:13 'cause he was in his underwear drinking a beer,
04:16 you know, ranting and raving.
04:18 But, 'cause I just remember being so appalled
04:21 thinking you're kicking us out?
04:24 I mean, it just seemed crazy to me.
04:27 I thought you're the problem here.
04:30 But--
04:31 - I'm just glad they had it raining, Jase,
04:32 'cause I remember the heavy rain.
04:34 We laughed in a rainstorm
04:36 and that was depicted in the movie,
04:37 which little things you remember,
04:39 but us getting soaking wet, leaving.
04:41 I remember that.
04:42 - Yeah, I remember there was a lot more fight at the bar.
04:47 It just seemed like every night my childhood memory
04:50 was anticipating everyone going outside
04:54 and there being a fight.
04:56 And usually my dad was involved.
04:58 I remember he used to wear a gun belt with two pistols
05:02 at the bar.
05:04 So it just, it was a lot of,
05:07 you know, it's not something a kid should be exposed to,
05:09 but I mean, that's where we were.
05:13 So I was thankful 'cause one of the things
05:16 that I remember probably my earliest memory,
05:20 it was not in the movie,
05:21 but I was clothed one night at the trailer,
05:25 which was right next to the bar,
05:27 only with Charlie Brown stickers on my body.
05:30 - They call them color forms.
05:32 They're little stickies, yeah.
05:33 - I had no clothes on except for the stickers.
05:36 And my dad--
05:37 - I wouldn't even tell you where Linus was.
05:39 (all laughing)
05:42 You don't wanna know.
05:43 - And my dad, you know, come in from the bar
05:46 and he just didn't like my attire.
05:50 (all laughing)
05:51 - He would.
05:51 - So I learned at that moment just when confronted to run.
05:56 And so, but I was hoping that wouldn't make the cut
06:00 and it didn't.
06:01 But no, we're laughing about it,
06:03 but you know, it was not pleasant memories.
06:07 You know, it was a time in my life where, you know,
06:09 I kind of grew to be bitter and kind of became a loner.
06:14 But the fantastic part about that was,
06:17 is I got to see God's transforming power in living color.
06:22 And I've always said that I didn't learn about God
06:26 from the church.
06:28 I just, I learned it based on what I saw.
06:30 But I was headed down the same road he was,
06:32 'cause I found my peace in the outdoors,
06:35 but I really wasn't concerned about a creator.
06:38 So it was interesting when I saw the movie,
06:40 how it hit me that I was kind of going down the same road.
06:45 I was just thinking,
06:47 I'm gonna live out in the outdoors by myself
06:51 and I won't have any problems then.
06:53 So yeah, so later on, you know, when I came to Christ,
06:58 I just thought back to what Phil,
07:01 what had happened in his life.
07:03 And I remember asking him the question,
07:06 what exactly did you hear?
07:08 And it was the same thing I was studying at 14.
07:11 And so I just made a decision.
07:14 I'm gonna have to ask the Lord for forgiveness,
07:16 but I'm gonna have to simultaneously forgive my dad.
07:20 'Cause even though that was long since
07:22 after he came to the Lord, I was just still bitter about it.
07:26 So it was a nice moment.
07:28 And I had my dad baptize me in the river.
07:30 So it kind of came full circle
07:32 and I lived the whole episode again.
07:34 - It's interesting when we did the interviews for the script,
07:39 we came down and met with everybody
07:40 and spent several days in the interview process.
07:43 And yeah, it was pretty vivid, you know, like reliving that.
07:45 I think you get out of it, you know, 50 years
07:48 post conversion to Christ, post coming to Christ,
07:51 changed life, you know, dead man gone,
07:53 new man living with Phil, you know,
07:56 conjuring up these memories was,
07:58 I mean, I think it was painful for everybody involved.
08:00 I was surprised by how difficult,
08:03 even for me to hear it and be a part of that,
08:05 asking the questions and with you,
08:08 your interview, Jase was probably one that stuck with me.
08:11 - I shared a couple of things I'd never shared with anybody.
08:14 And y'all actually ran one of the scenes in the movie,
08:18 which was, you know, I had taught my uncle to,
08:22 'cause I wanted to see my dad
08:24 and he had been in the woods for months.
08:26 And so, you know, he carried me out there
08:30 and just the visual scene of seeing a man
08:34 live in these conditions, no electricity, no shoes,
08:38 there were piles of carcasses.
08:40 He was just living off the land.
08:42 And when he came out of that door,
08:44 I thought, I don't wanna see him.
08:47 I mean, he was just such a wild, crazed view of a man.
08:51 - He actually looked like a wild animal.
08:54 - Yeah.
08:54 - Yeah, I just-- - Back in that day.
08:56 I'm serious.
08:57 - Well, I started backing up
08:59 'cause I thought, well, what has happened here?
09:02 And so that was probably the most terrorizing moment
09:06 in my life, 'cause I thought this guy has gone completely.
