Most people know John Rich as one half of country music duo Big & Rich. What many people may not know is that on top of being a singer, songwriter and entertainer, he’s also an accomplished businessman.
His brand, Redneck Riviera, has grown rapidly over the years. After starting out selling apparel and boots, the Redneck Riviera brand has expanded with the Redneck Riviera Bar in Nashville, a line of jerky and its very own spirit, Redneck Riviera Whiskey.
In less than a year, the American blended whiskey has made its way into big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco. It is now available in 42 states, and according to Rich, the whiskey is seeing 90% depletion in every state it’s sold in.
So what’s the secret to the success of Redneck Riviera Whiskey? Persistence.
Rich has spent countless hours promoting the brand throughout 2018. He has now completed over 1,000 in-person appearances or interviews in conjunction with Redneck Riviera Whiskey. When Florida-based supermarket chain Winn-Dixie added Redneck Riviera Whiskey to its 172 Florida stores, Rich spent five days calling each and every manager to thank them for selling it.
Before he celebrates the one year anniversary of Redneck Riviera Whiskey, I caught up with Rich to chat about the Redneck Riviera brand, the success of the whiskey and more.
Lauren Black: To start, can you tell me how you landed on the Redneck Riviera brand name?
John Rich: Redneck Riviera is a phrase that has been around since the early 1960s. People would basically say, “I can’t afford to go to the French Riviera, so where do I go? I go to the Redneck Riviera.” It was originally the area of the Gulf Coast, Panama City Beach, Destin, Gulf Shores, Alabama, down through there. Over the decades, that phrase has really become a national phrase.
Black: I hear that the trademark process was a tough one. Can you tell me more about that?
Rich: Nobody had ever trademarked it, which is unbelievable. It’s been around for over 50 years and tens of millions of Americans use the phrase commonly. I went after the trademark and the trademark office in D.C. told me I couldn’t have the trademark because it’s a geographical location and you cannot trademark a geographical location.
Black: So how did you end up winning the trademark?
Rich: My attorney said, “There you go, that’s the answer.” I said, “Well, that’s the wrong answer. Ask him where he thinks it is if it’s a geographical location.” Nobody pays taxes to the Redneck Riviera, you cannot mail a letter there because nobody’s address is the Redneck Riviera. So if it’s geographical, I want to know where they think it is. It’s kind of like, ‘where is Margaritaville?’ Well, Margaritaville is in your kitchen if you have a blender, some Jimmy Buffett music, some tequila and a Hawaiian shirt. It could literally be anywhere. It’s a lifestyle, a state of mind, an attitude. They came back and this is no joke, whoever that attorney was, copied and pasted the Wikipedia answer of “where is the Redneck Riviera?” I actually have it framed and hanging on the wall in my office. It says the Redneck Riviera is a colloquial term used to describe the beachfront between Panama City Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama otherwise known as the Emerald Coast.
Black: I love that. So how did you respond?
Rich: When I got that answer, I started going on Facebook and I found people all over the United States calling their favorite lake, river or beachfront the Redneck Riviera. The big one was a lady on Facebook who had posted a picture of the sun going down into the ocean and wrote, “another people sunset here in the Redneck Riviera.” She was in Delaware. I sent all of that to the trademark office and I said, ‘It is not a geographical location, it’s a state of mind, it’s a lifestyle, it’s the same thing as Margaritaville, it’s just a different group of people.” Boom, I got the trademark. That was ten years ago.
Black: Wow. Once you got the trademark, what did you do next?
Rich: I had two big questions: Will people spend real money on a brand called Redneck Riviera and will they spend real money on it outside of the South East? We started with apparel and boots. Boots are a big one because a pair of Redneck Riviera boots cost between $250 and $300. It’s real money. It’s not the most expensive boot, but it’s not a cheap boot either. We put our boots out and guess where our number one state was? California. That told me a lot. Yes, they will spend money on it outside of the South East and this is a national brand. After that process, I decided I was going to move into some other sectors.
