Phillip McMillan (middle) is my right-hand man and best friend. He travels with me to events around the country, and my nephew Alan Robertson (right) also accompanies on occasion.
Shortly after I moved back to West Monroe, Louisiana, from Alabama in 1999 to work for my brother Phil at Duck Commander, my nephews kept telling me I had to meet their friend Phillip McMillan.
Apparently, they had told Phillip a bunch of funny stories about me. Phillip started to wonder if the outrageous stories about their Uncle Si were really true or just more Robertson tall tales. Hey, my life story is kind of like Forrest Gump. I went to Vietnam. I run really fast. I like Dr Pepper. I’m a Ping-Pong champion. It might sound like a lot of fiction, but I promise, 95 percent is true! That’s all I have to say about that.
When I met Phillip for the first time at a men’s Bible study at his house, my nephews told me he was deaf in one ear. They told me I had to talk really loud because Phillip couldn’t hear a thing. I was told he relied on lip reading to understand what others were saying. Of course, it wasn’t true, but I believed them. Phillip’s hearing was actually fine.
Phillip McMillan (middle) is my right-hand man and best friend. He travels with me to events around the country, and my nephew Alan Robertson (right) also accompanies on occasion.
Phillip also didn’t know my nephews were playing a prank on us. For a couple of hours, I shouted in Phillip’s face so he could read my lips, while he moved around trying to protect his personal space. Finally, my nephews and their buddies burst out laughing and told us about the prank. Hey, it was pretty funny.
Phillip and I quickly became close friends. If you’ve watched Duck Dynasty, you might remember Phillip playing the villain in a couple of episodes. In one show, he was portrayed as a nemesis of my nephews, and he and Willie raced on lawnmowers. In another episode, Jase and Phillip raced outhouses in a promotion for Willie’s restaurant, Willie’s Diner. And then he played dodgeball against my nephews in yet another episode. I have to say that Phillip, Jase, and Willie are actually close friends, and he has become my best friend. You’d have to search far and wide to find a better man. Phillip loves his wife and family and puts God before anything else.
When Duck Dynasty’s popularity exploded, my family decided I needed to take a partner on the road with me for public appearances and charity events. Phillip and I were already close, so I told him he was going wherever I went. He calls himself the “Si Sitter.” We have a close relationship that goes beyond business. We play cards together about once a week, hunt and fish together, and watch ball games together. We both love to laugh and cut up. In fact, my wife might be the only person who spends more time with me than Phillip.
As Phillip and I became closer friends, he started to share the story of his difficult past with me. His story reminded me a lot of my brother Phil, who battled his own demons before he became a follower of Jesus Christ. Like my brother, Phillip puts Jesus first and everything else second. He has become bold in his faith and isn’t afraid to share the Gospel with others.
Phillip wasn’t always that way, though. Each individual must make his or her own decision to follow the Almighty. Remember when Jesus asked the disciples who were with him this question: “ ‘Who do people say I am?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.’ ‘But what about you,’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah’ ” (Mark 8:27–29).
That is the question Phillip had to answer when he was nineteen years old: Who is this Jesus Christ? Some of his friends said one thing and others said another, but Phillip had to ask himself what he believed to be true about Jesus, and whether he really knew Him.
At that point in Phillip’s life, he really didn’t know the Almighty. He knew of Him and had read about Him in the Bible, but the truth about Jesus didn’t mean anything because Phillip was not yet ready to apply it to himself and his salvation. The truth was veiled to him. He was living in darkness.
Phillip had grown up in a happy family in West Monroe. He was close to his older brother, Danny, and his younger brother, Ricky. Phillip and his brothers grew up hunting and fishing with their father, Roy. His mother, Kathy, took them to church every Sunday morning when Phillip was young. But when Phillip was twelve, his parents divorced. It was a shock to him and his brothers. They didn’t understand why it was happening. Phillip lived with his friends for a while and really lashed out at his parents. He was bitter about their divorce and was too young to understand why it happened.
A few years later, Phillip’s mother and father both remarried. He enjoyed spending time with each of them, but something inside him changed. Phillip felt like he couldn’t trust anyone anymore. He feared that things could fall apart at any time. As a result, he decided not to ever let anyone get close to him again. He built walls around himself and guarded them well. In his mind, Phillip decided he would never be vulnerable again. He was alone.
Because of his isolation, Phillip started acting out. He was irresponsible and lived an immoral life. Drugs and alcohol became a regular part of his life, and he used them to mask his pain. He became selfish and didn’t care if he hurt the people who loved him. In the back of Phillip’s mind, he knew his bad decisions were probably going to kill him. He didn’t care.