09:09 - 'Cause you were afraid of him.
09:10 - Yeah, he's gone completely.
09:12 - It's funny that you said that,
09:13 because like, that was the same thing
09:16 that I'm looking and saying, where did my brother go?
09:21 This is some kind of wild, just out of control animal.
09:29 - Were you afraid of him when he was at that place?
09:31 - Yeah, yeah.
09:32 Yeah, and so was the kids, okay?
09:34 Yeah, and I actually had multiple conversations with him
09:38 where I told him, I said, hey, number one,
09:40 Kay don't deserve this.
09:42 Number two, the boys surely don't.
09:45 I said, you're out, slam out of control.
09:50 You're turned into something that's not even recognizable.
09:54 You need serious help.
09:59 And it just, it set on deaf ears.
10:03 - Well, so Willie, you and Jep,
10:05 I mean, do you have, like, what's your earliest memories?
10:08 I mean, do you remember Phil in that capacity?
10:11 - I'm still afraid of him.
10:13 - We're all a little afraid of him.
10:15 - He is kind of scary.
10:16 - Yeah, I never got over being afraid of him.
10:19 Even though he's an old man, I'm still kind of scared of him.
10:24 I think I can outrun him.
10:28 No, my earliest memories,
10:30 we were back in West Monroe living at the apartments.
10:35 And so that's my earliest memories from life was there.
10:40 So yeah, I don't remember, but I always got a sense
10:44 like you could feel the past just in the conversation,
10:48 you know, in the room.
10:50 So you knew like, you know, where that had,
10:53 something had dramatic had happened.
10:56 It was on its way to getting better,
10:58 but you could still, you know,
10:59 you could feel in the conversations and, you know,
11:01 you could still, you know, Phil wasn't the nicest guy ever.
11:06 You know, I mean, you could just feel like this,
11:08 you know, where he's trying to become a different person.
11:10 And so, yeah, those are the memories I have.
11:14 - I think it's one of the reasons why we're so humorous.
11:17 You just, you know, you survived, you dealt with it.
11:20 And we did that with humor, I think a lot,
11:21 just amongst ourselves.
11:23 And I think it's a coping mechanism for us.
11:26 And so I think that's why the show comes along later
11:28 and everybody's funny,
11:29 it's because we kind of, we're funny coming out of something.
11:31 And so I think a lot of families deal with it that way.
11:34 'Cause you either get bitter or you get funny, you know,
11:37 'cause you got one way or the other to deal with it.
11:39 You don't want to be bitter.
11:40 - Yeah, take your time.
11:41 - Bitter's not funny.
11:42 - Yeah, bitter ain't no fun.
11:43 - No.
11:44 - We got real funny.
11:44 - That's right.
11:45 - Yeah, Jett, what about you though?
11:46 'Cause you came in, you don't, I mean,
11:49 most of your members of Phil were probably,
11:51 I mean, there was some fear there
11:52 'cause Phil's intimidating, but you know, what's--
11:54 - No, they were like buddies.
11:56 - Jett jumps in--
11:57 - I love my dad.
11:58 (all laughing)
11:59 I actually call him dad, not like these clowns.
12:03 But I will say about the movie,
12:05 kind of what Al said, what was shocking,
12:07 I was real close with my grandmother as well,
12:09 Granny is what we all call her.
12:11 And I just heard the stories about her being,
12:14 you know, having mental problems.
12:16 And to see it, that kind of got me emotional
12:20 'cause I was like, oh, I never saw her.
12:22 I just saw her, you know, us playing cards and dominoes.
12:26 And so that hit me pretty hard.
12:29 - Yeah, yeah, that hit me too.
12:31 - Yeah, it was sad.
12:32 I mean, look, most of the time she was awesome,
12:34 but when she lost it, she lost it.
12:37 - Well, that was why I was the only one in the family, okay,
12:42 with all my brothers and sisters.
12:44 They all have different memories of how mama was
12:48 when she went on one of her tirade, okay.
12:51 But I always said, well, hey, look,
12:53 if you had to put up with James H. Robertson, my father,
12:56 okay, and then you had given that man
12:59 seven wild savages called kids, okay, yeah.
13:04 Every once in a while I would probably say,
13:07 yeah, I would probably do something
13:09 and daddy would take her and put her in Pineville, okay,
13:12 the nut house.
13:13 What's shooting a few Christmas lights out?
13:16 What's the big deal over that?
13:18 - Who doesn't do that to some lost team?
13:20 - Yeah, exactly. - You don't do that.
13:21 You don't, you know.
13:23 (gentle music)
13:25 - Phil Robertson here.
13:28 You're listening to the "Blind Movie" podcast.
13:32 And I want you to come out and see "The Blind"
13:35 in theaters starting September the 28th.
13:39 When you see it, you'll know that redemption
13:41 isn't out of reach for anyone.
