April 21, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, “Smokin’” Ed Currie is an American chili pepper breeder and the founder and president of the PuckerButt Pepper Company. He’s best known for creating the world’s hottest chili peppers—the Carolina Reaper and now Pepper X—as recognized by Guinness World Records. A former addict, Ed is now a man of strong faith. Here’s Ed sharing a story about him and his wife.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
And we continue with our American stories. Smoking Ed Curry
is an American chili pepper breeder who's the founder and
president of the pucker Butt Pepper Company. He is best
known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world,
the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X. Is recognized by
Guinness World Records. A former addict and is now a
(00:33):
man with strong faith. Here's Ed sharing a story involving
him and his wife.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
She finally talked me into going to the church she
was going to, and this was a non denominational church,
and she said, come on, have communion. And I was like,
I can't do that. I'm Catholic. You know, this isn't
a real church. And she said, no, come on, you can.
And she got up to get in line for communion,
as did all the other people who were with us.
(01:02):
And the pastor was up on the stage, you know,
with his bible, and he was singing whatever song the
band was playing, and he closed his Bible and put
it down on the stool he had next to him,
and he jumped off the stage and he grabbed a
chalice and a plate and I'm watching him and he
came all the way up the aisle back into the darkness.
(01:22):
He couldn't have possibly seen me from the stage, you know,
when the lights are on you, you can't see out. And
he walked straight up to me and he said, ed,
you're worthy of the body of Christ. Receive communion. And
I was immediately Even though I had, like I don't know,
six seven, eight years clean, whatever it was, I still
(01:45):
carried all that guilt and shame from all that stuff
I had done, stuff that was going to send me
to help. All the guilt and shame. Everything just immediately
left my body, and even my very worst days have
been nothing but full of gratitude ever since then. Well,
(02:07):
I tell people this stuff all the time when I'm interviewing,
like especially when the camera's rolling, because the kids shut
you up, and then they heeded it out, and that's
the kind of story that people need to hear. I
got approached to do a feature film okay from a
big studio, but they refused to give me any creative
control and actually told me I had to stop the
(02:30):
God talk, and I dropped the film. I said, now
I'm not going to do this, even though they were
offering a whole lot of money, not a month later,
I got approached by a rock band who's got a
production company now who they're going to give me total
creative control, actually executive producer position, so I can literally
(02:52):
I can say, this stays in, this goes out. They
don't care about what I say, what I do. It's
all part of the story. And if I want to
talk about Jesus, that's just fine. And that's the way
they put it. If you want to talk about Jesus,
it's just fine, you know. And so you know, when
(03:13):
one door closes and the other one opens. Well, I
got a call in the middle of the night, all
right from a woman and she goes, hey, ed, how
are you doing. I'm like, hey, Laura, how are you doing?
You know, why are you calling me? You know that
guy and I had done service work in an a
with her, and she goes, you remember my daughter And
I was like, well, kind of, you know, I have
(03:37):
met her five years ago, and she said, well, you
know she's an atheist and I said, yeah, you just
told me, you know, and she goes, you know, I'm
agnostic and I said, yeah, you tell me that all
the time, and she goes, well, my daughter has been
having dreams that the baby she's carrying from an eighteen
year old gangbanger. God is telling her that that's your baby.
(04:00):
And I was like what, and she goes, yeah, and
I've been having dreams that you have a daughter named
Katherine Anne. And I had a sister named Katherine Anne
who died and I never told anybody. Linda didn't even
know about her at this point, okay. And I was
like wow, and she goes, yeah, we want you to
adopt the baby. And she knew that Linda had a
(04:23):
bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped trying to have
a baby. And I was like, well, I got to
talk to Lynda about that, thank you. But my answer
is yes, you know, because to me, that was a
God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay, and it
was after this other miracle adapted. So I go into
(04:45):
bed and I tell Linda's like, who's on the phone,
you know, And I told her what happened, and she
started cursing out God, all right, cursing And I'm like,
you can't curse God, and she goes, I can do
whatever I want to do, you know. You know, she
because she has a really good relation and really what
it was was that Sarah n Abraham thing. She was
(05:06):
about to turn fifty. We tried for so long. How
come God's providing this right now? And we were literally
we're praying on it. And she was like, no, we're
too old, blah blah blah blah. And I said, let's
go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this. David Chadwick is
his name, and we get to the we'd go to
(05:26):
the church service and we'd get in line to talk
to him, and we see that a woman who's dying
of cancer is with him. So we went over to
thank the visiting pastor had spoke during that meeting for
being there. He's like, oh, you want to talk to
Pastor Chadwick and she's like, yeah, we're we got an
offer for adoption, but I'm fifty years old. And the
(05:48):
pastor stopped her right there and he said, you see
that little kid right there. God put that child in
my life when I was fifty two. You see this
other one right here. God put that child in my
life when I was fifty six. And before he could
even stop, Pastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady he
(06:10):
was talking to, walked over to us and said, lay
hands on Ed and Linda, we have to pray. And literally,
out of his mouth came everything that Linda had said
in our marriage bed. We hadn't shared it with anybody,
all of her fears, all of her worries, even saying
(06:34):
God forgives you for talking to him like that. Okay,
all of it just came out of his mouth. And
then he said adopt the baby. And that was it.
