Korie Robertson: Star of 'Duck Dynasty' Talks Early Life w/ Willie & Producing New Movie 'The Blind'

Be here you are, don't try to like fit into the mold that someone else says you should eat. Alright everybody, welcome back to the TNG podcast, I'm your host, Marcus Motrell. Every week it's my job to fire you up to ignite the legend inside of you and to push you to your greatness. Join me every week as I take you into my Breaker room with some of the most hard charge of people on the planet. They're going to show you how to embrace the stuff of life, teach you the values of working your ass off, and charge through whatever life throws at you. This is the team never quit podcast. Don't buckle up buttercup. Well what's up everybody, welcome back to another episode of the team never quit podcast. As always, thank you guys for listening and watching, please go hit that like and subscribe button wherever you get your show. So today before we introduce our very special guest, let's kick it off with our Patreon question of the day, which is, would you recommend the last documentary that you watched and what was it? The last one that I watched was the one on Johnny Man's L. It was very interesting. I don't even remember what the name was, but would you recommend it? Yeah. How about you, Corey? I watched the one about living to, I love documentaries, so I watched someone about living to a hundred. Have you all seen that? Oh yeah. Like the secrets of people who live to a hundred and it goes through all the blue zones. And absolutely, I would recommend that for sure. Yeah. We want to vacation. We want to watch the Johnny Man's L one. And so I was going to try to save that one to watch with him. Yeah. We haven't. We haven't said that in the beginning. They will completely change the way you look at that, dude. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah. They did a good job of hiding what he was. Mm-hmm. I kind of know. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people had speculation just because he was so, like, portrayed that party scene lifestyle, but people that just watched him on football would be like, oh, okay. Yeah. Different side of him, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. We would known vacation to one of the blue zones in Sardinia. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Explain what that is. A blue zone. Nice. So the blue zones are the places where there's a most concentrated hundred-year-olds, like people who live to a hundred, the most concentrated places. And it's weird. It's like little pockets. It could be. It's like a little island in Japan or a place in Greece and Italy. And then there's one in somewhere in America where I can't remember where America is. It's Utah. No, it's actually in California. It's Oh, hi. I believe. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so then they study. And a lot of it, you know, it kind of expected it to be about the food, which there is definitely about the food. But a lot of it really is that community, like family, community, like joy and, yeah. What's that? They like living around each other. Yeah. And kind of like being together and then, of course, staying active and it's not like actual exercise, but more like gardening, walking places where there's like hills that people have to walk up and down every day and they're, you know, they're whatever they do, their physical activity is involved rather than like sitting all day, which. Oh, yeah. And Sardinia, it was the hills everywhere. The best part about it was that the town would shut down from two to five. It's like everyone goes inside, they take a break and then the town comes alive again at five o'clock and then you kind of go out and you start walking around. Everyone was really nice. It was, it was really something to, to experience that nice, yeah, that pace of life. Yeah. Yeah. It's always smooth, smooth as fast. It's kind of deal. No one was in a hurry there. It was good. One of our favorite vacations we've ever taken. So really? Yeah. It was awesome. It actually put me on vacation. I tried to get up and move. There was times I was sitting out on the back porch and then I was like, I got to do something. But then I'd stand up and there's nowhere to go. Couldn't do anything. Everything's closed. Everything's closed. Yeah. So it actually makes you take a vacation. Of course. You need to rest. Well, y'all've taken some good vacations. So if you say that was one of the best, I'm going to take that as a good resume. It's high on the list. And it was the people, the people are what want to, probably want to go back and don't get around the scenery and the food, just like you said, but we ran across a bunch of great people. That's awesome. Yeah. I felt like that was kind of the overriding thing that I like learned from it. It's just like, you see that laughter and love and familial community aspect from each of the ones that. And I've said that about like even like going through COVID within our family, seeing how I think because we kind of like hunkered it down together and even whenever like Uncle Saga COVID, I truly believe the gas kept him alive because he was very sick and he was in the hospital and he has lung trouble. He's had COPD. He smoked for years. So he was definitely like a candidate to not make it. And through COVID and he, yeah, he was very sick. He says he didn't want to live like he felt that bad. But the guys all did not, they just were like, hey, we're not going to let you die. Uncle Saga, you're too hard. We love you. Exactly. And that's exactly what happened. So just like force him to sit up, force him to take his medicine. Yeah. That's good too. Because if he died, I'd have came down there and went to his ass. I could let him die. Yeah. We need that all around. That's right. That's right. And now he has this like new lease on life. But I think it was just like that people, you know, people can keep you going. And I had my grandmother and who's 92 and great uncle who had COVID and we're sick. But it was like, we, you know, we were able to because we do live so close and close proximity to surround each other and like help and feed and get the medicine and do all these things. You know, it helps you live longer, but you got people around you. We started traveling. It's almost, you go places to get away from where you come from and then you go to see the scenery. But now it's ultimately, hey man, we're going to meet somebody. There's somebody in there that you need to meet. They got a personality, something, there's some people out there that can make you laugh, no matter what they say. Even if they're not trying to be funny and I, I hunt for them now. I look for them, kind of know what I'm looking at and it's a, that's the best part about traveling now. That's good. I love that. That's so true. Uncle Sal, man. Willie, I'll say Willie is, is one of those people that can make you laugh. So I appreciate that. I think he's going to keep me young. Yeah. Yeah. I'll travel around with him just to watch the heat he takes. I mean, when I became his photographer was the best part of my life, man. I swear anytime we go anywhere together, I'm like, that's him all right. Get him. That's hilarious. That's great. Hit it. Okay. What documentary? So recently, I've been really into the, all the alien documentaries. I don't know if you saw the new, um, little biologic that came out of Mexico, male, female, right? Uh-huh. One was pregnant. Apparently word on the street. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a thousand year old mummified alien body that they, uh, uncovered in a tomb and they just released it through Mexican Congress. And it's actually getting a traction actually something to it. It's not confirmed if it's real or, or not real, but it's just, it's out there Mexican Congress release pretty heavy if the leadership's doing something like that. Sure. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. The fact that they had that whole Congressional like inquiry, yes, that was insane that we've definitely had lots of conversation about that around the dinner tables that's in because it's like, whoa. It's a good one, right? I know. Got to take your mind off everything else. Yeah. What are you thinking about stuff like that? I saw a picture on Instagram where they had the little alien body and they cut into it and it was better cream cake. I thought that was so funny. Okay. So let's get into it. Hold on. I saw a documentary. Have you seen the one on Arnold, the new one he did on athlete, actor and, uh, I think politician? I thought it was great. Yes. I thought it was great. Two episodes of that and thought it was fantastic, too. I have. They did a fantastic job. I mean, you want to talk about the American dream. Yeah. And no other reason to love that man than he lived it. Yeah. I mean, there's so many reasons to love that man. But if you, for whatever reason, if you can't look at him any other than that, come over here and he talks about vision a lot. I think it's very important. You will never be able to come, become anything or, or go towards anything unless you know what you're going for. Yeah. And he, yeah. And he's also funny, too, because my favorite line is what he's talking about. You don't think I look in the mirror and be like, Oh, no, what the shit, man. You know, because he's getting old. You can't keep that physique. And I, I just, it's, you never think about that. It got us larger than life to me. Yeah. He pushed me out. All his movies, I tried to be every movie he made. Yeah. I mean, he kind of had that impact on me. And I just thought that the way he, in his life, the ups and downs and everything that he's been through, man, and he's still here. That's an American thing. Yeah. Americans get their asses kicked. They mess up. I mean, we're all centers. We know that. It is just, you know, you just keep kind of keep going. Yeah. That's kind of, I love that. Yeah. I'm going to go back and finish it. I, I, I did enjoy it. And our kids, it's been funny because they, I don't know if they watched it or what, but they were like, we didn't realize how many movies he was in, how big of a star he was. You know, because that was back kind of in our day, but I'm like, yeah, he's huge. He's a huge star. And, um, and yeah, I love that, too. He really, he believed. I mean, he just did not give up believes power of, I mean, you put that vision in his mind. He can't, and he doesn't, anytime I try to do anything, I got to visualize it in my head. Then you can't stop him. Yeah. Because if you, if you can see the picture and somebody else can't, they don't even know what you're going for. So they can't interfere. I mean, they can try, but it's not going to work. I mean, that's one thing I took from that man was my vision. That's good. All right. That's really good. So today, we have a very special guest, Corey Robertson, the New York Times best-selling author and star of A&E's Duck Dynasty. She works in the family business with Duck Commander, and also is a co-owner of tread lively productions. Corey's a passionate speaker, a writer, and she's passionate about motherhood, adoption, empowering families around the world. Welcome to the show, Corey. Glad to have you on. Hey. Thanks for having me. That dude. Yeah. Yeah, girl. We've been together for a while now. I mean, we've been together. But since before all this started. Yeah. How about that? I was thinking about that the other day when we were sitting at that round table there at the, I think it was at the shot show. Just kind of everything was everything. Yeah. And just to hear what they just read about you, yeah, all right. All those alcalades that you have now, New York Times best-selling author. I mean, all of the TV shows, everything that you've done, all the people that you've done. Well, man, that's, that's something. Aw, thank you. That's great. Well, you're welcome. You're welcome. It's been amazing to watch your family grow. Mm-hmm. Well, yeah. You've been, you've been in it the whole time. That's so crazy. I think, yeah, it was before any of that. We, I read your book. That's how it all started. I don't know if you remember that. But I read your book and I was like, we were, I was talking about it at a dinner table with some friends. And Willie had just started butt commander. It was all kind of, we were just, we were just growing. He just got that tattoo on his forearm. I was sitting at that table. I was like, you know, they're gonna come off, right? And he's like, hey, yeah, yeah. And we're going, I mean, we're going somewhere and I'm like, Roger that. Hey, we're in. That's right. Yeah, butt commander. We were going all in. That's for sure. You got the tattoo. We're all in if you get paint. You know what I'm talking about? That's hilarious. Right. So when, when was that? How long have y'all done each other? Go experience the epitome of elegance with the hatch restore to the key to refining your self care through impeccable sleep. My latte covered hatch restore to is a chic addition to my nightstand and not only has it enhanced my sleep, but I've also been getting some pretty good compliments on it lately too. As your bedside sleep guru, it seamlessly blends a sound machine, a soothing light, a swathe design, and a reliable alarm clock for all those refined mornings. 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I don't think I ever told anybody that before we got married, I was so nervous, I broke out in highs. Never happened to me. Oh, my goodness. That's why I was standing in the corner and couldn't move. That is awesome. Well, I remember whenever he first met you, Melanie, I remember him telling us about it. And just falling in love and all of that said, because they're like, wait a second. Now, you don't rush anything because I mean, the book and we were on that wild roller coaster. And I was running a pound around with y'all by myself. It was pretty fun. And then I told them I was like, I've met the one and they were like, all right, we'll have to meet her. I'm like, cool, man. Let's do this. 13 years later. Here we are. Here we are. That's awesome. I love it. Well, so we know that you have this big movie coming out next week, but if you want to give our listeners just a little bit of a background on how you met Willie, kind of like y'all's start of your relationship meeting, fill in K and all of that and kind of like a true backstory of the movie, kind of filling us in on that. Yeah. So I came into the family. I actually met Willie in fourth grade as summer came up. Which is crazy to think about like having kids and grandkids that like they might meet their spouse in fourth grade, like that's insane. But I remember I thought he was cute. I like saw him across the cafeteria. I thought he was so cute. He had dimples. He did not have a beard yet. You have beard? No beard yet. Oh, hello hair. Nope. No tattoos. Do you have any tattoos in fourth grade? Maybe a mole. Yeah, start of it. He was so cute and he asked me on the moonlight hike and I said yes and everything. But we didn't go to the same church. He went to like the little country church and I went to the city church, which I mean, we're in West Monroe, Louisiana, so not that city, but you