“Smokin’” Ed Currie built the PuckerButt Pepper Company and bred two of the most famous peppers in the world: the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X. Before becoming a successful pepper breeder, however, Currie struggled with addiction and a life moving in a dangerous direction.
Currie shares a deeply personal story involving his wife, his Christian faith, and an event he regards as miraculous. It is a story not merely about survival, but about the relationship and spiritual transformation that gave him a different future.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
00:00:09
Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories. Smoking’ Ed Curry is an American chili pepper breeder who’s the founder and president of the pucker Butt Pepper Company. He is best known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X. Is recognized by Guinness World Records. A former addict and is now a man with strong faith. Here’s Ed sharing a story involving him and his wife.00:00:40
Speaker 2: She finally talked me into going to the church she was going to, and this was a non denominational church, and she said, come on, have communion. And I was like, I can’t do that. I’m Catholic. You know, this isn’t a real church. And she said, no, come on, you can. And she got up to get in line for communion, as did all the other people who were with us. And the pastor was up on the stage, you know, with his bible, and he was singing whatever song the band was playing, and he closed his Bible and put it down on the stool he had next to him, and he jumped off the stage and he grabbed a chalice and the plate and I’m watching him and he came all the way up the aisle back into the darkness. He couldn’t have possibly seen me from the stage, you know, when the lights are on you, you can’t see out. And he walked straight up to me and he said, ed, you’re worthy of the body of Christ. Receive communion. And I was immediately. Even though I had, like I don’t know, six seven, eight years clean, whatever it was, I still carried all that guilt and shame from all that stuff I had done, stuff that was going to send me to hell. All the guilt and shame, everything just immediately left my body, and even my very worst days have been nothing but full of gratitude ever since. Man, Well, I tell people this stuff all the time when I’m interviewing, like especially when the camera’s rolling, because the kids shut you up and then they edit it out, and that’s the kind of story that people need to hear. I got approached to do a feature film okay from a big studio, but they refused to give me any creative control and actually told me I had to stop the God talk, and I dropped the film. I said, no, I’m not going to do this, even though they were offering a whole lot of money, not a month later, I got approached by a rock band who’s got a production company. Now they’re going to give me total creative control, actually executive producer position, so I can literally I can say, this stays in, this goes out. They don’t care about what I say, what I do. It’s all part of the story. And if I want to talk about Jesus, that’s just fine. And that’s the way they put it. If you want to talk about Jesus, it’s just fine, you know. And so you know, when one door closes and the other one opens. Well, I got a call in the middle of the night, all right from a woman and she goes, hey, ed, how you doing. I’m like, hey, Laura, how are you doing? You know, why are you calling me? You know that guy and I had done service work in an a with her, and she goes, you remember my daughter And I was like, well, kind of, you know, I have met her five years ago and she said, well, you know she’s an atheist and I said, yeah, you test told me, you know, and she goes, you know, I’m agnostic and I said, yeah, you tell me that all the time. And she goes, well, my daughter has been having dreams that the baby she’s carrying from an eighteen year old gangbanger. God is telling her that that’s your baby, and I was like what, and she goes, yeah, and I’ve been having dreams that you have a daughter named Katherine Anne. And I had a sister named Katherine Ane who died and I never told anybody. Linda didn’t even know about her at this point, okay, And I was like wow, and she goes, yeah, we want you to adopt the baby. And she knew that Linda had a bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped trying to have a baby. And I was like, well, I got to talk to Lynda about that, thank you. But my answer is yes, you know, because to me, that was a God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay, and it was after this other miracle adapted. So I go into bed and I tell Linda’s like, who’s on the phone, you know, And I told her what happened, and she started cursing out God, all right, cursing And I’m like, you can’t curse God, and she goes, I can do whatever I want to do, you know, you know, she because she has a really good relation and really what it was was that Sarah and Abraham thing. She was about to turn fifty. We tried for so long. How come God’s providing this right now? And we were literally we’re praying on it. And she was like, no, we’re too old, blah blah blah blah. And I said, let’s go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this. David Chadwick is his name. And we get to the we’d go to the church service