June 17, 2025 • 40 mins
"Who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey?" seems like a simple question with an obvious answer – until you discover the truth that was hidden for more than 150 years.
When young orphan Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel arrived at Reverend Dan Call's farm in 1850s Tennessee, he became fascinated with the whiskey still on the property. But it wasn't the preacher who would teach Jack his craft. Instead, the reverend introduced Jack to Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved man renowned throughout Lincoln County for his exceptional distilling skills.
Nearest specialized in a technique called sugar maple charcoal filtering – now known as the Lincoln County Process – which created an exceptionally smooth whiskey uniquely different from other American spirits. Under Nearest's mentorship, Jack learned every aspect of whiskey making, establishing a friendship that would last decades.
After the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, Jack purchased the distillery and immediately hired Nearest as his master distiller – making him the first African American to hold this title in United States history. Seven generations of Nearest's descendants would go on to work for Jack Daniel's, yet as the brand grew into a global phenomenon, Nearest's crucial contributions faded from official company history.
The truth remained buried until 2016, when a New York Times article finally brought Nearest's story into the spotlight. Author and entrepreneur Fawn Weaver became so captivated by this historical injustice that she dedicated a year to uncovering every detail of Nearest's life, gathering over 10,000 documents and eventually establishing Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey to honor his legacy.
Today, Nearest's great-great-granddaughter Victoria Eady Butler serves as master blender at the company bearing his name, which has become the fastest-growing independent American whiskey brand in history. The story of Nearest Green reminds us that behind many iconic American products lie forgotten innovators whose contributions deserve recognition. Take a sip of Tennessee whiskey and raise a glass to the man who perfected the process that makes it unique.
Love & Whiskey by Fawn Weaver
First Versions: Jack Daniels
https://www.firstversions.com/2015/08/jack-daniels.html
Why Master Distiller Nearest Green’s Story Must Be Told By Fawn Weaver
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/dining/jack-daniels-whiskey-nearis-green-slave.html
Uncle Nearest
Uncle Nearest, Our Spirit Brand of the Year, Explores Whiskey’s Overlooked History | Wine Enthusiast’s 2020 Wine Star Awards By Wine Enthusiast
This website contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase a product, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the running of this website and allows me to continue providing valuable content. Please note that I only recomme
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh, hey there, oh hey there.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm well.
How are you?
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I am Kate.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And I am Bradley.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And this is History.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Buffoons, huzzah, yes yes, yes, welcome to history,
buffoons I have a?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
um surprise for you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Underneath the ottoman underneath yeah, the
ottoman right in front of youyeah, how far do I have to reach
for that?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I mean it's probably closest to me, closer to me than
it is to you.
I'm kidding, it's probablyright there okay put the
microphone back.
I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I premium 1856.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's almost as old as me, so so read it out.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
so it's a premium whiskey.
That gold is like it's shining,so it's hard to read in certain
angles.
This is is the first expressionhonoring my
great-great-grandfather.
I believe we have made himproud with our award-winning
whiskey V E D Butler Is that theguy's name, I assume?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's the son, I believe.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah.
Fifth generation yeah, Wow,that is really 50% alcohol.
We're only having one yeah, wehave a backup uh backup medellos
from, uh, from the otherepisode.
So actually I went, I went outand bought more so she could try
different flavors.
Wow, 100 proof.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
That's pretty good yeah, so show, show, the camera
this is the um Nearest whiskey.
So that is our drink today.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So now you get to open it because I don't know how
.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
All right.
Well, I might have to edit thisout, because this might take me
a minute.
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I got my ice ready.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay, I'll just toss that there.
There we go, all right, how arewe doing this?
Hold, please, okay.
He, he, ooh.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Smell that sucker.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Ooh, that smells good .
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh, I'm excited to try this.
I've never had this before.
I know, oh, really Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
What's it smell like?
It does smell oaky.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Comes from south, a little bit of moss like there's
trees nearby that's good oh,that's smooth oh, that's going
down real warm maybe two.
What?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
you think so?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
depends how much my ice melts just leave some for n.
Oh, I will.
I have actually a little bottle, I'll pour some into there.
We'll finish off the rest.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, my first time trying it too.
Yeah, you never would guessit's 50%.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Wow, that's really good.
So can you guess what our storyis today I'm gonna go with.
We're talking about rum todaywe're gonna talk about uncle
nearest I kind of put thattogether and I didn't even get
it up on my screen yet oh man.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So what I'm gonna tell you is that's delicious
good.
Well, she pulls this up.
That's really good yeah, Ireally like him, I wish I had
more ice.
Oh wow, that's good okay.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So, um, yeah, I figured you liked.
You like whiskey and this thisstory is actually somewhat
quote-unquote.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
New, okay, information um what do you mean
by that, I guess?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
um, so I'll explain it a little bit more later.
But uncle nearest, who we'regoing to be speaking about, yeah
, wasn't really discovered untilrecently so like he was around,
kind of forgotten.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Now people found out about him got yes, that's okay
gotcha, gotcha yes so our storybegins what year?
1853 um about 1820 oh, so Isuppose that would make sense,
because this is not when he wasborn.
This is what's that say well1856 sorry 56.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, okay, so we're gonna be in lincoln county
tennessee yeah, and this is fromshelbyville, tennessee, okay
and a reverend dear yeah areverend named dan call dan call
who runs a church?
Obviously yeah, and a whiskeystill on the side.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That seems really like odd.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I mean, he's saving both spirits, right?
Hi, uh hi.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The Holy Spirit and the.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
The Holy Spirit and the distilled spirits.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, the distilled spirits.
Maybe that's our title.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Father, Son and the Distilled Spirits, yes, oh wow.
Oh, I'm going to have to writethat one down Father, Son and
the Distilled Spirits, Becausethen we won't have to try.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
What was our when we were doing our Wizard of Oz
episode and I'm like I saidsomething, what the hell was it?
We had to go search for it.
So Okay, so All right, anyways.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So Reverend Call needed an expert to run his
whiskey still Okay and he knewthat there was an expert in town
.
He was an enslaved man.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Named Nathan Green.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Nathan Green, nathan Green Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Everyone called him nearest.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Is there a reason for that?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I did not find any, but I did find two different
spellings, so like what we wouldsay is nearer, nearest, yeah.
And then there's one spelledN-E-A-R-I-S-T instead of E-S-T.
Oh, nearest, or near-T, oh Near.
East or Near East, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, okay.
There's a couple differentvariations.
Sure, I mean, that's rightly so, because I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
He's an insulated man in the 1800s, like in the early
to late mid 1800s.
Right, he was.
There's actually no known photoof.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Nearest Of this guy, mm-hmm.
Well, I mean, I mean thereobviously was photographs back
then, but they weren't likeeverywhere, like like today
where everyone's got one intheir pocket, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Um, this feels really good on my knee.
I love ice.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So Nearest was born around 1820, likely into slavery
Right, and by the mid-1800s hegained that reputation of being
like a highly skilled distiller.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
He had in slavers a firm named Landis and Green who
would hire him out to localfarmers to make top-notch
whiskey.
Ah, so Dan Call was one ofthose who basically leased
Nearest Services.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So Nearest is like doing all these dangerous dirty
work, distilling while somebodyelse is collecting the profits.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
essentially, I mean, that's typically what it was
common, it was common, andthat's what slavery was
basically.
They would have free labor tomake them a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yep and they would take the credit for something.
Which is unfortunate, buteither way, so distilling
whiskey in the 19th century washot, it was back-breaking and it
could also blow up in your face, quite literally well, yeah, I
mean, distills were veryvolatile and they could, uh, in
a heartbeat, blow up yeah um, Iknow a lot of.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Especially.
It was in the 1950s when allthe moonshine stills and all
that, basically how NASCAR gotstarted because of that.
Did you know that?
So forgive me I'll probably getthe year wrong, but somewhere
around the 1950s give or take.
The whole reason why NASCARstarted is because, basically,
(08:43):
these still people you knowstill in moonshine would have to
soup up their cars to outrunthe cops.
So they started doing that andthat's why it's very big in the
south.
Um, but that's how.