know, but compared to his, it was like tiny, tiny church. And so I went down to their house, though, in fifth grade, I never forget, this is the first time I went to fill in K's house, which is the same house you see on that dynasty. Like they haven't moved. Nothing's changed pretty much, except they did add, um, add a room on. I got a son. I went there growing up. They had two bedrooms, you know, filling K run one and the boys were in another all, all shared one together. Willie says he looks back and thinks like, where did I sleep? Because they really had one like double bed for four boys and he's like, we just slept wherever we found a spot. Made it work. Yeah, we slow wherever we found a spot. And he, he admits that he peed the bed, so no one wanted to sleep with him. So. Headwear. Now we put that on national, whatever this is better, we'll just go ahead and say it. So anyway, fifth grade, I went down there and feel, I'll never forget me to feel he had this like big black beer, no, it's great, but it was black and it was intimidating, you know. And, um, he said, have you met my boys, Willie just and Jason Salis and my friend and I were there together. And we were like, so intimidating, we're like, yes, sir. And he says, they're going to be good husband someday, which we're in fifth grade. And he's like, for crew, you're already, yeah, I do the pitch, yeah, I guess, yeah, he's already pitching it. And he said, they're good hunters, they're good fishermen, they're going to be good providers. And I'll never forget him saying that. And what were you thinking? That sounds like a great plan. It turned out. Yeah. He was right. You know, at that time, I was actually thinking, I just thought he was cute, but, um, I really wasn't thinking about all the other stuff, but, um, but yeah, so that happened then and then my senior year, we started dating, um, seriously, and it was, I mean, we started dating in January and Bob March, we were saying we were getting married. We just knew we had known each other for so long and been friends and all that stuff often on. And so that's how it started. And then I guess, um, of course, I had kids and grew a family and all that. And then whenever Willie was about 30, was whenever he decided to go back to work for that commander, he had, was working, was running a summer keya. We were children's ministers, youth ministers kind of do a different charge work and also run in Cape Chioca, which is still in our family and is still really a big part of our family life. John Luke actually is the director out there now. But, um, about 30, he was like, you know, I think it's time to meet for me to go back to the family business. And he was, I say his 20s were his rebellious years, you know, because he was like, you know, um, showering and shaving and not, not living up to the family like that standards of the family. I feared and wear camo all the time and live in the woods, basically, you know, that was his college years and all that. Well, Corey, and speaking of college, I find it interesting and I would have never known it if I haven't traveled with y'all, but when y'all were in college, y'all actually did a year abroad. We did. We studied in, um, Florida, Italy, which we're going back this next summer. We're so excited because we haven't been in a long time. We did a semester in Florence and loved it. It was the most fun. Willie, about the end of it was like, I've had enough culture there. They got that Italy's laced with culture. Yeah. It is. It is. We went to all the museums. We did all of it. And we had the best time. We say we were neither of us are great with directions, so we were like lost in Europe. We would just get on a train. It was, you know, there's young years of life where you're supposed to do that. Have no money and you sleep all the train because you can't afford a hotel room and we would get on a train and spend the night sleep and wake up in a new country. And it was just the best. I think you see more when you don't have money. Mm-hmm. This is so true. You know what I mean? Because once we have money, it's like, hey, there's a nice hotel. We're going to stay in there if it's raining and we're not going to go out. We're going to kind of look around here, but when you don't have nothing, yeah, in early 20s and 18s, 20s, up until the 30s, maybe, you're supposed to, there's not the wrong with that. You will see everything in experience of German. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It was so fun. One time, I remember we were going like south of France. We were going from Florence to Spain and going to the south of France and there was these like robbers on the train. I'll never forget. So we're asleep in one of those little train cars and we're all sleeping and some friends are with us. And they open our thing and grab a bag like one of our friends backpacks and take off with it. Willie jumps up and takes off running through the train. I'm like, this is like a movie. So hold on. Wait a second. Yeah. You actually got to be in a real-life train robbery. I don't have that. Qual, man. That's really cool. I didn't know that he did that. And Willie stepped up. He chased him down. He starts chasing him and I'm thinking, what is that to happen? He goes through like one car, you know, and they drop the backpack, thankfully. So he got it back. But I'm just envisioning like once he went to the next car, I'm like, oh no, he's never coming back. Anyway, he came back. We were all saved. He saved the backpack the whole night. He slept with his like feet on the thing. So every time, you know, the door was start to open, he'd wake up anyway. So yeah, that was pretty heroic, huh? I feel like I would have chased somebody. I don't run. I definitely won't run after somebody unless probably we were on a train because I knew that the end is right there. But yeah, that's a good one. I don't know. I didn't know that story. That's nice. What a fun story. Yeah. So that happened. And yeah, we had it. That was super fun. Yeah, so after college, we came back here, moved back here, started having babies, super fun years, sweet years of him running the camp. So we lived on the camp properties. Our kids were just like, had this free range life where, you know, they ran around and had maps of the property of the camp property and got to just run free down there. And then, yeah, when he was about 30, we, he said, okay, I think it's time to go about to the family business. So we did. And really the first year, he was like the yard guy down there because he didn't really have a specific role at Duck Commander. He just kind of, it's like, I'm going to come back in and just see what there is here. And we kind of had that was when we were starting. My dad had started the website, Duck Commander.com and was handling that for Phil and Kay. And we said, you know, I think there's something to this, this, the internet, the website, you know, where people are going to start buying from here and everything. This was kind of really early days of all that. And so yeah, he went down the first year, he just kind of was like finding out what was happening down there. He started traveling to Phil a little bit, Phil was doing some speaking and he would sell the duck calls, make the setup a little booth and it was those days where we were like, you know, this isn't done. Duck Commander has more to it. And we just started getting the inspiration about what Duck Commander could be and Phil and Kay had done a fantastic job with it. But they were kind of at the point of like, yeah, we did all we can do. We sold, there's only, you know, million duck