The Blind Movie Podcast Ep 5
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00:00 This is Miss Kay. The Robertson family is telling it all in our new movie, The Blind.
00:07 This is The Blind Movie podcast. Here's the next episode.
00:12 Hey there, I am Kori Robertson and we are here back with another podcast about the movie
00:22 The Blind. We're so excited. Today on the podcast, I have two of the funniest Robertsons,
00:29 which might be argued because the Robertsons argue about everything, but I actually think
00:34 this is true. I have two of the funniest Robertsons, Cy and Miss Kay. Uncle Cy and Miss Kay is
00:40 the way you know them and the way we know them.
00:44 Not only the funniest, okay, but those that like to have a good time.
00:50 That is true too.
00:51 That is true too.
00:52 Both of us, we both like to enjoy life.
00:54 Yes.
00:55 For crying out loud.
00:56 You can laugh at yourself.
00:58 Yeah.
00:59 You can laugh at others.
01:00 Yeah.
01:01 That's a trait I love and admire. I love you too.
01:04 It's funny to have a funny family.
01:06 It's true.
01:07 It really is.
01:08 This has been a wild ride.
01:10 Yes, it has.
01:11 Take me back. Let's go back. Okay. Cy at 12. Is he like he is now? What was he like then?
01:19 He could be annoying.
01:21 What did you think about Kay when she first came into the family?
01:23 No, no, because she was my sister.
01:26 Yeah.
01:27 I have a funny ...
01:28 She's always been my older sister.
01:31 Let me tell you what Jan said. This is the funniest thing. The first day where I came to their house, we were going to like a banquet or something.
01:39 So I had a long dress. I mean, I was decked out.
01:42 She was decked out looking really fine.
01:44 It was an evening dress all fixed up. And I walked in and Jan said, "Mom, Phil's brought a princess home."
01:52 That's what she said.
01:54 That's so sweet.
01:55 That's what she said.
01:56 You were like, you won a pageant. What was the pageant that you were in?
01:59 It was a beauty pageant.
02:01 I got fifth runner up.
02:03 Aw, you should have been first.
02:05 But it was fun to be in. I was actually in it three years. And then the fourth year I didn't get in.
02:11 I thought, well, I must have lost all my looks in the first three or something.
02:16 But anyway, it was a fun thing.
02:18 Yeah. Okay. So tell me about when you first came to the Robertson family, what did you think about?
02:23 Because you came from, you just had one sister, a smaller family.
02:27 We had the biggest business in our town. We did. We had the first brick home in our town.
02:32 Wow.
02:33 I mean, we had things that you would look at this and think, well, they don't look rich.
02:37 But considering the town of 200, we were.
02:41 They were filthy rich.
02:43 We were.
02:44 That was our outlook.
02:45 What was the sign to you that they were filthy rich?
02:48 What made you feel like...
02:50 Well, she had her own car.
02:53 Thank you. I knew you was going to say that.
02:55 Yeah.
02:56 Even though I had standard shift.
02:58 Yeah, but still, I mean, hey, you had your own car. You had wheels, woman.
03:03 I did have wheels. I did as soon as I could drive.
03:06 And they're younger dating, okay? She was the wheel lady.
03:10 I'm glad I did have a car because we were able to go out a lot more than...
03:15 In Phil's house, everybody got one night a week with a car.
03:19 But I mean, you missed that your night and you missed it because they had to take turns.
03:25 And you know what car it was? It was like a Falcon, like a Ford Falcon, not even big.
03:31 It was small.
03:32 Yeah, it was small.
03:33 The whole family couldn't even fit in the whole car.
03:35 Yeah, because we was jammed in. I mean, you know, just...
03:40 There's a scene in the movie where y'all bring groceries from your grocery store because y'all own Carraway.
03:44 I did do that. I literally did that.
03:46 She would bring a case of Coke. We'd drink them in about 30 minutes.
03:50 That was your fault. You were drinking them all.
03:52 24 cans, we're drinking in 30 minutes.
03:55 And you were the lead to do that.
03:56 Okay, she brought all kind of goodies like honey buns and all this stuff, y'all.
04:01 Those big old cookies. They're like this big, you know.
04:04 Big old cookies that you got out of the cookie jar.
04:06 And everyone knows that you're a good cook, Kay. So did you learn that from Granny or from your nanny?
04:11 I learned it first from my nanny because I was with her all the time and did that.
04:16 But what I found out once I hooked up with Phil was he wanted me to cook just like his mother.
04:22 So I actually had to change my style of cooking.
04:25 Yeah.
04:26 I did that.
04:27 And we'd have to come home every weekend.