Basically, n wasn't just alaborer, yeah he they called him
like a craftsman essentiallydid you come across like how he
(09:13):
got good at doing this I mean itjust, it just blows my mind
that, like you know he was, ifhe was born into slavery, yeah,
and obviously they learnedskills and whatever.
Yeah, it's just I find itfascinating that he was able to
develop this skill of beingreally good at distilling.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah.
So anyway, sorry I think he wasjust like leased out to so many
people that he somehow learnedyeah.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I mean, that's very, that's very probable.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
But he specialized in a technique called sugar maple
charcoal filtering.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
It's also known as the Lincoln County process.
Oh, and, we were in LincolnCounty, tennessee, yeah, and I
will insert a couple of picturesthroughout here.
Sure, our story as well.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So this meant filtering the raw whiskey
through charcoal made from sugarmaple wood before aging it
right, which mellowed the flavorright.
Yes, so it made whiskey supersmooth and essentially the 19th
century version of like abritish filter, if you will well
, yeah, I believe not justobviously in distilling, but I
(10:23):
think charcoal is a naturallygood filter for everything Like,
even water Like yeah, I've gota charcoal filter for my kiddies
water dish.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I wrote down the Brita of bourbon the Brita of
bourbon.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Oh, my word, we have.
We have a competing title.
I like that one.
Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Oh, golly geez.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Okay so.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Tennessee whiskey, even today, is defined by that
extra charcoal filtering step.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And some historians think that this technique might
have been inspired by practicesby enslaved people, gotcha,
which they carried from westafrica, okay, and they would use
the charcoal to purify food andwater gotcha reverend dan call
recognized near skills and folksin the area also kind of knew
him and they called him unclenearest.
(11:21):
Okay, and they knew unclenearest made quality whiskey and
they wanted uncle nearest'sproduct yeah, and uncle was kind
of a a term of respect as well.
Um, so they kind of gave himsome pretty high, high praise oh
sure, yeah, that makes sense sonearest green enslaved, working
on a farm distillery, makingwhat would become Lincoln
(11:44):
County's kind of finest whiskey,enter a new character.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
A kid named Jasper Newton Daniel.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Jack Daniels.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Jack Daniel, yeah, jack Daniel.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
His name was Jasper.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Jasper Newton.
Daniel, that's awesome.
I had a cat named Jasper.
Yes, you, daniel.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's awesome.
I had a cat named Jasper.
Yes, you did, she was cute.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
She was a female.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
She was.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
In the 1850s, young Jack was a farm kid.
Okay, he was one of 10 in thefamily.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
But he was eventually orphaned.
His mother had passed awayright after his birth and his
father died of pneumonia.
Oh, dear, yeah away right afterhis birth and, um, his father
died of pneumonia.
Oh, dear, yeah, um, I think bythis time he was maybe like
between six and eight years old,when that, when, he was kind of
orphaned a little old, but yeah, still pretty young, yeah, okay
yeah, so around seven or eightyears old little jack ends up on
(12:38):
reverend.
Dan calls farm as a as a choreboy oh so Jack was kind of a
small guy but it was reallyinquisitive and the whiskey
still really fascinated him yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I can imagine being you know inquisitive kid, he
just like what are you doing?
I mean, you've, you've hadVesper.
Ask you, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
What are you doing, Kate?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Kate, where are you going, kate?
Yeah, why are you doing that,kate?
And then where's Kate?
She got to feed her kitties.
Yeah, pretty much so Jackpestered Reverend Call to teach
him the whiskey trade.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And at first the preacher kind of hesitated.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
He's like eight-year-old running a still.
I don't know.
I was going to say he's prettyyoung, he's pretty young, but I
mean times were different.
Yeah, obviously, like if xaviercame up and said hey man, can
you show me how to still and belike dude?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
get the fuck out of here, kid you know, but reverend
was like well, I got church onsunday, so let's go ahead and do
this, yeah I mean I could use,I could use the extra hands and
help, because I gotta go spreadthe word of god while you're
spreading.
My spirits, my distilled spirits, yeah so um, so reverend call
did decide to hand off thatteaching to near screen.
(13:50):
Sure, I mean, makes sense.
Yes, so dan call um introducesthem by saying, quote uncle
nears is the best whiskey makerthat I know of.
I want jack to become theworld's best whiskey distiller.
You help me teach him.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
End quote all right, makes sense so nearest is now
the mentor, mentor green thementee yeah, um well, yeah, I
mean he he clearly did a goodjob, because jack anna's that's
got to be one of the biggestwhiskeys in the world today,
right?
Oh yeah, I mean becauseobviously there's difference
between whiskey and bourbon.
(14:24):
Um, all bourbon is whiskey, butnot all whiskey is bourbon.
It's because of the process andall that stuff, but I mean it's
very well recognized stilltoday.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So so nearest, showed jack how to mash the grain,
yeah how to operate the stilland, crucially, how to do the
special charcoal filteringprocess okay so through
nearest's um guardianship.
Jack learned the lincoln countyprocess.
All right, okay, the this extrastep would later differentiate
(14:56):
tennessee whiskey to from plainbourbon right yes, I had a brain
fart because I was like bourbonno, that's kentucky, not
tennessee.
And we're in tennessee, yeah,but bourbon, kentucky, bourbon
right but bourbon can be madeanywhere I mean, there's just a
specific kentucky bourbon right.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I mean there's a lot.
There's a lot of distilleriesin kentucky that make bourbon.
You know, angels envy and um,oh my God, we passed a few when
we were down there.
Uh, other ones that I'm.
Why, for some reason, draw ablank?
Maybe because I want anotherdrink of this?
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So this distilling process, filtering, process it,
what is what makes Jack Daniel'swhiskey tastes like Jack
Daniel's whiskey?
Okay, okay, and it came fromNears Green Fucking.
A right so the kid was a quickstudy.
As he grew into his teens, Jacknot only learned to make great
whiskey, but he also learned tosell it.
Oh sure, by the time the CivilWar was raging in the early
(16:02):
1860s, Jack was out therepeddling the whiskey to soldiers
who were stationed nearby.
Well, I mean smart Uh-huh, sohe would sell his whiskey to any
soldier, Union or Confederate.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Why discriminate there?
A buck's a buck.
Exactly he's just trying tokeep the people happy and make
money yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I wrote down war is hell, but whiskey will take that
edge off.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
War got you down.
Take that edge off.
War got you down.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Take the edge off jesus christ um, so jack and the
ears had developed this awesomewhiskey that people in town
loved, the soldiers loved.
They also developed like agenuine friendship with each
other.
Um, over those years of workingso did this?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
did he have a name for it already when he was
selling it at this time?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I do have a picture of one of their very first jugs
and I don't remember the yearthat it was on, but this is
still operating under Dan call.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Gotcha, okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So, um, by all accounts, nearest and Jack uh
respected each other, they likedeach other, and Jack Daniel
Litter spoke openly about howmuch he owed to Nearest as his
teacher and his mentor.
In fact, one of Nearest'sdescendants put it, quote there
(17:21):
would never have been JackDaniels made without a green on
the property.
End quote.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I mean they're not wrong, that's awesome.
They gave him the props for it.
Jack daniel's made without agreen on the property, end quote
.
I mean they're not wrong,that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
They gave him the props for it because clearly he
was integral into daniellearning his craft, so it makes
sense so by the end of the civilwar, jack daniel has grown from
a kid to who knew nothing, tointo a talented distiller, um in
a businessman, all thanks toNears' mentorship.
(17:48):
Right, and Nears by this timehad gone from being Jack's
teacher to effectively hisright-hand man on the whiskey
operation.
So big changes were coming.
The war ended, slavery wasabolished Yep, and we were about
to kind of negotiate this wholenew world and what it would
(18:10):
look like, right.
So in 1865, after the war, saidyou know, that's a wrap.
Um, nearest green was freed.
Um, no longer somebody'sproperty, finally able to be
paid for his work, which isgreat.
And um, this probably was likejust a huge deal for him.
Yeah, but um, they ended upkeeping him around.
(18:33):
Well, why wouldn't they?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
yeah, I mean he was a great worker, he learned his
stuff and he's helping him out.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I mean it's just a little bit different role, yeah,
meaning he gets paid for it nowso reverend dan calls
congregation wasn't exactlypleased that a preacher was kind
of moonlighting as a whiskeymaker.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Can you blame him?
