One of Parks and Recreation’s best characters is Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson, who carried a big secret that was eventually revealed, but the show never explained a big mystery about it. The 2000s were home to some now classic sitcoms, among them Parks and Recreation. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, Parks and Recreation premiered on NBC in 2009 and ran for seven seasons, ending in 2015. Parks and Rec took the audience to the fictional but very special town of Pawnee, Indiana, to meet the always cheerful Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler).

Leslie worked in Pawnee’s Parks Department, and so the show also followed her friends and colleagues in their personal and professional lives. Among those closest to Leslie was Ron, the director of the Parks Department, who stood out for his deadpan personality, very specific hobbies, and his hatred for the government despite working for it. Deep down, however, Ron was very loyal to his friends and would help them whenever they needed, but he wasn’t very open with them. Ron lived a double life as a jazz saxophonist, but Parks and Rec forgot a key part of this side of Ron.

Parks & Recreation Never Explained The Origin Of Ron Swanson’s Duke Silver

Duke Silver Was Very Different From Ron

Some of Ron Swanson’s ions and hobbies in Parks and Rec were hunting, fishing, woodworking, camping, eating breakfast foods, drinking whiskey, and solving riddles. However, Ron also had a special place in his heart for jazz music, and he was actually a very good saxophonist. Ron kept this side of him completely separate from his job and colleagues, so much so that he created an alter-ego named Duke Silver. Under this identity, Ron formed The Duke Silver Trio, which performed at Eagleton’s Cozy’s Bar on the second Thursday of every month.

Ron was so good as a saxophonist and as the leader of The Duke Silver Trio that he built a loyal fanbase, mostly consisting of middle-aged women, among them April Ludgate’s (Aubrey Plaza) mother. The first ones to know about Ron’s Duke Silver identity were Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider) and April, with both keeping the secret except for when Mark told Tom (Aziz Ansari) about it when the latter was looking for dirt on Ron. April, on the other hand, knew about Duke because of her mom, but never said anything.

Ron revealed his double life as Duke Silver at the Unity Concert, where, after being recruited to play there by Andy (Chris Pratt), he decided to come out publicly as Duke. However, what Parks and Rec never revealed was the origin of Duke Silver. It’s unknown when Ron started performing as Duke Silver and why he decided to do so, but given how obsessed he was with privacy, that was most likely the reason.

It’s possible Ron wanted to keep his job and personal relationships completely separate from his love for jazz so they wouldn’t interfere with each other, and the best way to do so was with an alter-ego. It’s unknown if Ron continued performing as Duke Silver after the Unity Concert, as he wouldn’t have had the same level of privacy again.

Duke Silver Is One Of Ron Swanson’s Many Secrets In Parks & Recreation

Ron Swanson Was All About Privacy

As mentioned above, Ron was obsessed with privacy and went to lengths to make sure his personal information and more weren’t public knowledge. Ron didn’t have a cellphone, and he threw his office computer away when he started getting ads addressing him by his name and April told him to type his address on Google Earth. His birthday was only known by the people at Baskin-Robbins, though Leslie managed to figure it out to give him a present, but she kept that information a secret.

Ron’s love for riddles and scavenger hunts was also a secret that only Leslie knew, but perhaps Ron’s intense privacy peaked in Parks and Recreation season 6. Ron married Diane (Lucy Lawless) after she revealed she was pregnant, but no one, not even Leslie, knew when Diane gave birth. It wasn’t until Ron had to take his baby son to work that Leslie learned of it, because she literally saw the baby in his office. All this made Ron Swanson very entertaining, but knowing the origin of Duke Silver would have been fun.