04:29 And I had to feel when they was dating, when she'd be in there helping Mama cook.
04:34 Phil would be watching, too.
04:36 Yeah.
04:37 Yeah, he was.
04:38 Well, Phil's a good cook, too.
04:39 He's an excellent cook.
04:40 But the point I wanted to make, Mama was sharp as a tack, okay.
04:44 She died at 94.
04:46 And the woman actually, that was back when the doctors would hook electrodes to them.
04:53 And then the stupid, sadistic doctor would sit over and play with the volume.
04:58 Okay.
04:59 So she had shock therapy.
05:02 Okay.
05:03 So for her to be as mentally capable as she was at the age of 94 was totally amazing.
05:11 It amazed me.
05:12 Yeah, it really was amazing.
05:13 Yeah.
05:14 So she and Bella share a birthday.
05:16 Bella was born on her birthday.
05:18 And so whenever Bella was born, she came and stayed with me for a couple of weeks to help me with Bella.
05:23 And she was like 84 years old and helping with the baby and so sweet.
05:29 And yeah, I feel like God really did a miraculous work in her life in her later years.
05:34 It amazed me.
05:36 Well, she had to raise those kids with -- see, Paul had the oil field job where he was a driller, which is real good.
05:44 But the problem was they didn't work all the time.
05:47 They would work.
05:48 And when they worked, they made really good money.
05:51 But then they got laid off.
05:53 He had to wait till the next job that he was qualified for, and that would put them with seven kids and no money.
06:03 No money, yeah.
06:04 I mean, that's enough to make anybody need a rest.
06:07 She sold Tupperware.
06:08 Mama sold Tupperware.
06:09 And then she went and taught herself to be -- went to school and became a nurse.
06:14 She didn't really -- it was hands-on school.
06:17 She was trained under a real doctor.
06:19 She didn't actually go to school.
06:21 She trained under a real doctor, and she had on-the-job training.
06:26 Wow.
06:27 And was a good nurse.
06:28 And raised seven kids.
06:29 And raised seven kids and put up with a hardcore man.
06:34 And so tell me about all of you brothers.
06:36 Y'all were all athletic.
06:37 You played sports.
06:39 What was your --
06:41 Jimmy Robertson, okay, my oldest brother, is responsible for about half of the kids in the neighborhood getting scholarship,
06:50 football scholarships.
06:51 Really?
06:52 Yeah, because he would make them play.
06:54 Wow.
06:55 I mean, they'd be out there crying.
06:58 I'm serious.
07:00 All right, get the football, boy.
07:02 You're playing.
07:03 Well, they all became good athletes because of it.
07:06 Wow.
07:07 So he trained all of y'all.
07:08 He trained all of them playing football, okay.
07:12 Wow.
07:13 Because he was -- growing up, he was actually -- we called him the warden.
07:17 Because when Mom and Dad was going to go and play dominoes with the neighbors, Mac and Irene, all them, and FM them,
07:27 they'd leave Jimmy Frank, and he was just like a warden.
07:30 We was in prison, and, you know, we'd always have a -- you know, hey, we'd fix him, have a prison break.
07:37 You know, watch him, and we'd watch him.
07:39 Hey, you know, we'd pile out of the window and take off and go down there and play with our cousins.
07:45 That's funny.
07:46 So were you into sports, too?
07:48 Did you play football?
07:49 I played, but I was too little.
07:51 I was too, you know -- I was actually -- I had the talent.
07:55 I was just too little.
07:57 Yeah, yeah.
07:58 So in the movie, we have a few different actors playing you.
08:01 Did you get to meet any of those actors?
08:03 No, I didn't.
08:04 I would have liked to have met the guy that played me because, you know --
08:08 What did you think about it?
08:09 He'd done a fabulous job.
08:11 I actually think you did.
08:12 We had that crawfish bowl here.
08:14 I think you met one of them.
08:16 You might not have even realized.
08:17 I met some of them.
08:18 You might not have even realized he was the one who played you, but, yeah, I thought he did a great job.
08:23 He did.
08:24 Good.
08:25 And it just -- it kind of shocked me when he first came on the scene in the movie.
08:32 Everybody just yelled.
08:35 So that's why I said, "I'm living proof to God all three of them are alive and well."
08:43 Yeah.
08:44 My life shows that, okay?
08:47 And that's the amazing thing about the Robertson family, you know, is I look back and God's always been there.
08:58 That's right.
08:59 Front and center.
09:00 Yep.
09:01 I mean, everything we were involved in, God is the center point on all of it.
09:08 Yeah.
09:09 [Music]
09:12 Phil Robertson here.
09:14 You're listening to the Blind Movie Podcast.
