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Legend Biography

Michael Waddell

2022

Creator & Host of The Bone Collector

Sponsors: Coming Soon

My story began 35 years ago in backwoods and backwaters of Booger Bottom, Georgia. No crowds, strip malls or concrete jungles there. Just a heck of a lot of places for a young kid to get dirty, get into trouble and grow up country – the kind of place where a boy can be a boy and not worry one bit about the fast pace of city life. Man, we need more places like that these days, huh?
Like the old saying goes, I’m Southern by birth and redneck by the grace of God. If I ever get a tattoo, that’s definitely what it’ll say. I’m country through and through. I dig twangy music and old school Southern rock. I like my steaks southern fried, my hashbrowns scattered, smothered ‘n covered and my tea sweet and stout. Real stout – the kind you can dang near cut with a knife – just like my Grand Mamma used to make. I’m a guitar pickin’, blue jeans wearin’, backstrap grillin’ good ol’ boy who was born to hunt. If it gobbles, quacks, bugles or grunts, chances are I’ve chased it more than a time or two. Droppin’ the hammer and closin’ the coffin on anything with antlers, feathers or fur just never gets old. I bet you know exactly what I’m talkin’ about.
Besides Jesus, my Daddy and Mamma and my family, my heroes include a long list of real Americans – like the brave men and women of our Armed Forces – and a handful of truly hardcore hunters like Fred Bear, Ted Nugent and Chuck Adams. I do what I do because of them. They inspire me to be myself and keep walking the path I’m on.
I’m really proud of where I’ve come from, and I’m excited about where I’m at and where I’m headed. I got my start in the hunting industry by winning a Realtree turkey calling contest, and from there I started guiding and filming hunts. Before I knew it, I was runnin’ camera for Realtree all over God’s creation, and learning all I could about TV production. The idea for “Realtree Road Trips” was born a few years later and since then, my life has been a whirlwind – huntin’, travelin’, workin’ hard and meeting great folks from coast to coast. I’m lovin’ every minute of it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And I plan to keep on runnin’ and gunnin’ until the Good Lord slows me down.
But for as much fun as I have, you better believe I’ll never, ever forget just how blessed I am. I’m blessed with a loving, healthy family, a job I love and awesome fans who’ve supported me every step of the way. I’m blessed with more friends than I guy could ask for, really. I’m blessed to work with and represent some of the top companies in the outdoor industry. And I’m blessed to live in a country where I’m free to be the rowdy redneck I was born to be.

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