13:44 Get your tickets today at theblindmovie.com.
13:50 (gentle music)
13:52 So what are y'all's earliest memories of Si?
13:57 What was Si like when you guys were growing up?
14:00 - A lot more normal than he is now, so.
14:03 (laughing)
14:04 But he's always been a great storyteller.
14:07 We used to gather up.
14:08 - I was like Santa Claus.
14:10 'Cause when I would come in,
14:12 I'd bring a bunch of Army stuff with me.
14:14 - I remember all the Army stuff.
14:16 We thought that was so cool.
14:17 - The bags and the clothes.
14:19 - I don't know if it was legal or not,
14:20 but he was like bringing in--
14:21 - The taxpayers were suffering,
14:23 but we were the beneficiaries.
14:24 - Now when we were kids, he was a lifesaver though.
14:27 I mean, they depicted that well on the movie.
14:29 'Cause I mean, it was just, he's fun.
14:31 And it was--
14:32 - Well, that was, we didn't get to see Si that much.
14:34 I mean, once he joined, he would have to go
14:36 and deploy overseas and come back.
14:38 And so the fun thing about Si was,
14:41 is when he was back, he would come in
14:43 and he would spend like the whole Christmas
14:45 or Thanksgiving week with us.
14:46 And he was just so full of stories
14:48 and telling us all these tales from Germany
14:50 and these other places.
14:51 And we didn't know at the time there was a percentage
14:53 of truth into the stories that we figured out now.
14:56 But I mean, like that was the beauty of it.
14:58 Si was just a breath of fresh air, you know?
15:01 And so it was, we loved him coming in and telling stories.
15:04 So that's my earliest memories is just sitting next
15:06 to him to tell stories, which we still do, you know?
15:08 - So I told my buddies when I was a kid,
15:10 I would tell them stories that Si would tell us.
15:13 And they were like, "Man, you're lying.
15:15 "You don't even have an uncle."
15:17 And then when "Duck Dynasty" finally came out
15:20 and I had several calls from old buddies I grew up with,
15:23 they were like, "Dude, you really do have a crazy uncle
15:26 "that has done everything."
15:28 (all laughing)
15:29 - Yeah, I've heard stories of shoes,
15:31 you ran so fast your shoes caught on fire.
15:34 There was one about a--
15:34 - That's when the coyotes got after him.
15:36 - A tire getting stolen off a vehicle while it was moving.
15:39 - Oh no, never got below 10 miles an hour.
15:42 Hey look, here's the bad thing about that.
15:44 There was 20 people sitting on top of him, okay?
15:48 And nobody saw nothing, you know?
15:51 - Yeah, it's--
15:53 - I've had some insane moments in my life.
15:56 - Yeah, and it wasn't coyotes, it was wolves.
15:59 - Well, no, it was coyotes.
16:00 We thought they was wolves, okay?
16:03 - He told it as wolves, but yeah.
16:06 I will say this about Si, 'cause since the show
16:08 and all that, I've got an opportunity to go out
16:10 and do speeches with Si and meet people.
16:14 And Si's got the biggest heart of all of us.
16:16 I mean, his heart is 100% genuine.
16:19 And he loves people and they love him.
16:21 And he's the same.
16:23 People ask me all the time when I'm not with Si,
16:25 is Si like he is on the show?
16:26 And I was like, he is the same.
16:28 He loves people, people love him.
16:30 And so that's been fun now as adults
16:31 to get to do stuff with Si.
16:33 And especially get to do ministry with him.
16:35 So it's a blessing.
16:36 - No, that's one of the reasons I needed
16:38 to tell you this story.
16:39 Well, he come by one day and there was 20 people
16:42 parked in all in my yard.
16:44 And Willie said, "Hey, look, you need to come move
16:48 "in the gated community or I'll put up a fence,
16:51 "I'll pay for it."
16:52 - I think that last part.
16:55 - Yeah.
16:56 - I think that last part. - That was a big mistake.
16:57 - No, yeah, so he said, I said, "Okay."
16:59 So I bought another piece of property
17:01 and had Clayton Holmes built me two homes.
17:05 Okay, 'cause Scott needed the one to live in,
17:07 him and his wife.
17:08 - You needed an empire. - Undernaughts to me
17:10 and all that.
17:11 - Yeah, I know to him, okay.
17:13 They put a fence around Scott's house first, okay.
17:18 - First.
17:20 - And they start on mine and then when I got to the point
17:23 I've had a roundabout driveway, I said, "Wait a minute,
17:26 "I think I have to put two $30,000 gates
17:29 "on this stupid thing."
17:30 No, you're done fence building, get your stuff
17:33 and move out.
17:34 So look, the bill comes in to Dirk Commander.
17:37 - For $30,000 for a fence.
17:40 - The secretary gets it and says,
17:41 "What do you need to look at this?"
17:42 He said, "What is it?"
