Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
You're a news radio ad porty WahChassi in Verturey's down the hall, but
Russ Smith's in the studio with ustoo. Excellent. Always nice to have
a national championship around Ross. Goodto see you again. Good to see
you guys. What's up man?Always great to see you. You never
change it still look like a collegekid. I begged the differ. We're
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gonna talk about all this business stuffyou have going on in a few minutes.
Nice. First off, you're inperfect shape. So when the TBT
comes up, that's uh, youknow, that's gonna be fun. That's
next month. I think people areexcited about this. Yeah, everybody should
be excited, you know, especiallyespecially some of the fans I get that
didn't get a chance to watch usplay in Freedom Hall because they've only watched
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this play at the YOUM Center.So I think, you know, being
ten years removed and some other guyslike Nano, uh maybe five or six
years a move, they should comeout watch this. Who Yeah, you
guys practicing yet together. We dida little bit of stuff. We're getting
in there in the mornings. Peytonhas been setting it up. Coach Lieberman
has been setting some of the guysup. So guys are getting in shape,
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working out, and then there's someguys like myself, Nanniel, Chris
dow Rakiem and um even Dylan.If we just finished the season overseas,
so uh, you know, we'reletting our body get some rest and then
we'll just start picking it back upa little by little. That's all good.
You're not gonna let Luke Hancock bossanybody around. I was just talking
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about Luke earlier, but that's that'sthe only option he has. And you
know, if he if he yellsat us like he's like he's coach,
you know, we might we mighthave to you know, yeah, yeah,
get it, get him off thebench. But you're you're obviously game
ready. You have an age.But Luke's kind of like a middle aged
man now it's all settled into hismarriage and his life. It's tough,
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man, it's Luke. Luke's Lukehas a you know, one day,
one day, I'm gonna be Lukeand it's and it's not to be fure.
Is he wearing card against sweaters andsmoking a pipe down like a fifty
year old man. Yeah, ifhe might be I think he got a
little belly. Luke's done, Man, Luke's done. I think I'm nuts
a great. Russ Smith is inthe studio with us Rus ridiculous. He
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has a project with a lot ofdifferent labels of mister and Missus Bourbon we're
gonna talk about in a few minutes. And he's making appearances all around the
area here over the next month orso. Yeah, maybe two two months.
Yeah, that's good. A lotof people want to see you.
Yeah, and I want to seea lot of them too, So you
know, they've They've supported the product, brought the product. I've been interested
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in the products. So I thinkit's only right I get out there,
and this is kind of the firstrunaround I get to do because of COVID.
Yeah, all right, well we'relooking forward to that. So hang
on a few minutes, folks.We're gonna we're gonna get into our sports
news now and then the bottom ofthe hour news, and then Russ and
I are gonna have a nice chatabout mister and Missus Bourbon and all the
other things that go with that.Being a legend here in Louisville and globetrotting
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the way you've done, You're you'reliving a life. I'm trying to,
man, I'm trying to. It'sit's been fun though I can't lie.
It elves great, China's been treatingme great and everywhere else. I many
languages have you picked up? Yeah? Oh man, it's it's it's it's
all scrambled in there. You know, it's all scrambled. I only I
wouldn't say I'm fluid in anything,but I can. I can understand some.
(03:20):
Start reading some signs to mister Miles. When you get a minute,
you can stop by here. We'rehaving a taste this afternoon because Russ Smith
is here with his incredible products.Mister and missus Bourbons. Russ, we
were talking a few minutes ago.It was great to have you back on
a radio station. Yes, sir, I was thinking you were going to
be a media guy by this time. But you you you got skills in
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this area. You know, Ialways I always thought about doing it,
but I didn't want to jump intoit while I'm still playing. I got
you. Yes, I know,it's a it's it's it's a pretty tough
um tough jobs, but it's therefor you. You're great at it,
so it's there. For you onceyou decide you know you want to do
that. This bourbon is what you'rereally working on outside of your basketball.
