Redneck Products'
Adventures in
Redneck Holler

What was once for the money is now for the show for the creators of the "Redneck Limo."

Roger Allen and his wife, artist Fay Lienti-Allen of Jacksonville Beach, created a unique form of Southern-fried transportation using a 26-foot RV, a little imagination and a big sense of humor.

The "Redneck Limo" is emblazoned with cartoon characters first developed by Allen over 20 years ago. Its arrival is announced with a bluegrass version of the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Four year ago, Lienti-Allen reinvented characters like Rodney and Irlene Sue Redneck, which sparked the development of Redneck Products, Inc.

The couple traveled cross-country to state fairs selling merchandise from T-shirts and hats to CDs and fake "Bubba" teeth before health issues forced them to reevaluate their priorities.

Lienti-Allen said creating the "limo" was therapeutic as they struggled through her husband's diagnosis with stage four kidney cancer and her debilitating back pain caused by degenerative disc disease.

Rather than give in to their failing health, Lienti-Allen said the pair threw themselves into this new project.

"We stopped going on the road last year," she said. "But we both still drag ourselves out to paint. What else are we going to do? Feel sorry for ourselves?"

Sitting atop a scaffolding built by her husband, Lienti-Allen sketched her beloved characters with pencil by hand before painting the images with painstaking detail, she said.

When painting the lower levels, she said, she just "rolled along" with her #3 sable brush in hand.

The endeavor took nine months before the limo was ready to hit the road with brightly colored murals along each side.

"I could only paint for about an hour at a time before I would have to go in and lie down," she said. "There were times when I thought there is no way we are ever going to be able to get this thing done.

"Roger would be in here sick then he would go back out and work awhile. But we did it. It was very therapeutic for both of us."

The interior remains a work in progress. Lienti-Allen plans to create a Redneck paradise with a fur-lined dash, black ceiling with crystal stars, red and black polka-dotted wallpaper and rhinestones framing the windows.

"Rednecks like anything shiny," she said.

Comic panels will adorn the upper cabinets and bright red captain's chairs will replace the tattered old upholstery.

"Shotgun Red," the famous puppet from "Hee-Haw," acts as the limo's mascot from his perch in the middle of the dashboard.

The final and most important detail for any Redneck Limo will be the installation of the vehicle's horn, which will play about 42 different redneck anthems from "Yellow Rose of Texas" to "Dixie."

Lienti-Allen said the project was funded through a grant from the Houston Council of the Arts and was intended to participate in an Art Car event.

An unfortunate engine meltdown put the brakes on the plans, but the couple will try again this year.

The limo still gets plenty of attention. Lienti-Allen said drivers constantly wave at them on the road to slow down so they can take pictures or video of the Redneck coach.

When they parked in front of the Opryland Hotel, people came out in droves to take a closer look, she said.

Their adventures are detailed in the "Captain's Log" along with the progress of the Redneck Limo on the couple's Website, www.redneckproducts.com.

The Website, which used to sell the Redneck Products merchandise, has been converted from a store to an entertainment site with puzzles, games, and jokes.

We get a steady 100 hits a day," Allen said. "It varies. Sometimes we can get as many as 1,600 hits in one day." Lienti-Allen said it doesn't matter if the limo doesn't prove as profitable as the Redneck Products merchandise.

"It isn't about the money," she said. "We just want everyone to have a laugh on us."

The Business Journal, April 2003, Cartoon Cash by John Snow

In 1980, Roger Allen was a country musician in San Jose, California, when, after hearing a friend's song about a redneck biker, he commissioned an artist to create a redneck cartoon character.

"I named him Rodney Redneck, and we started printing him on T-shirts," Allen said. "the first T-shirts were rather crude and poorly executed, but they sold like hotcakes."

After several years on the road as a musician, Allen settled down with a landscaping business and shelved his Redneck Products. But in 1998, he met Jacksonville artist Fay Lienti and moved to Jacksonville.

It wasn't long before Lienti found his redneck T-shirts and decided to expand the line with new characters. Rodney Redneck got a wife, Earleen Sue, a son, J.R., and a daughter, Polly Mae. there are in-laws and uncles in the mix as well.

Before long, the couple was touring festivals in the Southeast and earning a living from T-shirt sales. "Our Web site is going to change into an entertainment Web site because I'm getting into animation" Lienti said. "We're getting away from products toward a site promoting the characters themselves."

By engaging the characters in animation ,and potentially pursuing a television series or movie deal, Lienti hopes to build the characters' fame and their commensurate value.

Even a comic book is in development, and the couple is painting a 1979 Winnebago with the characters to do a promotional tour. They call it the "Redneck Limo."

"My dream is to see Redneck Products and our cartoons become that next Simpsons," Allen said.