Bob Dylan has announced the launch of three whiskeys – a straight rye, a straight bourbon and a double-barreled whiskey - under the brand name Heaven’s Door.
The whiskeys have been created after grizzled troubadour Dylan teamed up with serial entrepreneur Marc Bahala, who sold his last bourbon brand, Angel’s Envy, for an eye-watering $150m. So there’s someone who’ll always get the drinks in.
The partnership was set in motion when Bushala learned that Dylan had applied a trademark application for the term “bootleg whiskey” in 2015.
“We both wanted to create a collection of American whiskeys that, in their own way, tell a story,” Dylan told The New York Times. “I’ve been traveling for decades, and I’ve been able to try some of the best spirits that the world of whiskey has to offer. This is great whiskey."
“Dylan has these qualities that actually work well for a whiskey,” says Bushala. “He has great authenticity. He is a quintessential American. He does things the way he wants to do them. I think these are good attributes for a super-premium whiskey as well.”
The pair will now turn a deconsecrated church in Tennessee into a distillery.
Bushala explained that Dylan’s input into the creation of the whiskeys was on a more cerebral that practical level. He told The Guardian: “There have been spirits and whiskey in his music for as long as he’s been making it, going on 60 years, and in the kind of rural Americana that plays into it. So for sure in his mind, there were elements he was after. But it wasn’t directly articulated.
“He was after a mood or a feeling. He wasn’t after saying, ‘This should taste more smokey or have more corn or rye, or adjust the proof.’”
Bob Dylan isn’t the first celebrity to move into the drinks market. George Clooney co-founded Casamigos Tequila, Ryan Reynolds is the owner of Aviation Gin and Sean Combs (Diddy) partnered with Diageo to develop a line of Ciroc drinks.
Oh, and Iron Maiden brew some pretty decent ale.
