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- [Alison] On this episode of "The A List," I talk with a woman who has made it her mission to fortify the legacy of one of Tennessee's lesser-known whiskey makers.

- For what I was trying to do was come down here and to see if my hunch on what this story really was was completely different than all of the press that had been out there.

Whether social or legitimate press that had just begun regurgitating this title and this story, and it sort of took on a life of its own.

And I wanted to see, am I right?

Is this actually a story of hope?

Is this like one of the first stories of allyship we ever see in America?

Like.

- [Alison] Join me as I sit down with founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, Fawn Weaver.

Coming up next on "The A List."

(upbeat music) In 2016, the New York Times published a story uncovering the secret ingredient behind renowned whiskey brand Jack Daniels, help from a slave by the name of Nearest Green.

At the time, the brand was beginning to embrace the complicated ties between whiskey making and slavery, A history that has notoriously excised black laborers from the discussion.

That's where Fawn Weaver comes in.

Fawn is a New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur with a background in public relations.

But when she read the story about Nearest Green, her life took a dramatic and surprising turn.

She is now the founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, and she is working to cement the legacy of Nearest Green with every bottle sold.

I had the chance to visit the distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and learn all about how Fawn became entrenched in the business of preserving one man's story.

Well, Fawn, welcome to "The A List."

- Thank you for having me.

- Well, thank you for having me.

I feel like I have died and gone to whiskey heaven.

- It's whiskey heaven in here.

- And if it's not whiskey heaven, please don't tell me.

Don't wake me up.

Don't send me elsewhere.

I just wanna stay right here forever.

- I do too.

- Where are we?

Explain.

Explain this.

- Yeah, we're at Nearest Green Distillery, home of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey.

And where we're seated right at this current moment is in our Corridor of Awards.

Which, literally, this isn't even a third of our awards.

At this point, I think we are close to 400 awards and we're the most awarded bourbon and Tennessee whiskey, obviously, of the last three years in a row.

And so we'll just, you know, we just decided to stop.

(laughs) We're like, "We're not swapping stuff out.

We're not adding.

We're done."

But this is probably about a third of our awards total.

- I feel like it's the lottery billboard on the side of the highway and the numbers keep changing.

- They just keep going.

- Yeah.

By the time this airs and every time it airs, it's just gonna be like- - Forget it.

- Now 1,000, and now 1,200.

So it just- - And the fourth year in the row, and the fifth year in a row, and the sixth.

Absolutely.

- And you say it with such nonchalance.

But this is, this is a remarkable feat for someone who just got into the whiskey business five years ago.

- Yes.

But I brought in some folks who've been in it as long as I've been alive.

So it is, it really was about putting together the best team around Tennessee whiskey and understanding why is it that people keep talking about Kentucky bourbon and there was so few talking about Tennessee whiskey.

You'd have like one group of people, right?

And they would only know one Tennessee whiskey brand.

And at one point Tennessee had more distilleries than Kentucky.

And really bringing that back forward and saying "Guys, Tennessee whiskey was always the most premium of the bourbons, if you will, in America."

And so just kind of ringing that bell a little louder, I think is what we're doing.

- Well, I wanna talk about how a woman who is the child of a music maven, right, and two teetotalers.

- [Fawn] Yeah.

- And came from a background of PR and Ted Talks and bestselling author, now is running a distillery.

- Yeah.

But you know what, if you think about it, this was built on building a legacy, right?

And so people talk about us as where we're positioned in the whiskey business.

But if you're within our company, we're talking about where we're positioned within the legacy building business, where are we right now in terms of what will Nearest Green's name be worth, if you will, 200 years from now?

Will people see him on every shelf?

Will they recognize him everywhere he goes?

And that becomes the question and that's what we're here for.

So when you're talking about that, we're really just talking about Nearest's legacy every day.

So my first company, PR firm, when I was 18 years old.

So that's going back 27 years, right?

It's not a big deal for me.

I've been telling these stories of brands my entire life.

