- 1 minute ago
Turns out Jack Daniel’s isn’t just a whiskey company, it’s a family business. Master distiller Chris Fletcher stops by to share how he followed in his grandfather’s footsteps but he’s not the only one with a family tie on the team. He talks about legacy and what it means to serve a community that’s been working together for generations. Part of that is Operation Ride Home, a nonprofit that helps junior enlisted service members make it home for the holidays because Jack Daniel’s knows just how much family matters.
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00:00By default, too, you wonder what Mr. Jack would think about us recreating whiskeys that he had
00:05out when he was alive. As a distiller, you almost have to pinch yourself to believe that it's
00:09happening, that you get to recreate something that hadn't been done in Lynchburg since Jack
00:13Daniel was still in control. Hey, everyone. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor at Entrepreneur.com,
00:23and welcome to How Success Happens, the show where I speak with people who aren't afraid
00:28of the big moment and take their shot at glory. Speaking of shots, today's guest has sipped quite
00:36a few of them. Chris Fletcher is the vice president, master distiller, and director of distillery
00:42operations at the Jack Daniels Distillery. He is just one of the few human beings to ever hold that
00:50title of master distiller, so we're going to find out how he got it, and more importantly,
00:56how we can push him out and steal his job. Welcome, Chris. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
01:03Great to talk to you. I'm sure when people hear what you do for a living, you must get a
01:08lot of,
01:08that sounds so awesome. Is that the general reaction? It is, and it's warranted. I like to
01:15say, if you don't have a good time making whiskey, you're not doing it right, so it's a lot of
01:20fun.
01:20I've got a great job. But it is a job, you know, and I'm sure there's parts of it that
01:27some days
01:28you're like, this isn't quite as fun and toasting and clinking glasses as it could be. But you've been
01:37at it for a while, and you have quite a family history. Your grandfather held this title before
01:43you. Was it ever a question that, in your mind, that this is what you were going to do?
01:50Oh, yeah, for sure. And, you know, I would tell you, I didn't really consider,
01:55you know, working at the distillery, you know, until, you know, I was almost through with college,
01:59really. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. You know, you grow up, Lynchburg's a, you know, small little town,
02:05and it's a wonderful place to grow up. And, you know, I was around the distillery with my granddad
02:09when I was really young, you know, maybe four or five years old. But he retired by the time I
02:14was
02:14eight. And so, you know, at that point, I was not around the distillery. You know, you drive by it
02:19every day in town. But, you know, I didn't have any, you know, and when you're that young, you don't
02:25really understand, you know, your grandfather, you know, was, you know, kind of in charge of making
02:29the whiskey. And, you know, you don't think of your grandfather in that way, in his working life,
02:36right? He's just Papa, and we go fishing, we go play golf, you know, all these great things. And,
02:42you know, it wasn't until I got a summer job after my sophomore year in college that I started to
02:48think, well, that'd be pretty cool if I could, you know, learn how to make whiskey. And I started to
02:52learn more through that summer job about our process here and about the history of our
02:57distillery and certainly what my grandfather and his team did back in his day.
03:02Yeah. So, can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, one of the things I'm always, like, amazed
03:07when I talk to distillers is, you know, the process. It's such a long process and moving barrels around
03:16and all this stuff and how you can make millions of bottles and they all taste exactly like what you
03:24wanted them to taste like. That seems like an impossible task. How do you, can you explain how
03:30that works? Sure, I'll try. I think a little bit of the answer lies in the question there. It's about
03:40people. And so, you can't make, you know, whiskey without great people and from, you know, grain to
03:47getting it into a barrel and even getting it into a bottle, then at the end of the process,
03:53you know, if you don't have a great team, you know, it's a pretty, it's an arduous task. And so,
03:59you know, I think we have some of the best people in the industry. So many employees here have,
04:04you know, moms and dads or grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins that have worked here or work here
04:10alongside them right now. And so, you know, Lynchburg's a town. In our entire county, there's only
04:16a little over 5,000 people maybe. And we employ almost 1,000 at the distillery. And so, if you
04:22think about that, it's the families of Lynchburg that make this product what it is. And it makes
04:29my job really easy, right, is trying to make it all the same and make sure the consistency never
04:34changes. Can you give people a sense? I mean, I'm sure we imagine there's quite a lot of,
04:43it's a huge operation, but like, how many barrels are we talking about? Like, what are we looking at?
