Welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living. I'm your host, Sid Evans, and today I'm talking with a remarkable woman who has rewritten the history of one of the most iconic whiskey brands in the world.

Since 2016, Fawn Weaver has been obsessed with uncovering the true story of Nearest Green, a former slave

who helped teach Jack Daniel the complicated process of making whiskey.

Along the way, Fawn became so invested in her research that she bought the farm in Lynchburg,

Tennessee, where Jack Daniel and Nearest Green worked together, and she's since launched the Uncle

Nearest Premium Whiskey brand, which is winning awards and making serious waves in the spirits

business. Fawn stopped by the Southern Living offices on her recent book tour, so we had this

conversation in our studio, and her personal journey is just as amazing as the man she's writing about.

Her new book, now a New York Times bestseller, is called Love and Whiskey, the remarkable

true story of Jack Daniel, his master distiller nearest green, and the improbable rise of Uncle

Nearest. We're going to talk about all that,

the foundation she created for Nearest Green's descendants,

and why she grew up with people like Stevie Wonder

and Smokey Robinson at her kitchen table,

all on this week's Biscuits and Jam.

Fawn Weaver, welcome to Biscuits and Jam. Thank you for having me.

I love biscuits and jam. Literally, I love biscuits and jam. You're not the first to say that,

so I think, yeah, we got the name right. So Fawn, we're in the podcast studios here, and we just got the little nickel tour of the test kitchens. What do you think? I think it's amazing. I think it's amazing. I think that I would have a

hard time here because I'm such a grazer. So I would get such a small amount of work done because I'd

constantly grazed through the kitchens

to make sure I didn't miss something that came up. So, yeah, this location would be a problem for me.

Yeah, if you're a grazer, it can be a little bit addictive being up here.

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