KO Distilling, Musician Pete Evick Team On Bare Knuckle Evick Edition Bourbon

by Gary Carter
August 18, 2023

Pete Evick, longtime guitarist, music director, and author, recently teamed up with KO Distilling on a new whiskey release, Bare Knuckle Evick Edition Bourbon.

A statement from the distiller noted that Evick, who’s best known for his guitar playing and musical direction for the Bret Michaels Band, worked hand-in-hand with the whiskey maker on the new product.

“This has been a deeply personal process to produce my own bourbon,” Evick said. “We are bottling this bourbon at 98 proof to represent the year I signed my first record deal, and the barrels I chose from were filled during the month of August, the month I was born. But the most important part is that the Evick Edition is produced in my hometown of Manassas, Virginia.”

Bare Knuckle Bourbon Evick Edition — Pete Evick, longtime guitarist, music director, and author, recently teamed up with KO Distilling on a new whiskey release, Bare Knuckle Evick Edition Bourbon. (image via KO Distilling)

Bare Knuckle Evick Edition Bourbon has a mash bill of 70% corn, 20% wheat and 10% malted barley, all of it sourced from local Virginia farms. The whiskey was double distilled and aged on-site at Virginia’s KO Distilling in charred new American oak barrels from Kentucky.

Bill Karlson, co-founder and CEO of KO Distilling, said, “There’s no shortage of celebrity brands these days, and the only way we would consider such a partnership was to find a connection that is truly authentic.” That’s where Evick came in.

“Both KO and Pete Evick are 100-percent Virginia made and both have deep ties to Manassas. And, the longer we worked together, we could see how engaged Pete was in the art of our craft,” Karlson added.

Evick said that he didn’t drink a single drop of alcohol until his 25th birthday, the day he signed his first record deal. “For a lot of years after that, my band and I were rock and roll party animals. But as I grew older, I grew to love bourbon. This collaboration is a celebration of a more mature me and about drinking responsibly. This is about promoting the art of making bourbon with some amazing people.”

Bare Knuckle Evick Edition Bourbon is aged four years and eight months, and clocks in at 49% ABV. The label features an image of Evick playing guitar. The 750ml bottle has a suggested retail price of $62.99.