Andy Griffith interview resurfaces stirring up emotions in Mount Airy

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. (By Chad Tucker, WGHP) – A 1998 interview with Andy Griffith has resurfaced, where the Mount Airy native is not so kind to his hometown people and says Mayberry wasn’t based on Mount Airy.

“They think that I based the show on Mount Airy. I’ve argued about this too long. I don’t care. Let them think what they want to think,” said Griffith in the interview conducted by the Archives of American Television for posterity.

“A barber up there says he cut my hair when I was a child, hell, he’ll have to be 115 years old,” Griffith said. Longtime barber Russell Hiatt at Floyd’s City Barber Shop on Main Street says he cut Andy’s hair.

The interview resurfaced this week spreading online among fans and residents of Mount Airy. The interview comes just days before a public memorial for the actor is scheduled. Griffith died on July 3 of a heart attack at his home in Manteo.

The 2 1/2 hour interview covered his entire career in which he is asked where the inspiration for Mayberry came from.