I mean, it seems likecontradictory to your lifestyle
yeah.
It just seems weird.
I mean, I'm okay with it, but Ican see how, especially back
then, people being as religiousas they were, yeah.
Especially down south, likethat Is Tennessee, considered
part of the Bible Belt.
I don't know what that whole is, but close enough nonetheless
(19:11):
um by association anyway well,right, but either way um you're
right there.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, oh, the coaster stuck um.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I forgot what I was saying.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I'm sorry that's all right.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Tennessee bible belt I can understand why people
would be like choose God orchoose whiskey, but you can't
have both.
I mean, but can't you?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So Reverend Call decided to stick it out with God
and he sold his distillery toJack Daniel, makes sense.
He was only in his likemid-teens at this point.
Wow, yeah, um, and then this iswhen I'll put in jack daniel's
like first jug.
oh sure that was about 1865,1870, somewhere around there
(19:56):
okay or that might have been howlong they used it, that five
years oh sure um.
Jack um was young, he took overthe operation in 1866 and he
registered the distillery asjack daniel distillery okay okay
, um so his last name wasactually just daniel, not
daniels, correct?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
so he put an apost.
Is it like apostrophe s on thelogo it is okay I guess I never
really paid attention to that itwould be bradley's whiskey.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Right, that's what it would be right jack daniel's
whiskey okay, yeah, gotcha um soI wrote down what were you
doing at 16 I was in high school, yeah, I was like I was driving
my burgundy dodge spiritwithout a muffler because I ran
over a Christmas tree at onepoint.
(20:46):
Spirit, yeah, another spiritLook at that Ties together.
Don't look at that.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well fancy that.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So as soon as Jack was the boss, he hired Nearest
Green as the first masterdistiller.
Okay, the title wasn't justceremonial, it meant Nearest was
in charge of making the whiskey, overseeing production and
keeping the quality top notch.
So, um, this kind ofappointment, made near screen,
the first african-americanmaster distiller recorded in us
(21:17):
history that's awesome yeah,nice yeah, so they did use the
term like head stiller in thosedays, but it's the same as what
we would call master distillernow, yeah, okay, different title
, same position.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yes, gotcha Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So Jack Daniel knew the value of Nearest Green and
Nearest Green's family.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Oh sure.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So he kind of helped start a family tradition.
He hired several of Nearest'ssons to work at this distillery
almost immediately nice.
So records show that at leastthree of nearest sons, george,
eli and louis or eddie they'renot sure which one joined the
jack daniel distillery staff inthose earlier years and then
(22:05):
over time jack's operationbecame like a multi-generational
family affair for the greenfamily right.
So seven straight generationsof nearest green's descendants
have worked for jack daniel inlynchburg.
That's fucking wild.
I'm gonna insert a picture hereof Jack Daniel in a hat and we
(22:28):
think it's nearest son, george,right next to him.
Like I said earlier, there's noknown photo of nearest yeah so
this is a picture of us.
We likely think it's his son,George.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Makes sense.
So, by all accounts, jackDaniel treatedarest and his sons
well for the era they were paid.
Um, they were all local, it'slike they didn't have to travel
very far, and um, the Greenfamily did quite well after the
Civil War, sure, so um Nearestand his wife Harriet also owned
(23:02):
several sizable plots of land,something that really didn't
happen.
Right, yeah, that's very wasvery uncommon at the time so you
can understand that the jackdaniels distillery probably made
him very wealthy in a sense,yeah for the time, yes, yes,
especially for his position.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I mean obviously coming out of the.
He had nothing technicallybecause, everything was someone
else's at the time.
So yeah, I mean he did verywell for himself.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So the distillery prospered and the Green family
never were like equity holdersin the company, but they were
never left destitute.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
They built their lives around this distillery.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
They were taken care of because of work and
everything at the yeah makessense so jack became a famous
name, a brand yep and eventuallya huge money maker.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Oh yeah, in 1956 jack's heirs sold the distillery
to the said 50, 1950, excuse me, 1956.
Okay, 20 million, obviously,and 56 is a lot different than
(24:13):
today 190 million that stillseems low.
Oh, I don't know, that's a lotit's a lot of money, but just
think if they sold it today, howmuch they would sell it.
Yeah, probably a lot more than$200 million but it wasn't as
famous.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Well, of course, of course not.
But, and of course the moneydidn't go to nearest family.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
They didn't have a stake in the company, but they
did get decent wages, but nottechnically a cut of Jack's
millions or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, it wasn't his company, so that's
understandable.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
And Jack Daniels' brand grew world famous.
Nearest Green's name faded intothe background.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's vanished.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Locals in Lynchburg knew the story Sure, the story
of the man who taught Jack thedescendants of greens that kept
on in the distillery business,but outside of town nobody heard
of nearest green which isunderstandable so so the
official company line becamejack daniel learned to make
(25:18):
whiskey from reverend dan callthat's terrible so for a long
time.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
That's how it stayed okay, I mean, yeah,
unfortunately, with how thingswere back then, yeah, it's
really sad, but I get it.
It sucks, but I get it so bythe 2000s.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, jack daniel's household name worldwide 100,
but no one knew about nearestgreen.
No, it's not that the story wascompletely lost.
Um, there was actually abiography about jack in 1967
okay um by a writer named bengreen, which is no relation to
nearest, obviously and heactually did mention nearest and
(26:02):
jack's relationship.
Okay.
Okay, the book became a sort oflike Bible in Lynchburg Locals
and Jack Daniels.
Insiders knew Uncle Nearest, aswas part of the story.
Sure, but the company'sofficial history in the
marketing nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Never said anything, nothing.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Tour guys at the distillery didn't mention him
Right, two were guys at thedistillery didn't mention him.
It was like this open but notopen secret that never made it
into the history of Jack DanielsDistillery.
It took until 2016.
Oh, so geez, nine years ago 150years after Jack Daniel opened
(26:43):
his distillery, for the widerworld to finally catch on.
Okay, in June 2016, the NewYork times published an article
that outed this quote hiddenfigure behind Jack Daniel's
whiskey.
The headline teased thedistillery's hidden ingredient
(27:03):
help from a slave.
So suddenly, nearest.
The story is everywhere andthere was a piece by Clay Risen
from the New York Times thatsaid, quote hey, fyi, the iconic
Jack Daniel learned distillingfrom an enslaved black man named
Nearest Green end.
Quote, and it was big news tothose who haven't heard it
(27:25):
before.
I just found out about it, maybethree months ago okay okay, um,
the company brown foreman,which owns jack daniels,
responded by saying they werejust about to make nearest story
public as part of their 150thanniversary.
Were they, though?
Though we were so close youbeat us to it, no.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
You jumped the gun, that's I mean you'd like you
hope that they.
They're telling the truth.
Yeah, but either way.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So according to them, it wasn't like a deliberate
coverup, just that the storywasn't well documented or had
been overlooked, so to speak.
Right, so record keeping wasobviously spotty back in the
1800s and jack daniel'smarketing from the mid 1900s
kind of glossed over it, right,um, but the cup the company did
(28:14):
publicly acknowledge it in 2016.
That nears his greens role, um,what his role was, and they
promised to weave him into, um,the jack dan Daniels history and
the tours going forward.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I find it funny because they almost make it seem
like it's.
They try to make it seem likeit was scandalous.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
It's really not.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
It's really not.
It's just is what it is.
Unfortunately, it wasn't ascandal like they cut him out of
the fortune or whateverscenario you want to make up.
It's just that's how it waskind of thing.
So are you abandoning ship onthat?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
No, I'm still going to drink it.
Okay, I want a little bit moreIce gets in my way.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I can't like drink a good drink with ice.
I have to have a straw, and youdon't do straws with whiskey.
That would be weird.
That would be weird.
So I need just a good gulp.
And it's going to be the ModeloPina Pina.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Perfect Spanish.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yes, that's good too.
Okay, so around this time thestory caught the attention of a
woman named Fawn Weaver.
Okay, she is an author andentrepreneur and a fan of good
storytelling.