04:50It varies. It'll fluctuate, but we're around 3 million barrels here in Lynchburg, something like
04:55that, give or take a couple. And can you explain what, you know, the day-to-day of a master
05:04distiller's
05:04job is? Is there a day that you're not sipping and tasting? Or is it pretty much a daily thing?
05:13Yeah, no, I mean, tasting is a small part of it. You know, if it gets down to tasting and
05:19it's that critical that I have to taste it, then we've got big problems somewhere.
05:23Okay.
05:24Yeah, I mean, the important thing, I mean, for us, a distiller distills. And so, my team is in
05:30charge of turning the grain into liquid whiskey and getting it into the barrel. And once it gets
05:35in a barrel, there's nothing we can do, you know? So, the distiller's job is mostly done.
05:40And so, if we put a good spirit into the barrel, if we're consistent of what's coming out of the
05:46distillery, off of our stills to the charcoal mellowing, that clear new make spirit will
05:52always work in that barrel. Some barrels may take longer than others, but a barrel doesn't mess
05:58whiskey up. You know, it's kind of the other way around. If you take whiskey that's off and put it
06:03in a barrel to try to fix it, that's where you have a problem. You know, we've got great quality
06:09control people and everything. And now, there are times when we innovate and do new products or
06:14limited products and things where I am the product developer. And so, yes, I am very much in charge of
06:20what's coming out of the barrel as well. But most of my focus and what I would say, you know,
06:26what
06:26keeps you up at night is what's coming off of our still every day, what's going into that barrel
06:33every day, and making sure that the consistency is right at that point. That's the most critical point
06:38right there. So, you know, you just touched on something that I wanted to ask you about. So,
06:44obviously, Jack Daniels, one of the most iconic American brands, you know, ever. So, you know,
06:55people certainly have expectations of what their version of it is. But when you're talking about new
07:03products, you know, how do you balance that staying, you know, true to the original version of it,
07:11but also offering new things without turning off those people who are, you know, so devoted to the
07:19original product? Yeah, you know, I think, I mean, first of all, it's about, you know, taking that
07:26tried and true recipe in many cases and just tweaking it here or there. So, for instance, we've
07:33started to recreate our old age-dated whiskey line that Mr. Jack was doing when he was alive,
07:38and he did 10, he did 12-year-old, 14-year-old, 18- and 21-year-old when he
07:43was alive. And so,
07:45it's all old number seven classic Tennessee whiskey, same recipe, same barrels. It's just
07:49about pushing that age out in the best way we can to recreate those old age-dated offerings that he
07:56sold in the early 1900s. And so, I mean, that is absolutely the old number seven recipe. You know,
08:03fingerprints, the DNA of that whiskey is old number seven. It's just in a little different form.
08:09And, you know, that goes as well. You know, we do special single barrel bottlings. You know,
08:15we get a Koi Hill bottling that, you know, every barrel would have gone into a batch of old number
08:20seven had we not, you know, separated that and offered it up as a standalone offering.
08:25And so, while there's certainly things that we do to push flavor and kind of push the boundary to
08:31kind of maximize, you know, whether it be, you know, something that's a really high-proof big
08:36and bold whiskey, or if it's something that's more delicate, so much of it starts with that
08:41classic recipe of 80% corn, 12% malt, 8% rye, our same yeast, same stills, charcoal, mellow,
08:49line, and barrel. So, when you are creating, and I thought it would be rude if I didn't
08:56have a little bit of your product while we're talking. Some gentleman Jack here, so thank you
09:02for that. Wonderful. Enjoy. And cheers to your success. But I wanted to ask you about success. How
09:09do you define it for yourself when you're creating new products or, you know, you're shepherding this,
09:17as we said, iconic brand that employs thousands of people? Like, how do you think about that word success?
09:26Yeah, it's a good question. I think with the new products, you know, I will freely admit that when
09:33we're putting the finishing touches on something, I wonder what my grandfather would think about it.
09:37He passed back in 2020, and I'm sitting in his old office right here. In fact, the old desk that
09:44he had,
09:44I'm sitting at. So, wow. Yeah, it's a special thing. And so, that certainly goes through my head.
09:49And I guess by default, too, you wonder, you know, what Mr. Jack would think about us recreating
09:54whiskeys that he had out when he was alive. And, you know, that's just, you know, as a distiller,
09:59you almost have to pinch yourself to believe that it's happening, that you get to recreate
10:04something that hadn't been done in Lynchburg since Jack Daniel was still in control. So,
10:09that's a really fun thing. And then, you know, our team, you know, here is so dedicated and so good,
10:15you know, you will continue to see us push the boundaries and do different things and
10:20not only recreate stuff from our past, but also dip our toe into new waters as well,
10:24or new whiskeys, I guess we should say. So, it is, it's fun to be able to do that and
10:30experiment.
