IN YOUR CITY Show With Kelley and Gordon
Weekdays from 4–6 PM on 590am and streaming at louinfo.com Join IN YOUR CITY Show with Kelley & Gordon two dynamic storytellers who bring the pulse of STL to the airwaves with a bold new vibe. They ignite conversations that matter with a seamless blend of relationship values, and business insight.
From celebrity interviews to community highlights, this show will elevate your mind and your brand with sophistication, style and impact.
This isn’t just a show, it's a powerhouse connection hub. It is the HOT LIST you want to make and the conversation you don't want to miss.
IN YOUR CITY Show With Kelley and Gordon
Hottest Happy Hour Episode 43: We Raise A Glass with Billy Busch
Best known as the author of Family Reins: The Extraordinary Rise and Epic Fall of an American Dynasty, Billy opens up about the triumphs and challenges behind the legendary Busch family legacy. From unforgettable days at Grant’s Farm to the behind-the-scenes drama of an iconic brewing empire, he shares a rare, candid perspective on what it means to carry one of America’s most storied names.
Now, Billy is forging his own path with Busch Family Brewing & Distilling—a bold new chapter blending tradition with innovation. Tune in for laughter, legacy, and a toast to the future as Billy Busch takes us inside his world of family, business, and brewing.
You can see the Live Video To all of our shows at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcRJsM_js_n_aX6Vt-lV2lQ
https://www.facebook.com/inyourcityshow
Welcome to In Your City Show. We are here bringing you the show from Studio STL 17. You know what 17 means? We're on the 17th floor. We are high up here. But we are still the Lou Information Station at LouInfo.com streaming 24 7. Also, if you're listening live, of course, you're on the new K L I S 590 AM. But the audio is fantastic if you go to Louinfo.com, whether you want to watch it or if you want to listen to it, there you go. But of course, you can always find us on Facebook, Instagram, the In Your City Show. Go ahead, leave us a message. Yeah, if you know, maybe you have a story to tell, maybe you have something great you'd like to share. Reach out to us, let us know. Maybe you're interested in your business being part of our show and partnering with us where we can share your message in a sophisticated, elevated brand. So we got an exciting show today. I'm really excited about it. Looking forward to it. So of course, it's brought to you by City Lifestyle Magazines, gorgeous luxury lifestyle magazines mailed directly to the homes. 15 zip codes, actually, um, we go to. That's quite a few. It is quite a few. With the 3,000 plus businesses, 45,000 homes every month, a new theme, different stories to share with you and enjoy. And so we love it. Though sometimes they're from around the world, local. Um, you're always gonna have what's happening local in our magazines, but everything's a little bit uh, depending on what our theme is for the month, it's perfect. But so we're excited. So let me tell you what's on our show. I think you know Gordon, but those listening might not. So we are gonna raise a glass today with none other than Billy Bush, Billy Bush Sr. That is, for an exclusive conversation that you're not gonna want to miss. It's best, he's best known as the author of Family Reigns, which you can see the gorgeous book right there. And of course, uh, it's the extraordinary rise and epic fall of an American dynasty. Billy opens up, he's gonna talk about the triumphs, the challenges um behind the legendary Bush family legacy. Also, of course, he's got something that we got to experience that we're gonna talk about too. His beautiful farm. So we're gonna get into that conversation as well. He doesn't know it, but I need some scoop. I'm gonna need some answers. He didn't bring his wife, Christine. I probably need to sit down with a glass of wine with her so I can get the details.
SPEAKER_02:Billy, Billy, Billy. He made one piece, he made one of how to really set you up for this and how to keep you in the mood.
SPEAKER_01:I'm that girl, like Gordon comes home and he's been with friends, you know, and they're talking, and I ask him question after question after question. I want the scoop. And he's like, I don't know. I didn't ask that. I'm like, you were with that person for three hours. How do you not know how many kids they have, where they're going on vacation, who they're dating, if they're anything that's going on the thing, goes, No, we just play golf. I know we got a new driver. So I need the info. I need the 911 or the 411, whatever.
SPEAKER_02:You're not gonna get it from me because I am not Rona Barrett. Remember that? Gosh, that's a name we haven't heard in a couple of years.
SPEAKER_01:I can't even believe that just came out of your mouth, actually. It could have been a million people you said.
SPEAKER_02:Well, she was the one that always got the scoop, you know.