09:17 And I want you to come out and see The Blind in theaters starting September the 28th.
09:24 When you see it, you'll know that redemption isn't out of reach for anyone.
09:30 Get your tickets today at theblindmovie.com.
09:35 [Music]
09:41 And the funny part was, I go through military basic, go to AIT.
09:46 Look, 3,000 guys in the company, A to R, going to Germany, to Korea, all this A.
09:57 Cy Robertson, Vietnam.
09:59 After that, all the rest of them went to Germany and Korea, too.
10:04 One man out of that class went to NAMM, that's me.
10:07 Wow.
10:08 And I found out later that that was just -- they sent them to Germany for like two weeks training
10:14 and then sent them to Vietnam.
10:15 Oh, okay.
10:16 So everybody ended up in Vietnam.
10:17 Everybody ended up.
10:18 But it just looked bad because everybody asked me, they said, "Man, who did you make mad?"
10:24 He said, "You're the only one out of the whole company that was chosen and had to go to Vietnam?"
10:28 I said, "Who knows?"
10:30 Well, one of the stories that Willie's told about you coming back from Vietnam, that you brought some sleeping bags.
10:37 Some Army sleeping bags that they got to sleep in that they love.
10:41 They love when you brought back Army stuff for them.
10:43 No, no.
10:44 Every time I would come in on leave, I would spend it with Phil and Kay.
10:47 Yeah.
10:48 And when I did, whenever I'd come, I was in supply.
10:54 So I got all kinds of Army stuff.
10:57 I'd just bring a whole duffel bag full and give it to the kids.
11:02 Yeah, he did.
11:03 Because Jason wore that cap I gave him for 40 years.
11:08 Yeah.
11:09 He's duck hunting with that warm cap.
11:11 Oh, that.
11:12 Yeah, I remember that cap.
11:13 That came from you.
11:14 Oh, yeah.
11:15 Yeah.
11:16 He wore it because it's comfortable and it's warm.
11:18 Warm.
11:19 Yeah.
11:20 Yeah.
11:21 But he wore that.
11:22 He literally wore it slam out.
11:24 Wow.
11:25 Yeah, Willie would love it.
11:26 Well, Jason would love it since he's the one named after Si.
11:29 I know.
11:30 I suppose he ain't going to love it.
11:31 I know.
11:32 But Jason's tough.
11:33 I never realized how much we kept him when we was living in Junction City.
11:37 Oh, you did.
11:38 You did.
11:39 When he was a baby.
11:40 We kept him a lot.
11:41 Oh, did you?
11:42 Really?
11:43 I mean, I --
11:44 Okay.
11:45 He gave us a lot of help.
11:46 He got a lot of my mannerisms.
11:47 I mean, Phil even said to me or said something to me one time.
11:49 He said, "If I knew the thing wasn't" -- he said, "you wasn't here."
11:52 He said, "Boy, if you had been, I'd have been worried."
11:55 [Laughter]
11:56 You know, he said, "Because that" --
11:57 Okay, so --
11:58 He said, "I've had you with me forever."
12:03 Yeah.
12:04 He said, "Because when I come up there on the river and ask Phil, 'Hey, your woman's having that baby.
12:11 What are you going to name him?'"
12:12 And he said, "Hey, tell her to name him after you."
12:15 I said, "You crazy rascal."
12:17 Yeah.
12:18 So Phil was fishing when you had Jason.
12:20 Yeah.
12:21 Oh, yeah.
12:22 And Si, you spread the news.
12:23 She went and she said, "Hey, go find that brother of yours and ask him what are we going to name this child?"
12:29 Wow.
12:30 I picked out the Jason.
12:31 Yeah.
12:32 Phil picked out the Si.
12:33 Yeah.
12:34 And he said, "Hey, name him after you."
12:35 I love it.
12:36 That's great.
12:37 You mentioned Junction City, Arkansas.
12:39 So did you -- y'all live -- you and Christine live there as well?
12:41 Yeah.
12:42 Yeah.
12:43 Oh, I didn't know that.
12:44 Okay.
12:45 Yeah, because when we --
12:46 So you remember the day --
12:47 When we actually left, okay, I actually got out of the Army and got married the same day.
12:51 A judge waved like five days of all this paperwork junk.
12:56 And he said, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
12:59 He said, "You just got out of Fremont under a three-year contract.
13:02 You're fixing to sign one for a lifetime."
13:05 Yeah.
13:06 So, hey, we got married and jumped in that Plymouth Hill.
13:09 And we had never met her and they just came in late at night.
13:12 And we had the back room fixed up, which, you know, it wasn't -- it was a big old house.