and we’d get in line to talk to him, and we see that a woman who’s dying of cancer is with him. So we went over to thank the visiting pastor had spoke during that meeting for being there. He’s like, oh, you want to talk to Pastor Chadwick and she’s like, yeah, we’re we got an offer for adoption, but I’m fifty years old. And the pastor stopped her right there and he said, you see that little kid right there. God put that child in my life when I was fifty two. You see this other one right here. God put that child in my life when I was fifty six. And before he could even stop, Pastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady he was talking to, walked over to us and said, lay hands on Ed and Lindo, we have to pray, and literally, out of his mouth came everything that Linda had said in our marriage bed. We hadn’t shared it with anybody, all of her fears, all of her worries, even saying God forgives you for talking to him like that. Okay, all of it just came out of his mouth. And then he said adopt the baby. And that was it. And we called her from right there in the church and said we’ll adopt the baby. We had no money, okay, you know, literally, we had no money. It was all going into the business. I had paid for a legal benefit at the bank that she had been trying to get me to get rid of. Guess what it covered, adoption one hundred percent. Adopting that baby cost us a total of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social worker that the state required comes and visit its your house and make sure you’re okay for adoption. That’s all it cost us to adopt the first baby. And when the miracle happened, the same thing. Call from in the middle of the night, someone Linda knows saying, my daughter is pregnant, and she wants you guys to adopt the baby, and same thing that one I had already paid. I had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for five babies, so she didn’t have to come back. And it just cost us the legal you know, the legal documents from the court, which was like two hundred and fifty dollars, and my wife literally cut the cord for both children. That doesn’t happen to fifty year olds. Doesn’t happen to fifty year olds. You can’t even get on the list to adopt new boards. And I’d adopt more, but she says no, you know, but just amazing, amazing stuff. And I can keep on going on over and over and miracles everywhere watching them happen to others and not think it’s good luck or something like that. You can see that as an absolute miracle. Wow, thank you for letting me share that.
Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories. Smoking’ Ed Curry is an American chili pepper breeder who’s the founder and president of the pucker Butt Pepper Company. He is best known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X. Is recognized by Guinness World Records. A former addict and is now a man with strong faith. Here’s Ed sharing a story involving him and his wife.00:00:40
Speaker 2: She finally talked me into going to the church she was going to, and this was a non denominational church, and she said, come on, have communion. And I was like, I can’t do that. I’m Catholic. You know, this isn’t a real church. And she said, no, come on, you can. And she got up to get in line for communion, as did all the other people who were with us. And the pastor was up on the stage, you know, with his bible, and he was singing whatever song the band was playing, and he closed his Bible and put it down on the stool he had next to him, and he jumped off the stage and he grabbed a chalice and the plate and I’m watching him and he came all the way up the aisle back into the darkness. He couldn’t have possibly seen me from the stage, you know, when the lights are on you, you can’t see out. And he walked straight up to me and he said, ed, you’re worthy of the body of Christ. Receive communion. And I was immediately. Even though I had, like I don’t know, six seven, eight years clean, whatever it was, I still carried all that guilt and shame from all that stuff I had done, stuff that was going to send me to hell. All the guilt and shame, everything just immediately left my body, and even my very worst days have been nothing but full of gratitude ever since. Man, Well, I tell people this stuff all the time when I’m interviewing, like especially when the camera’s rolling, because the kids shut you up and then they edit it out, and that’s the kind of story that people need to hear. I got approached to do a feature film okay from a big studio, but they refused to give me any creative control and actually told me I had to stop the God talk, and I dropped the film. I said, no, I’m not going to do this, even though they were offering a whole lot of money, not a month later, I got approached by a rock band who’s got a production company. Now they’re going to give me total creative control, actually executive producer position, so I can literally I can say, this stays in, this goes out. They don’t care about what I say, what I do. It’s all part of the story. And if I want to talk about Jesus, that’s just fine. And that’s the way they put it. If you want to talk about Jesus, it’s just fine, you know. And so you know, when one door closes and the other one opens. Well, I got a call in the middle of the night, all right from a woman and she goes, hey, ed, how you