RSWC #085 Brad Premo – Riding Shotgun With Charlie

RSWC

#085

Brad Premo

CEO, Leadslingers Whiskey

When I heard about Leadslingers Whiskey on Armed American Radio, I decided to find some. I drove an hour to get a bottle. I loved it. Then I decided that I would message Brad Premo, CEO of Leadslingers and a regular contributor to AAR, and inquired about getting some of their hand sanitizer to use during the summer tour while the virus that shall not be named was going on. Within 2 minutes, Brad got back to me and asked for my shipping address. This is the kind of people ‘gun folks’ are!

He replied just as quick when I said I was coming to Nashville to film some shows for the Southern Tour.

Brad and I discuss his early shooting, hunting, and fishing, with family members. Like many of us, September 11, 2001 changed him, too. He decided a week after college with a degree in sociology and criminology, he was going to join the Army as an Airborne Infantryman. He did 3 years serving our country including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Joining the military was one of the best things he did to “finish out becoming a man”. After his stint in the military, he moved back to the Nashville area and became a police officer in the area.

Even though he really enjoyed being a police officer, he knew that he needed some kind of a career change. He shares with us a number of the stresses about being a police officer and says that many officers live about 5 years after they hit retirement age.

With the friends he made in the military police, they thought they’d train up and join again, but rethought that move. He took the GI Bill and went back to college for a couple intense years to earn another degree in accounting. For a couple years he had a position as an accountant, but he knew that a cubicle wasn’t for him..

Brad’s friends were connected to Jarred Taylor & Mat Best. And they had an idea to start a t-shirt company and they needed an account. The company was called Article 15 Clothing. The team of friends made many great t-shirts and apparel, but after 6 years, they decided it was time to keep moving. Some of them moved into making coffee and the others decided that they would start making spirits. That’s the birth of Black Rifle Coffee Company and Leadslingers Whiskey.

The day after he left the accounting firm he was working for, Brad headed to Oklahoma to meet with the distillers and make Leadslingers a reality. He gives us some of the secrets about the whiskey business. Leadslingers Whiskey now offers bourbon, whiskey, rye whiskey, single malt, cinnamon whiskey, but they’ve also moved into IPA beers! Whatever you like to enjoy, I’m sure they’ve got something for you!

It was great to meet Brad and have him in the passenger’s seat as we rolled through Nashville and relive some of my history there and his as well. I’m looking forward to the next bottle and trying some of the IPAs as well!

Favorite quotes:

“I lacked the maturity and discipline to be a successful person at the time.”

“I’m not here to sign up and do something I can do as a civilian. I don’t want to be an accountant in the Army.”

“I was 30 and I was a little bit too old to be starting over in the military.”

“We all love whiskey and God knows we spent a lot of money on it. Maybe its time to try and earn some of that money back.”

Leadslingers Whiskey

https://leadslingerswhiskey.com/

Leadslingers on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Leadslingerswhiskey

Leadslingers on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/leadslingerswhiskey/

Leadslinges Store Locator (just in case you need it)