SPEAKER_01:You gotta have the scoop. That's what makes life exciting.
SPEAKER_02:We had Jerry Berger. Remember him?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. That the that was the column, wasn't it? Yeah. Uh that whatever you and if your name was in it, you're worried, is it good or is it gonna be good?
SPEAKER_02:Gosh, I can't believe I thought of him too. It's like those are names that I haven't even heard of in like for a while.
SPEAKER_01:You can't even remember someone's name that you're talking to that you know real well in front of you, but then you're pulling Rona Barrett and uh I just forgot his name. Jerry Burger. Jerry Burger. Burger's Bits, wasn't it called Burger's Bits? And that even came to your head. Yeah, something like that. It's back to school. I wonder how the parents are doing right now with their kids back out of the house. Nobody's gonna be.
SPEAKER_02:How many of them open the liquor cabinet when the kids out of the pool? Oh, wow. Have you ever seen the meme though? When it's on Facebook, it's the mom. She's out by the pool, laying by the pool, she's got a cigarette and a drink in her hand, and the kids are behind her. She's like, first day of school. See you later. Vacation time for mom now.
SPEAKER_01:Don't want to be, right? So you said that uh your friend Tom Sandoval, what's going on there?
SPEAKER_02:It's tomorrow night. He's uh it is the uh getting close to the finals. Steve Ray Latson, Circa Mara, which look they look like a dance team, and then Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras is the name of his band. Oh, the most extras. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Now this is his coming back because he's already he's already uh won a few rounds, right? Is that how it goes?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so the the top three, that's who he was. Okay, the top three then.
SPEAKER_01:So was ton is is that tonight or when is that? And they're gonna and tonight will be the winner?
SPEAKER_02:Ton tonight at 7 p.m., I think so. Yeah, well, yeah, somebody's gonna move on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, he got pretty deep when he got up there on stage when he was, I guess when he went up for the very first time to perform to on the show. He got pretty like in depth. I think he was gonna cry there for a minute because he was talking about what a dark black time it was for him because he was actually um they he had been through he got, you know, um, I guess the celebrity gossip he was part of.
SPEAKER_02:He thought he was named the the the the most hated man in America because because of some girly cheated on, cheated on, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But still every girl hated him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you don't want to do that, you don't want to be like the Coldplay couple and do it on TV, you know, where everybody knows about it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they do, but he's gonna show them right now making it. So we kind of get a little tearful up there on stage, and now you know you know everybody's feeling sorry for him now, right?
SPEAKER_02:So he he's he's doing well. His band sounds good, he sounds good. I remember Tom when he was as a little kid, as a little kid, it's because we're old, and he has come so far with his uh vocal ability, I mean his singing ability, it's just amazing. He's made. Yeah, he's he's doing really well with it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's he's a nice kid. It was funny because we ran into him that night we were out, and you're like going up to him, like, oh, you know, he's he's a friend. You've known him as a little kid, and everyone's going, Is that Tom Sandoval? Yeah, pump rules. We'll let you talk to him. Hang on a second.
SPEAKER_02:I think I maybe watch two episodes.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry, Tom. Sorry. Well, the reason why we're here today, the only reason why we're here today is get to talk to Billy Bush. And he's actually here. So we're gonna bring him over so he can sit in the chair so that I can get the scoop. I need the scoop, darn. I'm sorry. I cannot see you.
SPEAKER_02:I cannot protect you, brother.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's it's a great to see you. Oh my god, so good to see you. Thank you. It's you know what's so what's so much better about you coming in today and makes it so much easier is that I have to say, if I would have been reading your book first and then knew you were coming in, I'd probably be like sweating and doing all those nervous, you know, things that you do because it's like that's you like come from like royalty. But I met you on a well, we did a photo shoot. First we came to your event, so I got to meet you as a person, and you're so normal.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's growing up on the farm makes you make you normal.
SPEAKER_01:Didn't I come home and say how nice and real you were? And and to find out that, you know, I grew up not on a farm like you did by any means, but I had to clean the horse stalls, I had to water the bucket, fill the buckets up, I had to do my chores, and I didn't get out of them very often. So to find out, you know, you did that, you were cleaning stalls and doing the things that you had to do. I did not get to take care of Tessie the elephant. I'm a little jealous of that and ride around with glidesdales, but you know, you led quite the life, and when you read about that, I probably have been a little bit like, I mean, you grew up in a castle for God's sakes. Yeah. How do you talk to normal people like us? You're in a castle. You know, it's funny.