13:18 It wasn't fancy at all, but they had a big bed and all that back there.
13:22 We were just like, "And here comes Si and his new wife."
13:27 You know, we'd never met her, knew her, anything.
13:30 They just moved in the back bedroom.
13:32 Wow.
13:33 So that's where we -- yeah, that's where we first lived.
13:35 That was your early years of marriage were together.
13:37 Yeah.
13:38 [Music playing]
13:44 The best part of the movie, in my humble opinion, was when Phil finally --
13:49 Bill come out there and found him in the trailer, you know, and was trying to talk to him.
13:55 And Bill said, "Oh, just come on out here.
13:57 It's so pretty out here.
13:58 You know, let's talk out here."
14:00 And when Phil said, "Well, you know, I don't know what I need to do," you know, he said,
14:09 "I'm to the point I have no idea what I need to do."
14:14 It's called hitting bottom.
14:16 Yeah.
14:17 No, no, no.
14:18 Then when Bill said, "Well, hey, look, the old Phil's got to die."
14:22 And I told Phil when Al Bolan and them showed up one time, I'd come in on leave.
14:28 I was down at Phil's house at the river.
14:32 And they showed up and said, "Hey, come on, let's go get drunk, you know, go run to him."
14:38 And Phil said, "Y'all don't understand.
14:40 The fellow y'all looking for, he's dead and buried and good riddance."
14:45 Yeah.
14:46 Yeah.
14:47 I said, "That's the best thing you've ever told me is when I heard you tell your friends,
14:54 'Nope, that fellow's dead.'"
14:57 Yeah.
14:58 "And it's good that he's dead and it's good riddance."
15:01 Yeah.
15:02 That's when you knew true life change had happened.
15:04 Then I knew, okay.
15:05 Yep, he's actually, he's actually, he's free now.
15:09 Yeah.
15:10 He's actually got rid of the devil.
15:12 Yeah.
15:13 Because Kay used to tell him up to his face, "You are the devil."
15:17 That's right.
15:18 The devil's living in you, I would say that a lot.
15:20 Yeah.
15:21 Yeah.
15:22 Kay, what was your favorite part of the movie?
15:23 Oh, well, it would have to be, you know, when we got back together, you know, and everything.
15:29 And I remember in real life, you know, and I was in that apartment and when he came home
15:36 with me, the boys were just so excited because we'd been apart.
15:41 And then Bill came there to study with him all, which they wanted to be with their dad,
15:46 but they knew he needed to hear what Bill was saying.
15:49 So they were very good, stay good till Bill left.
15:53 And then they hugged him and talked to him and just trying to tell him everything he
15:58 had missed, you know, by being away from him.
16:01 And then I remember so much of them saying, when they went to bed, they said, "Will you
16:07 be here in the morning?"
16:09 You know, they expected him just to leave.
16:13 The other part of the movie was that it showed how scared the kids were of him.
16:19 Well, they were scared when he was drinking.
16:21 Well, no, no, that's what I'm saying.
16:23 It's only when he was drinking, it was like two different people, the good and the bad,
16:27 you know.
16:28 And that's what I wanted to tell them when they first talked about the movie.
16:34 They talked like, "Well, he was bad all the time."
16:37 He wasn't.
16:38 He was a great person.
16:40 Everybody loved to be around him.
16:42 And I could go up, like when I went to get him or do something, like after he got through
16:48 coaching, when he was coaching and teaching and all that, and the students would be all
16:53 around just listening to him tell stories.
16:55 And he's always commanded an audience and had them and people want to listen to him.
17:00 So he had a lot of good qualities, wonderful qualities.
17:04 And that's what I fell in love with.
17:06 And see, Phil was really good when we first were together.
17:10 I'll tell you, college changed him, ruined him, I would say, because the evil of—and
17:17 they did so separate.
17:19 And maybe it's because they didn't have a lot of married college athletes.
17:24 So they made the married college athletes stay in the dorm a certain amount of time
17:30 during the year, which was not good on a married man with children.
17:35 One of the other things that the movie did for me is I actually became angry at Al Bowden.
17:42 Yeah.
17:44 Okay.
17:45 And all of his friends in college, I disliked all of them.
17:50 Okay.
17:51 Well, you'll—
17:52 Because they led him astray.
17:53 Well, that's right.
17:54 And you can see that.
17:55 And it's like—and then when you get on the right side of God, you see them coming,
18:00 it's like you automatically think, "This isn't good," because your mind will go there.
18:04 But back then, Phil wanted to be proper.
18:06 He wanted to be hot-shot, the head man and all that.
18:10 And he loved for people to love him and hear him talk and do all that.