(04:05):
So tell me how you got intothis. So growing up in New York,
you know, New York is anentertainment space, nightlife space, and
our I guess you could say influencers, and the liquor industry is different.
We have guys like jay Z Diddyin fifty cent. So after leaving New
York, coming to Kentucky, playingfor uu L doing and having a great
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college experience, I was taking shootersand tequila's and vodkas my whole time in
college. And when I graduated school, I met a lot of guys that
you know, didn't drink that stuff. They were drinking bourbon and they were
always talking to me and they wereall nice. But one thing that never
happened was I never blacked out onbourbon. And I can actually I can
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hold of cavo. I could sitthe same cup, and I got I
got really interested into the space,into the spirit because coming from New York,
it's never bourbon, it's never neverwhiskey. So from there, um
as you can imagine, um,I met a lot of people within the
industry. You got to know alot of people. Um, they were
teaching me the ways, and hereyou go seven or eight years later,
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UM have my own company and eightdifferent labels. You could be a distiller.
I mean you've learned if you're gettingenough education about this how this product
is made, where you can comeup with your own flavors and absolutely I
think. I think, Um,with my knowledge of of of match bills
and all that, I think,once I get more educated on the chemistry
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part behind making the spirits, Um, there's no reason why I can't be
distilling and doing my own products.You're kicking off your bourbon tour for mister
and Missus Bourbon. And now Iunderstand there are more labels introduced today.
Yes, so today we're going toSpringhurst and this will be the first location
and that will be introing the threelabels with me making an appearance and signing
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it. We got the Rye OakTree and then we have our white oak
Tree, which is a full proofweeded product. And then we have our
one hundred and twenty six single barrelspecial select Rye and that one is a
brown sugar Bomb. And then afterwe intro those at Springhurst. On Tuesday
will be at Outer of Loop andthen Wednesday will be at the Liquor Barn
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in Middletown. Yeah, I seethat you're gonna You're gonna make appearances in
Bowling, Green, Owensborough, Elizabethtown, all coming up. And this is
great. So people can find us. The website is mister and Missus Bourbon
dot com. Just look under theevents page you can see each one.
And then so you're gonna be likeseven thirty to ten, it says tonight
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on this, So you're gonna spenda lot of hours and stores over the
next Yeah, so you know,you come out and the way we got,
the way I got to set upis first and foremost, I want
to explain to everybody, you know, all the questions that they may have.
You know, how did you geta star? You know what brought
you into this, Why are youdoing this? You know all the main
points. And then I'm pretty surethere's going to be some fans of Rusdiculous,
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So I'm having I'm making a slotof answering any card new related questions,
any sports related questions. Go ahead, you know, you could get
it out and then um and thenafter we knocked that out. I'll be
doing I'll be talking about the businessside of it and what I do day
to day in the dry wet andsupply chain department, and then after that
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we'll be talking about the eight differentlabels and what separates them, and then
we start the signing. It's rusdiculousa name that you you you categorize as
a certain era of your life oris it okay? If someone uses that
expression today, they just do becausethey I think, I think it just
comes with it, like they theythey correlate rusridiculous with I guess fun horses
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a great time and I can't stoppeople from calling me that. But I'm
just like, yeah, you know, I just go with it, man.
I forgot what a fashion plate you're. I have a photo of my
wife and me with you at somederby party and you you were the best
dressed person in the building. Really, yeah that that That's nice that you
tell you because I looked around andthere was some fabulous for just people there,
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so I didn't know where I fitin though I think it's one of
the Ferdinand's balls. That's where youwere one of those derby like Thursday night
of Derby weeks because we saw youmultiple times at various things, and it's
like every night there's Russ got afull new layout. Yeah, I gotta,
I gotta do I definitely do gottado something uh each each event.
