Faces of Turkey is a series that features members of the turkey community at large, ranging from creatives behind the lens to artisans carving turkey calls and teaching the next generation. Each person in the spotlight has their own story to tell, whether they are well-known figures or operating below the industry’s radar. Experience the outdoors from a new perspective, through the eyes of those who enhance the turkey world. These are the stories that make up Faces of Turkey.
The turkey woods are a memorable place for hunters of all walks. The teaching moments in the stillness of the world waking up, the camaraderie of becoming in tune with who you are, and the joy of a successful harvest with a good friend. All these things are able to be found in the simplicity of the chase for the wild turkey. Benjamin Forehand is a man of conviction, a virtuoso on the guitar, and a dedicated preceptor who builds relationships through Wild & Free Outfitters. Join us as we unpack his story as a professional musician and a hunter.
Split Reed: Who is Benjamin Forehand? What does your background in the outdoors look like?
I grew up in a family that was traditionally a hunting family. My grandparents and great-grandparents were hunters, and it wasn’t something they did for sport as much as it was a big part of their food source. My great-granddad was actually a fish peddler, so it wasn’t just a hobby; it was how they provided and put food on the table. My dad was a hunter, and unfortunately, by the time I came around, most of his hunting had been put on pause. I heard so many stories about his hunts, especially since it had been such a big part of his life, that I was drawn into the world of hunting.
I spent my childhood growing up out in the countryside of North Carolina, where everybody hunted, so hunting was on my mind all the time. I ended up getting a BB gun in kindergarten, and from then on, I wreaked havoc on all the yard birds around our house.
I would watch the hunting and fishing TV shows early on Saturday mornings. I would get up to watch them, and then I’d head out in the woods and hunt. I didn’t really have anybody to teach me the intricacies of hunting, so I leaned heavily on the shows to teach me the little
things. Squirrels were my favorite animal to hunt when I first started. I remember my dad actually took me hunting on two occasions during my elementary school days: once for squirrels and once for rabbits.
When I moved to Atlanta for my music career in 2005, my hunting frequency changed a lot. Basically, I would head back to North Carolina to hunt a couple of times throughout the year. It wasn’t until I moved to Tennessee that I was really able to get the lifestyle I wanted. It was so much easier to get outside of Nashville and really start to find places in the area to hunt and fish. Hunting and being outdoors have always been in my genes; there were just periods when I did not have the time to hunt or fish. Now, I am in a place where I am blessed to have the opportunity to hunt more and teach others.
Split Reed: Tell us about Wild & Free Outfitters, and the start with turkey camps.
In my music career, there seemed to be a period of years when I was just connecting with folks and creating little circles of friends all through the country, just from touring. I would meet up with friends while playing music, and they would introduce me to another person from their walk in life, and it was just a really active life. I’m actually involved in a lot of discipleship with guys that I met while I was out touring. When Covid hit, the touring just stopped, and I hunted hard pretty much every single day. Covid gave me so much downtime, so much time to talk to God and figure out what I was going to do with life because I did not know what was going to happen in the music world.
The thought of Wild & Free began to take shape and grow through that turkey season, then through duck season. I realized that the same outlet I had through music had naturally shifted to an opportunity to do the same thing in the hunting community. There were a few people that I met during that time frame who really helped bring Wild & Free to life. I realized that there are a lot of people who want to hunt but do not know how, or who are currently hunting but are not having much success. I don’t really know a lot of other guys who are taking the same approach that I take with the primary focus of the camp. We opened it up to anyone who wants to come learn and grow, and then paired that with the discipleship part, so it wasn’t just a typical hunt. We’re actually going to do a lot of spiritual care on these turkey camps.
Coming out of the Covid years, there were a lot of people who were dealing with depression and anxiety, and going through some things in their adulthood that were hard that they never had to navigate before. That was the idea behind Wild & Free: taking the pastoral side of my life and mixing it with my passion for the outdoors. Personally, I found a lot of relief in being outside, being still, being quiet, and being presented with the daily challenges there in nature. I’ve learned a lot from God through spending time outdoors.
People wanted to hunt more, which led to duck camps and then fishing camps, and it grew. The duck camps are more group-oriented, the turkey camps are a little more intimate, and the fishing camps are much lower-pressure. Each of the camps has its own lessons involved. Wild & Free has turned into a really cool community of guys where they all know each other, have new friends who live in different states, and have buddies they can talk to about anything. That was really a big part of my intention in doing it. I have a friend who is a business consultant, and he asked me, “What is your one-year goal?” I honestly answered him, “My one-year goal is that this text thread is still alive and that these guys are still talking to each other.” Mostly, that’s been a big part of my vision, just getting guys together, teaching them about spending time in silence and stillness, and allowing friendships to happen where guys realize they’re not unique in their circumstances, that we’re all in this life together.
Split Reed: Being that you’re a professional musician, what does touring life look like for you?
