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LIFE
W.Va. native Morgan Spurlock kicks off series with coal mining
30 DAYS: Morgan Spurlok experiences life as a coal miner in Pineville, West Virginia and lives with a coal-mining family on 30 DAYS premiering Tuesday, June 3 (10:00 PM ET/PT) on FX. CR: Ray Mickshaw / FX
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Morgan Spurlock may live in New York City now, but his heart and soul and at least two pairs of ripped boxers are still in West Virginia.
At 10 p.m. Tuesday, FX kicks off the third season of Spurlock's award-winning reality series, "30 Days."
In the first episode, Spurlock, who became globally famous with his documentary "Super Size Me," returns to his home state to work in the dust, deep underground as a boxer-splitting apprentice coal miner known as a "red hat" for 30 days.
Spurlock lived in Bolt, W.Va., with Dale and Sandy Lusk and was shown life in the mines by Dale, who has mined coal for 35 years.
The mine supervisor introduced Morgan to a miner's way of life, gaining an understanding of the financial benefits that draw in miners and the dangers they face daily.
Lusk, who is attending a premiere for "30 Days" at Tamarack on Monday, said he's not one to draw attention, but he felt Spurlock's program would help explain coal mining to a nation that gets 55 percent of its electricity from coal, yet knows little about mining itself.
"We felt like we would get a fair shake," Lusk said. "He was a hometown boy, and he would tell it like it is. That is the way he is. He don't put any show on. What is -- is what is."
Lusk said they found out about Spurlock wanting to do the program and that he was one of about four coal mine supervisors interviewed to possibly host Spurlock.
They picked Lusk, who said he felt the program will give people a new appreciation for miners, who make an average of $65,000 or twice the state average salary.
"Coal mining is a good job, and I felt that if they shot this movie and showed how coal miners really work and what they put up with all day long, that it would give coal miners some respect from people who think coal miners are a bunch of bums," Lusk said. "You talk to people in places like Myrtle Beach and say that you're a coal miner and not much else comes up after that, but coal mining is a good profession. We've got a lot of college graduates that work in the coal mines. The supervisors get paid really good. Electricians get about $30 an hour and operators anywhere from $23 to $28 dollars an hour."
Spurlock, who underwent an 80-hour training session to become a red-hat and go in the mine, woke up at 5 a.m. daily to make the hourlong commute to the mine.
As a new miner, Spurlock was assigned much of the grunt work, including plastering, building wooden roof supports, shoveling coal and hauling heavy equipment.
Spurlock literally dug in, busting out of a whole set of boxers as he kneeled and stretched to shovel out coal that fell off the conveyor belts and load it back on.
"It's 3:35 p.m. and I feel like somebody has beat me with a shovel for six hours straight," Spurlock said. "I feel like I've been run over by a coal truck."
Lusk said the guys didn't take it easy on Spurlock, and the Beckley native went full bore at the job.
"He is a real hard worker," Lusk said. "I was real impressed with him. He took the bull by horns and went with it and never complained a time, and all the hard jobs come up, he got 'em."
Spurlock witnessed and explained first-hand the dangers of underground mining, including being involved in retreat mining -- the dangerous method that trapped miners in Utah last year.
"Here we are doing the same thing and you can't help but think about it," Spurlock said. "It puts a big lump of realism in your day. There are people every single day that put their lives on the line so you can turn on the lights. It really humanizes everything."
On his days off, Spurlock put a face on the other problems with coal as energy -- from the aftermath of families dealing with mining deaths, as well as witnessing the mountains being permanently destroyed to get at the coal seams through mountaintop removal.
He met with Peggy Cohen, 36, the daughter of a miner (Fred Ware Jr.) killed in 2006 in a Sago, W.Va., mine explosion.
She has been working to get legislation passed to make coal mines safer.
"I feel like he (Fred) would want me to make a change for safer mines," Peggy said in the TV show.
Spurlock also talked to both coal industry executives and environmentalists about surface mining and mountaintop removal to gain perspective on the pros and cons of an industry that provides the U.S. with the raw materials for 50 percent of our electricity.
Spurlock sits atop Kayford Mountain with two former miners turned environmentalists -- Bo Webb of Coal River Watch and Chuck Nelson of the Huntington-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition -- and watched a mountaintop being blasted.
"We are proud mountaineers, and they are destroying every bit of it," Nelson said of mountaintop removal.
Spurlock was physically affected by what he saw.
"It made me want to cry," Spurlock said in the episode. "This beautiful place that means so much to me being torn apart."
Lusk said Spurlock's honesty about all aspects of coal is something he respects.
"Well, like I said, he don't pull any punches, and he does tell it like is," Lusk said. "He doesn't try to gloss over anything. He tries to tell everything, and this is the way it is done. This is how we do it."
In a month of living with each other, Spurlock and Lusk got pretty close.
Spurlock called Dale his "Mr. Miyagi of the coal mine," a reference of the mentor from the movie "The Karate Kid."
Just back to visit with the Lusks a couple weeks ago, Spurlock also picked up one of Dale's habits, a common habit of coal miners.
He now writes his wife a note each day before going to work, something Dale has always done.
"If something happens, then she will know I am thinking about her," Dale said. "That's the first thing I do in the morning, and I'm excited to see her when I get home. I've been married for four years, and since day one, I've left her two notes. One on the table and one behind the mirror."
Spurlock's honesty and straight talk also impacted Dale, who has been in the mines since June 19, 1972, to go get an overdue check for black lung.
Lusk, who turns 55 in November, had a little spot on his lung.
Now working at another mine in Raleigh County, Lusk has been wearing surgical masks that Spurlock bought him when Lusk encounters a dusty area.
Lusk, who took carpentry in high school and had a chance to play basketball for Concord College, said he's never regretted being in the mines.
"I hope that people who watch the show realize that coal miners have an honest job and put in eight, 10, 12 hours a shift like anybody else," Lusk said. "I just love the work. I chose to be a coal miner. I like going into a place where no man has gone before. Every day is a new adventure."
Spurlock, who was given a Case knife by his fellow workers, closes the program, summing up how much he's learned by getting to go where few people have gone, inside a mine.
"I understand that he'll keep working in the mines because it is his life," Spurlock said of Dale. "... After this, it makes you realize how many people are affected by coal. Coal has one foot in the past and one foot in the future. We can't wait 'till it disappears to do something. We can only chose progress."
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