In fact there were many times when Phillip narrowly escaped death. When he was a teenager, he was the life of the party and willing to do anything to be the center of attention among his friends. One night at a party, Phillip climbed into the front seat of his buddy’s new Ford Mustang GT, while another friend got into the back. They drove down a dark country road and came to a dead end. Phillip and his two friends in the car decided to find out how fast the Mustang would go. So they turned the car around and sped off.
A sharp curve was coming up in the road; Phillip looked at his buddy who was driving and saw the sweat on his face. Phillip knew his friend couldn’t handle the turn, so he reached for his seat belt. As soon as it clicked, the car left the road, hit a culvert, and flipped. The next thing Phillip saw was flashing lights from police cars and ambulances. His two buddies suffered serious injuries and were transported to a hospital. Phillip only suffered a long scratch on his face and walked away from the wreck.
One of the sheriff’s deputies at the accident scene told Phillip, “That seat belt saved your life. If you hadn’t been wearing it, you would have been thrown through the windshield. You’re lucky you’re alive, son.”
After another long night of partying, Phillip decided he was going to drive his truck to a hunting camp in Bosco, Louisiana, which is about twenty miles south of West Monroe. It was late at night, and Phillip shouldn’t have been driving because he’d been drinking. Not far from the camp, he fell asleep and drove off the highway. His truck was headed straight for the Ouachita River. Miraculously, just before his truck reached the river, it got stuck in the mud. To add to that miracle, the side mirrors of his truck were wedged between two trees. These were the only things preventing the truck from falling over a cliff and into the river.
The next morning, Phillip’s buddies heard the loud music from his truck’s speakers. They found his truck stuck in the mud on the riverbank. He was asleep in the driver’s seat and the engine was still running. Somehow, Phillip woke up alive that morning.
On another trip to his hunting camp in Bosco, Phillip and a couple of buddies stopped at a railroad crossing to relieve themselves. Phillip’s buddy stopped his truck right on top of the tracks. Thankfully, Phillip came to his senses. “Man, if a train comes by, we’re all going to die,” Phillip told his buddies. A few minutes after Phillip moved the truck, a train came roaring past them. The engineer never blew the train’s whistle because they were in the middle of nowhere.
There’s no doubt about it: if Phillip hadn’t turned his life around, he would have encountered an early grave. At one party, he passed out in a hot tub and nearly drowned. Fortunately, somebody walked by the hot tub and saw him underwater. Phillip was pulled out of the hot tub and spent the next several minutes coughing up water. On another night, a buddy dared Phillip to climb a five-hundred-foot tower. Somehow, even after consuming several beers, he managed to climb to the top and back down. Phillip still isn’t sure how he pulled it off.
Even though Phillip was angry with God because of his parents’ divorce and his difficult circumstances, he knew God was watching out for him. He believed God had a purpose and plan for him, but he wasn’t willing to give his life to Jesus and find out what the Almighty had in store for him.
Fortunately, while Phillip pondered the truth about life and God, my nephew Jase shared the Good News with him. At first, Phillip and Jase didn’t exactly jive. They both attended West Monroe High School but weren’t close friends. Jase was living a straight-and-narrow life and didn’t stray far from his Christian walk. Phillip, on the other hand, was hostile and angry toward God. He couldn’t understand why his life was such a mess if God truly loved him. In many ways, Phillip and Jase were polar opposites. Jase knew of Phillip’s reputation, which wasn’t good. Jase didn’t want much to do with Phillip, and vice versa.
When Phillip turned nineteen in January 1990, his good friend Blake Gaston told him that he’d changed his life and was never going back to his immoral life. Blake was one of Jase’s good friends too. Blake told Phillip that Jase had shared the Gospel with him. Phillip was confused. Blake had been his wingman, and Phillip didn’t understand what Jase could have told Blake that had made such a transformation in his life. It was such an abrupt and noticeable change.
Blake invited Phillip to attend a Bible study with him. Phillip was reluctant to go, but he was curious about hearing what had changed Blake’s life. Phillip made Blake promise that he wouldn’t draw any attention to him during the study. Phillip wanted to be a bystander and listen to what others were saying. He didn’t want to talk about himself or his relationship with God.
A few days later, Phillip walked into the Bible study, and Jase immediately noticed him there.
“Phillip McMillan,” Jase said to him, “do I have a story for you!”
Jase proceeded to share the Good News with Phillip. Jase explained that Phillip had three significant problems. First, he was disconnected from God. Sin had separated him from the Almighty. Second, Phillip was going to physically die one day, and he needed to be able to be physically raised from the grave in order to live eternally with God. Jase told Phillip that accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior was the only way to do it. Last, Jase told Phillip that even if he submitted to the Lord and became a Christian, he would eventually sin and need forgiveness and grace. Jesus could give him that too.
For the next hour, Jase told Phillip about how God became flesh in Jesus and sacrificed His life for us. Jase told him how Jesus was crucified, raised from the dead three days later, and then ascended into heaven to sit at God’s right hand. Finally, Jase told him that because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are continuously cleansed of our sins if we accept Him as our Lord.
