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Note from Tyge: I was dismayed to recently open a letter from my mother only to find a newspaper clipping of Jimmy Bedford's obituary. For over twenty years, Jimmy Bedford was Jack Daniel's Master Distiller. He was virtually Jack Daniel himself, incarnate. He was a kind man, down-to-earth and full of that hospitality the south is famous for. Mr. Bedford died of a heart attack on August 7th while working on his farm in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
I was fortunate enough to get to know Mr. Bedford on a few occasions. Here's a brief account (with pictures!) of one of the best vacations I ever took and how I came to know the man behind the bottle. Enjoy.
In the spring of 2001 I bought a motorcycle. I purchased it from a woman who got it in a divorce settlement. She was selling it super-cheap and I gladly took it off her hands.
Although a great deal, the bike was boring to look at. I decided to customize it with a Jack Daniel's theme because, well, I love Jack Daniels. I replaced the fenders, threw on some whitewall tires, added some lights and made the side-saddles out of wooden barrels. I shaped the sissy-bar into a Jack Daniel's bottle, complete with the JD label. A friend of mine customizes cars and he sprayed the bike with a faux-wood grain and added some Jack Daniels' emblems. It turned out quite handsome and it also turned a lot of heads wherever I rode it.
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And ride it I did, all the way to Sturgis, South Dakota for Bike Week in 2001. It was there I met Jimmy Bedford for the first time. I told him about touring the Distillery with my parents when I was ten years old. Jimmy smiled and said "Well, it must have made an impression, being that you customized your motorcycle so nicely."
Jimmy autographed one of my barrels with a sharpie and posed for photos with the rest of the JD crew:
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You look at your photographer, I'll look at mine.
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A few months after Sturgis I received an email from a Jack Daniel's representative in South Dakota. He told me of a contest on the JD website and said I should enter my motorcycle through the use of photographs and commentary. The theme of the contest was "How Does Jack Live in YourLife?" I entered the contest and was one of the ten chosen winners. The nice people at JD flew the winners (plus one guest each) to Nashville (they even flew me in a few days early so I could spend time with my family) where we stayed at the Opryland Hotel and drank a lot of Jack Daniel's at the hotel's Jack Daniel's Bar. The next day we took a bus to Lynchburg and toured the Distillery. Here's a picture of all of us. Mr. Bedford and myself are the bookends.
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After Lynchburg we went to Atlanta and toured the CNN studios and the Coca-Cola museum. I took a photo of Jimmy standing in front of some whales. We then flew to London, England and spent three days there. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, among other things. We also drank a lot of Jack Daniel's.
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Jimmy and the famous flying whales of Atlanta.
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Leaving London, we flew to Prague, Czech Republic to celebrate Jack Daniel's 152nd birthday. The Czechs know how to throw a party! The occasion was held in an old three-story building with a bar on each floor. We saw a great band named Divorkej Billperform but because they sang in Czech, we couldn't understand a word they said. As you can tell by the photo, JD was the only beverage served at the party... and we drank a lot of it.
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I'll have a bottle please.
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"Screw the band, I want a picture with the cake!"
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"Pssst, I filled one shot glass with my urine!"
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I wish I knew how to speak Czech.
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The day after the Czech Republic party, Brown Foreman's (JD's parent-company) stock rose 12% and my triglyceride level rose 300%. Did I mention we drank a lot of Jack Daniel's?
In the years following the trip, Jimmy Bedford would come to Las Vegas every fall for the PBR Rodeo. A few times I went to the JD promotions tent and said hello to him. Although he didn't always remember my name, he would remember my motorcycle. He'd tell his cohorts about how we met and our trip to Europe.
Things have changed. I sold my motorcycle last summer on ebay. Considering the price I got for it and the good times and places it took me, I came out so much more than even. I also don't drink Jack Daniel's like I use to. Basically, I save the tasty libation for special occasions.
I've always wanted to write a post about my Jack Daniel's themed motorcycle and my subsequent trip to Europe. I never thought it would be Jimmy Bedford's obituary that would make me actually do it.
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I think this qualifies as a special occasion. I'm heading to the liquor store right now and buying one of those little bottles of Jack Daniel's. I'll pour it in the shot-glass that I bought in Praha and raise it to Jimmy and drink it while listening to my Divorkej Bill CD.
As Jimmy told me on that night in Prague, you don't always have to know the language to understand the music.
Well said Jimmy.
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FiN.