I just happen to now be telling the story of one particular brand.

- So let's start, let's start back a few years.

How did you even hear about Uncle Nearest?

- Ironically, the way that a lot of people heard about it.

I was in Singapore though, and it was on the cover of the New York Times International Edition.

I was seeing it a couple days after everyone here in America had seen it.

But it was a story, it was one of New York Times' top stories of 2016.

And I was reading it on the other side of the world.

And I'm looking at this photograph of a man who I was familiar with.

Even though I didn't drink Jack Daniel's, I was still familiar with his face, and really the whole, you know, that the beard and the top hat and all the rest of that kind of stuff.

But when you're looking at that photo, it wasn't just that Jack Daniel was surrounded by all of his leadership and there was a black man sitting to the right of him, which is what everyone focused on, it was that Jack Daniel had seated the center position to a black man.

That picture, I think even to this day, would've had people talking.

And so to know it was 1904 that photo was taken, to me, it's just extraordinary.

So it captured my attention, and then the headline captured my attention.

And the fact that no one knew who this black man was.

They had an idea.

They thought they did and they were wrong.

Because it's the son of Nearest Green.

People thought it may have been Nearest Green, But it's his son, George Green.

And so looking at that, at the time, I was 39, about to turn 40.

And I realized it was the first time in my entire life of being a really proud American that I could track back one of our origin brands.

Like one of the ubiquitous American brands that people know around the world that I could track it back and say there was an African American there at the beginning.

There was something about that that was incredibly special to me, and I think it's something that continues to be incredibly special to all of us.

- [Alison] The initial hope that article brought to Fawn began a year's long endeavor that would eventually connect her own legacy with that of Nearest Green.

Where many readers didn't get beyond the headline, Fawn dove head first into this forgotten history.

It was a story that came into her life when she needed it most.

I understand that what also happened in Singapore though, was a similar impetus for you to seek this distraction.

I know you lost somebody very special to you.

- It was right out, well, when we went to Singapore, the whole reason I was there is I had invested in some founders and I realized that I was on the cusp of losing a lot of money, having backed founders that didn't really have the same core beliefs as me.

Amazing brand, wonderful brand.

Just different core beliefs.

And I could see it starting to implode and I knew it was going to eventually explode within their company.

And so I was in Singapore, really just as a distraction from that and to just get a few days away and I was with my husband.

And so we decided to add on a weekend with one of the islands that's nearby, and I did.

On day two, one of the closest people to me, my niece.

We were alerted that she was in a fatal motorcycle accident.

And that obviously put us on a plane back to America.

And the last thing I was thinking about at that time was this story.

I mean, I went into the rabbit hole, but that pulled me out of that very, very quickly.

And when I got back home, it was all about planning her home going ceremony.

She's my niece, but more of a daughter than a niece.

And she just, she loved life, and so I wanted her to have a carnival.

So it was literally two weeks of planning this carnival, where there's literally kids who went to it that called it, her name was Britney, and they called it Britney's Carnival.

Like they didn't even really put the two and two together that, of what it was.

And that's really what I wanted.

But two weeks of planning, I didn't have to think about the grieving portion of it.

I did not have to grieve.

And I'm less of a griever, more of a doer.

And so that worked really well for me.

But after the home going ceremony, after her celebration, I went back home and I went straight into my office and there are all these Amazon packages that I had neglected for two weeks.

And I opened up one of the first ones and it was a book.

And it was a book I ordered while I was in Singapore called "Jack Daniel's Legacy."

And I expected it to say "negro," "a colored person."

I didn't necessarily expect it to actually say Nearest by name.

Because if you think about all of the other bourbon makers, whether it's Kentucky or anywhere else in this country, we know that they had Black distillers.

That was a big part of what we did during that period of time and we were skilled laborers.

So we know they existed, but we don't know the name of any of them.

And that's intentional, right?

So I didn't expect for Nearest's name to be written.

I certainly didn't expect that page after page after page, not only would he be named, but so would his son George, and his son Eli that continued on with the whiskey business after he passed away.

