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Rating:  -
Jerry Rushing is definately the real Duke of Hazzard. He explains his life story growing up as a moonshiner, and us Dukes fans, see many parallels with his life story and the tv series. He actually inspired the low budjet film, Moonrunners, which then was changed with a Smokey and the Bandit flare, to a tv series the Dukes of Hazzard. His stories are action packed told from the perspective of a man reflecting on the good old days. So I do beleive some of these stories are exaggerated, but it is still fun to read about them. This book is written by a Minister, which you would think it would be less exciting, but he doesn't really hold back with Jerry's stories. One or two chapters he tends to go on about Jerry's sins, but he talks about him reforming his lifestyle. Other than that, I love this book. Jerry had an exciting life which helped create our beloved Dukes of Hazzard.
Rating:  -
"Dukes of Hazzard" fans have been meeting Jerry Rushing at events such as DukesFest for years, and they're very familiar with the fact that he was Gy Waldron's inspiration for the TV series, as well as the pre-series movie "Moonrunners." What Michael Barnes does here, though, in "The Real Duke of Hazzard," is illuminate the real story -- the good, the bad and the quite ugly -- of Rushing's actual moonshining days in North Carolina.
Jerry Elijah Rushing was born into the 'shine business; his daddy made the stuff, and his granddaddy before him. It was perfectly logical -- even expected -- that Jerry would follow in their footsteps. The way the moonshiners saw it, the government gave itself the right to make and market whiskey, so why couldn't the average citizen do it, too? It seemed entirely hypocritical that it was against the law! So Rushing got into the family biz, and he dreamed of being an outlaw in the spirit of Jesse James. He made the stuff, he ran the stuff, and he broke any law he had to as he provided for his family.
Barnes very well illustrates the factors that made Rushing who he is, both before and after he got saved. It's especially interesting to read how instrumental Rushing's terribly abusive father was in (inadvertently) forming a tough shell around his son. Rushing has found it difficult to express emotion, even to his own dearly loved wife and daughter, all of his life because of this. And Barnes does well to show the anger building in Rushing over the years -- anger that no doubt sprouted from his upbringing but continued to boil toward the revenuers who were always hot on his tail. Rushing hated lawmen in any form, and he would vent that intense anger on the occasional friend or acquaintance, as well. He was just a tough man, from the tip of his big black felt hat to his toes.
We know where this story is going -- to Rushing's salvation in the late 1980s and to his modern message for those who've not yet trusted Jesus. Barnes illustrates that no one is beyond saving, not even the darkest sinner. (And indeed, that's what I've always appreciated about the story of Johnny Cash, as well.) God planted the seeds of salvation in Rushing over the course of many years, from his very childhood, and despite the hypocrisy of the Christians this moonshiner saw around him (who largely kept him from even the IDEA of attending church), God was more than able to make those seeds grow. A fine story, with the best of endings.
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