December 6, 2022 • 13 mins
John Schneider, best known as “Bo Duke” on the iconic television program, “The Dukes of Hazzard” as well as Smallville, Happily Divorced, Tyler Perry’s “The Haves and and the Have Nots”, and many more sits down to chat with Backstage Pass about playing one of the most recognizable characters in television history, making his own films with his wife (an esteemed producer) and how he has maintained his energy and passion throughout the duration of his long career.
(Recorded on location at Mickey Gilley’s Grand ShangHai Theater)
(Recorded on location at Mickey Gilley’s Grand ShangHai Theater)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.This is Bessie's Pass with Victoria Henley.
(00:24):
Hi everyone, and welcome into anotherepisode of Backstage Pass. It's Victoria Henley
here sitting in the beautiful Mickey GillisGrand Shanghai School. It is here in
Branson, Missouri with the one,the only John Schneider. How are you.
I'm delighted, I'm wonderful. I'mdelighted with the show today. I
think the show went really well.We tried brand new things, and I
(00:45):
mean brand new, so yeah,I've never i've put that show with the
video and all that stuff together kindof in a hotel room over the last
couple of days. Really yeah,two days, pretty much, that's impression.
Yeah, well, thank you.So I was very anxious to see
whether or not the mixture of ofthe audio and the video and then singing
(01:08):
live was going to work, andI think it did. It did absolutely
Okay. I would say the showwas a smashing success because you had a
crowd of over six hundred people.You were so great with them talking to
everybody after the show, because peoplefeel like they know you as Boduke from
the Dukes of Hazard. So takeus back You've done so much since then,
and you continue to do so much. But Bo Duke legendary role,
(01:32):
what was that like? Well,it was number one, it was a
long time ago. It was great, and it's it's really wonderful to see
that that that show, in thoserelationships still have such an effect, a
positive effect, in a real effect. It's people don't just kind of remember
Dukes. It seems like Dukes hasalways been part of their lives and it
(01:53):
still is. And I'm honored tobe that guy because it seems to remind
them of a not so much assimpler time, but maybe a better time.
It reminds them of spending. Iget a lot of people to say,
I used to watch the show withmy grandparents, and your grandma's here,
(02:17):
which I think is wonderful. Soit's it's not just something people remember
fondly that they watched. It's it'sa part of their lives and they bring
that with them and they share itwith me, So it's it's great.
It's great. It's great. Andshowing those other things from different different shows.
And there was some small villain therevery little of has and have nots
(02:39):
um And the new movie was inthere so, and of course a lot
of the music. So my wifeand I do music that we put into
the movies we make. So Ifeel, of all people most fortunate because
I really get to do that whichI love to do every day. This
man is truly I guess you couldsay a triple threat, so to speak,
(03:00):
in entertainment. I mean, wedo so much. Now we're going
to post up all of these linksso you can subscribe to his website,
check out the coming movie, andI'm going to ask you about that as
well. But you shared a reallyinteresting story before we get into that of
how you kind of broke into entertainment. You were a little bit of a
rule breaker. Tell us kind ofhow you got into you do well I
did. I had the nerve toclimb a fense and sneak onto the set
(03:21):
of Smoking the Bandit that I wassixteen. But what I didn't say up
there is that I started theater andjuggling and magic and guitar when I was
eight. So by the time bythe time Dukes had rolled around, I
had already done maybe nineteen or twentydifferent musicals and plays and things. I've
done magic shows for kids parties whenI was twelve. I was the entertainment
(03:46):
and not just you know, forthe family. I mean I got hired
at twelve. I was six feettall at twelve, so so yeah,
so so I talked a little bitin there about getting in touch with your
design. If you're not doing whatyou were designed to do, do it.
Stop stop doing something that you feelis wrong, and start doing the
(04:08):
right thing. I was very fortunatein that I somehow came in contact with
that at eight and have never everstraight away from it, with the possible
exception of doing Dukes was great,and doing all the other television stuff was
great. But I was always ahired person at eight, nine and ten
(04:31):
years old. I always thought Iwas going to be the guy writing the
scripts and making the movies. AndI am now because I met Alicia.
If I had not met Alicia,then I would still be pursuing my goal.
I feel that once she and Imet, I reached my goal,
(04:54):
and now we end hers and nowwe are refining it. That's wonderful.