hunters in the world. We sold as all we can sell. And I feel like, William, I just remember some fresh life and excitement for the family company and the brand and what Phil and Kay had started. And so yeah, we started running the website out of our house at that point and we were the ones who answered the call at two in the morning when someone called in for a duck call or whatever. It's like, you know, it's all the number on the website. We were the ones who packed it. That's when hey, that's when you would buy a duck call back then. Yeah. 2 a.m. You see those infomercials? I got every one of those fishing lures and every duck call. And yeah, and they call our house and we'd be like, yeah, duck commander or whatever, you know. So yeah, those were those fun early days of us trying to just kind of figure it out. We started this group called of duck call it synonymous. And so you if you were a duck call like you were like addicted to duck hunting and we had like, you know, the 10 rules of duck call it synonymous and I wrote the newsletter for it and just all these fun early days where I would add call Phil and be like, all right, how many ducks did you kill today? So I could put it in the newsletter, you know? That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. I remember the first commercials when he had the beard because you were talking about the beard and it's intimidating. Yeah. Like a lot of guys will grow that out just for that reason. And it works. I mean, I remember watching the, I think it was a Benelli commercial and they were like boom, boom, boom. And they were paddling. They were all camby dubbing. It was raining and they were blasting ducks and they were paddling the boat with the shotgun. That was one of the coolest damn commercials I'd ever seen and I was a full blown Navy seal. I was like, right there. It's hard for me. Yeah, man. I mean, when they're all painted up and looking the part, yeah. Yeah. Some sexy stuff, man. That commercial right there was, I'll go buy another shotgun, even though I have a lot. Yeah. Now, just talking about it, it's getting me making you want about it. You know, talking about, I mean, it's not even duck season right now. I'm about to go out after this and get my shotgun out in the duck call and just start practicing. My grandpa that just passed away this last year, he was such a fan of duck commander. Like, yeah. He had the DVD sets of duck commander. He was probably part of your ducaholics thing if you had it in mail because he didn't do internet. They love doing that, man. I mean, my grandpa was one of y'all's biggest fans ever. That's awesome. That's awesome. I come from a duck hunting family. That's for sure. I didn't. I married into it. So I didn't know what I was missing. You can't really leave how much fun you have on a duck hunt when you're out there with your boys and your dog kind of doing all that. That is so funny. It's okay. So y'all took duck, go ahead. So y'all took duck commander to a whole nether level after that. Yeah. I feel like that was just kind of that, yeah, that new energy that Willie brought in. And it was funny because he's talking about the beard. So by then, Phil, I mean, he's always had the beard like I've never seen him without it. Ever shaved that? Never, right? Like, never. Yeah. I mean. He's always had it. He came out wearing that sucker. He did. I think he was. Yeah. That's the picture. He's QD2 in high school. There's all his high school sports pictures, for sure. But yeah, I remember Willie, so Willie and Jay's, they used to like grow the beard out for hunting season. And then they shave after that. So it'd be kind of be like, you know, that was the hunting season thing that they'd do. See, I had to do that. That's what Mel puts on me. You do that too. October 31st and I had to shave Valentine's Day. That's how the guy is. That's how Willie and Jay used to do. But also, it's funny because they would then Willie would, you know, go to Walmart meetings or do this kind of stuff. And they would shave before they do that. Then one year, he was like, why don't we just like go as who we are? You know, like, why are we trying to like clean up and wear a suit for the business meetings like, you know, like everybody else does. Let's just keep the beards and do what we do. And that's, I think, really when it, it all kind of started shifting. Oh, identity. Yeah. I got that. That lesson of like, Hey, be here you are. Don't try to like, you know, fit into the mold that someone else says you should. We like to wear came out when we're beards and thing the woods and that's what they remember when that, when it really caught fire was when the show came out, the dynasty, right? When y'all became the dynasty, because y'all family, it is, man, it is all over the world. I mean, I, I send text to Willie. I found in the middle of nowhere and found a newspaper with y'all's picture. When I didn't, what even in English, I was like, man, they got you guys everywhere. That's crazy. Yeah. I think it was in over like a hundred countries at one point. So that was crazy. You would never, I mean, he could ever imagine or expect it. That whirlwind like that went and try to explain that to people like you see, especially with y'all and your family, the whole family, it's not just one person because usually like you'll have the celebrity and then the family will come in there just to kind of, but y'all, it's all y'all. Yeah. Which actually think that really helps us people are like, how did you kind of keep your head and all that? That's what I was going to ask. Yeah. I think that that really helped us because I do look at people, you know, I remember especially during that time period, seeing an interview with some young kind of star and I just felt her like loneliness, you know, and I thought, oh, how lonely would this be if it's, you're on your own and you experienced that. I've seen it. That's why I bring it up. I've seen that. Yeah. You've been there. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely kind of like when you're on your own going through something like this because it can be, there's a loneliness that comes with it, which you wouldn't expect because you're like, oh, everybody's looking at you and everybody loves you and all this, but actually, like, it's the loneliest, you're, yeah, you're, there's an isolation and everything. So thankfully, we did have the family that we went through it together, we were all in it together. So we could kind of like understand it for each other and be there for one another in it. Everybody take to it pretty well. Yeah. You know, I think everybody really did because on the outside, it seems like it. Yeah. Pardon the metaphor, but like duck on a pond, like you guys look as smooth as can be. It's like that duck. But under water, then legs are going 900 miles an hour, right? As I say, I don't know about it. It wasn't all smooth. That's for sure. We definitely did not do it perfectly. And definitely there were some things that, I mean, when that dynasty ended, we had to, we were all like, all right, let's take some inventory here, like what just happened, where we, we had to really focus back on our marriage and like really, all right, we need some counseling. We need, we need it. We need to like really kind of seriously assess what just happened because it was, it was a crazy whirlwind. And there were definitely hard things to happen from it. Our kids, you know, look back, which it's interesting because we've talked about, would we do it again? And all of our kids are like, yes, absolutely. So I'm like, okay, that's good, you know, they're saying