● I want to ask about the most
dangerous situation that happened during mining?
Well there are
some very dangerous situations that happen and you'll see in some of the
episodes there’s actually a couple very dangerous situations that happen so I
don’t want to give anything away but it happens to be with a dozer and it
actually scares our whole team, so might be something to look out for because I
think it’s going to be a nail biter.
● Could you please describe what
Gold Rush means to you?
For us, I
believe that the dollar could crash someday so when you’re able to dig gold out
of the ground yourself Gold Rush means to us is freedom because when you have
gold you have a protection against a currency crash, the dollar in previous
years has crashed, we believe that the dollar could crash again and that scares
us and we want to feed our families and we believe that gold some day will
protect our families from an economic crash.
● Do
you remember the first gold nugget that you found, where was it and when?
The very first
gold nugget that we dug up was just a little nugget down in Porcupine but I
don’t want to give anything away but we do dig something up not only just
nuggets but something else really special in the series this year that I think
a lot of people are going to really be excited about.
● Can you tell us a little bit
about yourself and how does it feel to be part of such an exciting project with
your father?
Well we, we
created the show together, my Dad and I and you know what we love God, we're
not professional gold miners, so we're just your average guys going out trying
to get gold because we believe in gold.
A lot of my mistakes, successes and failures are all for millions of
people to see, 200 million people worldwide so you have to be kind of tough
because you get a lot of people on the internet that you know, say pretty
hurtful things to you. But then again we
get to expose our faith and our values in front of 200 million people so it’s
pretty cool, it’s been a great experience for us but you know its hard being a
chubby guy on TV, let’s just leave it at that.
● Let’s talk
about the past, what was the main reason that you suddenly decided to change
your life, move to Alaska and start gold mining?
What you see in
the news and a lot of people will look at America and go ‘oh man they really
have it together,’ but the average small business guy believes that you cannot
print money, it’s going to come back to bite you, so if you believe that your
government is getting in too much debt borrowing money, printing money, you
believe that at some point gold is going to become the actual currency to keep
you alive, you and your family, to feed your family you want to go out and take
that risk and try to change the course of your family, so was it easy? No, I
lost a lot of money that first year and probably the second year, so it’s not
easy but sometimes you know, you just feel like you’ve got to go for it and
that’s what we did.
● Which skills and personal
qualities should a gold digger have to be successful today?
Well you have to
be crazy, part crazy okay, C-R-A-Z-Y and you've got to be tough and then you've
got to be a little crazy.
● What crazy things did you do in
your life?
Well just being
on a reality TV show in front of millions of people crazy, but we're always
doing things that are a little dangerous but I think me and all the guys if we
had to sit in an office I think that that would kill us. I think we've got to be out on the edge a
little bit, you know what I mean, we always got to be on the cliff looking over
a little bit.
● How does it feel to find gold?
You feel like
you just, it feels different, it’s better than money, so like you feel like
you're actually moving from one universe to another, you're moving from one
system like, say you know the system where you go, you work, you get your salary,
this system is different, it has
different rules, it plays by different rules so it feels like you're actually
tricking the system, it feels like you're actually putting something else aside
for your family, more security for your family, so it feels like a little piece
of freedom every time you get gold in your pocket.
● What do you
do with the gold once you find it?
Well that’s kind
of top secret because some of us hide it, so I'm not going to let you know that
because it’s top secret.
● Is it possible to become a
millionaire thanks to gold mining today?
Yeah, it is
possible and there are a few guys that I know that have become
multi-millionaires from gold mining, so yes it is possible.
● What can
viewers expect from the sixth series of Gold Rush?
Hands down the
best Gold Rush season we've ever had.
● Can you elaborate a bit more?
The most amount
of gold, the most danger, the most competition and things that they have never
before seen in the show.
● My next question is when did
you realise that you were really famous?
I think when I
walked into a restaurant and everybody stared at me, I think that started
becoming weird, I don’t have to tell you that, fame is baloney, so what’s real
is how you act and your faith and how you love people. I don’t care about being famous it’s just a
tool to try to accomplish goals for my team and my family. I never wanted to be famous and I'm not very
good at it to be honest with you.
● How does it feel being on a
channel like Discovery and to have your show air across the world?
You know I don’t
see it because I'm not across the world, but we do have a lot of visitors that
will come to the gold mine from places around the world. I personally was born in Germany but it’s
nice, you know, it’s cool to be able to share our experiences with people
around the world because no matter what country you live in there are a lot of
people out there that feel just like we do.
There are a lot of people that believe in the same values as we do so it
is neat to see when people agree with us, you know, and the table that we're
able to kind of share our experiences you know there’s a lot of things that we
do that are universal that are worldwide.
● How
many more seasons of Gold Rush do you think there will be?
I think there
will be as many as you guys want to see, so if you guys want to see some more I
think we'll keep going because personally my team is we're constantly changing,
we're constantly going out looking for a
250 ounce nugget. We're on the treasure
hunt of a lifetime, so you want to follow us on our treasure hunt, we'll keep
doing it.
● So
in terms of the show is there anything you want to tell Turkish fans that tune
in maybe and watch the show?
To all the
Turkish fans out there, we love all you guys and I tell you what, this is going
to be the best season of Gold Rush ever, you're going to see more of everything
that you've ever seen in the past, you're going to see a lot more of it, so if
it’s danger - you'll see a lot more danger, machines – bigger machines, gold –
bigger gold, it’s pretty, it’s kind of a Gold Rush on steroid season.