Duane Chapman, also known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, departed from his typical tough-guy image by donning a costume to conceal his identity in this season’s “The Masked Singer.” Still, before being voted off the show, he shared a tearful rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
Chapman was unmasked earlier this month, but he sang a hymn his mother used to sing before making his exit. Dressed as an armadillo, he performed “Amazing Grace” on a double-elimination night. Judges Robin Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger were noticeably moved. Thicke even revealed that he sings the Christian hymn to his child every night.
Chapman and actress Jennifer Holliday, who wore the Miss Teddy costume, were eliminated following their performances. Although Chapman had no formal training as a singer, he revealed that being a blackbelt helped with his performances on “The Masked Singer.” The series’s premise is that the judges try and guess who is behind the mask by identifying their singing voice and the clues given to them throughout the show.
“I have a black belt in martial arts. I’ve arrested over 8,000 fugitives, so I’ve kicked a lot of okole [Hawaiian for butt],” the famous bounty hunter told HollywoodLife. “We, the team and Fox, tried to throw in the songs. In the interview, I presented the shaka — it’s called ‘throw a shaka’ — four or five times. We tried to really load up the detectives and the judges with more info than they’ve ever received.”
“It’s one of the first times where I got to lay down the clues instead of finding them because that’s what I do, right? And I was like, ‘Oh, I could get away from anybody. This is so much fun.’ I was amazed that I went as long as I did without getting number one, booted, and number two, guessed,” he added.
Chapman, known for being outspoken about his faith, intentionally chose to sing “Amazing Grace.” “I am trying to be a Christian, so we negotiated a Christian song, and that song happened to be my mother’s favorite. It really was very emotional for me to show my faith,” the reality star added.
While dressed as an armadillo, Chapman fell on stage in a previous performance. He said it was his faith in God that helped him persevere. “I don’t know why I fell. I think evil pushed me down because they didn’t want me to sing that song, and they even had to help me out in the chair. “Chapman explained that thing (the costume) was over 200 pounds,” Chapman explained. “I couldn’t stand up by myself. So how I ever stood up like that, I know that the angels grabbed me in my world and said, ‘Get out there.’ So I was petrified.”
Chapman concluded by saying his wife, Francie, [Frane] had just watched the Olympic skier who jumped a big jump, but at the end, she fell. “That went right through my mind. I thought you better get up. You’ve been pushed out of life before, always standing up. I don’t know what happened. Adrenaline and the Lord took over,” he testified about why he refused to allow the setbacks to discourage him.