Editor’s note: The following is from an interview with Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson during the 2019 Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg. – Tom Venesky
As vendors arranged their booths and lines of people congregated outside, the Star Spangled Banner boomed across the loudspeaker as the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg opened for the day.
I had just sat down with “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, and he was answering my question about his new book when the song played unexpectedly.
Without hesitation, Robertson stopped talking, stood up to face the flag and slapped his hand over his heart.
I immediately did the same.
After all, when you’re standing next to the patriarch of the “Duck Dynasty” clan during the National Anthem, you better make sure you respect the flag and the country.
Robertson spent last Thursday at the outdoor show to promote his new book, “The Theft of America’s Soul,” which was released on Feb. 5. The Louisiana native spoke passionately about the nation’s shift away from God and what needs to happen to reverse that trend.
At times, Robertson spoke in a sermon-like tone, complete with plenty of fire and brimstone. When it came to spreading the word of God, he clearly meant business.
Robertson arrived in Harrisburg after spending the previous day doing interviews in New York City, and it was obvious that he was happy to get out of the Big Apple.
In fact, just seeing the Pennsylvania countryside as he traveled to the outdoor show seemed to put Robertson at ease.
“I feel pretty good about Pennsylvania. I come rolling up in here and it’s almost like I found my fellow rednecks,” Robertson said before pausing and holding his hand up as if to apologize.
“Not that you may be a redneck.”
I told him I wasn’t offended by the term and, when it comes to hunters and anglers, he is indeed in good company in Pennsylvania.
After that, the 72-year-old reeled off stories as if he was sitting in a deer camp. He spoke candidly about how he started the Duck Commander empire with a single duck call and a lot of belief in faith and capitalism.
But there were challenges along the way.
Robertson, who has college degrees from Louisiana Tech University, was sometimes ridiculed by his friends as he took up commercial fishing while waiting for his duck call business to take off.
“I was patching a hoop net one day and my college buddies came down to the river and said, ‘You have two degrees. Why don’t you get a real job? Talk about an idiot.’
“Thirty years later they came back and said, ‘Robertson, you’re a genius,’“ Robertson said.
“So here’s the deal: With God and capitalism, you can start out as an idiot and end up being a genius.”
Perfecting a duck call that sounds just like a mallard hen doesn’t hurt, either.
Throughout the conversation, we talked about venison recipes (he prefers a young, tender deer to a big, older buck), technology (Robertson said he never owned or used a cell phone or computer), a recent phone call he received from President Donald Trump (“Put in your article that I respect Donald Trump. Greatly.”) and the criticism he receives from anti-hunters (“You talk about killing animals and eating them, you’re talking to the dude right here, man. It’s our life.”).
But when the talk steered toward the decline of hunting license sales nationwide, Robertson shifted uneasily in his chair and took on a serious tone. The problem, he said, stems from schools and family structure.
The public school system has veered away from God, Robertson said, and when that happened it also meant that any talk of hunting and fishing was taboo.
Families are less involved in the outdoors today as well, and Robertson stressed that kids are growing up oblivious to hunting and fishing.
“If mom and dad, if they don’t teach them about the outdoors, and if the school system doesn’t get you to appreciate what God has made, where will they get it?”
Good question.
While Robertson has plenty of ideas — enough to fill a book — on how to get America refocused on God, the answer on how to get kids more involved in the outdoors is harder to come by.
That disconnect from nature is a concern. It’s obvious that society is shifting away from not only God, as Robertson points out, but the outdoors as well. There is a growing disconnect with the values that one gains from spending time hunting and fishing, he said.
Perhaps that’s the biggest reason why Robertson felt at ease to be out of New York City and at the outdoor show in Harrisburg, surrounded by his fellow rednecks.
He was back in his element.
- This story originally appeared in The Times Leader.
