Chances are you may not have heard of Bernard Thomas, a 68-year-old grandfather who calls Plant City home.
But millions now know him by the stage name Bishop Bullwinkle. It’s thanks to a simple video he posted a few weeks ago on YouTube called “Hell 2 Da Naw Naw.”
The video shows Bishop Bullwinkle singing in front of a church pulpit with a monkey statue and a fire extinguisher. The lyrics, he says, are about hypocrisy in the church and just telling the devil "no."
Thomas bought the statue seen in the video for $2 at a garage sale. The fire extinguisher, Bullwinkle says, is empty because “no one can put him out!”
The song has resonated with many people, garnering more than two million views on YouTube.
Bullwinkle’s phone won’t stop ringing. He hired a manager to keep up with all the requests for appearances.
“I’m booked all the way to Christmas," he said. "Somebody called me yesterday and wanted to book me for Valentine’s Day. Hell, I don’t know if I’m going to be living tomorrow. How are you going to book me for Valentine’s Day? Have you lost your mind?”
Bullwinkle is the nickname Thomas has had since he was a kid. He added Bishop to his name for many different reasons. Besides, with an old church pulpit in his backyard, why not?
“I do have my own church. - the church of ‘nothing but the truth,' " he said. "We tell it like it is."
The newfound fame has been a dream of Bishop Bullwinkle for a long time. He was behind the scenes producing records in New York City in the 1970s.
It seems the old-school crooner needed some new-school technology to finally have his own moment in the spotlight.
“With this YouTube platform, I can see him going to the stars,” his daughter Nikkia Johnson says.