10:31But, you know, the thing is, you know, all of our whiskeys, no matter, you know, what label it goes
10:37under, it's made to the same quality, the same standards and processes. And it starts with us
10:44with old number seven. And so, I think that's a big part of the answer is the quality and the
10:48consistency of old number seven has to stay the same. Every bottle that goes all over the world,
10:53and that's our primary focus day in and day out.
10:57So, your grandfather seems like he was a quite a legendary figure there. Do people tell you
11:04stories about, you know, what it was like to work with him? What was his leadership style like?
11:12Yeah, I mean, my grandfather was just a really, really kind-hearted, open person,
11:21you know, never met a stranger, and was, you know, I think obviously probably pretty good at what he
11:27did. If you consider in his career, old number seven was allocated almost his entire 30-something
11:34year career that he worked here. It's pretty amazing to think about the growth of the brand
11:41during that time. And so, he was a really, really special one, and we've had a lot of really special
11:48distillers here, you know, over the years. And, you know, I don't really remember any of them
11:53before my granddad. My granddad started here in 57. And so, he became, you know, head distiller in
12:001966, and then retired in that role in 1989. And so, of course, I knew him, Jimmy Bedford very,
12:07very well. And, of course, Jeff Arnett, my predecessor, who's still to this day a great friend.
12:12And, you know, I think that's one of the really special things about this place is, you know,
12:19you've got this person that's kind of in this leadership role over the distillery production,
12:23but we've got so many people that are generational employees. I think like 60% of our workforce is
12:31either related to a current employee or was related to a previous employee. So.
12:36That is really amazing. Yeah. It speaks highly of the company. That's incredible. What about like
12:45your, you know, your competitors? Would you consider them, you know, friendly rivalries,
12:53straight up friends, fierce competitors, enemies? How do you regard, how do you regard your competitors
13:00there? No, I mean, I think the distilling industry, I think the consumer really sees so much of kind of
13:07the, the, the, the, the sales side of it. Maybe they assume there's, there's more of a
13:14rivalry. I don't, I don't know what the word is there, but I think absolutely on for the people in
13:20production, it's, it's very much an open community and open book. And, you know, we host distillers here
13:27at our distillery all the time that want to come and look and see how we do something. And, and
13:31a
13:32lot of times, you know, we'll go somewhere else and, and spend time with others. So I've got a lot
13:36of great friends all over the industry, certainly in Kentucky. I lived in Kentucky about 11 years and
13:41spend a lot of time up there in a lot of different distilleries. And it's, it's a, it's certainly a
13:47friendly industry. And I find, especially on the production side, you know, everything's pretty much
13:52an open book. I've heard, so a while back, I believe he was with Jim Beam, I can't remember,
13:59but it was talking about a dinner where, you know, a bunch of distillers, master distillers
14:06were together and obviously, well, maybe not obviously, but they all had their own stuff in
14:11front of them. They were drinking their own stuff, but like when someone wasn't looking,
14:14he'd kind of switch the glasses to see if they would notice that they were now drinking his
14:20instead of what they put in front of them. And obviously a master distiller is going to
14:24immediately know that this is not, this is not my stuff.
14:29Yeah. It can be unnerving when something like that happens. And yeah, I've had it accidentally.
14:34I don't think I've ever had that happen to me on, on purpose. But a lot of times if you're
14:39doing a
14:40tasting and you're in front of a big group of people, I mean, it could be a couple of hundred
14:43people
14:43and you're tasting through. And so, you know, you're assuming that what they have in front of
14:49them was poured correctly. And so you run into this dilemma if you taste something and you know
14:54it's not right, if it's the wrong product. And it's like, well, do I stop the whole tasting and
14:59screw it up for everybody? Because there's no way you can go around all 200, you know, people and
15:05make sure they've got the right juice. Yeah. So you kind of get stuck and that's, that's not a good
15:09place to be in. Oh, that's funny. Um, so when you are kind of innovating and you're trying new
15:18things, um, has there anything stand out to you as something that you were immediately like, oh no,
15:26this is not going to work? No, not really. I think certainly some things have been more
15:34challenging than others. Um, you know, I would say when we started making our malt whiskey, just,
15:40just put a hundred percent malted barley, you know, that's a big change because you've only got one
15:44grain instead of three. And, um, you know, and barley, it doesn't have much flavor, you know, it's,
15:49it's not as sweet as corn and it's not as spicy as rice. So, um, there's just not as much
15:54there.