17:43 And she said, "It's a size fence around this house."
17:47 He said, "Oh, just go ahead and pay it."
17:49 And she said, "No, you need to look at it."
17:51 And he kept putting it off.
17:52 Finally, she just went over and grabbed him and said,
17:54 "Look at this, you idiot."
17:56 Yo, and then you heard the, "$30,000!"
17:59 (laughing)
18:01 - Did you pay for it, really?
18:02 - Yeah, he paid for it.
18:03 - I did.
18:04 - He did, he did.
18:05 - In my mind, I was thinking--
18:06 - He didn't even close it off though, it's just under.
18:07 - $100, like, you know, a wooden,
18:10 there's a privacy along the highway,
18:12 just so you couldn't see.
18:14 And then he says, and I said, "Si, you got me on that one."
18:17 And it wasn't even for his place,
18:20 it was for my cousin's place.
18:23 And I went out there, it's the Taj Mahal of vinyl.
18:26 Everything is wine.
18:28 - He is the king of vinyl.
18:29 - So I told him, "Willie's paying for it,
18:32 so just whatever, literally, wherever you put it,
18:34 just put it up anywhere."
18:36 - And to this day, he still doesn't have a fence around.
18:39 - You know, it's indicative of our family.
18:41 It's all, the "Blind" movie's about forgiveness,
18:43 and I hope that Willie's forgiven.
18:44 - No, no, 'cause he come up to the next time I seen him,
18:46 he said, "Hey, old man," he said,
18:49 "I ain't gonna ever do anything for you again."
18:51 (laughing)
18:53 - He got all of it in one day.
18:54 - You got your shot, and that's all you're ever getting
18:57 from me.
18:58 - Well, I made the 30 grand back on one big decision
19:02 that this man did.
19:04 First day we were filming, and we're all set up,
19:08 and Si's got his teacup, you know,
19:10 and he likes to shake it, and the director come over
19:12 and said, "We keep trying to get that teacup from Si.
19:15 He won't give it up.
19:16 Will you tell him to take the teacup?"
19:19 So I walked over there, and Si said,
19:20 "Nah, I'm keeping my teacup."
19:21 I said, "He's keeping the teacup."
19:23 And so they left it in the scene,
19:25 and I sold $30,000 worth of those teacups.
19:28 (laughing)
19:30 So it all evened out.
19:32 Just to pay back for that fence.
19:33 - So you hold on to that teacup.
19:36 - I was wondering why you made that deal
19:38 with that stupid teacup company.
19:41 - Getting up his pay for it.
19:43 - One big $30,000 vinyl fence, a plastic teacup,
19:47 and it all evened out.
19:49 - Oh, that's funny.
19:50 Well, I mean, y'all lived a different type of life.
19:53 In a lot of ways, it was really cool and beautiful.
19:55 How did you prep your, 'cause pretty much all your wives,
19:59 except for you, Al, grew up in the city of West Monroe.
20:03 They didn't grow up nearly in the same kind of lifestyle.
20:05 How did you prep them for their first interaction
20:09 with kind of the family?
20:10 Or did you prep them?
20:11 - Well, we didn't.
20:14 Well, that's what I like about Doug Downstead
20:15 is everybody could resonate with the family.
20:18 Everybody's got a crazy uncle.
20:19 Everybody's got weird cousins from Florida
20:21 who come in for the week.
20:22 So it's like everybody can kind of feel part of that.
20:26 I didn't feel, I mean, we didn't think it was that strange.
20:29 I mean, at least I didn't think it was that strange.
20:32 - I didn't either.
20:32 - But it was reactionary.
20:34 'Cause the first time I brought Missy down there,
20:38 we happened to be,
20:39 we used to have these domino tournaments every night
20:44 at winter stays.
20:45 So no matter who's there.
20:47 And it just became something I was used to.
20:51 But the first time I brought Missy down,
20:53 we played a domino tournament.
20:55 Well, when we walked outside, she was like visibly upset.
21:00 And I thought, "What's wrong?"
21:02 And she's like, "Look, I can get some help for y'all,
21:07 especially for your grandparents."
21:08 And I was like, "What do you mean help?"
21:11 She's like, "I mean, they hate each other."
21:13 I said, "No, they love each other.
21:15 What are you talking about?"
21:16 She's like, "I mean, they were practically
21:19 at each other's throat during that domino game."
21:21 And I said, "Oh no, that's just part of the game."
21:24 She's like, "But she was calling him terrible names."
21:27 And I was like, "That's part of the fun of the game."
21:31 He cut her stuff and she's mad.
21:35 So it was, you know, she just wasn't used
21:38 to being around highly competitive people
21:41 who were just ranting and raving,
21:43 but nothing's personal about you.
21:44 - That's where we learned the term bullshebucky
21:47 was from my granny, the old bullshebucky.
21:50 Jason and I had to walk a thin line though
21:52 because we couldn't be as rude as everybody.