that, sure, you know, which we didn't ever done at everyone, even whatever the hardships that came with it or whatever, the blessings were way bigger than whatever the negatives were. And so, and, you know, you grow from hardships, that's the thing every, I mean, you're not guaranteed an easy life. If you work at a bank or a teacher or whatever, you know, there's nothing easy about this place down here. That's right. I love that. Yeah. I'm watching Sadie take off. Yeah. I mean, it's different when you all are 11, you got that protection down there, but when they get their own fan base, like when your kids become pop, then they're not, it's like it's, it's completely different thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And she talks about that a lot. I mean, dates with the stars, definitely. How about that? Yeah. But her category made it, it was different, you know, and so she, before she had that protection of the family, then that happened and she experienced a lot, you know, some of that loneliness of kind of like it appears that like you've got every friend in the world, but actually your real friends don't really know how to befriend to you anymore and kind of start. Not terrible. For example, the jealousy or any of those type of things are just not really understanding kind of what your life is and looks like. And so that was hard. There'd be people to stay in with duck calls and beards and yelling things when she tried to make a shot and, you know, and weird fans running across the field at a football game that, you know, and stalker, you know, all those things. Package deal comes with everything, you know, they don't talk about that. Definitely. How do you grow up? That's right. Yep. Yep. That part gets left out and every celebrity has to go through it. That's right. And no celebrity talks about it. Not really. Unless it makes the news. It's hard because you don't want to complain because you're like, hey, you know, I'm grateful. I'm living a good life. You know, you don't want to complain. It's not like I always said people people were like, oh, it's so hard. I'm like, yeah, I mean, but I mean, I didn't like move to Haiti to become a missionary. Like, it's not hard like that hard. You know, so you feel like, sure, it's a different kind of hard. Different kind of hard. All together. You don't complain. But it's hard. It's hard. I'm glad you said it like that. I go through that all the time. I was like, people are like, hey, man, you must not have a hard day. I was like, I don't have a hard day. Not, I've been through my hard days. Right. Physically bleed and all that stuff. Yeah. I know what that is. Yeah. But there's a different kind of pain that comes along with this life. There's a different kind of difficulty that you can anticipate. Most people don't talk about it because it's different for every person. Yeah. And I've, I've started, once I noticed that and started picking that up, and it's been years now, but you know, I can see it. You can also see the people who are coming into the life like, hey, this is my chew you up. You know what I mean? So the family dynamic is so important with that. Yeah. I think that that really helped us. I had my teammates. That was my blessing. I have my family, but my moral right, my teammates and my new suckers wouldn't let, they don't even want bad and eye at me. I don't have a chance to complain. Yeah. That's good. You know, you're staying there, staying close to your roots in Texas, staying here in Louisiana, having that, I went right back home. Sure. Yeah. Going back to whether your roots are deep rather than kind of just, you know, the best part about that and you guys do it perfectly is that when you go back home to your family and your friends where you grew up, they don't see that celebrity. Right. They're like, hey, I know you. I know who you are. Yeah. And I need that. I love hearing that. I mean, I've been some places some time and I'm looking over and something like that in my head. I'm going. I can't believe you talking to me like that. You know what I mean? But then I remember back when they're older than me. I'm a boy still in their eyes and like, you can talk to me any way you want. I probably need to hear it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. All right. So with all of the success of Deck Dynasty and seeing your kids do all kinds of awesome things. Sadie with her whole, when she has like a whole conglomerate going on and Bella had her book come out and I mean, every all of them have their own successes. And now you've got this movie that didn't Willie produce it. So actually like on the title, Willie's executive producer and I'm one of the producers because I was really just in the day to day of it. Willie's kind of more in the, the, you know, Willie's out and we were just talking about this recently. Willie, he is kind of that dreamer over. And I'm kind of the one who like, you know, does the steps to get it, make it happen I guess the dreams. Yeah. You got to have some personal dreams it then you got to have the interpreter who knows what he's looking at. And then you got to have the person who will line it out. There you go. There you go. So we're actually partnered with one of these cousins, Zach Dasha, who, when you see the film, um, Phil's sister, who is, um, Jan, who's in the movie that is a really instrumental part of the film and the story of Phil and his life, she's the, she's the sister that never gave up on Phil. When Phil was at his lowest, he was, you know, a drunk and I just, you could look at him and think his life is going nowhere. Jan believed in him, you know, she's the one who sent the pastor to the bar. She's the one who said, if you convert Phil, he will convert thousands. She just knew that Phil had that in him, even when he was, his life looked like it was just a disaster. So anyway, um, Zach is our partner, his, her son, Zach is our partner in Treville, Iley. And so the film was really, you know, apart his, his vision as well to make this happen because it's his mom story as well. And, um, yeah, so it's been a crazy process, about two years from, like, writing it and funding it and, um, we filmed it right here in, when Shreve Port, which is about an hour and a half from here, right close to where Phil and Kay grew up, we filmed a lot of it in Vivian and Dixie, all the little towns that they grew up in, filmed some of it here in Monroe. And, um, so yeah, it's been a crazy process is, it was hard, it was hard work. Yeah. We hit a point where the first edit, I was like, oh, no, we, we screwed this up, like we lost it, you know, I watched it and was like, oh, my goodness. Because, um, the story is a hard story. I mean, we're covering the 10 years of filling Kay's mirrors that was like bad. And it's, we're like, how are we going to not make this right at all? Like, is that, that, that was Phil's life at that time period, you know, but we're like, we want to show the real, the raw, the gritty. We don't want to like gloss over because, you know, a lot of Christian films do that. It's like, oh, you end up with something kind of cheesy because you're, you miss the hard part. You're gloss over the hard part, yeah. We're like, we don't want to gloss over that, but also like, it's like the first, you're like, oh, we don't want to sit with three hours of CM Phil draw. Can't wait. Yeah. Like, how do we, how do we tell the story? And, um, yeah. So the first edit, we're like, oh, shoot, we might, we might, we might not have captured it. Um, but miraculous, I say, miraculously, really, because I think it was miraculous. We, uh, we set in a room