15:55Um, and so we knew, you know, we were going to have to do additional things to kind of balance
16:00out
16:00flavors and create complexity in our malt whiskey. And I think we've did, we've done that really
16:04well. And, um, but no, I mean, nothing, nothing to the point to where we've, we've had to worry
16:10about what are we going to do with this? And I think that speaks to, um, our distillery. It speaks
16:15to the, you know, the investment that the companies continue to make. Um, you know, we still, we distill
16:21everything on a hundred percent copper to double distillation process column and pot still, um, you know,
16:26our yeast strain, which is, you know, just dynamite and makes this great sweet fruity top note in our
16:32new makes spirit. Um, and then of course our team, our people that are, that are controlling this whole
16:36process. And, um, when you make whiskey the way we do and with the people that we do, um, you
16:42know,
16:42I like to say, as long as, as long as the corn doesn't look like black eyed peas, we're going
16:46to
16:46make good whiskey out of it. That's great. And what do you, um, I'm, well, I'm guessing, but you tell
16:55me if
16:55this is true that, uh, you know, there's a lot of people out there who are trying to start their
17:01own brand, you know, small batch kind of stuff. Um, do you get asked for advice and what's, what's
17:08your typical advice to someone who's kind of starting their own thing, whether it's in their
17:11basement or in the backyard or, you know, a small operation? Well, I guess I would say don't do it
17:18in
17:18your basement or your backyard. Um, there's, there's some, uh, rules and regulations that are
17:25out there. Okay. All right. Educate me. I'm an idiot. Um, but yeah, I mean, we've got just in
17:32Tennessee alone, we have over 40 distilleries now. Um, and a lot of them are pretty small distillers.
17:37And, um, you know, we're, we're a proud member of the Tennessee distilling guild, distillers guild,
17:42um, and, and the Tennessee whiskey trail here in Tennessee. And, um, you know, I'm, I'm on the
17:48board of directors there and, uh, you know, we are an open book and I would, I would like to
17:54think
17:54that, um, all of, all of our fellow distillers here in the state know that if they have a question,
18:00technical question, or, um, you know, even, you know, historical reference or anything, if,
18:05if they think Jack Daniels can help that they know that we've got an open door and we want to,
18:10we want to support the distilling community across the state of Tennessee, because we've got a great
18:14history of distilling in Tennessee. It's not just Jack Daniels. And, um, you know, I think it will
18:19continue to grow as the state continues to grow. It's a wonderful state. We've got a lot of great
18:24stuff going on from the mountains up in East Tennessee, all the way out West. And, um, I think
18:29it's a still, it's still a great time to be making whiskey. So, so Jack Daniels, there's, uh, as he's
18:37referring to has such a rich history. And I feel like whiskey and bourbon is, there's always a story
18:45behind it. You know, it's not just like some new thing. Uh, it's, it's many of the greatest ones
18:51have a long history such as yours, but if you are starting something new, uh, can you talk about
18:58that importance of the product to its history or to the story that you're telling consumers,
19:04um, to welcome them in and make this feel like something that they want to try?
19:10Um, yeah. The importance of the story you're asking about. Yeah. Yeah. In terms of if you're
19:18forming a new, you know, I'm starting a new place, not in my backyard. Uh, but, uh, you know,
19:25creating, you know, the branding, I guess is, is the, the easy way to say that. Yeah. I mean,
19:30it, no doubt. I mean, marketing is, is really, really important. You're sort of getting into
19:35a sandbox that I don't play in. They don't want, they don't want the chemist whiskey maker to be
19:39making this decision. And I'm thankful for that. But, but I would be, you know, certainly, um,
19:45you know, I have to acknowledge the importance of a history, a real, a real history. Um, you know,
19:50so many things today can kind of be spun and, and, and made up. And, and there's obviously,
19:55there's a lot of smoke and mirrors in distilling because you don't have to label exactly where a
20:00product was made. Um, you know, you can say manufactured by, so I could, I could buy, I don't
20:05know where you're located, Dan, where are you at? I'm in New York, New York. So, so you could,
20:09you could distill a barrel of whiskey in New York and I could buy it from you and bring it
20:13down here
20:13to Tennessee. And I could bottle it all up in these fancy bottles and put Chris's whiskey produced in
20:19Tennessee, even though I didn't make a drop of that product. And so, yeah, yeah. So it's always
20:26important to look at distilled by and see, you know, if, if a label, sometimes you have to look
20:31really hard and, and then a lot of the labels, it doesn't exist. It'll say manufactured by or bottled
20:36by, or, you know, produced by, made by, but not distilled. Um, and so think about that. You're buying
20:43a bottle, um, that, that you're going to consume responsibly, of course. And, you know,
20:48you know, and not know where it was really made, uh, where it was distilled or how it was
20:53distilled. Um, you know, that's something that it doesn't really, um, compute with me. Uh, and,
21:00and of course, obviously every drop of Jack Daniels is only made in one place in the world
21:04right here over my shoulder. I know you can't see it, but, um, Lynchburg, Tennessee produces
21:09all Jack Daniels for the world. And, and so we want people to know not only where it's made,
21:15but how it's made and who's making it and, and why we do it the way we do it. So,
21:19um,
21:21but you're right. I mean, marketing and branding is, is very impactful. Um, and I always advise
21:26consumers to ask questions and ask more questions and, and research products and know what you're
21:32buying. Um, I think that's important for anything. I think it's especially, uh, important in whiskey.
