Elijah Dukes Is On The Air

We hope you weren't trying to get through to WDAE Radio on Tuesday, as various members of the Dukes family had the phone lines jammed pretty much all day. We hate when that happens. Tuesday was Fun Day for Ron Diaz and Ian Beckles over at the Ft. Lauderdale station, as an agitated Elijah Dukes called in from Phoenix with a rambling diatribe aimed at his estranged wife, NiShea Gilbert, whom he is accused of threatening. It was presumably an attempt at equal time on Dukes' part, as Gilbert had called in to the same show a couple of hours earlier. WDAE also aired an interview with Dukes' mother, Phyllis Dukes, later that day. Elijah:

"I know if I stayed with her I'd physically be in prison because she provoked me by hitting me. She done hit me across the head with a picture frame and everything. I hate that because I told my kids I would never go back to jail for no domestic violence."

Of course all of this did not go over well with the Devil Rays front office, who had a meeting with Dukes later in the afternoon to discuss his radio call-in habits. Another our our favorite excerpts:

"Just like the Bible says, If you know it's not true you don't have to say anything and I haven't been saying anything. But I will say something about this situation with my mom out my mouth, because everyone knows I do love my mom. And I am tough on my mom but I know for fact I never told nobody my mom smoked crack because that would be a lie on my behalf. She never told me and I never caught her.''

We believe we saw that embroidered on a pillow once.

The Dukes WDAE interview can be found here, and also at The Big Lead.

Dukes Lets Off Steam, Defends Self In WDAE Exclusive [WDAE 620] Angry Dukes Sounds Off [The Heater]