Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander

separated from her husband. The husband followed Alan home from work one day and beat him really badwith an iron tire tool. When a policeman showed up at the scene and talked to Alan, he could sense there was something different about him.
    “Son, where are you from?” the policeman asked Alan.
    “West Monroe, Louisiana,” Alan told him.
    “I don’t know what went wrong in your life and how you ended up here, but go back to wherever you’re living. Pack up everything you’ve got, and go back to your mom and dad. I can tell you’re a good boy and just got off track.”
    Alan told me he looked up at the police officer, as the sun was shining behind him, and he looked like an angel. Alan believed the police officer was sent by God to help him turn his life around.
    Alan came home and we greeted him with open arms. We cooked a big meal and celebrated his homecoming. It was like the Parable of the Lost Son in the Bible. In Luke 15:11–24, Jesus tells us that there was a wealthy man with two sons. When the younger son asked for his share of the estate, the man divided his property between his two sons. Before too long, the younger son left for a foreign country and squandered his wealth through unrighteous living. Then a severe famine wiped out everything, leaving the younger son homeless and hungry. After briefly working as a swine herder, the boy repented and returned home to his father:
    While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
    The incident in New Orleans helped Alan turn his life around. He worked for Duck Commander for a few years, then attended seminary and worked as a pastor at White’s Ferry Road Church in 1988, eventually becoming a senior pastor there. While Alan is still heavily involved in the church and often preaches on Sunday, he rejoined the family business in 2012. He helps maintain our schedules and travels with me to speaking engagements and other appearances around the country. Alan has a calming effect on everyone around him, and he’s really good at defusing situations. He’s the one who rides herd around his brothers and is the voice of reason and wisdom among them. Alan and his wife, Lisa, have two daughters. His oldest daughter, Anna, has been working with Duck Commander since high school. Her husband, Jay, who was a teacher and coach at a high school, started working with us building duck calls during the summer, but now he’s with us full-time.
    Unfortunately, we also had to go through some of the same struggles with Jep as he grew older. When Jep was in high school, he was the only boy living at home because his brothers were married and living on their own. The older boys like to say Jep had it a lot easier than they did growing up. I was still pretty strict on the boy, but our business was doing a lot better, so he probably had a few more luxuries than the older boys did.
    I’ll never forget one night Jep was coming home late and got his truck stuck in a muddy road close to where we live. It was in the late 1990s, so Jep had one of the early cell phones in a bag in his truck. It was after midnight, and he called home and Kay woke me up to get Jep out of the mud. I had a Jeep that I bought brand-new in 1974, but it was pretty old by then, and the lights didn’t work anymore. I usually only drove the Jeep to my duck hole and back. So I had Kay follow me in her car to provide lights for me to see. It was still raining pretty heavily when we got to the field where Jep’s truck was stuck. I jumped out of my Jeep to winch his truck out, but then Kay pulled up right next to me, not realizing she’d driven into the soft mud! Now Jep was stuck in front of me, and Kay was stuck behind me. “I am surrounded by idiots!” I screamed.
    Jep went all the way through middle school without having any problems, and then we sent him to Ouachita Christian School, which was pretty expensive. We figured if he went tohigh school there, he wouldn’t get into any wild stuff. But