18:13 So he would draw the crowd and not worry about the good and bad, you know.
18:19 Yeah.
18:20 And one thing that Phil told—I remember him talking about that was impactful for me
18:24 was whenever—after he changed his life, after he came to Christ, he got a job teaching
18:28 at a Christian school, the one that I ended up going to.
18:31 That's right.
18:32 And I remember him saying that just being around people that love God, being around
18:37 seeing young people that love God and were trying to make good choices impacted him.
18:42 It did.
18:43 Well, hey, it's way easier, okay, it's the deal about who you run with.
18:49 You will be known—my mother told me this when I was a teenager—you will be known
18:54 by who you run with.
18:55 That's right.
18:56 Who has the most influence on your life?
18:58 The people you run around with.
18:59 That stuck with me my whole life, okay.
19:02 You will be known by those you associate with.
19:05 And Phil didn't learn that.
19:08 Yeah.
19:09 Okay.
19:10 Because his friends actually pulled him down.
19:14 He didn't sit.
19:15 That's why it hit him so hard when Boland gave him the news about, "Hey, I could go
19:20 anytime."
19:21 And Phil was so happy for him when he finally come to his senses.
19:24 "Hey, come here.
19:25 You need to talk to me.
19:26 I'm ready."
19:27 Twelve years after Phil became a Christian.
19:29 Yeah, I want to hear what changed you.
19:33 Because Boland had asked him, "Something's really different about you."
19:37 Yeah.
19:38 "What is it?"
19:39 You know, and Phil told him.
19:41 Yeah.
19:42 I feel like that part of the movie is going to be a part that people are going to see
19:45 and think, "Oh, they just made that up for the film."
19:48 No, that's real.
19:49 That's real.
19:50 Really, that's real, folks.
19:52 A couple of things that weren't in the movie, just because they couldn't do everything,
19:58 was one of the nights, well, it did have the bathroom night when I was in the bathroom.
20:04 But what they didn't do is my boys were outside the bathroom door because I was crying in
20:10 the bathtub, you know, in there and all that.
20:12 Yeah, but that's what made you make the decision you made.
20:15 Well, that's because Alan said, "Mama, don't cry anymore."
20:19 Yeah.
20:20 Because his exact-
20:21 Jesus is going to take care of this.
20:22 He said, yes.
20:23 He said, "God's going to take care of us, so don't cry anymore."
20:27 That's what he said.
20:28 And then what I remember the most is Jason would say, "What did she say?
20:32 What did she say?"
20:34 And then I heard Willie go, "He's sucking these two fingers as a little boy."
20:39 I could hear that going.
20:42 I like it because the times, the things, the times that are important.
20:49 Okay, is a kid sucking on his thumb, telling me, "What did she say?"
20:55 Yeah.
20:56 Well, there were some things the boys said after Phil got baptized that we had put in
21:01 the movie and they ended up not making it.
21:03 But tell those, I thought those were so funny, what you said that Jason Al said after Phil
21:07 got baptized.
21:08 One of them said something like, "I hope Dad doesn't cuss in church."
21:11 Oh, yeah.
21:12 That was Alan.
21:13 He said, "Mama, I'm going to die if Daddy cusses in church."
21:16 I mean, he cussed the whole time.
21:17 How will he not?
21:18 How will he know not to do that?
21:20 And I said, "He'll learn."
21:22 But he may make a mistake, and I'll say, "I'm going to get under the pew if he does that.
21:26 I just want them to stand it.
21:28 That would be so embarrassing."
21:30 Yeah, he did that.
21:31 And they were worried about how he was going to act.
21:34 But Phil asked, he told me about him and Bill Smith having a talk one time and said, "Bill,
21:42 when am I going to get rid of all these feelings I'm battling?"
21:46 Yeah.
21:47 And Bill Smith said, "Well, how long did you run with the devil?"
21:51 That's what he said.
21:52 Bill said, "How long did you run with the devil?"
21:54 That was a really good thing to say.
21:55 And Phil said, "Well, that'd be the first 28 years of my life."
21:59 He said, "Well, hey, give it a little time there, brother."
22:02 Yeah.
22:03 He said, "You're going to have to."
22:04 Oh, he didn't really get back to it.
22:06 What you don't understand is you've got to get rid of this, what you've been doing, and
22:11 then you've got to replace it with what God wants you to have.
22:15 And that takes time.
22:16 And that takes time.
22:17 Yeah.
22:18 That's why the fruit of the Spirit is so important, okay?
22:22 Yeah.
22:23 That if you've got anger issues, you've got to get rid of that anger and replace it with
22:27 something like joy and self-control.
