I was watching American Pickers on t.v. where Mike was negotiating for a small copper still. The owner appeared interested in discussing the still but seemed not so interested in selling. Mike did not buy the still but the owner asked, "Do you know who Popcorn is?" And Mike answered in the affirmative and before they moved on to picking through other items the seller mentioned Popcorn died recently. Mike goes, "Oh," and they move on to picking through other items. It was clear the owner really did not intend to sell the still. So why the fuss about a tiny still?
How would Mike know Popcorn Sutton, I wondered. Curious, I looked.
All per Wikipedia. Known for always wearing his hat and his bib overalls. Sutton, (perfect name) wrote a self-published book about making moonshine
Me and My Likker along with a self-produced home VHS video about related activities,
This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make, which quickly became a cult classic and the source material for a documentary by television producers in Boston
The Last One, which received a Southeast Emmy Award, and further, later used by Discovery Channel for their show the
Moonshiners. This photograph is titled "the day before Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton killed himself" taken by Andy Armstrong.
Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Sutton
You really should see the first photo in Google images. I almost posted it, but this one is better. More respectful.
Popcorn Sutton was thirty-two years old.
Kidding. He was sixty-three years old. But why did he off himself? Reading that made me sad. Why, Popcorn, why? What was so impossible that suicide was the rational thing to do?
He killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning to avoid federal prison term due to begin a few days later. They finally caught up to him. He had scrapes with the law previously, probation and such, and he always insisted he run his last run of moonshine, that he aint gonna do it anymore, that he's getting too old to be doing that stuff.
Hank Williams announced a partnership with his widow Pam Sutton to distill and distribute a brand by his name, Popcorn Sutton's Tennessee White Whiskey marketed as being produced in stills of Sutton's design. They were sued by Jack Daniel's Properties, Inc. because their bottles were too closely resembled. They wanted all bottles removed and profits from sales of those bottles turned over to Jack Daniel's. Rough.
Let's look.
So? Well, yeah. But so? Well, yeah. I'm conflicted. Come on, the guy died.
Bastards.
It's business.
Business is bastardly and so is law sometimes. Jeeze those people are touchy.
I hate this story. It hurts my American heart. Can't a guy just make whiskey? No. He cannot. He must dance around and hide his activities.
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