Essentially, she heard aboutNearscreen and Jack Daniels'
(29:30):
plans to honor him, so shevisited Lynchburg, took the
distillery tour Actually, shetook three different tours.
Oh, all right.
And guess what what?
Not a single mention ofNearscreen.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Maybe they hadn't got the new script yet.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Apparently not, but in true badass fashion she took
matters into her own hands.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
She embarked on a 12-month research mission to
uncover everything about NearestGreen's life.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
She hired a team of more than 20 historians Holy
shit Archivists, archaeologists,you name it.
They scoured archives, dugthrough libraries and county
records, interviewed nearestdescendants and hunted down
pretty much any scrap ofinformation that they could Sure
Makes sense.
In the end, fawn gathered over10,000 documents confirming and
(30:25):
expanding on Nearest Green'sstory.
Oh nice, she filled in a lot ofblanks.
Okay, so Nearest was a nicknamethat he adopted after
emancipation.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh, not prior to.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Not prior to Gotcha, sorry, I had written that down
and forgot about it.
Okay, no worries, but she alsosolidified Ne nearest place as
the first ever black masterdistiller in america.
Wow, okay so her researchgained national attention by
2017, and it game gave brownforeman the push to actually do
(30:59):
something finally embrace thestory.
Sure, by the august of 2017,jack daniel's parent company
officially updated his websiteto list near screen as the first
master distiller, okay, and acouple months later they
unveiled unveiled a new displayabout nearest at the jack
daniel's visitor center, andevery tour also mentions him.
(31:21):
Oh good, so yes, there's even aphotograph in jack daniel's old
office, um, on that tour thatum has that george the son and
jack daniels together so is thecurrent distillery still like?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
obviously a lot bigger, but is it where the
original one was when he startedit, or did?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
it move.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The dan call um because that wasn't in lynchburg
no, that wasn't what I said.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
It was in lincoln county.
I don't remember something likethat.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, um, so that house is still there the house
is still there, yes, but that'snot where, jack, that's where
they started the distilleryunder dan call, though yes, yes,
and then he sold in thebusiness and then he moved it he
must have.
Yeah, I didn't research intothat's okay, tour or anything I
just didn't think it was thesame spot, that's all yeah, I
(32:12):
just want to see.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
So that kind of brings us to the, the final part
of our story okay sonearscreen's legacy went from
the display in someone else'sdistillery to his name on a
whole new bottle.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So is this actually from the Jack Daniels Company?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
No.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
This is from a descendant right.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I will tell you.
Okay.
So after Fawn Weaver, theauthor had uncovered the full
story of Nearest Green, she metwith Nearest Living Descendants
and basically asked how wouldthey like their patriarch to be
honored?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
And they said put his name on a bottle of whiskey.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Sure, I mean, that's what he was known for.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
So, in 2017, 2017 she had a team launch uncle nearest
premium whiskey, a newtennessee whiskey brand.
Honoring, honoring nearestgreen so does.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Does the family get profits from this, since they're
using his name?
I don't know.
I didn't look into that becauseI feel like they should.
I would think so becauseotherwise I feel like she's just
using that name for her benefit.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
So they released the first bottle in July 2017.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, so wow, it's been around for eight years.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
But still that's not very long at all.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
No, it's very new and I've never heard of this until
today.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
So Fawn Weaver built Uncle Nearest Whiskey into a
very serious business very, veryfast.
Right In just a couple of yearsUncle Nearest became the
fastest growing independentAmerican whiskey brand in US
history.
Wow, it was doubling sales.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Quarter after quarter won a ton of awards and by 2019
, they had sold tens ofthousands of cases across the
country.
So where did they get therecipe for this?
I don't know that wasn't a partof your research no, sorry it's
okay, I just I'm curious.
It's like, you know, did theyuncover an old recipe from uncle
nearest or something like that?
It's like they obviously hire anew master distiller today, so
(34:28):
like he came up with his own andjust slapped a name on it.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
You're going to have to read her book, cause she has
a book written about him.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I might have to listen to a book.
I don't know if I have time toread one.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Oh, my goodness, okay , so um, they built a new
distillery in Shelbyville,tennessee which is about an hour
from Lynchburg.
Okay, in 2019, fawn had raisedaround $40 million from
investors to make this allhappen.
The nearest green distilleryopened with this big mission to
be the Disneyland ofdistilleries, as Fawn put it.
(35:00):
Oh Jesus, a museum, a tastingroom, a massive bar, plans for a
future music venue all forNearest, yeah, so one of the key
people crafting his whiskey isVictoria Eddie Butler, which is
Nearest Green's great, greatgranddaughter Nice, and she came
(35:23):
on board as the master blender.
Okay, granddaughter nice, andshe came on board as the master
blender.
Okay, um, she had retired fromjack daniels after 31 years
there and then joined unclenearest to carry on that legacy.
That's cool, yeah.
Um, so the family that oncehelped start jack daniels is now
running and running their ownwhiskey.
It's pretty cool.
That's cool, yeah.
(35:44):
Nearest Whiskey has racked upover 700 medals in spirit
competitions Wow and was namedSpirit Brand of the Year by Wine
Enthusiast.
And by 2022, the company'svaluation is that how you say it
?
Evaluation?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I think so.
Surpassed $1 billion $1 billionwith a B Wow, that's impressive
.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
yeah, good lord so jack daniel's folks didn't say
congrats and step aside.
They actually did team up withuncle, uncle nearest, okay, um,
in 2020, the two companiesannounced the nearest and jack
advancement initiative, pledgingfive million dollars to help
increase diversity in thewhiskey industry.
(36:26):
Okay, they funded a nearestgreen school of distilling and
apprenticeships program.
To go into it.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Very cool.
I should go take one of those,that'd be great.
Yes, I wouldn't mind that atall.
That's cool that they wouldstart something like that.
It's nice when they put stuffback out there with their
profits instead of just beingdouchebags and pocketing it for
their CEO.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah, so he's finally Nearest, is finally getting his
due.
His name is on an award-winningbottle, there's a foundation in
his honor, there's a memorialpark and it plans for a museum.
Um, and nearest is noweverywhere.
People are finally knowing whohe is awesome, yes, so every
(37:12):
time you pour a little glass ofwhiskey think of uncle nearest
nearest because I mean he was afront runner and making it
popular.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Really, I mean it wouldn't be for him there.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
The coaster keeps sticking to my glass.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I know it's a little uh.
That's why I have my.
I hadn't rested mine on my kneeand my shorts are right next to
it, and so my shorts are allwet.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
It's okay, though, cause it feels nice.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Um, but yeah, I mean Jack Daniels, I mean, who knows
if that would even be a thing ifit wasn't for him, kind of of
situation.
So makes sense that he'sfinally getting his recognition,
his due so um just real quick,um, fawn weaver wrote a book
yeah, do you have the title ofthat book?
Speaker 1 (37:54):
it's called love and whiskey, okay, and the picture
is of jack daniels and the son,george, okay, um, let me see if
I find a year that this one,2024.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Oh so literally last year, Literally just came out,
literally just came out.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I do have the book on my Kindle because I was reading
it in preparation for this, butit's a little dense, oh really,
and it's very much like Fawn'sdiscovery as well, and like her
journey through this as well.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So Okay, but I mean I get it.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, she's on a mission.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I mean she's on a spiritual mission.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
A spiritual mission, a distillery mission, distillery
spiritual mission.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
The father, the son and the distilled spirits.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Okay, so what'd you think of?
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Uncle Nearest.
I was kind of disappointed thatmost of my ice melted Because I
wanted a smidge more.
But I got more ice downstairs.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Hello smidge.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Hello smidge.
No, that was really smooth.
It has a good flavor to it.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
I rather enjoyed it Good.
No, that was really smooth.
It has a good flavor to it.
Yeah, I rather enjoyed it Good.
Yeah, it wasn't bad at all.
I'm excited to have a littlebit more.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
A smidge more.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
A smidge more A smidge more.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Yeah.
So yeah, what do you think ofit?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
I like it.
I'm not a huge straight whiskeydrinker, which is why it's
taking me a little bit.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
But it is super, super good for straight whiskey.