22:31 This is Miss Kay.
22:33 You're listening to the Blind Movie Podcast.
22:36 Watch The Blind Movie in theaters starting September the 28th.
22:41 When you see the movie, you'll know that redemption isn't out of the reach of any of us.
22:47 Get your tickets today at theblindmovie.com.
22:57 Well, there's a line in the movie, actually, after Phil turns his life around, that you
23:04 actually say that to him, Kay.
23:05 You say, "You're not going to be perfect."
23:07 That's right.
23:08 And I know you're not.
23:09 I did.
23:10 That's why we need you.
23:11 And everybody knows that, like at church and all.
23:13 They'll all know that, that you're trying.
23:16 But you just don't happen overnight.
23:18 You don't just quit cussing.
23:20 I mean, thank goodness he didn't cuss in church.
23:22 But just the way he was with people, like they'd go to hug him, and he'd say, "What you doing?
23:28 What you doing?"
23:29 I mean, that was real odd to him.
23:31 It wasn't a natural thing to do, so he felt odd when people did that.
23:35 And I remember one of them was Marge Moran, because she hugged him and kissed him on the
23:40 cheek, an older lady at church.
23:41 And he said, "Why does she do that?"
23:43 That's what he told me.
23:45 I said, "Because she really loves you."
23:47 He said, "I think she does.
23:49 I think she really does."
23:51 I remember Kay, I always tell him, I have to tell him, "Hey, look, they don't mean nothing.
23:59 They're just trying to tell you, 'Hey, we understand.
24:03 We understand and we still love you, dude.'"
24:06 Yeah.
24:07 He had never really experienced that.
24:09 No.
24:10 Well, he actually even said, he said, "I don't know what love is."
24:13 Wow.
24:14 Right, he did say that.
24:15 Yeah.
24:16 He actually said, he said, "I don't know how to love."
24:18 Wow.
24:19 That's why I said him and Dad both were hard men.
24:24 Because if you showed emotion, they took it as weakness.
24:29 They did.
24:30 That's true.
24:31 And that's against their manhood.
24:33 Yeah.
24:34 That's an insult to their manhood.
24:36 Just because you're tender, dude, don't mean you're a jerk.
24:40 Come on.
24:41 Yeah.
24:42 No one needs a human for crying out loud.
24:45 But see, when he came back, and I don't know if this was in the movie either.
24:48 I don't know that it was.
24:50 But when he first came back to talk to me, and he had that old truck out.
24:55 Me and my girlfriend had just come back from lunch,
24:58 and I worked upstairs at Howard Brothers' home office.
25:02 And I just went up the stairs, and we looked out the window, and there was his truck.
25:08 And he was sitting there kind of leaned against the steering wheel.
25:11 And she said, "My friend," my girlfriend said, "Oh, no.
25:15 He's up there in the parking lot, and he's probably drunk and passed out.
25:19 What are we going to do?"
25:20 And I said, "We're not going to do anything.
25:22 We're going to work and hope he doesn't come up here and been drinking or something."
25:27 And that would be a nightmare for me.
25:29 Although I didn't think nobody would take that--they wouldn't punish me for his actions.
25:34 Right.
25:35 But I was just afraid.
25:36 You don't want to be embarrassed.
25:37 Yeah.
25:38 I think I remember something you said about, "I hope he don't cause trouble."
25:42 Yeah, and I went out there to talk to him so that he wouldn't come in,
25:46 and I was afraid I'd lose my job because if he was going to come up there and cause trouble,
25:51 it could cause me to lose my job.
25:53 And then how would we make it?
25:55 So when you went out there, you were thinking--
25:57 And I opened the door.
25:58 He raised his head, and he had just been crying and crying.
26:02 And I had never seen him in that way.
26:05 It was so humble and so different that I was just--I didn't know what to say.
26:10 I was so shocked, and he said, "I can't eat. I can't drink. I can't do anything."
26:15 And I said, "Why?"
26:17 He said, "Because I lost my family."
26:20 Yeah, "Because I've lost the one thing that's more important than any of it."
26:24 He said, "I lost my family."
26:26 He said, "I want him back."
26:28 He was this close for all of it to be going away.
26:32 Yeah.
26:33 And that's when I saw the humble feel, and I thought, "Oh, please let him stay just like this."
26:39 So I told him--I said, "Well, let me go call Bill Smith, because that's the only person I want to talk to.
26:44 And if he can, just meet me here at my work, and then you follow me to my apartment."
26:51 Because he didn't know where I lived. He had no idea.
26:53 They didn't let that be known.
26:55 And Bill Smith will come over, and he'll talk to you.