I think that's a pretty good time. All right. You have eight different
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types now, mister and missus Bourbon, and I noticed on one of them
there is a drawing, an artist'sdrawing of view. Yes, that is
fantastic. I thought it would becool if if I can kind of make
part of the brand more more legacy, because you know, you're the only
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one that gets to tell your story, right and in basketball, there's a
there's a lot of for me,it's a lot of distractions, but there's
great distractions. You have Lebron James, you have Curry, and you have
you know, even Christian Laytner's buzzardshot. You know, you have Everything's
a lot of distractions, but um, and a hundred years from now,
I still want to be able tohave my story told in different um in
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different industries. So I thought thatthe first face labels that I introduced would
be dedicated to me personally and mystories and the people who follow me my
whole life. So each label hasa different story on it. On my
face label, I have four andthen the yolk tree labels are something that
you know, people outside of myselfcan can like, you know, correlate
(09:52):
with and have some similarities with.It tells a little bit of your story
on the side of this bottle.But this drawing of you as outstanding and
it's circled with these words distilled withpositivity in Kentucky. Yes, that's kind
of your mantra of life, isn'tit. You gotta keep it positive all
the time? You always do.I follow you on social media, I
know you do. Yeah, alwaysyou find you find really interesting things too
(10:16):
in social media. How much timedo you spend without a day? Is
that just a distraction for a fewminutes. Uh? Twitter has turned into
my Wall Street journal. I cando anything on there. I can I
can find nature, I can findconspiracy theories, I can find history.
(10:37):
And I'm just going through the goingthrough the source and um figuring out what
I want to read and go downwhich rabbit hole I want to go down?
Yeah. Your mind is just likeyour game. It's lightning fast and
you're jumping and finding and instinctively justswitching. That's fantastic though, that you
can multitask like that in so manyways. As you know in this in
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this bourbon industry distill spirits and alcoholin general. A lot of times people
want to come and buy your companyaway from you, Right, don't you
want to spend a little time withus before somebody roped wraps on the door
and says, hey, yeah,give it to us for us. I
love I love what I'm doing,and I love what we're doing. Excuse
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me, like my partners and Iand we're having fun with this. And
you know, we'll be accepted intoMaryland maybe by the end of August.
New York called, and you knowthat's where I'm from, So that's gonna
be. That's gonna be. Oncethat happens, you know, people will
see like, oh wow, likethis this guy, you know is really
he knows what he's doing. Andthere's more places we're getting getting into.
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So honestly, you know, ifyou know somebody wants to come in,
I think it's a good time tobe my friend. Now, do you
like taking those meetings with those folkswhen they say and you need to go
and explain to them your story andit's somebody at some boardroom table that seems
like an ideal location for Rutt Smithto walk in and telling yeah, because
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um, it's no like, it'sno fabrication. And a lot of times
I feel like a lot of peoplearen't the true their true selves when they're
talking to people maybe across the tableor in the same room. I'm the
same person every distribution meeting I take, every dry supply meeting I take,
every corporate meeting I take. I'malways the same person and it's all authentic
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and um, and it turned outit's it really goes goes well for me.
I'm not trying to cut any corners, and um, I also try
to use what I've learned from basketballand try to apply it the team works
since and the commodity sense into intothis industry and working with others. You
look like a fashion model too.What about the beard? Is this part
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of it? Is this part ofthe business. Look, I think I
gotta keep it. Is I havea beard on the label, So I
think I gotta keep it forever.Now, we'll see if it turns If
it we'll see if it turns great, that'll be I'll have to make a
decision on dying it back black orcutting it. I got news for it.
That's gonna happen eventually. But you'restill young. Uh well, I
(13:09):
want to get a taste of thisis already got one open. Yes,
yes, we're gonna do this,this rye right here, poor a couple,
man, I don't see if ournews guy come share. Thank you
for that. I appreciate that Rossis actually pouring for us here. Yeah,
we're gonna pour up. That's mightynice. We are gonna pour up.
That's mighty fun. Okay, good, I'll have to clink myself because
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the news. But thank you forthat. That's right. Okay, what
what are we Which one are wedoing here? So we're doing the our
ninety proof rye. So you know, I like I like all my product.
Sweet, I like it flora orlike an approachable and like a rye.