You typically don't just drinkstraight booze.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
I don't, or on the rocks, for that matter.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So that's understandable why it would be a
little slower.
I do like to partake in a glasslike this from time to time.
I don't do it that oftenanymore, yeah, but I do like
having one.
So that was a nice change ofpace, because you know I love
beer, but sometimes you justneed a cocktail.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
But uh, this hibiscus one is fucking delicious too.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Just put some bourbon or whiskey in that, no maybe
not.
Why not, well, I suppose All.
No, maybe not.
Why not, well, I suppose?
Speaker 1 (40:06):
all right, buffoons, that's it for today's episode
buckle up, because we've gotanother historical adventure
waiting for you.
Next time feeling hungry formore buffoonery, or maybe you
have a burning question or awild historical theory for us to
explore hit us up on socialmedia.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
We're history History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube X,
instagram and Facebook.
You can also email us athistorybuffoonspodcast at
gmailcom.
We are Bradley and Kate.
Music by Corey Akers.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn
those notifications on to stayin the loop.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to
rate and review us.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Remember, the buffoonery never stops.
Oh, hey there, oh hey there.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm well.
How are you?
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I am Kate.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
And I am Bradley.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And this is History.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Buffoons, huzzah, yes yes, yes, welcome to history,
buffoons I have a?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
um surprise for you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Underneath the ottoman underneath yeah, the
ottoman right in front of youyeah, how far do I have to reach
for that?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I mean it's probably closest to me, closer to me than
it is to you.
I'm kidding, it's probablyright there okay put the
microphone back.
I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I premium 1856.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
It's almost as old as me, so so read it out.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
so it's a premium whiskey.
That gold is like it's shining,so it's hard to read in certain
angles.
This is is the first expressionhonoring my
great-great-grandfather.
I believe we have made himproud with our award-winning
whiskey V E D Butler Is that theguy's name, I assume?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's the son, I believe.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah.
Fifth generation yeah, Wow,that is really 50% alcohol.
We're only having one yeah, wehave a backup uh backup medellos
from, uh, from the otherepisode.
So actually I went, I went outand bought more so she could try
different flavors.
Wow, 100 proof.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
That's pretty good yeah, so show, show, the camera
this is the um Nearest whiskey.
So that is our drink today.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
So now you get to open it because I don't know how
.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
All right.
Well, I might have to edit thisout, because this might take me
a minute.
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
I got my ice ready.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay, I'll just toss that there.
There we go, all right, how arewe doing this?
Hold, please, okay.
He, he, ooh.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Smell that sucker.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Ooh, that smells good .
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh, I'm excited to try this.
I've never had this before.
I know, oh, really Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
What's it smell like?
It does smell oaky.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Comes from south, a little bit of moss like there's
trees nearby that's good oh,that's smooth oh, that's going
down real warm maybe two.
What?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
you think so?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
depends how much my ice melts just leave some for n.
Oh, I will.
I have actually a little bottle, I'll pour some into there.
We'll finish off the rest.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, my first time trying it too.
Yeah, you never would guessit's 50%.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Wow, that's really good.
So can you guess what our storyis today I'm gonna go with.
We're talking about rum todaywe're gonna talk about uncle
nearest I kind of put thattogether and I didn't even get
it up on my screen yet oh man.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So what I'm gonna tell you is that's delicious
good.
Well, she pulls this up.
That's really good yeah, Ireally like him, I wish I had
more ice.
Oh wow, that's good okay.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So, um, yeah, I figured you liked.
You like whiskey and this thisstory is actually somewhat
quote-unquote.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
New, okay, information um what do you mean
by that, I guess?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
um, so I'll explain it a little bit more later.
But uncle nearest, who we'regoing to be speaking about, yeah
, wasn't really discovered untilrecently so like he was around,
kind of forgotten.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Now people found out about him got yes, that's okay
gotcha, gotcha yes so our storybegins what year?
1853 um about 1820 oh, so Isuppose that would make sense,
because this is not when he wasborn.
This is what's that say well1856 sorry 56.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, okay, so we're gonna be in lincoln county
tennessee yeah, and this is fromshelbyville, tennessee, okay
and a reverend dear yeah areverend named dan call dan call
who runs a church?
Obviously yeah, and a whiskeystill on the side.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That seems really like odd.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I mean, he's saving both spirits, right?
Hi, uh hi.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The Holy Spirit and the.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
The Holy Spirit and the distilled spirits.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, the distilled spirits.
Maybe that's our title.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Father, Son and the Distilled Spirits, yes, oh wow.
Oh, I'm going to have to writethat one down Father, Son and
the Distilled Spirits, Becausethen we won't have to try.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
What was our when we were doing our Wizard of Oz
episode and I'm like I saidsomething, what the hell was it?
We had to go search for it.
So Okay, so All right, anyways.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So Reverend Call needed an expert to run his
whiskey still Okay and he knewthat there was an expert in town
.
He was an enslaved man.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Named Nathan Green.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Nathan Green, nathan Green Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Everyone called him nearest.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Is there a reason for that?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I did not find any, but I did find two different
spellings, so like what we wouldsay is nearer, nearest, yeah.
And then there's one spelledN-E-A-R-I-S-T instead of E-S-T.
Oh, nearest, or near-T, oh Near.
East or Near East, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, okay.
There's a couple differentvariations.
Sure, I mean, that's rightly so, because I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
He's an insulated man in the 1800s, like in the early
to late mid 1800s.
Right, he was.
There's actually no known photoof.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Nearest Of this guy, mm-hmm.
Well, I mean, I mean thereobviously was photographs back
then, but they weren't likeeverywhere, like like today
where everyone's got one intheir pocket, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Um, this feels really good on my knee.
I love ice.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So Nearest was born around 1820, likely into slavery
Right, and by the mid-1800s hegained that reputation of being
like a highly skilled distiller.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
He had in slavers a firm named Landis and Green who
would hire him out to localfarmers to make top-notch
whiskey.
Ah, so Dan Call was one ofthose who basically leased
Nearest Services.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
So Nearest is like doing all these dangerous dirty
work, distilling while somebodyelse is collecting the profits.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
essentially, I mean, that's typically what it was
common, it was common, andthat's what slavery was
basically.
They would have free labor tomake them a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yep and they would take the credit for something.
Which is unfortunate, buteither way, so distilling
whiskey in the 19th century washot, it was back-breaking and it
could also blow up in your face, quite literally well, yeah, I
mean, distills were veryvolatile and they could, uh, in
a heartbeat, blow up yeah um, Iknow a lot of.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Especially.
It was in the 1950s when allthe moonshine stills and all
that, basically how NASCAR gotstarted because of that.
Did you know that?
So forgive me I'll probably getthe year wrong, but somewhere
around the 1950s give or take.
The whole reason why NASCARstarted is because, basically,
(08:43):
these still people you knowstill in moonshine would have to
soup up their cars to outrunthe cops.
So they started doing that andthat's why it's very big in the
south.
Um, but that's how.
Basically, n wasn't just alaborer, yeah he they called him
like a craftsman essentiallydid you come across like how he
(09:13):
got good at doing this I mean itjust, it just blows my mind
that, like you know he was, ifhe was born into slavery, yeah,
and obviously they learnedskills and whatever.
Yeah, it's just I find itfascinating that he was able to
develop this skill of beingreally good at distilling.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah.
So anyway, sorry I think he wasjust like leased out to so many
people that he somehow learnedyeah.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I mean, that's very, that's very probable.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
But he specialized in a technique called sugar maple
charcoal filtering.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
It's also known as the Lincoln County process.
Oh, and, we were in LincolnCounty, tennessee, yeah, and I
will insert a couple of picturesthroughout here.
Sure, our story as well.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So this meant filtering the raw whiskey
through charcoal made from sugarmaple wood before aging it
right, which mellowed the flavorright.
Yes, so it made whiskey supersmooth and essentially the 19th
century version of like abritish filter, if you will well
, yeah, I believe not justobviously in distilling, but I
(10:23):
think charcoal is a naturallygood filter for everything Like,
even water Like yeah, I've gota charcoal filter for my kiddies
water dish.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I wrote down the Brita of bourbon the Brita of
bourbon.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Oh, my word, we have.