21:37Yeah, absolutely. Um, and, and speaking of community and your surrounding areas, um, you know,
21:46you Jack Daniels is known for a lot of different outreach programs. I wanted to talk about this
21:51operation ride home. Cause I thought that was a pretty cool thing. Can you, can you let people
21:57know what that is? Absolutely. Uh, thanks for asking. And we're, we're getting closer and closer
22:03to the holidays as my five-year-old gets more excited by the day. But, um, I think everybody
22:09has seen, you know, video clips on, you know, on TV or on social media of, um, our military heroes
22:16coming home to surprise a family member, a loved one, whether it's at a, at a football stadium or,
22:23or, you know, some big public event. Um, and the impact that that makes certainly on that family,
22:28but also as a viewer, you know, the, you know, what you watch and how you connect with that,
22:34um, and appreciate the sacrifice that our military makes 365 days a year. And operation ride home now
22:42has been going for over 10 years. Um, and we've been able to help make those stories happen. And so
22:49we partner with the armed services, YMCA. Um, and you can find all of this information at
22:55operationridehome.com. Um, it is a full on 501c3. They identify mostly junior enlisted servicemen and
23:05women from all branches of the military. And we fundraise every year. We, we kick it off every
23:11November with a hundred thousand dollar contribution from Jack Daniels. Um, and then we do multiple,
23:16multiple events all over the country to continue to build and fundraise for these trips to get our
23:22troops home for the holidays. And so, I mean, if you think about it and before we got involved,
23:27I didn't really understand how a lot of those reunions happen during, during the holidays. And,
23:33um, while a lot of times, you know, a person could get back to a base, well, if they're based
23:39in San
23:40Diego, but they're from Florida or, or wherever, you know, they, and they have a family, maybe they
23:45have young children and, um, you know, they just don't have the capability to get home in so many
23:50cases. And that's where Operation Ride Home comes in. Um, we do, um, plane tickets. We can do
23:57gas, prepaid gas cards, um, all the, all kinds of things that we can do to help make those, um,
24:04reunion stories happen around the holidays. So if anybody out there listening, um, is interested in
24:10helping again, OperationRideHome.com, you can find out all kinds of information there. Um, you can
24:16probably even, um, find a link to it through JackDaniels.com as well. Uh, and again, our partners
24:22with the Armed Services YMCA, um, we've been partnering with them for years and they do a
24:27phenomenal job and every penny goes directly to making these things happen. And so you can feel
24:34really good about anything that you can donate. That is incredible. I will definitely have to drink
24:40to that. That was cheers to that. We've all cheers. We've all seen, as you said, we've all seen those
24:46videos. If you're a human being, you've cried while you watch those videos, but you know, until you just
24:54said that, I didn't really understand that either, that, that, that your base might not be where you
25:00live. Uh, and getting home is not an easy task. So, uh, it's a beautiful thing that you're doing.
25:05That's amazing. Um, well, Chris, I think we've caught to the, uh, the speed round of our show.
25:12I'm just going to ask you a couple of quick questions, uh, and you can fire off some answers.
25:18So, so here we go, Chris, I'm buying this round at the bar. What do you'll have?