And you is wonderful, isn't it. It really is, yes. And
you can just see the love onyour face when you talk about your wife.
That's wonderful. And for those ofyou who don't know, Alicia is
an established, acclaimed writer director,she's a producer. Yeah, she worked
for Robert Evans. Okay, sheran Robert Evans company when he was at
(05:17):
Paramount and just before he was.He'd been at Paramount a long time,
but he ran Paramount so he producedThe Godfather, who produced Rosemary's Baby in
Chinatown and on and on and on. So he was a probably the last
big real Hollywood mogul. And whenyou are no longer the head of the
studio, they will often He hada lifetime deal, so he had a
(05:40):
production deal at Paramount and uh,and she ran his company. She produced
a movie about Robert Crane called AutoFocus. She's She's just great, She's
amazing, She's a she's fantastic.I don't produce, because that's what smart
people do. I play. Ithink you can see that I play.
(06:01):
I will. I will make funout of mopping the floor. I will
figure out a way to have agood time. If I spill about a
box of popcorn, I'm going tohave a good time picking it up.
You might as well. I mightas well. You got to pick it
up anyway. I think that's whypeople love your show so much. You
just it's contagious, it's palpable,you have so much fun. Now you're
(06:21):
also unbashedly patriotic. And you havethis upcoming film. It's coming out October
the twentieth. We're going to postthose links, but tell us all great
films. It's called to Die For. And about a year ago, I
read a story. We were touringsomewhere and I read a story about a
guy who had gotten a restraining orderthat he could no longer drive his truck
(06:41):
with the American flag on it withinthree hundred yards of the school where he
learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance. And I thought, that's a movie,
because that is absurd and I needto do You know, maybe I'm
one of those people. When Iheard about smoking the Bandit, I thought,
I've got to do it. WhenI heard about to Hazard, I
thought, oh, that's the opportunity. Same thing with Smallville, same thing
(07:02):
with habs and have nuts. WhenI read that article, I thought,
oh it wasn't this is the nextthing I think I'm going to do.
It was oh, okay, God, this is the next thing I am
supposed to do, so I willdo it. So I sat down and
(07:23):
I wrote this film called To DieFor, and we've shot it in a
very unusual way. We've shot itover the last eight months. Usually you
start and film and finish and andput it together. Well, the schedule
didn't dictate that, and Alicia's beenhaving back surgery so had to just kind
of do it when I could.But I gave it a drop dead and
(07:46):
release date of October twentieth, theday we started. And yeah, so
you know, I also believe inself imposed deadlines. Otherwise you'll just kind
of flounder and wander never get anythingfinished. So that movie comes out,
and since then, one of theparts in the movie is he agrees to
(08:09):
take the flag off, but onlybecause he has secretly at night painted his
house with the American flag on it. So it's like, you don't like
my flag on my truck, you'rereally not going to like it on my
house. So he does that.And since that happened, about two weeks
ago, somebody sent me an articleabout a guy who the homeowner's association got
(08:33):
after him because his flag was toobig in his front yard. And he
said, okay, and he tookthe flag down and he painted his house
like the American flag, and thathappened after I wrote the script. So
there's something going on in the worldof the United States of America, in
the world of freedom. I nevertell people stay safe, I say stay
(08:56):
free. You know, safety issafety comes in, but freedom is something
Once you give it up, it'svery difficult to get back. So it's
it was absolutely a case of artimitating life, and now it's turned into
life imitating art. Absolutely, andI'm very excited about it. The number
one thing I hear from people whenthey see the trailer or I've had a
(09:20):
couple of friends who've actually seen themovie, they say, you are saying
everything that we all want to say, but for whatever reason, are afraid.
So if this movie becomes a voiceof the patriotic people out there,
then that will give them cause tobe unabashedly patriotic, just like I am.
(09:43):
And I think we need that,and I think she the Flag is
worth it, absolutely wonderful. Soif you can leave us with this,
because after all of this time inthe industry, not only are you so
present so in the moment, butyou have such passion moving forward, what
is your advice for a are peoplecreatives like yourself, to keep that passion
well first and foremost, don't everlose it. And you lose it when
(10:07):
you you involve yourself in making content, be its songs or books or writing
or movies or do shows or whateverit is. And it really it's not
just in the entertainment business, inanything. Don't make a product you wouldn't
buy. Don't tell a story youwouldn't listen to. Don't write a song
(10:31):
you wouldn't hear. Don't make amovie you wouldn't watch. Don't make a
hamburger you wouldn't eat. Right,I'm not going to rush out and buy
the next, the next vegetarians favoritehamburger because that makes no sense to me.