doing. I’m like, hey, Laura, how are you doing? You know, why are you calling me? You know that guy and I had done service work in an a with her, and she goes, you remember my daughter And I was like, well, kind of, you know, I have met her five years ago and she said, well, you know she’s an atheist and I said, yeah, you test told me, you know, and she goes, you know, I’m agnostic and I said, yeah, you tell me that all the time. And she goes, well, my daughter has been having dreams that the baby she’s carrying from an eighteen year old gangbanger. God is telling her that that’s your baby, and I was like what, and she goes, yeah, and I’ve been having dreams that you have a daughter named Katherine Anne. And I had a sister named Katherine Ane who died and I never told anybody. Linda didn’t even know about her at this point, okay, And I was like wow, and she goes, yeah, we want you to adopt the baby. And she knew that Linda had a bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped trying to have a baby. And I was like, well, I got to talk to Lynda about that, thank you. But my answer is yes, you know, because to me, that was a God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay, and it was after this other miracle adapted. So I go into bed and I tell Linda’s like, who’s on the phone, you know, And I told her what happened, and she started cursing out God, all right, cursing And I’m like, you can’t curse God, and she goes, I can do whatever I want to do, you know, you know, she because she has a really good relation and really what it was was that Sarah and Abraham thing. She was about to turn fifty. We tried for so long. How come God’s providing this right now? And we were literally we’re praying on it. And she was like, no, we’re too old, blah blah blah blah. And I said, let’s go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this. David Chadwick is his name. And we get to the we’d go to the church service and we’d get in line to talk to him, and we see that a woman who’s dying of cancer is with him. So we went over to thank the visiting pastor had spoke during that meeting for being there. He’s like, oh, you want to talk to Pastor Chadwick and she’s like, yeah, we’re we got an offer for adoption, but I’m fifty years old. And the pastor stopped her right there and he said, you see that little kid right there. God put that child in my life when I was fifty two. You see this other one right here. God put that child in my life when I was fifty six. And before he could even stop, Pastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady he was talking to, walked over to us and said, lay hands on Ed and Lindo, we have to pray, and literally, out of his mouth came everything that Linda had said in our marriage bed. We hadn’t shared it with anybody, all of her fears, all of her worries, even saying God forgives you for talking to him like that. Okay, all of it just came out of his mouth. And then he said adopt the baby. And that was it. And we called her from right there in the church and said we’ll adopt the baby. We had no money, okay, you know, literally, we had no money. It was all going into the business. I had paid for a legal benefit at the bank that she had been trying to get me to get rid of. Guess what it covered, adoption one hundred percent. Adopting that baby cost us a total of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social worker that the state required comes and visit its your house and make sure you’re okay for adoption. That’s all it cost us to adopt the first baby. And when the miracle happened, the same thing. Call from in the middle of the night, someone Linda knows saying, my daughter is pregnant, and she wants you guys to adopt the baby, and same thing that one I had already paid. I had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for five babies, so she didn’t have to come back. And it just cost us the legal you know, the legal documents from the court, which was like two hundred and fifty dollars, and my wife literally cut the cord for both children. That doesn’t happen to fifty year olds. Doesn’t happen to fifty year olds. You can’t even get on the list to adopt new boards. And I’d adopt more, but she says no, you know, but just amazing, amazing stuff. And I can keep on going on over and over and miracles everywhere watching them happen to others and not think it’s good luck or something like that. You can see that as an absolute miracle. Wow, thank you for letting me share that.
00:08:39
Speaker 1: And thank you for sharing it. Ed, And miracles, well, they happen all around us, believe her or not. Miracles happen every day. And my goodness, what a miracle for Ed and his bride in her fifties, angry at God, and my goodness, why not me?
00:08:55
Speaker 2: Lord?
00:08:56
Speaker 1: Why not me? Why that other girl, Why is she pregnant? Why are and I? Why have you denied me? And then well, this is why we go to church too. So many Americans go to church, to synagogue, to mosque.
00:09:07
Speaker 2: Why.
00:09:08
Speaker 1: Well, anybody who goes knows why. And if you don’t go, well we love you too. Here on this show, we love people of every faith and every faith walk including none at all. The story of Ed Curry’s Miracle Baby and miracle babies. Here on our American Stories
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