Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel His Master Distiller Nearest Green and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest
Alejandra kicked off the discussion with, “Overall, I really like the story of Nearest Green. The most compelling part was when she went into the history of the town. It challenged her biases and challenged my biases about what a southern town would have looked like in Tennessee. And I appreciated that it..yeah I think that’s my overall recollection. I don’t particularly like her. She told me over and over again how humble she was but then she told me repeatedly about all of her accomplishments. I think it could have been told from a more objective point of view, but I do know that when someone is totally invested in something, it just becomes their life. It became her life to highlight this brand and this story. I loved learning the information from the story; I just think maybe she shouldn’t have been the one to tell it.”
Shelara added, “I had heard her speak as a guest on a radio show that I listened to. She talked about Nearest Green and the Uncle Nearest brand. I would say that this book is a good PR package. It’s capitalism, right? So, it’s never going to be great. I would say Uncle Nearest is probably better capitalism than Brown-Forman is, but it’s still capitalism, so whatever our thoughts on her are, capitalism is never going to save us. I enjoyed the story of Uncle Nearest. I enjoy the fact that he is getting his due. I had some misgivings about her not being part of the family and getting all the trademarks, but then I thought about it, and I see that his family didn’t do it. The only family member that had an interest in working with the company was Victoria. I don’t really have a problem with this Black woman owning this trademark and making money from this. I’d rather see her do it than Brown-Forman. I see that she’s not trying to make enemies with the people at the Jack Daniels brand, nor with the people of Lynchburg. I wouldn’t say that the southern town is as egalitarian as she said it is. I think that’s part of the PR. I would say Lynchburg TN might have been a little better than other southern towns, but I’m not buying the whole thing.”
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| Fawn Weaver |
Nancy gave us, “So, I stopped at the liquor store on my way here. They only had a very large bottle of Uncle Nearest, and it cost 60 bucks! I just went to where I buy wine and I said, “Do you sell Uncle Nearest?” and it was right there on the shelf and I said to the proprietor, “Does it sell well? And he said, “Yeah, we sell a lot of it.” I found what Fawn Weaver did to be pretty amazing as an enterprise, but I found her really hard to take. Some of the folks in the town would say, “We never had a problem with having to walk through the back door of a business. Once we got in, we got to have ice cream, but we knew how to walk through the back door. It just seemed again like this example of how completely insane how all that segregation and the hierarchy was and the idea that somehow white people were protecting something by walking through a different door. One of the other parts that really had a big impact on me was when she and her husband first arrived in Lynchburg, and this guy Chuck drives them up this dark road to his house. She said, “We thought we were going to be killed. We were terrified. But when they weren’t killed, she just goes on. I wish that as a writer, reflecting on this experience, I wish she had gone into that a little more, instead of keep moving on in her narrative.”
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| Uncle Nearest Distillery |
Shelara, offering an explanation, responded, “She’s building a brand. They couldn’t get into those heavy things. They couldn’t scratch the surface. They couldn’t go deeper. She didn’t want to say too much to dispel the story of racial harmony in Lynchburg.”
Kai told us, “The first time I went to Picayune MS, I had ideas about what I was going to see. Just that imagery was so mute. Fawn wasn’t clear about what she assumed what she was going into, but I got the impression that there was an assumption that she would understand the bias that was going to be there. When they met these people, they had to change a little bit about the way they looked at things. I just felt like she had to make a lot of changes about how she saw Lynchburg, saying, “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and all the people were really nice to me, and they were really good, and they had a certain image of history. And they hadn’t forgotten about Nearest; it’s just that the Jack Daniels company changed a lot when the new owners came in.
Shelara continued, “I’m just thinking that she couldn’t get into the reason she and husband felt so afraid in their ride with Chuck.”
Nancy said, “I was googling the company, and the company is in a lot of trouble. They’re accused of non-payment of a huge loan. Her answer is arguing that the CFO was dishonest. The company is in receivership. The case hasn’t been settled.”
Barb M added, “I had a lot of misgivings about how the story was presented.”