26:59 That's the only way I'm going to let you come see the kids or anything.
27:03 So that's what happened.
27:04 And Bill met with him, you know, one night and then two nights.
27:08 But I agreed to let him stay after the first night there.
27:12 But then, you know, when they went to the church--and I don't think they showed this exactly the way it was,
27:18 but I understand they couldn't do everything exactly.
27:21 But when they actually came to the back of the church, and we were back there, you know, right before Bill baptized him.
27:29 And I remember--and I want to say it was Jason that said, "Is Daddy really going to be good?
27:38 Is Daddy really going to be good?"
27:40 And I said, "Yeah, he's going to be a new person."
27:43 I said, "But we all got to help him. He don't know how to be good.
27:47 So we have to help teach him how to be good."
27:50 Jason actually said something after the movie that--he said, "I was a lot like Dad."
27:58 It may address the man he is.
28:01 To see his dad, see the change.
28:05 See, Willie couldn't remember.
28:07 Right.
28:08 Okay.
28:09 But it was--you know, he saw what Jesus could do in a person's life.
28:13 Him and Al both.
28:14 They knew, but not Willie because he was--
28:17 Because it's one thing to say something, okay, but it's another thing, okay, are you really--you know,
28:25 do you walk the walk and talk the talk?
28:28 Yeah.
28:29 Yeah.
28:30 I do remember--
28:31 Okay, so that was the main thing that all of Phil's friends that he run with, they saw the change.
28:42 And it literally--and it showed it in the movie.
28:45 It literally scared them how much he had changed.
28:51 Because they was drinking there, one of them around a bunch of cars or something, having a big party,
28:56 and it--bowling, you know, it scared bowling.
29:00 Yeah.
29:01 I would say that moment affected all your family, of course, forever.
29:05 But you see the change of Phil, but also the forgiveness and grace that you offered affected all of the marriages I've been in.
29:13 I did remember this.
29:14 Let me tell her this.
29:16 When Jason--I mean, no, it was Willie--became a little bit older, and, you know, we'd talk about the bad stuff with Phil,
29:25 you know, and all that, and then I remember he would say, "Don't talk about my dad.
29:31 Don't talk about my daddy.
29:32 Don't talk about my daddy."
29:34 He would put his hand up like that.
29:35 "Don't talk about my daddy."
29:37 Because to him, he only knew the good Phil that he could remember.
29:41 And see, that other one we would talk about, the bad Phil, when he was not saved and all, he didn't want to hear it.
29:48 Yeah.
29:49 I do remember that.
29:51 Well, one of the things I think that when people see a movie like this--and that's why I think it's so important for Phil to understand,
29:58 and, you know, even though it's hard for him to show those parts of himself that were bad and the hard times that y'all went through--
30:05 when people see this movie, they're going to relate.
30:09 So many people have experienced either coming from a family that had alcoholism or experiencing themselves,
30:17 and I think that there's so many pieces of this movie that people are going to relate to.
30:22 So they're not thinking about, "Oh, that was Phil."
30:24 They're thinking about themselves.
30:25 He finally hit rock bottom and finally realized, "Okay, all this other junk that I've been involved in has no meaning, has no value."
30:36 Yeah.
30:37 I'm fixing to lose the best thing I've got in my life, my woman and my kids, for crying out loud.
30:46 Yeah.
30:47 Yeah.
30:48 Well, that was going to be my question.
30:49 Like, what would you say to somebody who is in that position?
30:52 You've got to come to a knowledge of the truth, okay, about yourself, okay?
31:00 In and of ourselves, okay, we've got a couple of problems that we can't solve.
31:07 That's why we need Jesus Christ so much, okay, because we've got a sin problem, okay?
31:14 We're going to stumble and trip and fall flat on our face.
31:19 We're going to do things that are against God's law, against man's law, okay?
31:28 If a person has never did anything that they need to have forgiveness for, then you won't understand the love of Jesus.
31:39 If you're walking through a place where you have to forgive somebody who hurt you in a lot of ways, how do you do that?
31:46 Well, I think, number one, you have to find God and know that God can help you and that you'll never be alone.
31:56 And it may not work out, but you've got to love God and say, "I can make it."
32:01 I mean, He put me here, and for me, it was so easy to think, "I've got these little boys.
32:06 I mean, what are they going to know?"
32:09 Only what I teach them.
32:11 And we'd pray for their daddy every night and everything.
32:15 And then, I mean, I would tell them, I'd say, "The reason your daddy acts the way he does
32:21 is because the devil has got inside of him, and he's leading him."
32:26 But we need God to get in him and him to lead him.
