As whiskey drinkers, most of us like to think of our favorite spirit as being all about craft, patience, and tradition. There’s frequently truth to that. In many cases, though—and, it has to be said, almost always for the majority of consumers—booze is more about marketing than anything else. And just like with sneakers, perfume, or jewelry, tying a drink to a musician is a great way to get people interested in buying it.
Below are five artists who’ve slapped their name on a whiskey (or two!), for you to either seek out or avoid:
Willie Nelson
Like the rest of the names on this list, Willie Nelson might have had nothing to do with the actual production of this whiskey, but at least whiskey is on-brand for the outlaw country pioneer. Fittingly, his whiskey, each bottle of which comes with a Willie Nelson guitar pick tied to it, is called Old Whiskey River. It’s a bourbon made with grains grown on family farms near the undisclosed Kentucky distillery. At an ABV of 43%, it’s reportedly bland and inoffensive.
Drake
The heavy-handed branding around Drake’s Virginia Black whiskey sent our editor over the edge last year. It was also the subject of one of Drake’s cryptic billboards, which showed the phrase “Virginia Black, Please Take Me Back” in yellow sans-serif, superimposed over a grainy photograph of the Canadian rapper’s dad.
Mystery aside, this is a high-rye MGP whiskey in an ostentatious package that resembles a perfume bottle more than anything. Our reviewer deemed it “not so bad.”
The Pogues
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Like Willie Nelson, Celtic punk band The Pogues seem to have gotten into the whiskey business based on the fact that they have a song with the word “whiskey” in the title. “Streams of Whiskey,” an homage to the Irish writer and IRA member Brendan Behan, is referenced on the bottle, probably to hammer home the message that no cultural artifact, high or low, is safe from being leveraged to benefit capitalism.
The whiskey itself is made by West Cork, one of the few remaining independent distilleries in Ireland. It got a so-so review from us last year, with our writer noting it’s “quite drinkable” on ice.
Anthrax
One of the Big Four of thrash metal, Anthrax have to date slapped their name on two different whiskeys, one from Jefferson’s Bourbon named after their song “Indians,” and another, dubbed “The Devil You Know,” from Knob Creek. Both were limited releases drawn from single barrels, and only the Knob Creek expression appears to still be available online. Luckily, the band already captured our hearts with an earlier collaboration.
Motörhead
The band’s legendary front man, Lemmy Kilmister, passed away late in 2015, but that didn’t stop the release of two separate whiskeys meant to coincide with Motörhead’s 40th anniversary. The first one, rather predictably, was a limited-edition Jack Daniels bottling. The second, however, came from Swedish distillery Mackmyra. It’s a single malt aged five years in first-fill bourbon casks and then finished for six months in ex-sherry barrels. It’s reportedly a decent dram, with lots of fruit from the sherry finish, and spice and vanilla influence from the bourbon barrels.
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