21:55 - Well, I was, and my dad, he talked to me one day.
21:59 We had to be respectful 'cause they were all adults.
22:02 - So did you prep Lisa coming down the first time?
22:05 - So it's really interesting 'cause the movie
22:07 really depicts a lot of now looking back
22:11 how I viewed it with Lisa's family and ours.
22:13 'Cause, you know, the movie kind of depicts
22:15 mom's family as being wealthy, but they weren't.
22:18 They owned a store.
22:19 I mean, we've been in businesses now.
22:21 We realized, well, I mean, they were--
22:22 - It's relative, right?
22:23 - It was very relative, and yet that's the way it was
22:26 with Lisa.
22:27 I mean, they lived up the road.
22:28 And first time I went over there, it was a brick house.
22:30 You know, and they both had these jobs in town.
22:32 I thought, these people--
22:33 - This is a mansion.
22:34 - I mean, they got the money right here.
22:36 But that's all compared to this.
22:37 We had nothing, you know.
22:38 We were still fishing and all that.
22:40 So it was interesting.
22:41 I thought they had money, but they now,
22:44 after, you know, married into no one,
22:45 they didn't have any more money than anybody else.
22:47 We were, everybody was middle and lower middle class.
22:49 So it's interesting because that's the way it was with Lisa.
22:52 I thought she was uppity brick house girl.
22:56 You know, how's she gonna fit in on the river down here?
22:58 But bottom line was, we were all cut from the same cloth,
23:01 you know, so it didn't really matter.
23:02 So I didn't have to prep her, as it turns out.
23:04 I thought I did, but I didn't.
23:06 - Jeff, what about you?
23:07 You brought Jessica down the first time.
23:09 - It was funny, when I met Jessica,
23:11 this is a true story, she loves to tell it.
23:13 I said, you know, I'm Jeff Robertson.
23:16 I was like, you probably heard of my dad,
23:17 Phil Robertson, duck commander.
23:18 She goes, no, never heard of him.
23:20 I was like, well, does your dad hunt?
23:22 She goes, yeah, he hunts all the time.
23:23 I was like, never heard of him?
23:25 Like the duck?
23:26 She was like, nope.
23:26 And when I brought her down there,
23:28 she said, oh yeah, this is just like my dad's camp
23:31 on Darbon.
23:32 Funny enough, then I went to that camp later
23:35 and it looked just like that in the film.
23:37 That old camper out there, she went to a camp like that
23:40 and loved it.
23:41 I mean, it was real ratty.
23:43 And so she didn't mind at all.
23:45 Like she was like, oh yeah, I get this.
23:47 - Well, you gotta know this,
23:47 that like three out of the four of us,
23:49 when we asked the question, you know,
23:52 can we marry your daughter?
23:52 The answer was absolutely not.
23:55 So we were batting 25%.
23:57 I don't know, Jett, were you with, I don't know.
23:59 - He said, yeah.
24:00 - Okay, so we got one out of four.
24:03 The rest of us all said no.
24:05 - No, you don't want to marry that family.
24:07 - This is Miss Kay.
24:13 You're listening to the Blind Movie Podcast.
24:16 Watch the Blind Movie in theaters
24:18 starting September the 28th.
24:21 When you see the movie,
24:22 you'll know that redemption isn't out of the reach
24:25 of any of us.
24:27 Get your tickets today at theblindmovie.com.
24:31 - There was years that went on
24:40 that not one single person that came down there
24:44 was not shared Jesus with.
24:46 - Yeah.
24:47 - Now that's every person that came down there,
24:50 whether it was a delivery driver,
24:52 the mail person, or just someone lost.
24:55 And I think, you know, to his credit,
24:58 I think we were so out in the middle of nowhere,
25:00 he assumed they were lost in more ways than one.
25:04 And the Lord must have sent them down there.
25:06 And so he would take them in there.
25:07 And so I remember that.
25:09 Thousands of Bible studies.
25:12 - Which was a precursor for our In the Shame podcast.
25:14 Really, I was like, we can just capture
25:16 what goes on in this living room
25:17 and has for years and put that on it.
25:19 - You and I talked about before we started,
25:21 we said if the people that listen in
25:24 can feel like they're just watching us
25:25 in our own living room, then it'll be successful.
25:29 And I think that's what we try to create.
25:30 - Yeah, absolutely.
25:31 - A Bible study in the living room.
25:32 - Let me ask y'all this.
25:34 If you were to, if there's something
25:36 that you would want people to know
25:38 about your mom and dad, about Phil and Kay,
25:40 that maybe you think they don't know,
25:42 or maybe a lot of people know about it,
25:45 but not everybody knows about it,
25:46 what would you want, what's the one thing
25:47 you would want people to know about your parents?
25:50 - When they watch The Blind,
25:52 they're going to learn a lot of things
25:53 they didn't know about mom and dad.
