Ever wonder how artists get to appear on the Grand Old Opry? Well, Jordan Pettit is the answer. He’s the artist relations representative who helps decide who gets onto the stage at the country music tradition, so he’s seen a little of everything over his years spent in the music industry in Nashville. In this episode of The Fred Minnick Show, Jordan sits down with Fred to talk about the music business, bourbon, the city of Nashville, and of course to sip some fine whiskey.

Whiskeys tasted:

• Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch (21:11)
• King of Kentucky (22:42)
• Michter’s 20 Year (23:32)
• Wild Turkey Revival (25:12)
• Thomas Handy (26:56)
• Elijah Craig 17 Year (29:52)
• Glenlivet 20 Year (38:27)

EPISODE SUMMARY

Among the topics Fred and Jordan discuss are:

• Jordan remembers seeing country star Chris Stapleton playing a small room to people who had no idea who he was. This was not long before he broke and became a star.
• He also talks about how “so many things have to line up” for an artist to “make it” in country music. It isn’t always about talent, but rather also about having the right support and marketing. “What I try to tell artists early in their careers … if you’re doing this for the right livings and you can earn a living the rest of your life, you have made it.”
• Jordan compares bourbon to music insomuch is that it’s an art form.
• Fred picked bourbons to taste that are cinnamon- and caramel-forward, and he hit Jordan’s palate right on the money. (He particularly liked the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch.)
• Jordan talks about blending Old Forester 1920 with Old Forester 1920 to make an Old Fo 1915. Blending, of course, is a common practice for bourbon lovers, Fred included.
• Fred doubles down on a previous declaration of the Elijah Craig being “absolute bliss.”

QUOTABLES

Speaking about watching up-and-coming artists performing on the Grand Old Opry for the first time, Jordan said, “When you get to see an artist step into that lineage, to step into honoring those artists’ legacies, and carrying this Opry show into the next 95 years of where we’re going, you see their faces and you get to see raw emption happen because it’s truly like a coming of age for them.”