and just were like, all right, how, how do we actually tell the story? What are we, what are the pieces that really need to be told to, to kind of, you understand somebody like, you know, you see somebody as a drunk and you're like, oh, okay, you know, they made back choices, but also there's things that led up to that point. You know, there's the things, what, what parts of the life led to this? What was his motivation? Why did he, why did he choose that? Where did, where, what did all, what all happened in the sub period? So anyway, yeah, it's almost like all those situations you keep apart from it, like you take something, like drinking one bad when you were in that part, but you went to this part and you kept your drinking. Right. That's what you're saying. It's like steps. It's like, nobody gets into this, like, you know, whole one, one moment. That's not how it works. That's so true. That's good. That is so true. You know what I mean? It's just like, you know, I'll get here. It's like, well, it's a slow process. Exactly. And then you wake up one day and you're in it. And you're in it. Yeah, you're in it. You're in it. And then you're, yeah, you hit rock, if you hit rock bottom, then you figure out, okay, now I can look up and like figure out how to, how to get out of myself out of this. And a lot of people, when they talk about, I'm sorry, but when Christians, man, they think our lives are great all the time. I was like, no, no, no, hey, to get to this point, we'd have had to suffer. Matter of fact, some of these Christians that you see all the time, how these great lives are still suffering, they suffer in it, but they understand that that part goes with this part. That's how God works. Exactly. Like it's over. Look alike. That's the thing. Like we gloss over this as Christians, but you look at the Bible. They didn't gloss over like these people that got chose to his work and work through had tough lives made bad decisions, murderers, adulterers, you know, all of these things draw. You know, all of these problems. So it's like God didn't just choose people who are perfect. He really rarely chooses someone who's perfect to do his work. He chooses the one who's weak. And then his glory is made known in that. So that was, you know, a huge part of the message of the film. So yeah, we went back and we did three days of reshoots and it just turned the whole thing around. You know, it was like after those three days of reshoots, we've cut those into the movie and we're like, this is it. We have it, you know, and just are really proud of it. It's turned out great. I cannot wait for you all to see it. I'm excited. I can't wait to hear your feedback about it. It's hard. It's hard to watch. I mean, because it is, it is a hard time period of their life, but the redemption. It's like that scripture about like who is forgiven much, forgives much, you know, the greater your understanding that you're rescued, that you've been rescued from the pit, you know, the more you would say, those people hit the hardest, those people will always hit you the hardest, the ones that have been screwing up their whole life and people have been forgiven them. And it only takes a second. And you don't have to discipline or scold them or anything. You can see it in their eyes. When someone turns the page and turns around and realizes that they've been screwing up the whole time and all they want it, they'll give and they'll go harder than anybody. Yep. I'm a living example of that. Yeah. And that's, that's feels like that's exactly what you see in his life. He hit that bottom and there's a line in the movie says, I had to get to the end of myself to find the beginning of God. And it's so true. It's like that's where we all need to be, you know, some of us are more aware of it than others, you know. And I think the more aware of it, you are the more you offer, can offer grace to others, the more you can love others, the more you can live that abundant life God actually has for us. And so I loved watching movies and I didn't know anything about making them. Yeah. I didn't know halfway. Like if you and if you sit down and watch a movie and enjoy it, you got no idea who actually did that. I mean, the actors are one thing, but the people putting that sucker together that don't get any credit for anything. Yes. They're amazing. That was one of the things that you said a lot for yours every day. Yeah. Every day. That's how I was pretty much and Zach was every day of our partner and I was, I was, you know, most days because yeah, you're like, you're telling your story. You have to do it right. You know, you can't just let someone else do that. So what did what did Phil and Kay say when they saw it the first time? It was hard. Phil, I've never seen Phil cry like he has over this time period. It's been hard. One of the things he said that really struck me was I think, I think Phil has told his story forever. And he was up for doing it because he was like, Hey, if it'll help somebody sell my story, you know, he's told a story. But it's one thing to tell it and nothing to see yourself on a big screen and live in like that, you know, and so I think it has been harder for him than we all kind of expect it or he expected, but he, so we asked him, like, what do you think of the actor that plays you? Who did a fantastic job? But Phil said, his eight line was not much and we were like, Oh, Phil, what do you mean? He was like, I didn't like that guy on the screen. Like he, he didn't like him, he didn't like seeing himself. Yeah, he didn't like it. It's self. Yeah, he didn't like seeing himself in that when he was like, I hope the actor knows that it's acting that he clarified it. We went ahead. That's actually a compliment to the actor. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We were like, explain what you've been here, you know, because we were like, what do you, and he was like, I just, I didn't like that guy on the screen that I saw, he goes, he saw himself, he saw himself in that so much in it and he knew, like, Oh, I think he, he kind of realized, I don't know, it just, he had to come to Christmas and I that, but it was so beautiful because Kay, I've said all along, Kay, she, when she forgave Phil, she truly forgave him, you know, she's not holding on to any of it. She's not, you know, she just really was able to offer that grace and, and forgave him. And so through all this, she's been so sweet and they, I think they've had some sweet moments and able to like, you know, he'll even from, from some things that I think maybe Kay healed from and, and had forgiven him of and all that that he's now having to forgive himself, maybe even. Oh, that's sweet. Oh, well, you, you know what that does to him, does to us? Is it takes that we swallow that pain? Yeah. Don't you realize that you've been hurtin' somebody and I mean, you realize it. Yeah. Then that pain immediately comes inside of you and it's the hardest thing to deal with. It's like a center line of pain. It's unexplainable. And that in itself will humble you. Yeah. See everyone else's grace been thrown at you for so long and you never acknowledged it. And then finally it should, it opens up and you're like, oh, wait a second, then he can look back and see that. Uh-huh. I think that's exactly what he's experienced for this movie. See yourself. I never get, I mean, I didn't watch it all the way through, but watching myself get my ass kicked along with all my buddies, man, I didn't, I didn't know what to do. How about that? I knew what to do, you know, in the moments, but never, it's kind of like you look back and then I was like, I