Becoming a Fan of The Dukes of Hazzard
I first became a Dukes of Hazzard fan way back when I was like 4 years old. I have faint memories of my dad sitting back on the couch while my brother Lucas and I were playing with our toy General Lee's watching the show. I stopped watching it up until about 7th grade, when I got really interested in it again. I started collecting merchandise from the show and watching it a lot. In 8th grade though, that was when society took a turn and began trying to erase the Dukes of Hazzard from history by taking it off the air.
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The Dukes of Hazzard was and is a family friendly show that teaches you to do the right thing by your neighbors. The Rebel Flag stands for Southern Pride, and self pride. If that flag stood for anything more then that, then Uncle Jesse wouldn't have allowed the Duke Boys to put it on the car. And having met thousands of Dukes of Hazzard fans of all races, I can stand by the fact that hatred doesn't have a place in Hazzard. It's just good ol' boys driving fast and short shorts.
John Schneider (Bo Duke on Dukes of Hazzard) and ChunkeyMonkey40
Making Dukes of Hazzard Videos on YouTube
These started out pretty early into my YouTube channel. I started YouTube on April 13, 2015 and made my first Dukes of Hazzard Video when they released the Rockstar Editor Mode into Grand Theft Auto 5 that September. I made one video called "The Dukes of Hazzard": The Theme Song (A Rockstar Editor Movie) and it got a couple hundred views. At the time, that was huge to my channel so I decided to make a more interesting episode. My friend Keegan and I then made another one that started the 4 episode "GTA 5 Dukes of Hazzard Tribute Series" That got my channel out there.
As my GTA 5 Dukes of Hazzard skits got bigger, so did my interest. I began going to Dukes of Hazzard events with hopes to meet cast members, network, and make vlogs at the events. The first one I went to was in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Raymond Kohn of the Northeast Ohio Dukes jumped a General Lee with thousands of people watching from around the Cobo Center. This was also the first time I got to make a video with my dad, and it changed the direction of my channel to lean more towards vlogging. It's probably amongst my favorite videos I've done.
Fast forward a few years to 2020, and here I am backing Waylon Jennings' General Lee off a trailer and getting ready to film at John Schneider's Birthday Party. I watch this video and just feel so much pride in myself, knowing that all these years of making over 60 Dukes of Hazzard related videos has finally started to pay off... and I'm not even close to where I plan to be on YouTube. This is just the beginning. I love The Dukes of Hazzard, it will always be a part of my life and video content in some way. Why else would I put bull horns on my truck? LMAO!
Finding Success in Hazzard County
It took a while, but since 2021 I've started to find success in this YouTube stuff. On June 28, 2021 I uploaded "Things You Didn't Know: About the General Lee" and that video TOOK OFF! 2 years later, it sits at over 200,000 views (making it my most viewed video to date). Of course, I didn't stop there.
Shortly after releasing this video, I had kicked off Traveler Season 1, where I travelled the east coast and visited significant Dukes of Hazzard spots including Cooter's Place in Luray, VA, the Boar's Nest Museum in Rougemont, NC, and the big one: HAZZARD! That's right, good ol' Covington, Georgia: the ORIGINAL Hazzard County. That was an epic place to visit, but damn it is hot haha! I was 18 at the time, and being a Yankee... I don't know how y'all southerners put up with that heat! I'm sure y'all would say the same about Michigan Winters lol.
"Things You Didn't Know: About the General Lee" may be my biggest video to date, but the Dukes Filming Locations Vlog is hands down my best. That video is just so great. Currently it sits at 155,000 views, but every time I upload something new it seems to jump up a couple thousand. It was so cool to visit the places I had been seeing on TV since I was a kid. I have since made a lot of friends down in Covington, and plan to make it a spot I go back to quite often for the rest of my life. The 'Good Ol Boy' Spirit lives in Covington... I love it there!