tennessee

Chris Knight's avatar

Many years ago, during a particularly dark period of my life,  I wrote a one-scene play.  It was one of a number of works that I felt inspired to create.  Thankfully I seem to have come out of that melancholy for good, but there will forever be a mark on my soul from that time.  I like to think that what I’ve done since has been, for lack of a better term, “happier”.

So, about this play…

It’s a single scene.  Involving a man and a woman.  And they come to have a heated discussion involving another woman.  All throughout the play you’re wondering “who are these people?  What are they talking about?  Does this involve an affair that he’s been caught in?”

Finally, in the last moments of the play, comes the big reveal.  The object of their conversation is a woman who is about to be executed and ...

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Earlier today Pam Sutton, the widow of legendary moonshiner and American icon Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, shared the following photograph on the official Facebook page for the annual Popcorn Sutton Jam.
This is the very last photograph that was taken of Popcorn.  It was made the morning before his passing…
Pam Sutton elaborates: “This is one of the pictures that I don’t like to share very much. You see, this was taken the day he left this world. This was my last image of him. I loved him so. If you look at his feet, you will see the jars that would become his first legal run. He was the first moonshiner to go legal in East Tennessee.”
I will forever be lamenting that I never got to meet Popcorn Sutton in person.  Having come to meet and know several people who were in his life, I can’t help but
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The legend of Popcorn Sutton lives on.  The man was already larger than life when he was with us.  Sixteen years after he tragically passed away, Sutton seems even bigger than ever.  Not long ago I saw a guy wearing a shirt with Popcorn’s image on it.  And memes featuring him continue to populate the Internet.  I am forever going to regret that I never got to meet him in person.  But I am thankful that his legacy continues.

Filmmaker Neal Hutcheson has made a number of documentaries about Popcorn and the world of Appalachian culture for over two decades.  A few years ago he released Popcorn Sutton: A Hell of a Life and it gained considerable attention. This past week his production company released the film on YouTube, free for viewing by anyone.  I watched it yesterday and it definitely captures and conveys the essence of Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton ...

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It’s quite difficult to believe that more than fifteen years have passed since Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton left us.  He was a man who I had come to very much want to meet, after hearing so much about him from both the web and people who knew him firsthand.  When I told my best friend from college that I had heard about “this guy Popcorn Sutton” Ed’s eyes lit up and told me all about him.  It only made me want to meet him that much more.  Popcorn was the kind of American that they just don’t make anymore, and I wanted to sit in the company of that kind of greatness.

Unfortunately that was not to be.  Ten days before he was due to report to prison to begin serving a two-year sentence for illegal alcohol production, Popcorn took his own life.  It is something that still makes me seethe ...

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Yowza!!  And I’ve thought that many times over the past several years or so, in regard to the memory of Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton.  Longtime readers will remember when I was posting about Popcorn with machine gun-regularity.  I’d always wanted to meet the man.  Unfortunately that never happened.  In March of 2009, a few days before he was supposed to have turned himself in at the prison to begin serving a term for illegally making his moonshine, Popcorn ended his own life.  And that was the end of my hope of getting to know the man.

 

If you weren’t around this blog then, here’s the “Popcorn Sutton” label that lets you look back across all the posts I made about him.  Especially the “Popcorn Sutton: Dead By Government Bastards!” post that broke some personal rules about writing, but I didn’t care.  A good man had been ...

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Whenever I post anything new about the legendary moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, traffic to this blog flies off the chain.  It has been a pleasure to write about him and chronicle his life and times during the past several years and Lord willing, I’ll get to continue to do so for a long, long time to come.  It’ll always be one of my bigger regrets that I never got to meet him personally but it has been a tremendous honor to have come to know those he was closest to, including Popcorn’s widow Mrs. Pam Sutton.

Photo Credit: Jamey Grosser via Facebook

Before his passing four years ago Popcorn was well into plans to legalize his famed likker.  Last year Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey – made with Popcorn’s original recipe – went on sale in Tennessee.  And demand for it exploded!  At one point the moonshine – originally ...

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There’s just no stopping the legend of Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton!

First thing’s first: the Third Annual Popcorn Sutton Tribute is set for August 3-4, once again in beautiful Maggie Valley, North Carolina! That’s right this year it’s gonna be a two day event! I’m currently planning to be there for all of it.

Wouldn’t surprise me at all if next year’s is a three-day extravaganza, given how Popcorn’s life and times continues to gain legions of admirers. And there are gonna be even more after this article in The New York Times about Popcorn’s life and likker. There’s a terrific photo of Mrs. Pam Sutton holding a jar of Popcorn’s original moonshine.

Meanwhile, attorney Will Cheek notes that three years after his passing, Popcorn has achieved a victory of sorts. Namely, that distilling liquor is now legal in Cocke County, Tennessee (where Popcorn lived)....

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The past several weeks have seen an exploding amount of interest in the life and art of Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton: the legendary brewer of moonshine. It will be three years next month that he left us… but Popcorn Sutton has gotta be smiling and laughing his butt off in Heaven at how his myth has grown down here on Earth! Ever since his family began legally selling Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey I’ve seen it going for $150 a jar on eBay. And then a few days ago Kellie Pickler introduced it to Ellen DeGeneres on national television, in a clip that simply must be seen.

Meanwhile, there are things going on behind the scenes that I’ve been sworn to secrecy on that… well, y’all will just have to wait and see how uberawesome this is all gonna be! I can tell you that the third annual Popcorn ...

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This has been one of the crazier past few days in this blog’s history. Ever since Discovery Channel aired the final episode of its hit series Moonshiners a few nights ago the traffic to The Knight Shift has been ginormous! Seems that all the writing I’ve been doing over the years about Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton has put me on the radar of likker lovers across the Intertubes. Since the Moonshiners finale aired many of those – and quite a lot of new readers – have been coming here with but one question above all others…

“How can I get some of that Popcorn Sutton moonshine???”

Here’s the post that I made back in October when Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey first went on sale. Look at all those comments that have been left since the other night. That ain’t even half of the correspondence that’s been coming in ...

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I kept meaning to post an extensive write-up about the Second Annual Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam, held in Maggie Valley, North Carolina two months ago. Guess it just sorta collided with some other stuff going on in my life at the time. But I have heard bunches from event organizers who were delighted at the turnout and now, there is serious talk afoot about making it an ongoing yearly festival. Maybe even one taking place across an entire weekend (and in the fall when it would be cooler 🙂

Well anyhoo, here’s the BIG news of the day, friends and neighbors!

Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey – AKA real honest-to-goodness moonshine – is now being sold in Newport, Tennessee! This is the real deal: made according to Popcorn’s very own original recipe with the permission and blessing of his family, which is in a partnership with country music legend Hank ...

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