And we called her from right there in the church
and said we'll adopt the baby. We had no money, okay,
(06:56):
you know, literally we had no money. It was all
going into the business. I had paid for a legal
benefit at the bank that she had been trying to
get me to get rid of. Guess what it covered,
adoption one hundred percent. Adopting that baby cost us a
total of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social
(07:17):
worker that the state required comes and visit its your
house and make sure you're okay for adoption. That's all
it cost us to adopt the first baby. And when
the miracle happened, the same thing. Call from in the
middle of the night, someone Linda knows saying, my daughter
(07:37):
is pregnant, and she wants you guys to adopt the baby,
and same thing that one I had already paid. I
had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for
five babies, so she didn't have to come back. And
it just cost us the legal you know, the legal
documents from the court, which was like two hundred and
fifty dollars, and my wife literally cut the cord for
(07:59):
both children. That doesn't happen to fifty year olds. Doesn't
happen to fifty year olds. You can't even get on
the list to adopt new boards. And I'd adopt more,
but she says no. But just amazing, amazing stuff. And
I can keep on going on over and over and
(08:21):
miracles everywhere watching them happen to others, and not think
it's good luck or something like that. You can see
that as an absolute miracle. Ah wow, thank you for
letting me share that.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And thank you for sharing it. Ed, And miracles, well,
they happen all around us, believe her or not. Miracles
happen every day. And my goodness, what a miracle for
Ed and his bride in her fifties, angry at God,
and my goodness, why not me? Lord? Why not me?
Why that other girl, Why is she pregnant? Why are
(09:00):
and I? Why have you denied me? And then well,
this is why we go to church too. So many
Americans go to church, to synagogue, to mosque. Why. Well,
anybody who goes knows why. And if you don't go,
well we love you too. Here on this show, we
love people of every faith and every faith walk including
none at all. The story of Ed Curry's Miracle baby
(09:21):
and miracle babies. Here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Smoking Ed Curry
is an American chili pepper breeder who's the founder and
president of the pucker Butt Pepper Company. He is best
known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world,
the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X. Is recognized by
Guinness World Records. A former addict and is now a
(00:33):
man with strong faith. Here's Ed sharing a story involving
him and his wife.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
She finally talked me into going to the church she
was going to, and this was a non denominational church,
and she said, come on, have communion. And I was like,
I can't do that. I'm Catholic. You know, this isn't
a real church. And she said, no, come on, you can.
And she got up to get in line for communion,
as did all the other people who were with us.
(01:02):
And the pastor was up on the stage, you know,
with his bible, and he was singing whatever song the
band was playing, and he closed his Bible and put
it down on the stool he had next to him,
and he jumped off the stage and he grabbed a
chalice and a plate and I'm watching him and he
came all the way up the aisle back into the darkness.
(01:22):
He couldn't have possibly seen me from the stage, you know,
when the lights are on you, you can't see out. And
he walked straight up to me and he said, ed,
you're worthy of the body of Christ. Receive communion. And
I was immediately Even though I had, like I don't know,
six seven, eight years clean, whatever it was, I still
(01:45):
carried all that guilt and shame from all that stuff
I had done, stuff that was going to send me
to help. All the guilt and shame. Everything just immediately
left my body, and even my very worst days have
been nothing but full of gratitude ever since then. Well,
(02:07):
I tell people this stuff all the time when I'm interviewing,
like especially when the camera's rolling, because the kids shut
you up, and then they heeded it out, and that's
the kind of story that people need to hear. I
got approached to do a feature film okay from a
big studio, but they refused to give me any creative
control and actually told me I had to stop the
(02:30):
God talk, and I dropped the film. I said, now
I'm not going to do this, even though they were
offering a whole lot of money, not a month later,
I got approached by a rock band who's got a
production company now who they're going to give me total
creative control, actually executive producer position, so I can literally
(02:52):
I can say, this stays in, this goes out. They
don't care about what I say, what I do. It's
all part of the story. And if I want to
talk about Jesus, that's just fine. And that's the way
they put it. If you want to talk about Jesus,
it's just fine, you know. And so you know, when
(03:13):
one door closes and the other one opens. Well, I
got a call in the middle of the night, all
right from a woman and she goes, hey, ed, how
are you doing. I'm like, hey, Laura, how are you doing?