don't, I know I kind of have an idea of what he's feeling, man. And you can't even talk about it, you can't even explain it sometimes, it's tough. Because of the men we are now, like I would have never, you kind of want to apologize. You know what I mean? It's kind of want to say to our families and then like, I'm sorry, I had to be like that. Yeah, yeah, that. And then, yeah, Willie's been, Willie said this because our church that we go to has the saying, it says, where you have no past, only a future. And it was like, yeah, except for the unless they make a movie about it, you're right, a book. Why can't you pass it? Yeah, that's hard. That's another, that's another level, like when you're in the spotlight and you're telling your story and you know, it's for the good. I mean, the, the, what good your book has done and what good villain case story is doing for others. You're having to live it. And you're having to live. Oh, girl. So you want to hear something funny that happens to me. Every time I walk in somewhere, everyone's always going to give me their best and they're always going to try to outdo me or show me how bad as they are. Like no, I have to take a Pilates class, like we go to Pilates together all week. And I literally go in there and get my ass handed to me. I don't know anything what I'm doing, man, but they, they, they, it's just as hard as can be in multiple situations and it's got a one of them deals like, hey, I know a little about you. No, you can handle it. I'm like, no, that's not just because I can't doesn't mean I like handling it all the time. Yep. But it doesn't matter. Once you get stamped. That's right. Yeah. Once you got that duck stamp, it's on him forever. That's all right. It's so true. He's the one that had to go through the hard stuff to come out on the other side so we can see that that's possible because we're all born into the mess. Yeah. Exactly. Well, that's one thing. Yeah. Well, actually, whenever I took down as you haven't, this is just on a light note, but, but you see it in exactly what you're saying. We kind of learned how people don't like people to change. If you're in the spotlight, you're in the public eye, they like you to say the same. They want you to be. That's what, and I started thinking about like you think, think of these like old rockers who are like still rocking the same look. That's a perfect example of that. Yeah. Because people want you to be who they think you are on the screen and they want you to stay. But people, people change and grow every day. Yeah. But it's hard because you get trapped in this kind of like one. And even when Willie like cut his hair, it was weird because it's like, wait, no, no, no. We want you to be that guy from that time period. And if you cut your hair, that means you're not that guy anymore. Like, no, that you're still she'll the same person. It's just you grow and change and. How about that anomaly? I was there because we fall in love with it. Yeah. You're a great guy. I'm an athlete. I see it when he cut his hair, I was like, do you? What's wrong? Exactly. What's the matter? Why did you cut your hair? You know what I mean? I got to say any of my business why if he cuts his hair and not I don't give it damn, but I mean when I saw it, I was like, well, where's Willie? What happened, and? Are you okay? Exactly. Yes. But you're saying, you mean on a deeper level, like what you're saying, like people are expecting you to be that Navy seal. Like, I got to be, everything's always going to be tough and the hardest and push it to the to the limit because that's who you are, but it's like, oh, I'm growing. See, that's the thing is I've made my transition. Like I'm in the church, like I've tried to be nice and do all this stuff, and it doesn't resonate. People are like, what's the matter with you? What happened? I'm like, you're supposed to grow. You know, you go from the water to the pot, it's part of that, but that matter, that doesn't matter. So what do you think that, like with people watching the movie, is the biggest message in their redemption? Is that kind of the overall theme for it? Yes, I would say redemption and really that the message that there's nobody that's too far gone from the Lord of Jesus. Like there's, I think people count themselves out because they're like, oh, I've screwed up, I've hit this, I've done this, I've done that, and they count themselves out. But like Jesus is like, no, I'm here, I've got for everybody. I'm here for all of us. And so I think that, yeah, I think a lot of people, I think that that hope of like, hey, there can be something different in your life. You can come out of this and there can be, there's a, there's a point where, you know, I think there's a point that everybody hits in different parts of their life where something might feel hopeless. Like, oh, this person will never change, you know, that saying of like, oh, people don't change, whatever, this person will never change. Or my marriage can never be better or whatever. And this still in case life proves that that's not actually not true. You know, field change is life at 28. And then, you know, 30.call business started. But it went until field was like 60, that did not see happen, you know, or whatever. It's like, oh, things can change. And there is always hope for something different about it. There was a time when K was a single mom, the three boys that she didn't know, she'd ever see feel again. But Jesus came into, feel, feel hit rock. And it's like, oh, I don't want this. I want something different. I want something better for my life and things change. I think it's a message of hope, redemption, forgiveness, K having to forgive, Phil. That's a heart, that's the hardest thing to do, you know, whenever you've been hurt by somebody, offer that true forgiveness. But it's when we understand God's grace and forgiveness of us, then we can offer that to someone else. Then we start to look at as a badge of honor. Like, hey, you had to go through that, so I didn't have to. I have to look at you and be able to see that road that you went down, the good, the bad, and how it came out on the other end to know that we'll work. Somebody has to be an example. Humans need that. The eyes eat first, and it's not a, I can tell you about it, but you ain't gonna get it. You won't get it, because you're gonna hear me differently. But if I show you something, and those of you that have been designated to go through that hardship on the other end, you see the rewards that you all have now for sticking it out, for sticking it out. It's still hard, but you stuck it out. And we watch it all the time. Living examples of how life really treats the true believer and the good people. And to me, it's like you look at somebody, actually someone posted the day about, he was saying how he went to AA, and he had never posted a line. Well, that's heroic. To know that you've been through this, you overcame something that was hard. You overcame something that didn't feel good because you wanted to be better for the people in your life. That's a road, that's amazing. That's not something to be looked down on. Show them it's possible. People need to see an example of it can be done. Because otherwise, I'd be like, hey, if I'm stuck in here, I can't get out. No one else has gotten out. Especially if you're really weak. Like, well, if he couldn't get out, then I can't. Like, hey, man, I saw somebody get out of this. So it's not, it's not a permanent thing. It's a road. There is an ending. Yes, Sadie actually feel, so we did a podcast where we talked about like behind the scenes of the movie. And