32:30 And that's what this whole thing is about, because you see when he can be nice, he can be good, he can be funny,
32:38 he can make us have a good time, all kind of things.
32:42 But when the devil gets in, a whole different person appears.
32:48 A whole different new ball game.
32:51 And he wouldn't remember things he did.
32:53 He didn't remember things he did to me or anybody, and he was just so rude and all that,
32:59 and even things he would ignore the children.
33:02 But the best thing that I will say that Phil ever did was in those 10 years,
33:07 he never had alcohol, any of his drinking thing, at our house.
33:12 It was never there.
33:14 So if he wanted to go out and drink, he had to go out and drink elsewhere.
33:18 I mean, none of that was ever at our house.
33:20 And he did not do that at our house, ever.
33:24 But every time he left, that's why the boys wouldn't want him to leave,
33:30 because they didn't know that he'd come back bad and not good.
33:34 Well, it sounds like you had some trust in God and what he could do in your life
33:40 and what he could do in Phil's life.
33:42 I did.
33:43 And that's what helped you to forgive and offer grace in the hard times.
33:47 And I think that you need to think about, like, my grandmother always talked to me about that
33:52 and about the marriage and I'd have to fight for my marriage, and I didn't understand that at all.
33:58 But she explained it all to me that the devil was going to come in and try to tear our marriage apart.
34:03 And see, that really happened, and I saw it as plain as she told me about it.
34:08 And then I went back to what she said, and I thought--she said, "You just never give up.
34:13 Just don't give up."
34:15 And I remember when I met with Bill and when I really thought, "He's not going to change,"
34:24 and that horrible feeling that was there, because I always had the hope,
34:29 "He will change. He will change," when nobody else did it.
34:32 And I'm going to tell you something.
34:34 I had everybody against me.
34:36 They wanted me to leave him.
34:38 They wanted me to just cut it off with him, and I was standing on, like, an island alone, me and my kids.
34:45 - Yeah. - That was hard.
34:47 - The most important thing you said about this, though, was that you're not alone.
34:52 - Yeah. - And your daughter, Sadie, I heard her speak at the church,
34:57 and she spoke on two things--know your enemy and know the promises of God.
35:02 - Yeah. - Yeah.
35:04 - Okay. - Exactly.
35:06 - The devil, folks, the devil is real, okay, and he wants one thing.
35:11 He wants your death, okay?
35:14 God, on the other hand, he's real.
35:17 He wants everything best for you.
35:19 He wants you to have the best of everything.
35:22 And then, like Sadie said, you need to know the promises that the Almighty has made to the human being.
35:31 You're never alone.
35:33 - The thing about everybody says, "Well, how could you tell this whole horrible story?"
35:37 And that's what Phil said, "It's so embarrassing to me."
35:40 But if your story, Phil's story, our story can help anybody's marriage, their life,
35:48 or bringing them to Christ, help them with their kids, anything, it's all worth it.
35:52 - Yes. - So don't be embarrassed.
35:54 You have to let pride go and just say, "This is it."
35:59 If you think of something else we did that was bad or worse, tell me.
36:03 I'll tell it in the next speech.
36:05 I will. - Yeah, yeah.
36:07 - I mean, we pretty much gutted it all open anyway.
36:10 - Because it's what God has done in your life. - That's right.
36:13 - It's giving God the glory for your life.
36:15 - And you can get through the worst circumstances on earth.
36:19 You can get through them, because I did. - Yeah.
36:22 - And I do remember the sadness, like, in that bathroom,
36:25 and that was the first time in my whole life I said,
36:28 "I wish I could just go to sleep and not wake up."
36:31 - Yeah. - But the minute, even after those words were in my head,
36:35 I thought, "What about those three little turkeys out there?
36:39 What about them? Leave them to him? That'd be a nightmare."
36:43 - Yeah. - And it went away.
36:46 I, you know, I taught myself and prayed right through that.
36:50 - Yeah. - But I thought it.
36:52 - Yeah. - I would tell people, "It's not wrong."
36:55 - Yeah, and I think a lot of people are good at that point and think that.
36:59 - And they don't want to tell anybody, but it's okay.
37:01 - Yeah, that's right. - It's okay.
37:03 It just meant you were the last place you didn't know.
37:06 You lost all hope. - Yeah.
37:09 - And that's where the saddest place is. - Mm-hmm.
37:13 But with God, there's always hope. - That's right.
37:16 - All right, well, thank y'all. This has been awesome.
37:19 I'll always love hearing your stories and your wisdom.
37:22 - Well, one thing I can do best is talk.
37:25 And Si has proved he can talk more.
37:29 - Y'all are both good at that.
37:31 [music]
37:41 [music ends]