25:25Boy, now that depends on the day for me and my mood that strikes me. I love all of our
25:31single
25:31barrel stuff because of the variation. Single barrel is only one barrel, right? And, and
25:36everything else we're going to batch, you know, maybe even a couple of hundred barrels together
25:39for consistency. So generally any of our single barrel offerings are fantastic. Um, but you know
25:46what too, I, you know, I find when I do tastings, excuse me, really around the world and people try
25:52old number seven, just need, or maybe with just a cube of ice. Um, they're kind of shocked and they
25:57say, I've only ever had it with Coke and don't get me wrong. We love a good Jack and Coke,
26:01right?
26:02But, um, but, uh, old number seven, Jack Daniels on the rocks, um, is, is a pretty darn good call
26:08more times than not too. Beautiful. I was just about to ask you, are there any cocktails, uh,
26:16that break your heart? Um, I always wondered that you, you sweat over making this perfect bottle
26:22of whiskey and then someone like dumps a Coke in it. Um, that's okay with you. You give your stamp
26:27approval. Oh, absolutely. I think if, um, if you're going to spend your hard earned money on a,
26:32on a bottle of whiskey from, from Lynchburg, you should enjoy it the way that you want to enjoy it.
26:38And, um, I'm not a very good bartender. Um, there's about two cocktails I can make that I think
26:43are okay. Um, that's about all I got. I'm most of the time just on the rocks. That's all that's
26:49about as creative as I get, but, um, no, I love, I love a good cocktail, especially if I'm not
26:54making it,
26:55you know, somebody that's pretty good, you know, at balancing the flavors, um, is preferred. But,
27:00uh, but anyway, no, there's no wrong way to enjoy Jack Daniels. You know, we just always ask
27:06our friends to enjoy responsibly, of course. Yeah, of course. Um, so what is a habit that you
27:13are happy to have and one you wish you could ditch? Hmm. Wow. Habit happy to have one I could
27:23ditch.
27:23Um, the one I could ditch would be my laziness. I need to be better at, at, you know, getting
27:31to the
27:32gym every day. And, and my wife is, um, so much better than me. It's just not even funny. I
27:40wish I
27:41had her motivation and her drive and consistency. And, um, maybe that's something that I'll, um,
27:47you know, get to a little better. So I, I wish I was better at that. Um, and one that
27:54I'm glad that I
27:55have, um, I, you know, I think, um, just, I would say my connection to the distillery here in our
28:07team
28:07and, um, being able to make whiskey, um, with whiskey makers that their parents or grandparents
28:13or, you know, aunts, uncles, family members, or, you know, we're making whiskey here with my
28:18granddad, you know, 30 years ago. Um, that's a really cool thing. So that's the one, that's the
28:24one I'll keep. I don't know. I mean, I can't really control all of that habit or however you phrase
28:29it.
28:29I don't remember, but I would say that's one that's really special to me. Um, for sure.
28:33That's great. Well, uh, in keeping with that, um, with, uh, this business being so ingrained in you
28:42through your family history and all that, how do you turn off your brain? How do you turn off the,
28:48the Jack Daniels part of your brain and just, uh, decompress?
28:53Going home to a five-year-old every day, uh, who kind of does require the brain to shift
28:59significantly, um, which is awesome in its own right. Uh, but he, he is really a ton of fun.
29:07Um, he loves music and I love music and we, we share that already at his young age. So I
29:14would
29:14say, you know, music is definitely involved. I'm, I'm not a very good musician. I like to bang around
29:18and make a little noise, but, um, having a five-year-old that already has a, a passion around
29:24music is really special. And I guess, Hey, you're from Tennessee whiskey and music. That's,
29:29that's what we do in Tennessee, right? Yeah, absolutely. Very cool. Well, uh, as, uh, as you
29:38note, as you, uh, talked about operation ride home, uh, definitely, uh, of incredible cause
29:46and something people should check out jack Daniels.com. Any other way, uh, you suggest people
29:53follow what's happening in your, on your whiskey universe? Well, yeah, certainly jack Daniels.com
30:00is the best spot for, for whiskey news from us. Um, also operation ride home.com there,
30:06the website there, um, is a direct link into that program and you can learn all about the
30:12great things that are going on with the armed services YMCA. Um, and so, yeah, I think that's
30:19where you'll find, um, you know, two of the more important things going on in Lynchburg,
30:24that's for sure. And then finally, what's it, is it a simple cheers? What do you, what do you
30:30like to say when you clink glasses? It's a simple cheers for me, you know, I, I, I, again, um,
30:37usually it's, uh, a nice pour of Jack Daniels and two, maybe three cubes of ice depending. And
30:44that's, that's all I need. All right. Well, cheers to that. Cheers, Dan.
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