You know, why are you calling me? You know that
guy and I had done service work in an a
with her, and she goes, you remember my daughter And
I was like, well, kind of, you know, I have
(03:37):
met her five years ago, and she said, well, you
know she's an atheist and I said, yeah, you just
told me, you know, and she goes, you know, I'm
agnostic and I said, yeah, you tell me that all
the time, and she goes, well, my daughter has been
having dreams that the baby she's carrying from an eighteen
year old gangbanger. God is telling her that that's your baby.
(04:00):
And I was like what, and she goes, yeah, and
I've been having dreams that you have a daughter named
Katherine Anne. And I had a sister named Katherine Anne
who died and I never told anybody. Linda didn't even
know about her at this point, okay. And I was
like wow, and she goes, yeah, we want you to
adopt the baby. And she knew that Linda had a
(04:23):
bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped trying to have
a baby. And I was like, well, I got to
talk to Lynda about that, thank you. But my answer
is yes, you know, because to me, that was a
God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay, and it
was after this other miracle adapted. So I go into
(04:45):
bed and I tell Linda's like, who's on the phone,
you know, And I told her what happened, and she
started cursing out God, all right, cursing And I'm like,
you can't curse God, and she goes, I can do
whatever I want to do, you know. You know, she
because she has a really good relation and really what
it was was that Sarah n Abraham thing. She was
(05:06):
about to turn fifty. We tried for so long. How
come God's providing this right now? And we were literally
we're praying on it. And she was like, no, we're
too old, blah blah blah blah. And I said, let's
go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this. David Chadwick is
his name, and we get to the we'd go to
(05:26):
the church service and we'd get in line to talk
to him, and we see that a woman who's dying
of cancer is with him. So we went over to
thank the visiting pastor had spoke during that meeting for
being there. He's like, oh, you want to talk to
Pastor Chadwick and she's like, yeah, we're we got an
offer for adoption, but I'm fifty years old. And the
(05:48):
pastor stopped her right there and he said, you see
that little kid right there. God put that child in
my life when I was fifty two. You see this
other one right here. God put that child in my
life when I was fifty six. And before he could
even stop, Pastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady he
(06:10):
was talking to, walked over to us and said, lay
hands on Ed and Linda, we have to pray. And literally,
out of his mouth came everything that Linda had said
in our marriage bed. We hadn't shared it with anybody,
all of her fears, all of her worries, even saying
(06:34):
God forgives you for talking to him like that. Okay,
all of it just came out of his mouth. And
then he said adopt the baby. And that was it.
And we called her from right there in the church
and said we'll adopt the baby. We had no money, okay,
(06:56):
you know, literally we had no money. It was all
going into the business. I had paid for a legal
benefit at the bank that she had been trying to
get me to get rid of. Guess what it covered,
adoption one hundred percent. Adopting that baby cost us a
total of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social
(07:17):
worker that the state required comes and visit its your
house and make sure you're okay for adoption. That's all
it cost us to adopt the first baby. And when
the miracle happened, the same thing. Call from in the
middle of the night, someone Linda knows saying, my daughter
(07:37):
is pregnant, and she wants you guys to adopt the baby,
and same thing that one I had already paid. I
had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for
five babies, so she didn't have to come back. And
it just cost us the legal you know, the legal
documents from the court, which was like two hundred and
fifty dollars, and my wife literally cut the cord for
(07:59):
both children. That doesn't happen to fifty year olds. Doesn't
happen to fifty year olds. You can't even get on
the list to adopt new boards. And I'd adopt more,
but she says no. But just amazing, amazing stuff. And
I can keep on going on over and over and
(08:21):
miracles everywhere watching them happen to others, and not think
it's good luck or something like that. You can see
that as an absolute miracle. Ah wow, thank you for
letting me share that.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
And thank you for sharing it. Ed, And miracles, well,
they happen all around us, believe her or not. Miracles
happen every day. And my goodness, what a miracle for
Ed and his bride in her fifties, angry at God,
and my goodness, why not me? Lord? Why not me?
Why that other girl, Why is she pregnant? Why are
(09:00):
and I? Why have you denied me? And then well,
this is why we go to church too. So many
Americans go to church, to synagogue, to mosque. Why. Well,
anybody who goes knows why. And if you don't go,
well we love you too. Here on this show, we
love people of every faith and every faith walk including
none at all. The story of Ed Curry's Miracle baby
(09:21):
and miracle babies. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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