We have a competing title.
I like that one.
Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Oh, golly geez.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Okay so.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Tennessee whiskey, even today, is defined by that
extra charcoal filtering step.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And some historians think that this technique might
have been inspired by practicesby enslaved people, gotcha,
which they carried from westafrica, okay, and they would use
the charcoal to purify food andwater gotcha reverend dan call
recognized near skills and folksin the area also kind of knew
him and they called him unclenearest.
(11:21):
Okay, and they knew unclenearest made quality whiskey and
they wanted uncle nearest'sproduct yeah, and uncle was kind
of a a term of respect as well.
Um, so they kind of gave himsome pretty high, high praise oh
sure, yeah, that makes sense sonearest green enslaved, working
on a farm distillery, makingwhat would become Lincoln
(11:44):
County's kind of finest whiskey,enter a new character.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
A kid named Jasper Newton Daniel.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Jack Daniels.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Jack Daniel, yeah, jack Daniel.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
His name was Jasper.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Jasper Newton.
Daniel, that's awesome.
I had a cat named Jasper.
Yes, you, daniel.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's awesome.
I had a cat named Jasper.
Yes, you did, she was cute.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
She was a female.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
She was.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
In the 1850s, young Jack was a farm kid.
Okay, he was one of 10 in thefamily.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
But he was eventually orphaned.
His mother had passed awayright after his birth and his
father died of pneumonia.
Oh, dear, yeah away right afterhis birth and, um, his father
died of pneumonia.
Oh, dear, yeah, um, I think bythis time he was maybe like
between six and eight years old,when that, when, he was kind of
orphaned a little old, but yeah, still pretty young, yeah, okay
yeah, so around seven or eightyears old little jack ends up on
(12:38):
reverend.
Dan calls farm as a as a choreboy oh so Jack was kind of a
small guy but it was reallyinquisitive and the whiskey
still really fascinated him yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I can imagine being you know inquisitive kid, he
just like what are you doing?
I mean, you've, you've hadVesper.
Ask you, what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
What are you doing, Kate?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Kate, where are you going, kate?
Yeah, why are you doing that,kate?
And then where's Kate?
She got to feed her kitties.
Yeah, pretty much so Jackpestered Reverend Call to teach
him the whiskey trade.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And at first the preacher kind of hesitated.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
He's like eight-year-old running a still.
I don't know.
I was going to say he's prettyyoung, he's pretty young, but I
mean times were different.
Yeah, obviously, like if xaviercame up and said hey man, can
you show me how to still and belike dude?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
get the fuck out of here, kid you know, but reverend
was like well, I got church onsunday, so let's go ahead and do
this, yeah I mean I could use,I could use the extra hands and
help, because I gotta go spreadthe word of god while you're
spreading.
My spirits, my distilled spirits, yeah so um, so reverend call
did decide to hand off thatteaching to near screen.
(13:50):
Sure, I mean, makes sense.
Yes, so dan call um introducesthem by saying, quote uncle
nears is the best whiskey makerthat I know of.
I want jack to become theworld's best whiskey distiller.
You help me teach him.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
End quote all right, makes sense so nearest is now
the mentor, mentor green thementee yeah, um well, yeah, I
mean he he clearly did a goodjob, because jack anna's that's
got to be one of the biggestwhiskeys in the world today,
right?
Oh yeah, I mean becauseobviously there's difference
between whiskey and bourbon.
(14:24):
Um, all bourbon is whiskey, butnot all whiskey is bourbon.
It's because of the process andall that stuff, but I mean it's
very well recognized stilltoday.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So so nearest, showed jack how to mash the grain,
yeah how to operate the stilland, crucially, how to do the
special charcoal filteringprocess okay so through
nearest's um guardianship.
Jack learned the lincoln countyprocess.
All right, okay, the this extrastep would later differentiate
(14:56):
tennessee whiskey to from plainbourbon right yes, I had a brain
fart because I was like bourbonno, that's kentucky, not
tennessee.
And we're in tennessee, yeah,but bourbon, kentucky, bourbon
right but bourbon can be madeanywhere I mean, there's just a
specific kentucky bourbon right.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I mean there's a lot.
There's a lot of distilleriesin kentucky that make bourbon.
You know, angels envy and um,oh my God, we passed a few when
we were down there.
Uh, other ones that I'm.
Why, for some reason, draw ablank?
Maybe because I want anotherdrink of this?
Speaker 1 (15:39):
So this distilling process, filtering, process it,
what is what makes Jack Daniel'swhiskey tastes like Jack
Daniel's whiskey?
Okay, okay, and it came fromNears Green Fucking.
A right so the kid was a quickstudy.
As he grew into his teens, Jacknot only learned to make great
whiskey, but he also learned tosell it.
Oh sure, by the time the CivilWar was raging in the early
(16:02):
1860s, Jack was out therepeddling the whiskey to soldiers
who were stationed nearby.
Well, I mean smart Uh-huh, sohe would sell his whiskey to any
soldier, Union or Confederate.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Why discriminate there?
A buck's a buck.
Exactly he's just trying tokeep the people happy and make
money yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I wrote down war is hell, but whiskey will take that
edge off.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
War got you down.
Take that edge off.
War got you down.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Take the edge off jesus christ um, so jack and the
ears had developed this awesomewhiskey that people in town
loved, the soldiers loved.
They also developed like agenuine friendship with each
other.
Um, over those years of workingso did this?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
did he have a name for it already when he was
selling it at this time?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I do have a picture of one of their very first jugs
and I don't remember the yearthat it was on, but this is
still operating under Dan call.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Gotcha, okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So, um, by all accounts, nearest and Jack uh
respected each other, they likedeach other, and Jack Daniel
Litter spoke openly about howmuch he owed to Nearest as his
teacher and his mentor.
In fact, one of Nearest'sdescendants put it, quote there
(17:21):
would never have been JackDaniels made without a green on
the property.
End quote.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I mean they're not wrong, that's awesome.
They gave him the props for it.
Jack daniel's made without agreen on the property, end quote
.
I mean they're not wrong,that's that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
They gave him the props for it because clearly he
was integral into daniellearning his craft, so it makes
sense so by the end of the civilwar, jack daniel has grown from
a kid to who knew nothing, tointo a talented distiller, um in
a businessman, all thanks toNears' mentorship.
(17:48):
Right, and Nears by this timehad gone from being Jack's
teacher to effectively hisright-hand man on the whiskey
operation.
So big changes were coming.
The war ended, slavery wasabolished Yep, and we were about
to kind of negotiate this wholenew world and what it would
(18:10):
look like, right.
So in 1865, after the war, saidyou know, that's a wrap.
Um, nearest green was freed.
Um, no longer somebody'sproperty, finally able to be
paid for his work, which isgreat.
And um, this probably was likejust a huge deal for him.
Yeah, but um, they ended upkeeping him around.
(18:33):
Well, why wouldn't they?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
yeah, I mean he was a great worker, he learned his
stuff and he's helping him out.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I mean it's just a little bit different role, yeah,
meaning he gets paid for it nowso reverend dan calls
congregation wasn't exactlypleased that a preacher was kind
of moonlighting as a whiskeymaker.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Can you blame him?
I mean, it seems likecontradictory to your lifestyle
yeah.
It just seems weird.
I mean, I'm okay with it, but Ican see how, especially back
then, people being as religiousas they were, yeah.
Especially down south, likethat Is Tennessee, considered
part of the Bible Belt.
I don't know what that whole is, but close enough nonetheless
(19:11):
um by association anyway well,right, but either way um you're
right there.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, oh, the coaster stuck um.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I forgot what I was saying.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I'm sorry that's all right.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Tennessee bible belt I can understand why people
would be like choose God orchoose whiskey, but you can't
have both.
I mean, but can't you?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So Reverend Call decided to stick it out with God
and he sold his distillery toJack Daniel, makes sense.
He was only in his likemid-teens at this point.
Wow, yeah, um, and then this iswhen I'll put in jack daniel's
like first jug.
oh sure that was about 1865,1870, somewhere around there
(19:56):
okay or that might have been howlong they used it, that five
years oh sure um.