25:55 'Cause we've written books,
25:56 there's a lot of this is out there,
25:57 but there are things you didn't know.
25:59 But you know, when I was watching the film,
26:01 it was interesting because I had never thought
26:04 about the powerful delusion that had been created
26:09 by the evil one.
26:11 'Cause when dad was convincing mom to go to that bar,
26:14 'cause we were little and so you don't know
26:17 the discussions, all of a sudden we're just like,
26:18 hey, we're moving to up here.
26:20 But thinking back now and watching the film,
26:22 I thought the film really does a good job with it.
26:24 Dad was under such a delusion by the evil one
26:28 at that point in his life that that seemed
26:29 like a good idea.
26:31 That yeah, well, you know, I'll be with my family,
26:33 so we'll all be here together,
26:34 we can all work in a bar together.
26:36 And I just thought, man, I think about so many people
26:39 that get trapped in delusions of the evil one.
26:42 And where they think something is a great idea,
26:44 but it's really just a pathway to destruction.
26:47 And that's what I saw that in us.
26:49 And so, I don't know, it was good for me
26:51 even watching that.
26:52 What I learned about my own parents is that
26:54 anybody is susceptible to believing a lie
26:58 if you can't find truth in that moment.
27:00 And so that was a powerful moment to me
27:03 even watching the film.
27:05 And so I thought, man, what would it have been like
27:06 to take that pathway when it was such a bad, wrong turn?
27:10 And of course, we know where it led,
27:13 to something terrible, but then ultimately something great.
27:15 - Jase, what about you?
27:16 What would you want people to know about Phil and Kay?
27:19 - I would say, you know, just to be positive,
27:22 even looking back on my dad's past life,
27:27 there was one quality that my parents have
27:31 that I've never seen any other human being
27:33 have it as well as they have.
27:35 And it's that they viewed all people equally and with value.
27:41 It was just something they've always done.
27:43 And post-Jesus, you know, the same thing continued,
27:48 but there was just something that I'm really proud of.
27:53 It made me realize that, you know,
27:55 later when I became an adult,
27:57 I realized how divided our country is and people are.
28:00 And I was just, I was kept away from that.
28:03 They've always been a lover of people
28:05 no matter what they had or what they looked like
28:07 or where they've been.
28:09 That came from mom and dad,
28:12 James H. Robertson and Merritt Robertson.
28:15 Okay, and the other thing that always impressed me
28:18 about mama and Phil and Kay,
28:21 there are myriad images of them, is their hospitality.
28:26 - Yeah.
28:27 - 'Cause Phil and Kay didn't have nothing.
28:29 When they moved down the river
28:31 and they had three, four kids to raise.
28:34 And there was always, I can't remember a time
28:37 that wasn't always someone's extra feet on the table.
28:40 - Yeah.
28:41 - And all Phil would do, just go get more catfish.
28:45 He'll fry it up.
28:46 - Food was always great.
28:47 - Well, we were talking about, to Si's point,
28:51 Granny, which I thought was silly when I was a kid,
28:54 she would always have a plate.
28:55 She would set a plate out.
28:57 And I was like, why does she do this, you know?
29:00 And she was like, well, you know, if a stranger comes.
29:02 - Yep, somebody may show up.
29:03 - And then, you know, I remember when, you know,
29:05 one night a stranger showed up and I thought,
29:09 well, she was right the whole time.
29:11 - 'Cause I asked her the same thing, Jason.
29:13 She said, well, you know, we used to live
29:14 on a railroad track right next to one, her mom.
29:17 - On the hobos and the road.
29:18 - And she said there would always be people come by
29:20 needing food and she learned that from her mother.
29:23 - They passed that down the train tracks.
29:27 - You could always get a meal there.
29:28 - And if you lose any, you can stop at this house.
29:30 - Yep.
29:31 - And she'll always feed you.
29:32 - Yep.
29:33 - So it's just generational, you know.
29:35 - That's cool, Sarah.
29:36 Jet, what about you?
29:37 What do you want people to know about your mom and dad?
29:39 - I mean, I guess maybe something that really stood out to me
29:41 'cause I think it relates to me and you especially
29:44 was how Aunt Jan, your mom, her role
29:48 in them coming to know the Lord and even mom and dad,
29:53 you know, and I thought that's what happened with me and you
29:56 if we didn't have Willie and all the brothers, everybody.
29:59 It was like, it was good to have family
30:02 that looked out for you and didn't necessarily tell you
30:05 what you wanted to hear, but what was right and wrong
30:07 and this is what you need.
30:08 And so that really stood out to me as like,
30:11 just, I guess, just family loving you.
30:13 - That's good.
30:15 That's a great point.
30:16 - I have a couple of observations.
30:17 One that I think the film certainly wasn't able to depict,
30:22 but what I think everyone should know was Phil
30:26 was such a great salesman.
30:29 Like, I'll take the business lane of this.
