Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Moonshiners

You would not believe the amount of questions that I have been asked lately.. I guess this is as good a place to put down some answers..

This past summer I got a call from a friend in North Carolina. He told me of a producer from New York that was gonna do a show about Moonshine for the Discovery Channel. Contact info was exchanged and it wasn't but a short time I was talking to the Executive Producer in New York City. Schedules were compared and we decided to do the filming in conjunction with The Twineball Run.. but let me back up just a bit....
I like Moonshine. I have spent the time to learn as much about it as I can. I guess the thing I dig about Moonshine and the people who deal with it is that these people are self sufficient. They can do whatever they put their minds to. They can make an engine run or build a house. They can figure out how to take a few gathered materials and turn it into a huge chemistry set. Also known as a still.. These are the kind of people I call Do'ers.
"I don't believe any of that show is real".... I've heard this many times. My answer is this... but yet you will believe the evening news???. It was meant to be entertaining.. I can't speak for any part of it that I wasn't involved with but I can tell ya that my moonshine got some fine people likkered up in Oklahoma and Kansas.
"How can you break the law on national television and not get in trouble with the law"?? Think about it... you see crimes on TV every day... Now if a lawman had come up and seized a quart of shine, then they would have had evidence of a crime. "How can I get a quart from you"??? A lot of people who don't know me have asked this one... my reply is simply this.. "Fuck off, Copper"... Because of the show I have a target on me so I am "out of business.. for a while... I got a call today on my cell phone from a guy who wanted to know what kind of fairing I have on my VTX.. but now, lets get back to the show...
The film crew met me in Ponca City, Okla. and followed me to the property of a friend of mine.. This was a pre party and rally point for The Twineball Run. The camera crew left early that night but the party lasted till around 4am.. At first I thought that the film crew had missed some wonderful footage but then I realized that the general population would have us committed if they had seen the fun we had that night. The morning found me looking threw blurry eyes at the film crew and wondering why I was wearing one sandal and one boot... We filmed the mixing of the shine that morning and at around 11am we (about 20 of us) headed out for Osborne, Kansas. The film crew missed a turn and we didn't see them for the next 150 miles.. I said that it took us 12 hrs to go 287 miles.. That was because one guy lost his clutch then broke his chain and a wild man from Arkansas lost his ignition system and then we found that his frame was cracked from too many wheelies.. He rode on the back of my bike to the next town. When I got to Osborn, Kansas and started setting up camp, I handed a jug of shine to Kruse and asked him to pass it around. Before I had set up camp I had sold 24quarts.. The party was ON. There was a whole lot of footage that didn't make it past the editors. Do you think the world is ready to see a man wearing nothing but football shoulder pads jumping a bonfire on a motorSickle.. I don't think they are ready for that level of free dumb in there lives.
  "$50 a quart seems kind of high." I've always charged 20 or 25.. I don't know where they got $50 for a quart.... I can tell you this... the twineball run is an event that you don't need a camera for.. You will never forget those memories.. Two guys laying on a tire that is tied behind my bike is a site to see.. ya.. we won that race.. Later on we found a feed trough and decided to give rides behind my bike... I did get a little concerned when I saw an Itasca camper full of drunks doing a power slide into the second turn of the dirt oval track we were at... In the morning most folks went for a ride to the biggest twineball in the world.. Ya, thats true... some of us decided that the only bar in town was the place to be. We were not wrong.. After a few hours we headed back to the dirt track and the fun started all over again..
Will there be a second season? I've been told yes.. We will wait and see. Moonshiners was the highest ranked show in Discovery Channel history with 2.83million viewers for the first episode.. That tells me people like what we do..
I want to again thank each of yall that helped us with this project.. Lets do it again..
Until next time...
PEACE&GREASE