Nothing against vegetarians, but what doyou know about hamburgers? So um?
(10:52):
Don't actively like I talked about,don't don't actively engage in intentional hypocrisy.
Accidental hypocrisy is fine, we're allhuman at all. It all happens,
sure, but do that which youmust do, and you can't help
but be passionate. There's no way. Yeah, absolutely well, John,
(11:16):
thank you so much. We're sowelcome spending time. Thank you for waiting.
Yes. Of course he had along line of fans, and it
was so funny. My grandmother said, I know that guy. I know
that. I don't think you knowshe knew, she knew you from the
TV, but I love it.I think John is someone we all feel
like, we know, we've grownup with him and we continue to enjoy
his art. John, thank youfor what you do. You are so
(11:37):
welcome, folks. I hope youenjoy to Die For. We've got some
great fun movies, not that toDie For us well, and to Die
For has some humor in it too, but we've got Poker Run and Christmas
cars and stand on It and funstuff. So check it out and if
you like it, buy it.We when you're independent, you depend upon
you know. We're like a We'relike a moan pod grocery store, a
(12:00):
farmer's market, you know. Sowe we distribute the product that we make.
We don't put it out with anyother people because I largely disagree and
they disagree with me. So youknow they're not gonna put my stuff out.
So please go to John Schneider Studiosdot com, check it out and
get something so we can keep doingthis we're going to keep doing it anyway,
(12:22):
but it would be it'd be niceto be able to spend a little
bit more time with my bride.Absolutely, and what do we say.
We say one of these days it'sgoing to be mango or strawberry and that'll
be our biggest decision of the day. So we want that like that.
We're looking forward to that. Thankyou, don't we all? John?
(12:43):
Thank you so much. We're goingto post up all of these links.
Please make sure you visit his site, check out his streaming platform. He
is an independent platform, so it'sreally important. If you see something you
like, get it, share itwith your friends. As always, thank
you so much for joining us onBackstage Pass. We'll see you next time.
(13:15):
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk
lifts. Visit us online at FCBpodcasts dot com.
This is the FCB Podcast Network.This is Bessie's Pass with Victoria Henley.
(00:24):
Hi everyone, and welcome into anotherepisode of Backstage Pass. It's Victoria Henley
here sitting in the beautiful Mickey GillisGrand Shanghai School. It is here in
Branson, Missouri with the one,the only John Schneider. How are you.
I'm delighted, I'm wonderful. I'mdelighted with the show today. I
think the show went really well.We tried brand new things, and I
(00:45):
mean brand new, so yeah,I've never i've put that show with the
video and all that stuff together kindof in a hotel room over the last
couple of days. Really yeah,two days, pretty much, that's impression.
Yeah, well, thank you.So I was very anxious to see
whether or not the mixture of ofthe audio and the video and then singing
(01:08):
live was going to work, andI think it did. It did absolutely
Okay. I would say the showwas a smashing success because you had a
crowd of over six hundred people.You were so great with them talking to
everybody after the show, because peoplefeel like they know you as Boduke from
the Dukes of Hazard. So takeus back You've done so much since then,
and you continue to do so much. But Bo Duke legendary role,
(01:32):
what was that like? Well,it was number one, it was a
long time ago. It was great, and it's it's really wonderful to see
that that that show, in thoserelationships still have such an effect, a
positive effect, in a real effect. It's people don't just kind of remember
Dukes. It seems like Dukes hasalways been part of their lives and it
(01:53):
still is. And I'm honored tobe that guy because it seems to remind
them of a not so much assimpler time, but maybe a better time.
It reminds them of spending. Iget a lot of people to say,
I used to watch the show withmy grandparents, and your grandma's here,
(02:17):
which I think is wonderful. Soit's it's not just something people remember
fondly that they watched. It's it'sa part of their lives and they bring
that with them and they share itwith me, So it's it's great.
It's great. It's great. Andshowing those other things from different different shows.