Touring life looks different depending on who you’re touring with. I’ve been on tours that were tough. I’ve been on tours that were awesome, and so much of it depends on the guys you’re with. For most normal tours, I leave Nashville on a Wednesday and return home on a Monday. I play a few shows, and I get back to the house. When I head out on tour, normally I go to sleep when I leave town, and then when I wake up in the next town, it’s time to head inside, get breakfast, get the lay of the land, and get a little workout in. Typically, by then you’re ready for a quick sound check and a brief line check. Finally, after all of that, it’s time to hit the showers and get ready for the show.
Touring as a musician is not what people think it is. It’s pretty much going to work, but with your buddies. Most of the fun happens after the show, when you get on the bus, and everybody is kind of hanging out and relaxing. The last couple of tours I’ve been on, we took a pickleball court with us, and that became the thing we did every day when we weren’t either playing or getting rest, and it was a lot of fun.
Split Reed: How do you balance touring life with Wild & Free Outfitters?
Most of the balance I have found is that music is my primary career, so any turkey camps, retreats, or other events I do are based around my touring or session schedule.
Split Reed: What does a turkey camp at Wild & Free Outfitters look like?
The first turkey camp I hosted with Wild & Free was the biggest one I’ve held so far. There were six or seven guys who came to rest, and I had another four or five guys helping me host it. It was a lot of fun, but it was just such a big undertaking. Between the guys individually helping me out, finding a house that was big enough to host everyone, and then coordinating logistic paperwork for who was paired up with who, I know we had a fun time, but that first turkey camp really showed me that there was a more sustainable way for me to run it. From what I learned at the first turkey camp, we definitely went somewhere spiritually, and everybody was able to share a little bit. However, I saw that with the turkey camps, we have the opportunity to go much deeper if I scale it back to only a couple of guys at a time. It is less intimidating when you’re talking to two people than if you’re talking to ten people.
Nowadays, I just host two people at a time. They will show up at my house and stay in my cabin. We’ll eat on the porch and have fellowship out there. The next morning, we’ll get up and hunt, then after lunch, we will spend some time talking into the afternoon. There’s some rest time, then we’ll rally back up around supper time. I’ll cook a good supper on the porch, and then we’ll just hang out, reflect, and do it again the next day. The level that we had at the first turkey camp with everybody together, I realized that, naturally, that format is better for duck season. For the turkey camps and the fish camps, it’s a smaller experience in terms of the number of people there; however, there is an opportunity for deeper spiritual growth or breakthrough. What has been cool is that most of the turkey camps after the first year have been full of guys who have already gone to duck camp, had a breakthrough, and then a next level seems to happen at turkey camp.
Split Reed: What has been one of your memorable turkey hunts?
Man, my number one, most memorable turkey hunt hands-down was when Duke Turnage and I were hunting, and he convinced me to shoot a jake. We had set up, and there were some gobblers hammering, but the gobblers were kind of messed up by this pack of around eight or so jakes. We were just trying to sit tight and wait them out, but Duke kept laughing because they kept getting so close. He kept calling at them, getting them all riled up, and every time they would leave the field, he’d do it again, and they would come back. He kept telling me to shoot one of them, and I kept telling him, “No!” Well, after about four or five times of this, Duke looks at me, and he says, “Look, all these times we’ve been turkey hunting together, you have never killed a turkey sitting with me. What if you don’t ever get to, if it ain’t this?” That kind of hit me in that soft spot where I thought, “At least it’d make a memory.” I turned to him and said, “If you get them back over here one more time, I’ll shoot one of them.” Sure enough, he did it one more time, and we couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that the jakes came back again. They were trying to gobble, all of them, every single time one of us made a sound. Finally, we were able to pick one out, and I shot that turkey while both Duke and I were laughing.
Split Reed: What is the difference between Wild & Free Outfitters and your standard outfitter?
From my perspective and experience, I think your standard outfitter has two main goals: to provide a really good time and to have a really good harvest. However, I think for me, for what I am trying to do with Wild & Free, both of those things would be secondary.
My primary focus would be that you would find spiritual rest with yourself and with other people; that you felt known and seen; that you would leave the retreat with a lot of questions, and that in the months after your hunt was over, you would still be asking yourself any and all of the questions about what we went over. The spiritually rich part is without a doubt my primary focus for Wild & Free; all of the other things that come with it are secondary.
Split Reed: What do the turkey camps look like in 2025 and beyond?
This year, the turkey camps are staggered throughout the weeks of the season that I am home from touring. Two guys come in to hunt at a time, and I have another person helping me lead them in the woods and in the evening. There will be two days of hunting and two nights of discipleship. The unfortunate part about the camps this season is that I’m on tour during the birds’ hot weeks. Some of the people are getting to experience good hunting at its peak, and some of the other guys are coming on dates that historically aren’t as hot for the birds. In the future, I’d like to structure turkey camps around the peak hunting time here in the state. That would be perfect for both the people coming in to rest and learn, and also for me, as I want to take care of and honor their time.
Benjamin Forehand can be found on social media at @benjaminforehand and @wildandfreeoutfitters.