And so something about that, it gave me hope.

And I really just kind of dove into the hope that was there.

Because we're in 2016, right?

- Right.

- You'll remember the political divide, but also the political divide that was being created among race.

So it was literally straight up and down the line of race.

And both parties were at fault and both were playing into it on one side or the other.

But as an African American, I was stuck in the middle of it, feeling pulled on both sides and not feeling too hopeful about our country in that moment.

And here's this book that is taking us back to this relationship between this young white kid who becomes an orphan during the Civil War and an African American distiller who happened to be on the property where this young boy went to live as a chore boy.

And kind of reading through this and realizing, okay, this biography is written about the most famous American whiskey maker ever.

He was the most famous then, he's the most famous now.

And Nearest and his boys were mentioned more times than Jack's own family, and the author never felt the need to preface why.

And there's certain times in the book where the author would refer to Uncle Nearest with greater reverence than he referred to Uncle Jack.

And so all of a sudden, in this book, it wasn't what was written, it was what wasn't written that gave me hope.

And I remember, I mean, I remember it so clearly.

I was sitting in the living room.

I'm reading the book.

My husband is in the kitchen and it was a little above me.

And I turn around and I said, "Babe, I really like this guy."

And he's like, "Who?"

I said, "Jack,."

"Jack who?"

I mean, like it was, but it just kind of reading the pages, I almost felt like I knew this kid that became this entrepreneur, and there was just such a similarity in how we moved in our lives.

And, and so it was, I was drawn to both stories from the very beginning.

- [Alison] It's clear that Nearest Green's story spoke to Fawn on a very personal level.

But she never dreamed that her fascination would lead her into the whiskey making business.

So let's talk about how you got here.

- Yeah.

- In Shelbyville, Tennessee.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- When did you decide "I've got to see this and feel it and investigate it for myself?"

- Well, I would say investigate is a very strong word for what I was trying to do was come down here and to see if my hunch on what this story really was was completely different than all of the press that had been out there.

Whether social or legitimate press that had just begun regurgitating this title and this story.

And it sort of took on a life of its own.

And I wanted to see am I right?

Is this actually a story of hope?

Is this like one of the first stories of allyship we ever see in America?

Like this is what I wanted to to see.

And for me it was really just a, it was my 40th birthday.

I have traveled all over the world and I said, "Let's do something different.

I wanna go dive into this story for my 40th birthday."

My husband?

Not impressed by my 40th birthday wish I assure you he would've rather I had asked for a Maserati, right?

And so then go to Lynchburg, Tennessee.

But this is where we went.

And as I arrived, as he and I arrived, things just began unfolding.

Because when you're in Lynchburg, if you're talking to someone who lived there and who has been there for generations, the likelihood that they're connected to Jack or connected to Nearest is very high.

And I just happen to continue to meet people that were connected to both.

- So when you came down, were people suspicious?

- Well, of course.

- [Alison] I mean, here you are and you're saying, "No, I just wanna know more of the story."

- Listen.

Well, number one, this is Lynchburg, Tennessee, which means that everybody knew who we were before we arrived.

My husband is an executive vice president at Sony Pictures.

If you looked at my online profile at that time, it didn't focus on business because I didn't need an online profile for business.

It was all about being a New York Times bestselling author.

So that's what my profile was online.

So people in the town, because we rent it through a VRBO, where it requires you to say why you're coming because they have to approve your rental, right?

There's no hotels in Lynchburg, so we're renting a house.

They had to approve it.

So we're telling them, you know, who we are and what we're doing and all the rest.

So the whole town knew we were coming before we got there.

What they didn't know is why we were coming.

They only knew who we were.

And I learned that when I walked into the barbecue place and the barbecue owner says, "Where are y'all from?"

And we said, "Los Angeles."

And he says, "I know exactly who you are."

And he said, "Your name is, your name is Fawn and you're an author."

Right?

Welcome to Lynchburg, Tennessee.

(laughs) Which I love, but that was, so people already knew who we were before we got there.