30:32 He was always really good and passionate
30:35 about selling things.
30:36 And I think what Al described as the delusion,
30:39 which I think is true, but it was actually something
30:42 that was kind of neat about Phil was that I think
30:44 what he got into, he figured out, he was like,
30:47 oh, I can do this for a business.
30:50 So he liked to drink and party and hang out.
30:53 So let's have a bar and I'll make money off of, you know,
30:56 'cause it's not that different than the passion
30:58 of duck calls and ducks and loving to hunt.
31:00 It's really the same thing.
31:02 - He would even cook there, like kill game and stuff
31:06 and then cook it and sell it.
31:07 So you're right.
31:08 He had an operation.
31:09 - He was building his community.
31:10 It was certainly worldly and awful,
31:13 but he was building that community around.
31:15 So he was pulling that around, which is the thing.
31:18 It's like, sometimes I think the things we hate
31:21 about the movie, we're like, oh, Phil was so awful,
31:23 but it was the same passion that he just put
31:25 towards the Lord.
31:26 It's just like Saul and Paul.
31:28 It's the same passion.
31:29 If he would have been a middle of the road guy,
31:31 there wouldn't probably be a movie about him.
31:33 So it was like, he was so passionate and gung ho
31:36 and now he turns this over to that.
31:38 But I think when he went into business,
31:40 what I can remember, a lot of my early memories was,
31:44 it was not, I'll get to the duck calls,
31:46 but it was actually selling the fish,
31:48 like how he could sell fish.
31:50 'Cause we went to the markets.
31:51 If they took them, it was easy,
31:54 but if they didn't take them, then you had to sell them.
31:56 There's always people coming down to buy fish from us
31:59 because when those nets came in
32:00 and watching him sell fish was just amazing,
32:04 to all different types of people, education level.
32:07 And he would literally, he would find wherever you were at.
32:10 I'll never forget, he was selling these German carp,
32:15 which is pretty much the trashiest fish ever.
32:19 And I remember these guys were looking going,
32:21 what are those, what is that?
32:23 They were unsure about what they are.
32:24 And Phil just changed the name.
32:26 He didn't call them a German carp, which sounds awful.
32:28 He said, "Boys, that's the golden buffalo.
32:31 That's the pride of the Ouachita River."
32:34 He said, "Oh, they swim.
32:35 Everybody's following that golden buffalo."
32:37 And by the end, you're like, man, that thing's amazing.
32:40 They bought all these German carp.
32:42 - It's all about the presentation.
32:44 - I mean, it was genius.
32:46 - Yeah, it was a presentation.
32:48 - And so I was watching that going, wow.
32:51 'Cause we were like, we're never gonna sell these.
32:53 And then Phil sold these things.
32:55 I was like, that's genius on how he did that.
32:56 - He was probably winking at y'all the whole time.
32:58 - Oh, he was like, yeah, yeah.
32:59 He was like, don't say a word, I got this.
33:01 I got this, boy.
33:03 - I have to jump in,
33:05 'cause we caught the biggest alligator gar one time,
33:09 but he had turned.
33:11 And what that means is he's no longer fit for sale,
33:15 but it was like over, there's a picture somewhere out there.
33:18 - Yeah, he's hanging from the Jeep.
33:19 - It was almost seven foot tall, 140 pounds.
33:23 - I mean, looked like an alligator.
33:26 And I just remember him saying,
33:29 'cause we had somebody coming down to look at it.
33:31 And he said, no matter what you do,
33:33 don't open up that gill plate.
33:35 'Cause that's what we'd always do.
33:37 We'd be like, look, fresh, these are fresh.
33:40 But he told me right there, he's like,
33:42 no matter what I say, do not reveal the gill plate.
33:47 And that man sold that alligator gar for almost $100.
33:53 So I think the fact that he was so good at selling stuff.
33:56 Then I watched that when he sold the duck calls,
33:59 'cause he had this little calls
34:00 and he would come up with these little things.
34:02 Remember he had the FBI,
34:03 he had the friend that was in law enforcement
34:05 that tested the noise,
34:07 that sounded more like a duck than anything.
34:10 And he would play the little recordings.
34:12 Like hit the table and real,
34:14 (imitates duck quacking)
34:16 FBI tested.
34:17 - FBI tested.
34:18 (laughing)
34:19 - So he didn't say.
34:20 - Boys analyze duck.
34:20 - Yeah, boys analyze FBI.
34:22 - FBI tested.
34:23 And this was all Phil's little,
34:25 how he would play that.
34:27 He would have that aquarium,
34:28 remember he would take it and he would set it up.
34:30 And he would dip that thing and say,
34:31 you boys ever drop your calls in the water?
34:33 And it was like, yeah.
34:34 And he'd be like, do it, shake it two times and blow it.
34:37 And so it was like, it was just amazing.
34:39 And then how he,
34:41 he had these ideas to come up with these videos.