Caroline remarked, “I was looking forward to reading this book for a while, so I’m glad it’s on our list. I liked the story but some parts I don’t buy either. Especially how she presents the treatment of Blacks in that town. The townspeople all knew that Nearest Green was the master distiller, but they didn’t feel the need to make that known.”
Kai followed up with, “I was interested in the description of distilling. George Washington had three enslaved men who were master distillers, who were never acknowledged. This shows how long the art of distilling had been a part of our culture and had not been acknowledged as a part of Black History. I enjoyed learning. I appreciate Shelara saying this is a PR book. With a lot of entrepreneurial efforts, each step is pushed back dramatically. I hope that she grows from this. I think she really did not understand having great wealth.”
Meghan said, “I am picking up something that probably stems from my biases, once we start getting into “This is because of the Grace of God and Jesus…” All because of that, I turn off. Personally, I don’t see Grace in that. Once you start saying, “That’s because I’m blessed, well then you’re not, you’re not humble.”
Alejandra added, “I too felt she was hypocritical when she was planning to reveal the bottle and she had made friends with the Jack Daniels representative, and she brought him over for a meeting and in the middle of the meeting, she says, “Here’s the bottle!” When he acted surprised, she said, “I always thought you knew. In fact, it’s your own lawyers’ fault that you didn’t know.”
Shelara responded, “She was right on that. That is where we get into race and class. Because Nearest wasn’t on their radar. They didn’t consider that this Black woman was going to start a company outside of their company. They were blindsided. Jack Daniels is a multimillion-dollar corporation. None of their lawyers were looking at the patents? None of their lawyers were looking at the trademarks?”
Alejandra shot back, “I’m not saying I feel bad for the person from Jack Daniels. That’s not the point; the point is she’s selling it to me the reader like she didn’t mean to. She should have gone ahead and own the fact that she was going to blindside them. She should have just revealed to us the readers that she wanted to blindside them and stick it to the big guys. I would have appreciated her more for that.”
Shelara, not agreeing, said, “She would assume that the Jack Daniels lawyers would have done their due diligence, and it wouldn’t have been a surprise at this point. They underestimated her. They discounted the Nearest story for years and when it finally got on their radar, they didn’t even consider that there was a person who would make a brand out of it.”
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| Uncle Nearest Distillery Grounds |
Bonnie commented, “First, I’d like to say that I agree with her mother, when she said, “I sure do wish that you had made lemonade.” Here’s how she’s not humble:
p.247
‘When I stepped in front of the camera, the world listened. The story was growing, and the interviews and the press kept coming...Uncle Nearest was unique, and in being entrusted with telling Nearest’s story, it had become intertwined with mine.’
p. 318
‘I have no doubt I was chosen to tell this story. I didn’t find it; it was intended for me.’
p.244
‘During these journeys across the country, sharing the Uncle Nearest story, I became accustomed to receiving standing ovations in rooms that were almost always 98 percent made up of white men.’
Bonnie continued her statements that to her, the marketing and selling of alcohol should not be celebrated, alcohol itself being such a vice and ruining many lives.”
Shelara responded to this by pointing out that Fawn did build a non-alcohol-serving speakeasy right on the property in honor of her parents.
Marian spoke out, saying, “We’re talking about the story: a Black man perfected a thing, but a white man got all the credit and built this big giant brand. That’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about bringing Nearest Green’s name into public consciousness. Don’t lose sight of the big picture. Enslaved people had done all kinds of things: elaborate weaving for example and their mistresses got the credit. Fabrics, dying, all kinds of arts, whether you like the art or dislike it. There are many Black people who we will never know their names who were the ones who came up with these idea, so this story is about bringing Nearest Green’s story to the forefront.
Carolina had an important question for the group, “If she hadn’t told this story, do any of you all think that it would have been told.?” We all unanimously said, ‘No!’
Meghan commented, “I listened to the book. The author read it herself. I was impressed with her performance. I don’t like capitalism, but I do love whiskey. This made me want to drink. I enjoyed learning from this book, about her, and her experiences and I appreciate her contributions to the business world and making a way for women and people of color in the spirits industry. It’s still a drop in the bucket, but I appreciate her tenacity.
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