And there was some small villain therevery little of has and have nots
(02:39):
um And the new movie was inthere so, and of course a lot
of the music. So my wifeand I do music that we put into
the movies we make. So Ifeel, of all people most fortunate because
I really get to do that whichI love to do every day. This
man is truly I guess you couldsay a triple threat, so to speak,
(03:00):
in entertainment. I mean, wedo so much. Now we're going
to post up all of these linksso you can subscribe to his website,
check out the coming movie, andI'm going to ask you about that as
well. But you shared a reallyinteresting story before we get into that of
how you kind of broke into entertainment. You were a little bit of a
rule breaker. Tell us kind ofhow you got into you do well I
did. I had the nerve toclimb a fense and sneak onto the set
(03:21):
of Smoking the Bandit that I wassixteen. But what I didn't say up
there is that I started theater andjuggling and magic and guitar when I was
eight. So by the time bythe time Dukes had rolled around, I
had already done maybe nineteen or twentydifferent musicals and plays and things. I've
done magic shows for kids parties whenI was twelve. I was the entertainment
(03:46):
and not just you know, forthe family. I mean I got hired
at twelve. I was six feettall at twelve, so so yeah,
so so I talked a little bitin there about getting in touch with your
design. If you're not doing whatyou were designed to do, do it.
Stop stop doing something that you feelis wrong, and start doing the
(04:08):
right thing. I was very fortunatein that I somehow came in contact with
that at eight and have never everstraight away from it, with the possible
exception of doing Dukes was great,and doing all the other television stuff was
great. But I was always ahired person at eight, nine and ten
(04:31):
years old. I always thought Iwas going to be the guy writing the
scripts and making the movies. AndI am now because I met Alicia.
If I had not met Alicia,then I would still be pursuing my goal.
I feel that once she and Imet, I reached my goal,
(04:54):
and now we end hers and nowwe are refining it. That's wonderful.
And you is wonderful, isn't it. It really is, yes. And
you can just see the love onyour face when you talk about your wife.
That's wonderful. And for those ofyou who don't know, Alicia is
an established, acclaimed writer director,she's a producer. Yeah, she worked
for Robert Evans. Okay, sheran Robert Evans company when he was at
(05:17):
Paramount and just before he was.He'd been at Paramount a long time,
but he ran Paramount so he producedThe Godfather, who produced Rosemary's Baby in
Chinatown and on and on and on. So he was a probably the last
big real Hollywood mogul. And whenyou are no longer the head of the
studio, they will often He hada lifetime deal, so he had a
(05:40):
production deal at Paramount and uh,and she ran his company. She produced
a movie about Robert Crane called AutoFocus. She's She's just great, She's
amazing, She's a she's fantastic.I don't produce, because that's what smart
people do. I play. Ithink you can see that I play.
(06:01):
I will. I will make funout of mopping the floor. I will
figure out a way to have agood time. If I spill about a
box of popcorn, I'm going tohave a good time picking it up.
You might as well. I mightas well. You got to pick it
up anyway. I think that's whypeople love your show so much. You
just it's contagious, it's palpable,you have so much fun. Now you're
(06:21):
also unbashedly patriotic. And you havethis upcoming film. It's coming out October
the twentieth. We're going to postthose links, but tell us all great
films. It's called to Die For. And about a year ago, I
read a story. We were touringsomewhere and I read a story about a
guy who had gotten a restraining orderthat he could no longer drive his truck
(06:41):
with the American flag on it withinthree hundred yards of the school where he
learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance. And I thought, that's a movie,
because that is absurd and I needto do You know, maybe I'm
one of those people. When Iheard about smoking the Bandit, I thought,
I've got to do it. WhenI heard about to Hazard, I
thought, oh, that's the opportunity. Same thing with Smallville, same thing
(07:02):
with habs and have nuts. WhenI read that article, I thought,
oh it wasn't this is the nextthing I think I'm going to do.