Black: Where did you get the idea to create a line of whiskey?
Rich: I was sitting on the tour bus with Big Kenny on the Big & Rich tour. We always drank Crown Royal, which is Canadian blended whiskey. I thought to myself, “I’ve been drinking Canadian blended whiskey all these years, I wonder if there’s such a thing as American blended?” I walked into a couple of liquor stores and asked them to show me their American blended whiskey. They looked at me like I was crazy. They said, “We don’t have anything like that.” I said, ‘Well that’s interesting.” You kind of see a trend with me, right? I find these spots that nobody thought of and go after them.
Black: That’s what all of the successful entrepreneurs do, right?
Rich: Exactly. So I spent all of 2017 developing American blended whiskey to get it so smooth that you could literally pull the cork out of the top and just drink it. No burn, no bite, just roll. It was very difficult to get it that smooth and still be 80 proof, but we did it.
Black: What was that process like?
Rich: Redneck Riviera Whiskey is a blend of American whiskey, so we’re not distilling whiskey. We are sourcing whiskey from various places around the United States. Some of it comes from Indiana, some comes from Kentucky, some of it is from Northern California and some of it comes from Oregon. It’s all these different kinds of whiskey, rye, malt, bourbon, American light, that have never co-existed together in anybody else’s bottle. We went through over 200 variations of this blend over eight months before I finally got that last sample. I knew that was it.
Black: There’s also a charity component tied to the sales of the whiskey. Can you tell me more about supporting Folds of Honor? (Folds of Honor is an organization that provides educational scholarships to spouses and children of America’s fallen and disabled service members.)
Rich: A big thing to me is called tithing. My dad is an old-school preacher and he said, “Son, you’ve got to tithe. I don’t care if you’re broke. If you get a dollar, 10 cents has to go to somebody else who needs it.” I’ve always done that, so 10 percent of the profits of every bottle of Redneck Riviera Whiskey sold go to Folds of Honor. Redneck Riviera Whiskey has now paid for 37 college grants through Folds of Honor.
Black: The whiskey is for sale in 42 states and it has been on the market less than a year. Why do you think it’s been so successful?
Rich: Our goal this year was 10 states and 5,000 cases. We’re now in 42 states and over 20,000 cases, which in the liquor world is basically unheard of. First of all, I made it under 25 bucks. My distiller said, “John, this whiskey is so good you could probably get 50 to 60 dollars a bottle for it. And you’re a celebrity, so they will probably spend it.” I said, “We’re not doing that.” You see, regular hard-working people cannot afford 50 or 60 dollars for a bottle of anything. I told them to make it $24.99. They looked at me like I was crazy. Secondly, the thing people always say about a brand is, how do we create an emotional reaction to a brand? The phrase Redneck Riviera has been around for multiple generations, so it’s already got a built-in reaction factor. Then when you say it’s American blended and it’s under 25 bucks, they go, “Well, I can afford that. I wanna go try that.” Then they hear about Folds of Honor and how many scholarships we’re paying for. There’s your emotional reaction.
Black: Has being an entertainer and a songwriter influenced you as a business owner at all?
Rich: I’m a songwriter, number one. The toughest thing in the world of music is to write a hit. A lot of people can sing hits, but when you’re looking at a blank piece of paper and you’ve got a pencil and it’s just looking back at you…you can put anything you want on that piece of paper. It could mean nothing, or it could change your life. That’s the ultimate creativity. I’ve applied what I’ve learned in music and being a music creator to my brand. It is a creative endeavor. Once you create a great song then you’ve got to go market that song. You have to make sure radio stations are playing it, you have to make sure people are hearing it, that people know how to buy it…I’ve applied that same standard to my brand. You see, a lot of artists have spirits, they have a vodka, a whiskey or a tequila, whatever. Most of them do not go at it like I do. I highly doubt there’s another singer that’s called 172 Winn Dixie stores. When you grow up in a trailer in Texas and you’ve got a shot at something this big, by God, I’m going for it.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
