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Loving God, Loving Others and Leading Others to do the Same

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Home » “You Are Going to Die in 14 Years!” Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty Shares About His Life’s Mission with Tucker Carlson

The story begins with Willie Robertson, of the famous Duck Dynasty television show, recounting how a man traveled from another state to Louisiana to share the Gospel with his father, Phil Robertson, who was at a bar. This conversation took place during an interview with Tucker Carlson about Willie’s life and his new book, Gospeler: Turning Darkness into Light One Conversation at a Time.

Reputation and Transformation

Willie Robertson began the conversation with a probing question: “Reputation. What drove him to drive up there at that hour? Drive? Walk into that bar? What drove him to do that?”

“It was just for his father, Phil Robertson,” Willie Robertson reflected. “Just for that guy. And I thought, ‘Wow, I don’t know if I would’ve done that.’ But he did. And it literally changed my life.

“It changed my whole family’s life.

“I’m not a big prosperity guy, like, ‘Look what God has done.’ But look at what He gave us. It paid off. It didn’t matter—what mattered was how it changed our lives and kept our family together. Worth it.

“When I said, ‘We’re worth it,’ I got to see my dad and grow up with two parents. Worth it, you know?”

Willie recounted how his father embraced the transformation without any interest in money or fame. “Over time, my dad took that and never went about it for money or fame. He really pushed that away more than he embraced it.

“Even when I showed him the show, he was like, ‘No.’”

He explained how the opportunity to become famous found their family, not the other way around. “We didn’t get an email sent to us. A company came to us. The network came to us. We weren’t trying to become famous.”

Willie then observed how different that was from today’s culture. “You see a lot today—people are like, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get famous.’ And there’s no authenticity there.

“It’s like, ‘You want me to do this? Fine, I’ll do it. I’ll be famous.’

“But why would you want to be famous? Why would anyone?”

Fame and Its Purpose

Tucker responded with curiosity, shifting the focus to Willie’s perspective: “I don’t know. It seems like a lot of people want to be famous. What do you think? You are famous. What do you think of it?”

“It has its good parts about it,” Willie replied thoughtfully.

“What are those?” Tucker pressed.

“The people I’ve been able to meet. Yeah. I wouldn’t know you if I wasn’t.

“Well, you wouldn’t have invited me on this podcast. Had another TV show. You know? I don’t know,” Willie added with a smile.

He recalled the unlikely first encounter with Tucker. “I ran into you in an elevator in Nashville.”

“That’s true,” Tucker laughed. “But you thought I was a homeless guy.”

Willie laughed too. “I did. Yeah. He put money in my coffee cup.”

As the humor settled, Willie reflected more deeply on their meeting. “I think God puts people together, you know. It just seems too weird to me not to think so.

“There are opportunities people have—they meet somebody, take advantage of somebody, or miss them, and you’re like, ‘Crap.’

“But I don’t know why He did that in the Bible, you know? There were things moving around. It could be for that person. It could be for someone else. It could be for something completely different—some situation that maybe needs to get out.”

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Sticking to the Mission

Reflecting on his recent choices, Willie spoke about resisting the temptation to dive into politics. “It was interesting that I had written this book.

“I decided this year, I’m not jumping into politics, even though it’s so tempting. They tried to get me to, you know, get involved, and I really just said, ‘No, I’m not.’

“I’m just going to promote this book.

“Then you said, ‘Hey, you should come on the podcast.’ It was scheduled for a few months ago.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to get pulled into the holidays.’ I said, ‘I’m going to get pulled into this thing.’

“And then, as it turned around, we still did the podcast after the election.

“That was kind of the commitment I made—just don’t get too involved because I didn’t want to mess it up.

“I really don’t care.

“If it’s the gospel or some political agenda, I’m going with the gospel every time.

“This is the power.

“If we can change people, you know? It changed me. It changed someone like my father and turned them into completely different people.

“That’s what I want to get to people.”

Planting Seeds: A Story of Transformation

Willie’s commitment to planting seeds of faith was most evident in a story he shared about a businessman—a man who, for years, resisted the idea of God.

“I had been working with this guy for years,” Willie recalled. “He was super successful, super rich, and very smug. He’d always shut me down with the same line, quoting scripture back at me like, ‘He who has not sinned, cast the first stone.’ I knew that was his way of saying, ‘I don’t want to hear what you’ve got to say.’ And, honestly, I could’ve given up on him. I could’ve thought, ‘Well, I tried.’ But I didn’t.”

The turning point came during a business trip to New York City.

“We were riding in a car together, talking about money. He was so excited about how much money we were going to make. I looked at him and said, ‘How old are you?’ He said, ‘58.’ And I said, ‘I bet you’re going to be dead in 14 years.’”

The man was shocked. “He turned to me and said, ‘Why would you say that?’ And I said, ‘The way you live, I’m just guessing. But have you ever thought about what happens then? What happens after that?’”

For the first time, the man didn’t respond with his usual line. “He didn’t say, ‘He who has not sinned.’ Instead, he said, ‘I’ve never thought about that.’”

That night, back at the hotel, the man asked Willie to come to his room and talk more.

“I grabbed my Bible, went to his room, and started sharing scripture with him. Right in the middle of it, he stands up, yells for his wife, and says, ‘I’m getting baptized!’”

It didn’t stop there.

“This was at midnight, in the middle of Manhattan, and I’m thinking, ‘Where are we going to find water to do this?’ But he said, ‘No, I’ve got to tell everybody.’ He emailed everyone he knew and invited them to his house for his baptism.”

A Ripple Effect of Faith

A month later, Willie traveled to the man’s house—a sprawling property filled with people from New York, L.A., and Florida who had come to witness his baptism.

“When I got there, he said, ‘Willie, tell them what you told me in that hotel room.’ So I shared the gospel again. His wife got baptized, his daughter got baptized, and it just kept going. Men in blue jeans were taking off their boots and jumping in the water. Over 25 people were baptized that night.”

Willie reflected on the moment. “You read about that in the Book of Acts, but to see it happen in real life—it’s powerful. And it all started with a conversation I didn’t give up on.”

Never Giving Up

For Willie, this story is a reminder to never stop planting seeds.

“Sometimes it takes 20 minutes. Sometimes it takes 20 years. You just don’t give up on people. Someone didn’t give up on me, and it changed my life. So I don’t give up on others.”

This story of one man’s baptism, and the ripple effect it created, captures the heart of Willie’s mission: to share the gospel, transform lives, and never lose sight of the power of faith.

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