34:44 But they were so like,
34:46 he loved like Outlaw Josie Wells
34:48 and all these Clint Eastwood movies.
34:49 So the videos were like irreverent and in your face
34:52 and like spitting.
34:53 And like, if he could have fought, he would have fought.
34:55 But he was building this brand
34:58 and he didn't realize the brand he was actually building,
35:01 but it was so genius about it.
35:03 It wasn't like anybody was telling him this.
35:05 It wasn't like there was a marketing consultant.
35:07 Phil was just coming out with these things.
35:09 And so watching that,
35:10 I think that's where we got a lot of what we did in business
35:14 even on the show and telling stories,
35:16 obviously telling stories and around that dinner table.
35:19 And so I think that's one thing I think,
35:21 they don't realize that how kind of smart visionary
35:23 he was with that as far as building that brand
35:27 and pushing it.
35:27 And thankfully he kept it and was content.
35:30 I always appreciate his content
35:31 where he had what he wanted, we were fine.
35:34 And then it gave us a chance to kind of catch up
35:36 to where we got old enough to say,
35:37 "Hey, let's take the business
35:38 and we can take what you've built."
35:40 'Cause he did all the heavy lifting
35:42 and then take it to that next level.
35:43 - 'Cause he come up with all the ideals, okay,
35:45 of all the different ducks and all the different sounds.
35:49 He would be out in the wild listening
35:52 and then he would have something like one of the boys
35:55 have a toy going around making noises.
35:57 He took that and turned it into a three duck whistle, okay.
36:02 The wood duck, same thing.
36:04 He figured out how to do that.
36:06 Then he come up with the battle of Drake call, okay.
36:10 And it was all from being in creation.
36:12 That's why it's kind of so weird
36:14 that here's a man that wants to spend his time
36:18 only in creation, but he has no idea about the creator.
36:23 That's one of them funny oxymorons,
36:26 I think is what you call it.
36:27 And then finally, when you bring the two together,
36:32 or I should say bring all three of them together,
36:35 then it changes his life completely.
36:39 And then looking forward like 50 years, okay,
36:44 it's changed all of our lives.
36:46 - And like I've told him, Si,
36:49 for a guy that moved off to hide out from friends
36:52 and hide out from everybody else,
36:54 God has sent him hundreds of thousands of people
36:58 to share with, you know.
36:59 - And Phil was rejected by the kind of
37:01 duck hunting community at the time.
37:02 This was like back when it was like real proper
37:05 and like world champion duck collars and acrylic collars.
37:08 - It was a way to do it.
37:09 - Phil was the complete opposite in your face.
37:14 - The other duck call manufacturers,
37:16 they had won the duck calling championship with their call.
37:19 - But it didn't sound like a duck.
37:20 - But it didn't sound like a duck.
37:21 - And Phil said, "I'm gonna sound like a duck."
37:23 He took it kind of the working man.
37:25 And so he just had this, so it was really hard,
37:28 I'm sure for him because nobody was there going,
37:30 "Oh, we love that."
37:31 Everybody in the industry was like,
37:33 no, remember they ran him out of Duck Guard,
37:36 out of the store.
37:37 They're like, "You can take that.
37:38 Let me know how that goes."
37:39 - And he even tried to sell it to the ones
37:42 that were king in the duck calling business.
37:46 - Okay, he said, "Well, I'll just sell you my patent."
37:49 Well, they just, "We don't want that stupid thing."
37:52 Then it made him mad and he said,
37:54 "Okay, you're gonna be that way?
37:55 Well, then I'll build my own."
37:57 - I like that Toby Keith song, "How Do You Like Me Now?"
38:01 - Yeah, "How Do You Like Me Now?"
38:03 - That's incredible.
38:04 We hope you guys will check out the "Blind" movie.
38:07 We really believe it's a story of redemption
38:09 that nobody's gone too far.
38:11 Nobody has gone too far beyond the scope
38:14 of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus
38:15 and that's what this movie's about,
38:17 just to really tell that story
38:18 and to show it in a real visceral form
38:20 of how God can take the most broken of people
38:24 and not just heal and redeem,
38:26 but restore beyond any of our wildest imaginations.
38:29 So I wanna thank you guys for being here.
38:30 Thank you guys for sitting in
38:32 and letting me pick your brain for a little bit.
38:34 - Exactly, and look, I know you're being humble,
38:36 but your role, you playing your dad at that dinner table,
38:40 just, it moved me.
38:41 And I want you to know that.
38:43 I know you're too humble to admit it.
38:45 - That sounds-
38:46 - I'm just saying.
38:47 - Hey, all we can say is you're from Florida.
38:49 (all laughing)
38:50 - That says it all.
38:52 - Yeah, let's cut.
38:53 - Cut, cut!
38:54 (gentle music)
38:56 (gentle music continues)
39:00 (gentle music continues)
39:04 (gentle music continues)
39:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]