And the first stop was the library.

So then people very quickly learned why we were there and what we were researching.

And so of course, you've got 2016, racial divide, and you've got a black couple, one from Hollywood, one a New York Times bestselling author, in your library doing a story on the formerly enslaved person who taught the most famous whiskey maker, American whiskey maker of all time.

There's zero chance that you would expect that we would be there for a story that was positive.

There's zero chance that, I wouldn't have believed it.

You know?

I mean, it's like, it just, that's not how most people are wired.

And the first person who came over to speak to us, outside of the librarian, was Jack Daniel's eldest descendant.

Now eldest living descendant.

Her mother passed away at 105 a few years ago.

But at that time she was the second eldest, now she's the eldest living descendant.

And she came into the library and she came over to the table where we were researching.

She had been called and she offered her assistance, but in a manner that let me know there was concern.

And so I said to her very, very quickly and very succinctly, "I am not here to harm your family's legacy.

I'm here because I think the press have it wrong.

I think the media have it wrong.

I think this actually is not a story of a man whose recipe was stolen and he was hidden and everyone has been lying about it all this time.

I actually think it was a story of love, honor, and respect."

And I shared with her why I had come to that conclusion.

And she said, "Well, in that case, I wanna help you."

And she pulled out her cell phone and gave me the name and number of one of Nearest's descendants who had been doing genealogy research on their family for close to 30 years.

That's where I started.

And it was Jack's descendant that said, "Hey, you know that farm where all that stuff took place.

You realize it's for sale."

Well, of course not, right?

But now all of a sudden, I've got a phone call from her cousin, so again, Jack's lineage, saying, "Hey, I'm a realtor.

I'll take you to the farm.

My cousin told me you wanna go see the Dan Call Farm.

Happy to take you.

Wanna go tomorrow?"

Like these- - This was that first visit?

- This was in the first few hours.

This is what, this is why I said, "You can't pay me to believe that somebody else in heaven didn't set this up."

And I have just been a willing puppet in this whole thing that is being masterminded by somebody who was not me.

And I literally, we just kind of kept following, I can't even say they're bread crumbs.

They're literally like if someone were to light a path so well lit that nothing else could be seen, that's essentially what happened.

And when my husband and I went to the farm the next day, there was zero question that we were going to buy it.

You're talking about American history.

We didn't even know what the story was yet, but we knew it was American history.

And so we made an offer on it.

So now we are here for two days and we're buying a 313-acre historic farm where the original distillery of Jack Daniel.

I mean, it's just the nuttiest thing you ever wanna hear, but it just all happens to be a true story.

- [Alison] It might be fate that led Fawn to Lynchburg, but it was her own hard work and determination that has made Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey the fastest growing American whiskey brand in US history.

As we've seen in a few short years, the brand has had no shortage of accolades and awards, and the distillery itself is something to behold.

Luckily I got a tour from the expert herself.

So I'm so happy to be in the rickhouse.

- Yes.

- Tell me about this.

It feels like there's enough whiskey in here to last for a couple decades.

- Yeah.

You would think so.

There is enough whiskey in here to last us a single quarter.

- A quarter?

- A single quarter because of how much we sell.

So when people talk about, you know, that our supply and they're like, "You don't have enough."

I'm going, "This is only a quarter of what-" And so, no.

It is what we require in order to really keep up with demand is so much greater than what you see in this rickhouse.

And, but if you can smell it, right?

This is why people go crazy over our whiskey.

It's just this.

The smell of it is just unbelievable.

- [Alison] If we had smell-o-vision.

I mean.

- If we had smell-o-vision.

- It's intoxicating.

- And the smell mirrors the taste, which is a beautiful thing.

- Well, and I love that.

I think people call this Malt Disney.

- Malt Disney World.

Absolutely.

Malt Disney World.

And it is.

I mean, we're building out something that is for teetotalers, that's for the grandparent, that's for the kids that are just learning history lessons.

Like this isn't a distillery that only a set group of people come to.