Jack um was young, he took overthe operation in 1866 and he
registered the distillery asjack daniel distillery okay okay
, um so his last name wasactually just daniel, not
daniels, correct?
Speaker 2 (20:16):
so he put an apost.
Is it like apostrophe s on thelogo it is okay I guess I never
really paid attention to that itwould be bradley's whiskey.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Right, that's what it would be right jack daniel's
whiskey okay, yeah, gotcha um soI wrote down what were you
doing at 16 I was in high school, yeah, I was like I was driving
my burgundy dodge spiritwithout a muffler because I ran
over a Christmas tree at onepoint.
(20:46):
Spirit, yeah, another spiritLook at that Ties together.
Don't look at that.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well fancy that.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So as soon as Jack was the boss, he hired Nearest
Green as the first masterdistiller.
Okay, the title wasn't justceremonial, it meant Nearest was
in charge of making the whiskey, overseeing production and
keeping the quality top notch.
So, um, this kind ofappointment, made near screen,
the first african-americanmaster distiller recorded in us
(21:17):
history that's awesome yeah,nice yeah, so they did use the
term like head stiller in thosedays, but it's the same as what
we would call master distillernow, yeah, okay, different title
, same position.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yes, gotcha Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So Jack Daniel knew the value of Nearest Green and
Nearest Green's family.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Oh sure.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So he kind of helped start a family tradition.
He hired several of Nearest'ssons to work at this distillery
almost immediately nice.
So records show that at leastthree of nearest sons, george,
eli and louis or eddie they'renot sure which one joined the
jack daniel distillery staff inthose earlier years and then
(22:05):
over time jack's operationbecame like a multi-generational
family affair for the greenfamily right.
So seven straight generationsof nearest green's descendants
have worked for jack daniel inlynchburg.
That's fucking wild.
I'm gonna insert a picture hereof Jack Daniel in a hat and we
(22:28):
think it's nearest son, george,right next to him.
Like I said earlier, there's noknown photo of nearest yeah so
this is a picture of us.
We likely think it's his son,George.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Makes sense.
So, by all accounts, jackDaniel treatedarest and his sons
well for the era they were paid.
Um, they were all local, it'slike they didn't have to travel
very far, and um, the Greenfamily did quite well after the
Civil War, sure, so um Nearestand his wife Harriet also owned
(23:02):
several sizable plots of land,something that really didn't
happen.
Right, yeah, that's very wasvery uncommon at the time so you
can understand that the jackdaniels distillery probably made
him very wealthy in a sense,yeah for the time, yes, yes,
especially for his position.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I mean obviously coming out of the.
He had nothing technicallybecause, everything was someone
else's at the time.
So yeah, I mean he did verywell for himself.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So the distillery prospered and the Green family
never were like equity holdersin the company, but they were
never left destitute.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
They built their lives around this distillery.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
They were taken care of because of work and
everything at the yeah makessense so jack became a famous
name, a brand yep and eventuallya huge money maker.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Oh yeah, in 1956 jack's heirs sold the distillery
to the said 50, 1950, excuse me, 1956.
Okay, 20 million, obviously,and 56 is a lot different than
(24:13):
today 190 million that stillseems low.
Oh, I don't know, that's a lotit's a lot of money, but just
think if they sold it today, howmuch they would sell it.
Yeah, probably a lot more than$200 million but it wasn't as
famous.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Well, of course, of course not.
But, and of course the moneydidn't go to nearest family.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Of course not.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
They didn't have a stake in the company, but they
did get decent wages, but nottechnically a cut of Jack's
millions or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well, it wasn't his company, so that's
understandable.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
And Jack Daniels' brand grew world famous.
Nearest Green's name faded intothe background.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's vanished.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Locals in Lynchburg knew the story Sure, the story
of the man who taught Jack thedescendants of greens that kept
on in the distillery business,but outside of town nobody heard
of nearest green which isunderstandable so so the
official company line becamejack daniel learned to make
(25:18):
whiskey from reverend dan callthat's terrible so for a long
time.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
That's how it stayed okay, I mean, yeah,
unfortunately, with how thingswere back then, yeah, it's
really sad, but I get it.
It sucks, but I get it so bythe 2000s.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, jack daniel's household name worldwide 100,
but no one knew about nearestgreen.
No, it's not that the story wascompletely lost.
Um, there was actually abiography about jack in 1967
okay um by a writer named bengreen, which is no relation to
nearest, obviously and heactually did mention nearest and
(26:02):
jack's relationship.
Okay.
Okay, the book became a sort oflike Bible in Lynchburg Locals
and Jack Daniels.
Insiders knew Uncle Nearest, aswas part of the story.
Sure, but the company'sofficial history in the
marketing nothing.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Never said anything, nothing.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Tour guys at the distillery didn't mention him
Right, two were guys at thedistillery didn't mention him.
It was like this open but notopen secret that never made it
into the history of Jack DanielsDistillery.
It took until 2016.
Oh, so geez, nine years ago 150years after Jack Daniel opened
(26:43):
his distillery, for the widerworld to finally catch on.
Okay, in June 2016, the NewYork times published an article
that outed this quote hiddenfigure behind Jack Daniel's
whiskey.
The headline teased thedistillery's hidden ingredient
(27:03):
help from a slave.
So suddenly, nearest.
The story is everywhere andthere was a piece by Clay Risen
from the New York Times thatsaid, quote hey, fyi, the iconic
Jack Daniel learned distillingfrom an enslaved black man named
Nearest Green end.
Quote, and it was big news tothose who haven't heard it
(27:25):
before.
I just found out about it, maybethree months ago okay okay, um,
the company brown foreman,which owns jack daniels,
responded by saying they werejust about to make nearest story
public as part of their 150thanniversary.
Were they, though?
Though we were so close youbeat us to it, no.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
You jumped the gun, that's I mean you'd like you
hope that they.
They're telling the truth.
Yeah, but either way.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So according to them, it wasn't like a deliberate
coverup, just that the storywasn't well documented or had
been overlooked, so to speak.
Right, so record keeping wasobviously spotty back in the
1800s and jack daniel'smarketing from the mid 1900s
kind of glossed over it, right,um, but the cup the company did
(28:14):
publicly acknowledge it in 2016.
That nears his greens role, um,what his role was, and they
promised to weave him into, um,the jack dan Daniels history and
the tours going forward.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I find it funny because they almost make it seem
like it's.
They try to make it seem likeit was scandalous.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
It's really not.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
It's really not.
It's just is what it is.
Unfortunately, it wasn't ascandal like they cut him out of
the fortune or whateverscenario you want to make up.
It's just that's how it waskind of thing.
So are you abandoning ship onthat?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
No, I'm still going to drink it.
Okay, I want a little bit moreIce gets in my way.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I can't like drink a good drink with ice.
I have to have a straw, and youdon't do straws with whiskey.
That would be weird.
That would be weird.
So I need just a good gulp.
And it's going to be the ModeloPina Pina.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Perfect Spanish.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yes, that's good too.
Okay, so around this time thestory caught the attention of a
woman named Fawn Weaver.
Okay, she is an author andentrepreneur and a fan of good
storytelling.
Essentially, she heard aboutNearscreen and Jack Daniels'
(29:30):
plans to honor him, so shevisited Lynchburg, took the
distillery tour Actually, shetook three different tours.
Oh, all right.
And guess what what?
Not a single mention ofNearscreen.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Maybe they hadn't got the new script yet.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Apparently not, but in true badass fashion she took
matters into her own hands.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh dear.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
She embarked on a 12-month research mission to
uncover everything about NearestGreen's life.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
She hired a team of more than 20 historians Holy
shit Archivists, archaeologists,you name it.
They scoured archives, dugthrough libraries and county
records, interviewed nearestdescendants and hunted down
pretty much any scrap ofinformation that they could Sure
Makes sense.
In the end, fawn gathered over10,000 documents confirming and
(30:25):
expanding on Nearest Green'sstory.
Oh nice, she filled in a lot ofblanks.
Okay, so Nearest was a nicknamethat he adopted after
emancipation.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh, not prior to.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Not prior to Gotcha, sorry, I had written that down
and forgot about it.
Okay, no worries, but she alsosolidified Ne nearest place as
the first ever black masterdistiller in america.