It was oh, okay, God, this is the next thing I am
supposed to do, so I willdo it. So I sat down and
(07:23):
I wrote this film called To DieFor, and we've shot it in a
very unusual way. We've shot itover the last eight months. Usually you
start and film and finish and andput it together. Well, the schedule
didn't dictate that, and Alicia's beenhaving back surgery so had to just kind
of do it when I could.But I gave it a drop dead and
(07:46):
release date of October twentieth, theday we started. And yeah, so
you know, I also believe inself imposed deadlines. Otherwise you'll just kind
of flounder and wander never get anythingfinished. So that movie comes out,
and since then, one of theparts in the movie is he agrees to
(08:09):
take the flag off, but onlybecause he has secretly at night painted his
house with the American flag on it. So it's like, you don't like
my flag on my truck, you'rereally not going to like it on my
house. So he does that.And since that happened, about two weeks
ago, somebody sent me an articleabout a guy who the homeowner's association got
(08:33):
after him because his flag was toobig in his front yard. And he
said, okay, and he tookthe flag down and he painted his house
like the American flag, and thathappened after I wrote the script. So
there's something going on in the worldof the United States of America, in
the world of freedom. I nevertell people stay safe, I say stay
(08:56):
free. You know, safety issafety comes in, but freedom is something
Once you give it up, it'svery difficult to get back. So it's
it was absolutely a case of artimitating life, and now it's turned into
life imitating art. Absolutely, andI'm very excited about it. The number
one thing I hear from people whenthey see the trailer or I've had a
(09:20):
couple of friends who've actually seen themovie, they say, you are saying
everything that we all want to say, but for whatever reason, are afraid.
So if this movie becomes a voiceof the patriotic people out there,
then that will give them cause tobe unabashedly patriotic, just like I am.
(09:43):
And I think we need that,and I think she the Flag is
worth it, absolutely wonderful. Soif you can leave us with this,
because after all of this time inthe industry, not only are you so
present so in the moment, butyou have such passion moving forward, what
is your advice for a are peoplecreatives like yourself, to keep that passion
well first and foremost, don't everlose it. And you lose it when
(10:07):
you you involve yourself in making content, be its songs or books or writing
or movies or do shows or whateverit is. And it really it's not
just in the entertainment business, inanything. Don't make a product you wouldn't
buy. Don't tell a story youwouldn't listen to. Don't write a song
(10:31):
you wouldn't hear. Don't make amovie you wouldn't watch. Don't make a
hamburger you wouldn't eat. Right,I'm not going to rush out and buy
the next, the next vegetarians favoritehamburger because that makes no sense to me.
Nothing against vegetarians, but what doyou know about hamburgers? So um?
(10:52):
Don't actively like I talked about,don't don't actively engage in intentional hypocrisy.
Accidental hypocrisy is fine, we're allhuman at all. It all happens,
sure, but do that which youmust do, and you can't help
but be passionate. There's no way. Yeah, absolutely well, John,
(11:16):
thank you so much. We're sowelcome spending time. Thank you for waiting.
Yes. Of course he had along line of fans, and it
was so funny. My grandmother said, I know that guy. I know
that. I don't think you knowshe knew, she knew you from the
TV, but I love it.I think John is someone we all feel
like, we know, we've grownup with him and we continue to enjoy
his art. John, thank youfor what you do. You are so
(11:37):
welcome, folks. I hope youenjoy to Die For. We've got some
great fun movies, not that toDie For us well, and to Die
For has some humor in it too, but we've got Poker Run and Christmas
cars and stand on It and funstuff. So check it out and if
you like it, buy it.We when you're independent, you depend upon
you know. We're like a We'relike a moan pod grocery store, a
(12:00):
farmer's market, you know. Sowe we distribute the product that we make.
We don't put it out with anyother people because I largely disagree and
they disagree with me. So youknow they're not gonna put my stuff out.
So please go to John Schneider Studiosdot com, check it out and
get something so we can keep doingthis we're going to keep doing it anyway,
(12:22):
but it would be it'd be niceto be able to spend a little
bit more time with my bride.Absolutely, and what do we say.
We say one of these days it'sgoing to be mango or strawberry and that'll
be our biggest decision of the day. So we want that like that.
We're looking forward to that. Thankyou, don't we all? John?
(12:43):
Thank you so much. We're goingto post up all of these links.
Please make sure you visit his site, check out his streaming platform. He
is an independent platform, so it'sreally important. If you see something you
like, get it, share itwith your friends. As always, thank
you so much for joining us onBackstage Pass. We'll see you next time.
(13:15):
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk
lifts. Visit us online at FCBpodcasts dot com.
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