Phillip broke down in tears after Jase shared the Good News with him. He knew that what Jase was telling him was true. He’d read about it in the God-breathed scriptures of the Bible. Phillip made a life-changing decision to repent and was baptized that night. Phillip has told me many times that it was the greatest decision of his life. Phillip says Jase saved his life by sharing the Good News with him.
Phillip went home and told his girlfriend, Alicia Swan, about what he’d done. He wanted Alicia to talk to Jase as well. Alicia was the only girl Phillip had ever truly loved, and he wanted her to live a righteous life with him. He prayed so hard for God to bring Alicia to Him through her faith in Christ Jesus.
Phillip had known Alicia since grade school, but they didn’t become friends until after they graduated from high school. She was one grade above Phillip, and he always believed she was out of his league. After they graduated, Alicia attended the University of Northeast Louisiana (it’s now called the University of Louisiana–Monroe) and worked as an aerobics instructor at a fitness facility. Phillip was so in love with the girl that he signed up for her classes. For more than an hour, Phillip stretched, bent over, gyrated, and shook his buns. By the time he finally got his leotard on, the class was over!
After every class, Phillip would ask Alicia out on a date. She shot him down every time. After one of the classes, Phillip saw Alicia changing a flat tire on the side of the road. He stopped to help her, but she said she was fine and didn’t need his assistance. In fact, Alicia told him she knew how to change a tire, change the motor oil, and fix anything else that could go wrong with a car. After hearing that, Phillip was even more in love with her. Despite her stubbornness, Phillip helped her anyway.
Finally, after Phillip sweated through another one of Alicia’s aerobics classes, she told him how she really felt about him. “I know who you are,” she said. “I have always known who you were. You’re a jerk, and I don’t want to date you!” How’s that for letting a boy down gently? Phillip wasn’t dejected, though. He set out to prove one thing to Alicia—that he wasn’t a jerk.
Through a friend, Phillip learned that Alicia was taking a class to renew her certification as an aerobics instructor. He decided he would register for the class. Phillip had no training in aerobics and is about as flexible as a cypress tree. But he sat next to her in every class and continued his courtship.
After a few weeks, Phillip finally persuaded Alicia to go to lunch with him. Then, after Phillip failed the aerobics class miserably, she agreed to go on a real date with him. “It’s not because I like you,” she told him. “It’s because I feel sorry for you.” Much to Alicia’s surprise, Phillip made her laugh during the entire date.
Alicia and Phillip started dating seriously and were married on April 18, 1992. My nephew Alan presided over their wedding, and Jase said a prayer during the service. Even Phil was there. I think it’s the first time I saw Phil at a wedding that didn’t involve one of his boys. Phillip and Alicia now have three children: Bryson, nineteen; Blake, fifteen; and their little girl, Amber, fourteen.
I couldn’t be prouder of Phillip. He and Jase went from polar opposites to close brothers in Christ and eventually, Phillip became a part of our family. He has led hundreds of people to the Lord through Bible studies with Phil, Jase, and Alan. He attended the School of Biblical Studies at White’s Ferry Road Church in West Monroe. Jase and Alan also attended our church’s seminary school, and my nephew Willie was in Phillip’s class. Willie told Phillip about the first time he met him. Willie said Phillip pulled up next to him at a stop sign and waved a stack of hundred-dollar bills at him. Now, that’s funny!
After graduating from seminary, Phillip attended Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies. He finished his master’s degree in counseling at Northeast Louisiana University and has worked at the Louisiana Methodist Children’s Home in Ruston since 1995. After working several years as a therapist, Phillip was hired as the home’s director of admissions in 2002. He travels across Louisiana screening potential candidates for placement at homes. His group provides therapy and other services to more than twenty thousand patients and families most every year.
I’ve always believed that the Lord works in mysterious ways, and I think Phillip’s difficult times as a teenager are the reason he is so successful at working with kids today. God had a hand in his life and had a purpose for him. Phillip’s mission in life today is to help kids who are going through the same struggles he went through as a young man. It’s pretty neat because he can use everything that happened in his life as lessons for the kids he counsels. With God’s help, Phillip is helping them turn their lives around. It’s an awesome thing to witness.
I’m happy God had mercy on Phillip. I’m happy Phillip finally realized God’s purpose for his life. I’m thankful for the serenity and peace God has given my friend Phillip. I’m glad to see that families can work through divorce and still be a great example for the kingdom of God. I’ve had the privilege of meeting Phillip’s extended family and must say they have been blessed. His mother, Kathryn, is one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met.
I believe that God causes certain people to come into our lives, and there is nothing more special than a Christian brother. As Proverbs 17:17 teaches us: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Our lives are not intended to be solo acts. We’re not meant to be Lone Rangers.