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Mike Furches (MF): Can you tell us some about Dave Redmon?
Dave Redmon (DR): I live in a small town in Alabama outside Birmingham, was in the army in the early 80’s. After H.S. I worked as a service tech until I got old enough to drive semis. I went to driving school at 20 years of age; even though I had experience driving in the army, back then it was not verifiable. After school, I bought my first truck in 1987 and even had my own repair shop while driving.
MF: Can you share some about how you became involved with the shows that aired on The History Channel?
DR: I was found on Youtube. They had been watching me for some time and I posted an explosive video about a company I was leased to and the same weekend I was contacted for season 1 of Deadliest Roads.
MF: What were your experiences with the three shows? Was one any different than the other, primarily in the way they were produced and the stories presented?
DR: As for the three shows, they were so different it was unreal. When I got to India, I met my field producer at the Deli airport and we were filming 10 minutes off the plane. I had my field producer and several camera and AP’s and a driver. They treated me great! I never had any trouble.
Now when I got to Alaska it was like a whole new world, they played like they were going to make you look great, then when your back was turned…. I had one guy there that treated me right and we got along great. It was so bad I would not let my field prod ride with me any more so the camera guy did his job. This was a week or so before the taped firing.
In Bolivia all I can say is they were trying to get someone killed. After me and Rick left they started showing Lisa better roads to drive, not as bad as the others had to drive. Rick left because of the fact that Lisa did not want to drive the bad roads, so she did not have to. I left because I got deathly sick and was not getting better (parasite).
MF: Season 5 of IRT is where it seems much of the controversy has come about; tell us about your thoughts on Season 5 of IRT?
DR: Season 5 was… I was there to do a job but no one would let me do it from Tony to Phil to Lane. It was like I was not wanted there and I found out later that I was scripted to be fired four weeks in, yet I made it seven weeks until they fired me. I never got a ticket, had an accident, or ran into the ditch, and I delivered every load they gave me. Even after I was fired I stayed and finished filming. The F150 truck scene was two weeks after I was fired and I drove Phil’s truck the day before I left for aerial shots. As for scripting, they have shots they need to get on a daily basis and a good field producer can get those and you not know it; but in Alaska, the crew was all young and had no experience and they had no clue and wanted to put their own spin on things, and it just did not work. They love to cut and paste; if you hear someone talking and you did not see them say it, it did not happen then. There are wild lines that we sat in the truck several times throughout the show and repeated these lines over and over just for the audio.
I was treated unfairly for sure! Watch the India show then watch the AK show, what do you think? They took everything I did wrong and used it against me tenfold in Alaska.
MF: It seems as if the company Carlile had a favorite in Tony as a driver, can you tell us some about your experiences of working with him?
DR: Tony and his mother work at Carlile. Harry is his golfing buddy, in any company you have a chain of command from dispatch to managers. Tony never works that way, he goes straight to Harry if he has a problem and even slipped on the show. Lisa and him were getting heavy haul shacks and Tony said, “I talked to Harry, if you do this right you’ll get H/H.” They have a H/H supervisor that makes those choices.
MF: The show also clearly showed that he had a tendency of showing up late, was this true of him?
DR: Tony late? He was late every day! Production called it “Tony Time,” he would keep us for hours waiting for him. He drunk dialed me once at four a.m. and came to work six hours later. I said something about it, yet it was overlooked.
I spoke up about him several times to a deaf ear. He is the company favorite so he does no wrong. He nearly got killed in an accident two weeks before we met yet he was allowed to go out with me? Unheard of in the trucking industry.
MF: What are your thoughts on the others in the show you have either worked with or had experiences with in the past?
DR: I worked with Lisa and Rick in India and thought they were genuine. I was wrong; Lisa is so far from that I can’t explain. Rick is genuine and we worked together well. I still talk to him on the phone from time to time. Lisa on the other hand is a user. She will like you till she gets what she wants then she’s done. Rick and I watched her back in India yet when I get to Alaska she won’t give me the time of day. Then when we got to Bolivia she was a TOTAL Control freak and they show it on the show. That’s why she quit.
MF: How much is the real Dave Redmon like the person shown on screen in Season 5?
DR: On season 5 they did their best to make me look stupid! They never showed anything good I did and I didn’t know it until the show came out. They were editing season 5 while we were in Bolivia. Had I known what they were doing I would never have gone to Bolivia.
MF: What do you wish you knew then that you know now before entering into a program like this?
DR: If I would have known how they like to mess with people’s reputations and livelihoods I would have never have gone on the show.
MF: I know you like motorcycling. Tell me about your bike and why you like it?
DR: Sold my motorcycle last year. It was a Harley Davidson Softail Deuce. I loved getting out to ride but I broke my back in India so it had to go.
MF: Also a thing I think people forget about is that you are a real trucker. What is it about trucking you like, or dislike?
DR: A lot of people forget when seeing us on TV we are real people that have real jobs to go back to. The thing I love is being on my own and the thing I hate is how drivers are looked down on.
MF: What would you want people to know about the real David C. Redmon?
DR: I’m a real human being, been married to the same girl for thirteen years, and I’m the guy that gives the shirt off my back to help people. And believe nothing you see on the reality shows.
MF: Another more serious question, and I have to ask, would you do the show again if they asked and what are your plans for the future?
DR: NEVER!!! I will not ever do this stupid mistake again.
MF: If there is a life lesson in all of this for people to learn, what do you think it is?
DR: The life lesson is never put your reputation in the hands of production companies like Original Productions without a serious contract because you will get used and they will be the ones cashing in. I did these shows with a broken back (I broke it on the show), a torn rotator cuff, bad knee, and a blown disc in my neck. Do you think they cared? No! I have not worked since I left Bolivia and have had five operations to fix these things including the back which I broke on their show. Do you think it was worth it?