Phil said to Sadie, he said, I'm embarrassed about this. He actually said that. And he said that throughout this thing. And Sadie was like, when you share something like this, people could say that I've known this for my own life because they've shared vulnerable things about her life too. She's like, every time I do people aren't looking at me, they're thinking about themselves. And that is really true. Like whenever you share something vulnerable, they're like, oh, I remember when I was in that place. Oh, I was, I remember when I hit that. Makes you look beautiful, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you were talking about getting beautiful somebody's eyes open up like that. Not just to them, just open up out loud to the masses. Yup. Because you know we're mean by nature. Like they'll throw daggers at you as soon as they smell blood in the damn water. But the more you do that and they see how tough you are, then it changes. It's a resilience and then like, wait a minute. You know, somebody I can pick on. There's somebody I need to live an example by. Yeah, I mean, you can just be honest and raw with your life. And it's just, there's a freedom that comes with that too to say, like, hey, yeah, this who I was and this is who I am now. This is what got did and this is who I am now. And that's how Phil has lived his life. And yeah, we're excited. We can't wait for it to come out and just people to start seeing it because just a few people that we've seen screeners too and all that, the impact and the feedback we've gotten has been just incredible about where they saw themselves or how they feel like God is going to use this movie. So that's awesome. So when is it coming out? What's the actual release date? September 28th. And there's a website, theblindmaybe.com, so you can go there and type in like your city and I'll tell you what theaters right now. We're in like 1600 theaters across the country. We hope to gain more. And so, you know, the more people kind of pre-order tickets and all that, it's kind of like any other, this is an independent film. It's a, we're in a phantom release. So it's limited screens. So like, we need more screens, you know, we need more people to about take it. So many people show up up in a weekend as the more that happens, the more screens get picked up. We just heard that Taylor Swift, her, you know, what her concert is coming out two weeks after ours. So we're like, shoot, that's going to knock it. That's going to knock all the movies out of the theater. She's going to take over all the theaters. So we're like, we got to get people in the theater those first two weeks. Yes, well, I hope people listen to this. This will come out before that, right? Yep. It'll come out the day before. Yep. Awesome. So this is going to come out on the 27th and we encourage everyone to go to theblindmovie.com and pre-order your tickets and share it with everybody. Share gift tickets, do whatever to share this story because it can help people. It's not only just an entertainment thing, you can actually change a life. And still track y'all down on social media while it's Instagram, Facebook, all the, all the, yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're all there. We've been talking about it on there. We'll add in everything too. It's fun. You see, so this was set in like the 50s. So this is Phil and Kate's childhood. And you see some of the things that contributed to Phil's early years. His mom had mental illness, you know, the things that some of the things that may have contributed to his life and choices. But you see kind of a young sa. So don't know how to see fans. We'll like to see a young uncle sa at the beginning of his corkiness. Phil and Kate dating, you know, those dating years. And it's fun because we were, it's really captures, like you mentioned. The actors are just the front of whatever the movie, but the set design, the cinematography is beautiful. I mean, it's really as neat to see. You probably enjoy this too, Mark. It's loving to be a part of a team. Just how a team comes together and they work their tails off, like till two and three in the morning every night and to put something really beautiful on the screen. Yeah, I'm seeing it firsthand on the set because they're all there. They might not be doing anything. So I'd walk around, like, hey, man, what are these people doing? I'd be like, hey, just wait till that sucker starts working though. You ain't gonna believe what he can do. Yeah. And then they would pass one thing off, hand it over to that other guy. I'd go to the next station, I'd be kind of hanging out with like, hey, what are y'all doing here? And they'd start showing me just a little bit and how that magic comes together and they splice and do it, and they'd be like, I know. And then you see them start thinking, like, let's try this. What do you think about this? And stuff you don't even see. That's the best part about having other people around is their vantage point. Yeah. Imagine like you're all sitting around a ravine, looking down at something and you wanna see a different angle. That's a different human. Those are different eyeballs looking on that and they explain it differently too. But you can hear it the same. It's a beautiful thing, man, and when those people in Hollywood are really good at that. Yeah, and all is just little details. I mean, the attention to detail after detail that all makes up a piece or a set or a one scene that lasts like 30 seconds, but just all the little details that go into it. It really was an incredible thing to kind of experience. We were talking about it too. And when you're watching a movie, you have the characters. That's one part of the movie. You also have the scenery. People can watch a movie just to see the scenery. Yeah. And the music. So if you're hitting them in the ears and the eyes and then they got, it's these senses that just wrap up and then what you're talking about, yeah, that's a movie. It's so true. That's been fun to see how just, yeah, just little, like, to different edits when they put different music in and how that music affects that scene and, ah, it's crazy. I think it was your mom's Instagram this morning, post or maybe yesterday posted that your grandson made a cameo in it. Yes, that was so fun. So Willie was too when all this was happening. He was three right at three whenever Phil turned his life around and everything changed for their family. So he doesn't have a lot of memories of it. And we were like, oh, we need a two-year-old, little, you know, actor, you know, to play Willie. And we're like, we actually happen to have a grandson that seems like a separate. Yeah, John Shepard got to play Willie in the movie is so cute. It was so fun to be on set with our little grandson playing Willie is just, yeah. So you can officially say he's been an actor his whole life. And that's our child actor. Child actor. Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing this. Yeah, if we need to get together, it's been way too long. Way too long, way too long. Yeah, this was really fun to just get a little taste to visit with y'all, but yes, we need it in person. Yes, yes. All right, girl, God bless you, hug the family. Yes, all right. We love y'all. Thank you for coming out. Bye, love y'all. Bye, love you. Thank you, Cory, for coming down. We appreciate you. And if you want to go check out this movie, please go do so. Go get your tickets right now. Also, if you have any guest recommendations, please just comment on YouTube. See, we want to see who you've got. So give us a shout. We'll take a look. And we'll see you next week.