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

with only four or five months of high school left, Jep broke up with his girlfriend. And then he started sailing backward. I couldn’t believe it and didn’t want to believe it, to be honest. He moved into an apartment in West Monroe with his cousin, who was attending college at the University of Louisiana–Monroe. Just like Alan, Jep started drinking, cutting up, and using drugs. We knew Jep was drinking because we could smell alcohol on his breath at church on Sunday if he’d been out drinking the night before. Kay would always ask me, “What’s that smell?” I’d tell her, “That’s whiskey on Jep’s breath.”

    Just like Alan, Jep started drinking, cutting up, and using drugs.

    Willie was actually the one who brought the seriousness of Jep’s problems to our attention. Willie was working with the high school youth group at White’s Ferry Road Church, and he found out Jep had asked one of the kids to go to a bar with him. Willie came to our house and said, “I’m done. We’ve got to do something right now. I’m just tired of it.” We called Alan and decided to have a family intervention. Alan lined everything up, and we were all waiting for Jep when he came to the house one night. Kay was terrified because she was certain I was going to throw Jep out of the house, like I’d done with Alan.
    I told Jep, “Give me the keys to your truck—the one I’mpaying for.” He pulled the keys out of his pocket and handed them to me. I told Jep what his brothers had told me about his behavior.
    “Son, you know what we stand for,” I told him. “We’re all trying to live for God. We’re not going to let you visit our home while you’re carrying on like this. We’re paying for your apartment. We’re paying for your truck. You’ve got a decision to make. You’re either going to come home and basically live under house arrest because we don’t trust you, or you can hit the road—with no vehicle, of course. Somebody can drop you off at the highway and then you’ll be on your own. You can go live your life; we’ll pray for you and hope that you come back one day. Those are your two choices.”
    Jep looked at me, lowered his head, and started pouring out his sins to me. He said he’d been taking pills, smoking marijuana, getting drunk, and on and on. He was crying the whole time, as he confessed his sins to us and God.
    I’ll never forget what Jep said next. He looked up at me and asked, “Dad, all I want to ask you is what took you so long to rescue me?”
    After Jep said that to me, everyone in the room was crying.
    “You still have a choice,” I told him.
    “Well, my choice is I want to come home,” he said.
    Jase has always been our most straitlaced son, so he was the hardest on Jep when he strayed.
    “Son, you can’t hang out with those people,” Jase told him.
    “Daddy won’t let ’em get to me,” Jep said.
    “Daddy won’t and we won’t, either,” Jase promised him. “But you have to come to all the good things to help you. You’ve got to find better friends. You can’t be running around. You have to break it off with the bad influences.”
    Thankfully, our second prodigal son was coming home. It was a heart-wrenching episode for all of us. Alan was so distressed by his little brother’s struggles that he left our house, drove down the road, and then stopped and dropped to his knees and wept in a field.

    Alan was so distressed by his little brother’s struggles that he left our house, drove down the road, and then stopped and dropped to his knees and wept in a field.

    Like Alan, Jep turned his life around after overcoming the struggles of alcohol and drugs. He came to work for Duck Commander and found his niche as a videographer. He films the footage for our Duckmen videos and works with Willie on the Buck Commander videos. Jep is with us on nearly every hunt, filming the action from a distance. He knows exactly what we’re looking for in the videosand films it, downloads it, edits it, and sends it to the duplicator, who produces and distributes our DVDs.
    Having worked with the crew of Duck Dynasty over the last few years, I’ve noticed that most people who work in the film industry are a little bit weird. And Jep, my youngest son, is a little strange. It’s his personality—he’s easygoing, likable, and a lot more reserved than his brothers. But he’s the only one who will come up to me and give me a bear hug. He’ll just walk up and say, “Daddy, I need a