I was telling you earlier. Ryesare normally strong, robust, peppery,
spicy, and um. This ryeis definitely not that smells great it's
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delicious. Cheers That is fact though, Yes, sir, thank you for
that. Russ appreciate that. Bestof luck you can meet Russ Smith tonight
in Springhurst at seven thirty. It'sat the Liquor Barn store there. And
then you've got actually got a bunchof liquor barns on this bourbon tour throughout
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the summer. The full list ison the website Mister and missus bourbon dot
com. And we're talking about thesame time window every evening, aren't we.
Russ Liquor Barn, spring Hurst tonight, Outer Loop Tomorrow night, Shelbyville
Road on Wednesday. Boy, you'reworking every night. I'm looking for a
break in this. But oh no, no days off, man, No
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look like basketball, like basketball,No days off. You're going I'm going
right down the list here. Youdon't get a break till July second.
Impressive. Yeah, I'm probably gonnahave a nice party on July. Second
time I would say something, Yeah, that's gonna be I have too.
That's the thing. That's one ofthe reasons people love you. You're loyal
to this city and you're you're justrelent relentless in terms of your the way
(15:01):
you play the game, the wayyou are with people, and I think
people really respect that deeply. Imean, for me, I feel like,
uh, you know, basketball ismy passion, and then once I
jump into another passion, it's likeit's like the quote how you do anything
is how you do everything. So, like I said, I'm just trying
to apply the stuff I learned fromHoops into a new industry. And it's
(15:26):
quite frankly not new to me.I've been in this industry for seven years.
So uh, just trying to keepbeing consistent. That drive, though,
came long before Hoops. Oh.Absolutely, you're a baby. Absolutely
you You mirrored and mimicked things yousaw and you've just been a whirling dervish,
just constant drive your whole life.Absolutely, I can't imagine a slow
(15:50):
down. Rusting is happening. It'sdefinite is happening. I feel it.
What's the next thing in hoops?You you mentioned almost countries where you've been.
Yeah, so honestly the next thingin hoops? We have the you
know, we're getting the gangs partof the gang back together. Uh,
myself, pay in Wayne Shane,and then we got a couple of other
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guys that are coming back from overseas, so Nan new, my buddy Rakim
Avar, Chris died. We're allplaying in the TBT tournament. July twenty
fifth. That's gonna be fun,man, And um, we just can't
wait to get back out there.We're going going to freedom all how soon
do you find out your first opponent? And then they did the announcement today
in the brackets, Uh, that'llbe released. Yeah, so we Um,
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they gave us a two seed.I don't know. I don't know
if that's too high. I don'tknow if that's too low, right,
So we'll see, we'll see.But is it a two seed as in,
you're playing a fifteen? Now,we're playing a seventh seed, so
I think, yeah, yeah,there's eight in there, so you're playing
the seven. Okay, Well,I mean, everybody's delight that this tbt
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UFL's got an entrant in this thing. And obviously we know you're playing for
a million dollars, but it's it'salso about the camaraderie and being a part
of staying close to the program.Yeah, and that's and that's the big
thing that one of the reasons whyI decided to play, because you don't
know when you know, one daycan be your last day playing with some
(17:22):
of the guys that you've won with. And I think it's just dope.
We get to go out there andjust hoop and nostalgic nostalio wise people.
People will be able to watch usplay at Freedom Hall and for our guys,
we're playing together again. But thenagain, also you're playing for a
million bucks. The teams on theother side are really really good, so
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we just have to be ready andand give it out. Also, you
know, we can compete. Well, people are looking forward to that's next
month, and we're gonna have afun ride between now and then with everybody
getting out to see you at thestores. Oh yeah, it's gonna be
great. Well we're everywhere man,so um yeah, they have the links
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and they're able to find us.We're definitely going to be traveling all corners
of Kentucky. All right, bestof luck in the TBT and obviously continued
success with mister and Missus Bourbon.That's the website Mister and Missus Bourbon dot
com. Get the full event scheduleof Russ Smith's Bourbon tour this summer.
We will see you again soon,Thank you, Russ Smith. All right,
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we're back in a few on newsradio at forty whas