Phil Robertson Talks About How He Found His Faith and Built an Empire

The patriarch of the “Duck Dynasty” family, Phil Robertson, is speaking out more than ever about his faith and how he turned his life around before it ruined his marriage and family. With his new book, “The Theft of America’s Soul,” Robertson is highlighting how he turned his life around and got his soul on the right track when he hit bottom and before it was too late.

“Until I was 28 I didn’t have any faith,” Robertson said in a recent interview. “Here I am biblically speaking — God said I was under the control of the evil one. I didn’t know that. I was just getting high and drunk with the worst of them. … I had built a track record that was not a good one. I then realized, ‘What was I thinking? All that mischief and carrying on.’ … I came to know Jesus. I looked up one day and I said, ‘Man, I’m driven to do this. I have to do it.’”

And it wasn’t an easy road at first, Robertson explained.

“At first I’m trying to be good,” he said of his early days if recovery and learning to walk in his new-found faith. “I’m learning how to be good. My friends would come by, my old buddies, and they would say, ‘Let’s go for a ride. Drive up the road.’ I said, ‘Nah.’ My faith was being tested. … I just broke away from them. … I will say I got an unlisted phone number and I hid out the first year while I was getting on my spiritual feet. That was 44 years ago. Well, the further I have gone on my walk of faith the more faithful I have become.”

Since then, Robertson says his focus has been helping others get through similar struggles.

“I’ve devoted my life to helping others,” Robertson continued.

Phil Robertson, 72, went on to talk about how he and his wife, “Miss Kay,” spend their time when not at home filming the A&E series “Duck Dynasty” visiting churches and rehabilitation facilities to speak about how salvation and faith changed Phil, and therefore his family’s, life.

“[My wife and I] go to them. The rehabs. The prisons. The downtrodden. The ones that no one would give a hoot about,” Robertson said. “The homeless. When we meet together we have food. We meet together on Sunday mornings. People who sleep under bridges can come in. [And we] get them a good meal. [It’s] all God’s children coming together.”

But Robertson doesn’t look at himself as doing anything special or more than what he’s been called to do as a follower of Christ.

“God speaks through his people,” Robertson said. “I’m just one of the millions that God’s using to speak. We’re saying, “Love God, love your neighbor, love each other, don’t lie to each other, don’t steal from one another, don’t murder each other. … Be good.” We’re trying to help our fellow man.”

Phil Robertson invented the duck call that made him a millionaire while hunting in 1972.

On the success he’s seen his family achieve with his duck caller, he credits two things.

“I would say it is proof positive that there is a God and he divinely intervened in one family,” he began. “What are the odds? We’re down on the river bank. I’m fishing the river and I made a duck call that sounded like a duck. Thank God number one. Thank capitalism number two.”

“I would think there’s a God somewhere or I was really lucky. I think it’s too much luck being involved in that. I’m leaning toward God blessed us.”

One thing is certain, had Phil Robertson not turned his life to God when he did, his life and his family would be very different today, and no one knows that better than the man himself. The number of lives the Robertson’s have influenced and touched and been a light for, whether intentionally or tacitly through their business or television show, would be significantly fewer had Robertson not made the choice to find his faith and subsequently change his life.