Wow, okay so her researchgained national attention by
2017, and it game gave brownforeman the push to actually do
(30:59):
something finally embrace thestory.
Sure, by the august of 2017,jack daniel's parent company
officially updated his websiteto list near screen as the first
master distiller, okay, and acouple months later they
unveiled unveiled a new displayabout nearest at the jack
daniel's visitor center, andevery tour also mentions him.
(31:21):
Oh good, so yes, there's even aphotograph in jack daniel's old
office, um, on that tour thatum has that george the son and
jack daniels together so is thecurrent distillery still like?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
obviously a lot bigger, but is it where the
original one was when he startedit, or did?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
it move.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The dan call um because that wasn't in lynchburg
no, that wasn't what I said.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
It was in lincoln county.
I don't remember something likethat.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, um, so that house is still there the house
is still there, yes, but that'snot where, jack, that's where
they started the distilleryunder dan call, though yes, yes,
and then he sold in thebusiness and then he moved it he
must have.
Yeah, I didn't research intothat's okay, tour or anything I
just didn't think it was thesame spot, that's all yeah, I
(32:12):
just want to see.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
So that kind of brings us to the, the final part
of our story okay sonearscreen's legacy went from
the display in someone else'sdistillery to his name on a
whole new bottle.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
So is this actually from the Jack Daniels Company?
Speaker 1 (32:33):
No.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
This is from a descendant right.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I will tell you.
Okay.
So after Fawn Weaver, theauthor had uncovered the full
story of Nearest Green, she metwith Nearest Living Descendants
and basically asked how wouldthey like their patriarch to be
honored?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
And they said put his name on a bottle of whiskey.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Sure, I mean, that's what he was known for.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
So, in 2017, 2017 she had a team launch uncle nearest
premium whiskey, a newtennessee whiskey brand.
Honoring, honoring nearestgreen so does.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Does the family get profits from this, since they're
using his name?
I don't know.
I didn't look into that becauseI feel like they should.
I would think so becauseotherwise I feel like she's just
using that name for her benefit.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
So they released the first bottle in July 2017.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay, so wow, it's been around for eight years.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
But still that's not very long at all.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
No, it's very new and I've never heard of this until
today.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
So Fawn Weaver built Uncle Nearest Whiskey into a
very serious business very, veryfast.
Right In just a couple of yearsUncle Nearest became the
fastest growing independentAmerican whiskey brand in US
history.
Wow, it was doubling sales.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Quarter after quarter won a ton of awards and by 2019
, they had sold tens ofthousands of cases across the
country.
So where did they get therecipe for this?
I don't know that wasn't a partof your research no, sorry it's
okay, I just I'm curious.
It's like, you know, did theyuncover an old recipe from uncle
nearest or something like that?
It's like they obviously hire anew master distiller today, so
(34:28):
like he came up with his own andjust slapped a name on it.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
You're going to have to read her book, cause she has
a book written about him.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I might have to listen to a book.
I don't know if I have time toread one.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Oh, my goodness, okay , so um, they built a new
distillery in Shelbyville,tennessee which is about an hour
from Lynchburg.
Okay, in 2019, fawn had raisedaround $40 million from
investors to make this allhappen.
The nearest green distilleryopened with this big mission to
be the Disneyland ofdistilleries, as Fawn put it.
(35:00):
Oh Jesus, a museum, a tastingroom, a massive bar, plans for a
future music venue all forNearest, yeah, so one of the key
people crafting his whiskey isVictoria Eddie Butler, which is
Nearest Green's great, greatgranddaughter Nice, and she came
(35:23):
on board as the master blender.
Okay, granddaughter nice, andshe came on board as the master
blender.
Okay, um, she had retired fromjack daniels after 31 years
there and then joined unclenearest to carry on that legacy.
That's cool, yeah.
Um, so the family that oncehelped start jack daniels is now
running and running their ownwhiskey.
It's pretty cool.
That's cool, yeah.
(35:44):
Nearest Whiskey has racked upover 700 medals in spirit
competitions Wow and was namedSpirit Brand of the Year by Wine
Enthusiast.
And by 2022, the company'svaluation is that how you say it
?
Evaluation?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I think so.
Surpassed $1 billion $1 billionwith a B Wow, that's impressive
.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
yeah, good lord so jack daniel's folks didn't say
congrats and step aside.
They actually did team up withuncle, uncle nearest, okay, um,
in 2020, the two companiesannounced the nearest and jack
advancement initiative, pledgingfive million dollars to help
increase diversity in thewhiskey industry.
(36:26):
Okay, they funded a nearestgreen school of distilling and
apprenticeships program.
To go into it.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Very cool.
I should go take one of those,that'd be great.
Yes, I wouldn't mind that atall.
That's cool that they wouldstart something like that.
It's nice when they put stuffback out there with their
profits instead of just beingdouchebags and pocketing it for
their CEO.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah, so he's finally Nearest, is finally getting his
due.
His name is on an award-winningbottle, there's a foundation in
his honor, there's a memorialpark and it plans for a museum.
Um, and nearest is noweverywhere.
People are finally knowing whohe is awesome, yes, so every
(37:12):
time you pour a little glass ofwhiskey think of uncle nearest
nearest because I mean he was afront runner and making it
popular.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Really, I mean it wouldn't be for him there.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
The coaster keeps sticking to my glass.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I know it's a little uh.
That's why I have my.
I hadn't rested mine on my kneeand my shorts are right next to
it, and so my shorts are allwet.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
It's okay, though, cause it feels nice.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Um, but yeah, I mean Jack Daniels, I mean, who knows
if that would even be a thing ifit wasn't for him, kind of of
situation.
So makes sense that he'sfinally getting his recognition,
his due so um just real quick,um, fawn weaver wrote a book
yeah, do you have the title ofthat book?
Speaker 1 (37:54):
it's called love and whiskey, okay, and the picture
is of jack daniels and the son,george, okay, um, let me see if
I find a year that this one,2024.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Oh so literally last year, Literally just came out,
literally just came out.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I do have the book on my Kindle because I was reading
it in preparation for this, butit's a little dense, oh really,
and it's very much like Fawn'sdiscovery as well, and like her
journey through this as well.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So Okay, but I mean I get it.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, she's on a mission.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I mean she's on a spiritual mission.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
A spiritual mission, a distillery mission, distillery
spiritual mission.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
The father, the son and the distilled spirits.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Okay, so what'd you think of?
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Uncle Nearest.
I was kind of disappointed thatmost of my ice melted Because I
wanted a smidge more.
But I got more ice downstairs.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Hello smidge.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Hello smidge.
No, that was really smooth.
It has a good flavor to it.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
I rather enjoyed it Good.
No, that was really smooth.
It has a good flavor to it.
Yeah, I rather enjoyed it Good.
Yeah, it wasn't bad at all.
I'm excited to have a littlebit more.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
A smidge more.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
A smidge more A smidge more.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Yeah.
So yeah, what do you think ofit?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
I like it.
I'm not a huge straight whiskeydrinker, which is why it's
taking me a little bit.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
But it is super, super good for straight whiskey.
You typically don't just drinkstraight booze.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
I don't, or on the rocks, for that matter.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So that's understandable why it would be a
little slower.
I do like to partake in a glasslike this from time to time.
I don't do it that oftenanymore, yeah, but I do like
having one.
So that was a nice change ofpace, because you know I love
beer, but sometimes you justneed a cocktail.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
But uh, this hibiscus one is fucking delicious too.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Just put some bourbon or whiskey in that, no maybe
not.
Why not, well, I suppose All.
No, maybe not.
Why not, well, I suppose?
Speaker 1 (40:06):
all right, buffoons, that's it for today's episode
buckle up, because we've gotanother historical adventure
waiting for you.
Next time feeling hungry formore buffoonery, or maybe you
have a burning question or awild historical theory for us to
explore hit us up on socialmedia.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
We're history History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube X,
instagram and Facebook.
You can also email us athistorybuffoonspodcast at
gmailcom.
We are Bradley and Kate.
Music by Corey Akers.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn
those notifications on to stayin the loop.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to
rate and review us.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Remember, the buffoonery never stops.
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