It’s part of movie and tv car lore that the production team for the Dukes of Hazzard series went through about 300 Dodge Chargers during the duration of the series. As a result, because all it takes to start a restoration these days is a VIN plate, there are more than a couple “authentic” General Lees rolling around. Of course most of those cars were wrecked. The number of cars that weren’t destroyed in stunts was pretty low, and the number that were used for “hero” shots of the car even lower yet. I’ve met a collector who owns one of those General Lees used for principle photography in the series as well as one of the two authentic Monkeemobiles (George Barris’ shop made some promotional replicas besides the two cars used to shoot that series).
Like other owners of actual General Lees as well as replicas, in the current cultural atmosphere he can’t really show the car anywhere because, as you probably know, the tv car had a version of the Confederate battle flag, the “stars and bars", on its roof.
He got off easy. Former teen prodigy, blues guitarist and MOPAR enthusiast Kenny Wayne Shepherd had a General Lee replica in his collection. As a kid he watched the show and played with the toys, and as an adult with a rock star income he admired fellow musician Kid Rock’s General Lee replica. In 2021, after blues legend Muddy Waters’ daughter, Mercy Morganfield, made a fuss about Shepherd’s car, the Blues Foundation removed one of his songs from contention in that year’s Blues Music Awards and fired his father from its board of directors. That was even though years prior Shepherd had mothballed the car and permanently covered the flag on the roof (it was a replica so it’s not like he was painting over history).
It’s not like he was singing, “The South Will Be Free, From the Mississippi River to the Sea.” Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure the Blues Foundation would do nothing if Shepherd put a Palestinian flag on his General Lee and drove it right down Beale Street.
The unfair treatment of Shepherd and his father so distressed guitar great Johnny Copeland’s daughter, singer Shemikia Copeland, that she asked her manager and lyricist John Hahn to write a song to address unwarranted hated within the blues community. She then asked Kenny Wayne Shepherd if he would write music for the lyrics and join her to record the song, “Hit ‘Em Back… With Love,” with gospel pedal steel guitar player Robert Randolph, and drummer Tony Copeland, whose resume includes stints with a veritable who’s who of blues musicians, including B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, and Buddy Guy. All proceeds from the “Hit ‘Em Back” are being donated to the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a non-profit whose stated mission is “to preserve the musical traditions of the south by directly supporting musicians who make it, ensuring their voices will not be silenced by poverty and time.”
Shepherd’s response to the controversy was classy, but then I’ve thought he was a classy guy ever since I saw him play at a General Motors press event. GM was introducing the 2015 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup trucks and they put on the Ritz in an event space in Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center. They hired Shepherd’s band to play for the hundreds of media folks in attendance, the vast majority of whom split as soon as the wait-staff starting removing the food.
I like the blues so I hung around. I’ve also been shooting 3D photography and video since 2011 so I shot it on the relatively crude DIY stereo rig that I was using back then (today I use a Japanese domestic market JVC 3D camcorder).
Eventually I was literally the only person left watching them play. Shepherd and the band had every reason to phone it in. All the GM suits had left so it wasn’t like they were going to piss off whoever was signing their check. Still, Shepherd performed like a pro, playing a full set for over an hour.
It made me think of Herbert Foster, the piano player in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, The Foster Portfolio. Foster, a mild-mannered bookkeeper by day, plays jazz in a dive bar on weekends as a second job to support his wife and son. At first glance Foster is a tragic figure, but on rereading the story I think he’s heroic.
Great post! Nothing makes me angrier than the woke mob retroactively attempting to rewrite history. Let’s take down statues of historical figures who actually matter—good, bad or otherwise—and replace them with more recent “heroes” like Marion Berry and George Floyd. The Dukes of Hazzard was a goofy, period-acceptable, comedy that nobody cared about for years. Then the wokesters—and their useful idiot appeasers (stand up Bubba Watson!)—had to fix things. Thanks for the post.
And they tell me white boys can't strum The Blues .
She's got a great voice .
Thank you for sharing this ronnie .
-Nate