We wanted to create something that everyone in the family could actually gain something from their experience here.

- So I have to ask.

The end of the day.

- Yeah.

- You're sitting back.

- Yeah.

- You're having a drink.

- Yes.

- What's in your glass?

- Oh my gosh.

Well, Uncle Nearest for sure.

- Of course.

- And I'm an Uncle Nearest neat gal.

I absolutely love Uncle Nearest.

What we are, our Uncle Nearest 1884, what we began releasing earlier this year is just phenomenal.

And so right now, I love sipping on that neat.

I love sipping on our Master Blend neat.

But I also love a good cocktail.

And depending on when it is or what I'm making, I am like that three-ingredient kind of person.

So I like taking what would be a traditional, classic daiquiri and instead of using rum, swapping it out for Uncle Nearest.

Or a classic margarita, swapping out the tequila for Uncle Nearest.

Or a classic sidecar, swapping out the cognac for Uncle Nearest.

So all those classic cocktails that only have three ingredients, I think they taste better with Uncle Nearest than they do with all the other spirits.

So that's my normal.

- I feel better because, you know, the typical recipes I make, like they say, "Put water to cook your rice," I put in Uncle Nearest.

I mean, there's (laughs) - I have not done that.

What I will say, that we swap out a whole lot of stuff for Uncle Nearest in our household.

And it's like, you come in our house and if you're a teetotaler, don't eat anything.

Don't eat the meat.

Don't eat the baked goods.

Don't eat anything.

And we have like this kind of large, I don't wanna call it a jar, but like a dispenser, this glass dispenser.

And people always think it's iced tea.

And I go, "I promise you, there is nothing in this house that does not have Uncle Nearest in it in some way, shape or form.

So just there is no iced tea."

- So when you look around.

- Yeah.

- There's so much to take in and there's so much to be proud of.

- Yeah.

- Is there one moment, is there one piece of this that you feel is your crowning moment?

- Yeah.

I don't know a crowning moment because every day we are working so incredibly hard to really cement this legacy.

And so I don't think we've achieved anything that's even remotely close to a crowning achievement.

We're not even close to it.

So when people look at what we're building, right?

And if you're going up to the mountaintop and if the mountaintop is the goal, we've barely gotten off the bottom as far as I'm concerned.

We've just happened to have gotten a lot further than anyone else that looks like me.

But we're barely off the ground as far as I'm concerned.

And so I've got a lot of work to do for my remaining years here.

And so right now, when you look at this and it's like this is enough for us for a quarter, there will come a day where this will only be enough for us for a day.

Then maybe I can answer that question.

We're not there yet though.

- [Alison] It's clear that Fawn has big dreams for the company's growth.

As for Uncle Nearest, his story continues to bring together people of all backgrounds and educate visitors about the important role that formerly enslaved people have played in the whiskey business as we know it today.

What do you think Uncle Nearest would think about this happening right now?

- Yeah.

You know, here's the funny thing.

It's gonna sound odd.

But based on everything that I know about him, I don't think he cares about it as much as we do.

And the reason why I say that is because for him, he's a whiskey maker.

- [Alison] Yeah.

He's an incredible whiskey maker.

But he would not have seen himself as this person bringing together races and bringing together people of different backgrounds.

Everything that I know about him would be, "Y'all, it's whiskey."

You know, it is.

And so I think to a certain degree, I probably am very similar to him in that regard is that I don't think that this would matter to him for himself.

But I do think it would matter to him because of how it touches other people.

And I feel the exact same way.

I don't care about this for my own name, but I do care that there are women and people of color that every single time they see this brand and our accomplishments and our achievements and what we're doing, that there is something in them that says "I can do that too."

That to me is what brings me joy every single day.

- Well, thank you for preserving a legacy, for uncovering a story, and for bringing the world much needed hope.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Fawn.

- [Fawn] Thank you.

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- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by... - [Spokesperson] Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist.

Dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga Funeral Home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

- [Announcer] This program is also made possible by support from viewers like you.

Thank you.