SPEAKER_00:I um Kelly, you're right about all that. I mean, I got to grow up uh in a way that a lot of people don't grow up, and most people don't grow up that way. And I really didn't realize I was any different for many, many years. I think it was growing up on the farm. I think it grounds you growing up on the farm. You know, we were um asked to work by our parents, not asked, but uh told to work. We had to work, like you were saying. Um, we had to take care of all the animals on the farm. Uh, we had to maintain the farm. Of course, Grant's farm was open to the public. So it always had to be beautiful. And uh, I got the lucky job of training the elephants one summer. And so I got to get close to uh an elephant, like you said, named Tessie. And uh she was an amazing animal, and I talk about it in the book Family Reigns about how she protected me from bullies. But I think growing up with the animals, growing up with the farm hands, the people that worked there, um working on the farm physical labor, I think it just keeps you grounded and keeps you normal. I think um, you know, we never thought we were better than anybody else, or you know, we're but you are.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so jealous. So stick with it. So now, but but it is a different life too, because your dad was, I mean, he was a big man. I mean, he was somebody that was very powerful, so to speak, in in the world of you know, Anheuser Busch, which I have to say, I sometimes I feel so sheltered or something in my knowledge of knowing things. And and honestly, and you I'm sure you know this, but I didn't realize that Lily Anheuser, right? Yes, that's your great grandma. Exactly. So Anheuser and Bush came together. Did you know that?
SPEAKER_02:They came together?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, I did not know. I that's kind of the silly things that people don't know. That that's actually your great-grandmother's last name, and then your great grandfather was Bush. And that's I mean, I just grew up in St. Louis, just Anheuser Bush. I didn't really think to go, okay, how did that name come about? Making fun of me again. I'm not making fun of you. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02:Take you out of this room. I'm not making fun of you because I'm sure a lot of people don't know that. I mean, there's so many things. You guys have been in the community for how many years? It's taking you know a long time, yeah, many generations. And probably reading this book, people are like, do the Johnny Carson. I I did not know that, you know? It's like it's just incredible.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I mean, just that small little bit of knowledge. I was wowed by that. Then I I kept getting gross. Then we have to tell you, we binged watched uh uh Family Brood.
SPEAKER_00:The um behind what was it called? Family Brood.
SPEAKER_01:I can't even Oh my gosh, this is terrible.
SPEAKER_00:Bush Family Brood. Yeah, that's what it was called. It's been a while.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I mean? It was really fun. I'm not gonna, I it's 10 episodes. We watched them all. We're like, okay, I think we took a break put pizza in on three more. We watched it. And then we watch it. And I feel like I'm part of the family now. That's why I said wish Christie was in here because I've got some scoop that I need I need to have happen. First of all, um, we've got Clark and your daughter.
SPEAKER_02:This is five years ago, Kelly. Remember, Clark and your daughter.
SPEAKER_01:I had had me in an uproar when they're breaking up in the car. Then we've got your son Billy, who's absolutely adorable. We're Facebook friends and didn't really I go, Gordon, I'm friends with his son. I get on there, so I'm so happy to know that he did move on and married a surfer babe.
SPEAKER_00:He did, he moved on, married surfer babe, and twins, which guess what I bought.
SPEAKER_01:Beautiful twins. You have grandkids now, however, oh your book.
SPEAKER_00:I have two grandkids now. Yeah, those two.
SPEAKER_01:These are yours to take home. That's what I thought of. So I'm excited that I guess you've got to go. Are they in Hawaii or California?
SPEAKER_00:Well, they're in California now, but I think they might be moving to Hawaii. So they're even going further away away, which is a bummer. But uh, we you know, they do come here to St. Louis and they stay with us for um, you know, extended periods now and then. And we have more doggone fun. They there's the kids are so fun, and to be able to bring them out to the farm, we'll get them on horses the next time we go out and get them riding. I hear they're riding dirt bikes now. They're their um their grandfather from Kira, uh Billy's wife's side, is um a big dirt bike rider. Really? Yeah, so he's teaching them to ride motorcycles. So if he can ride those motors, if they can, they can ride horses, wouldn't they, right?
SPEAKER_02:Horses have a mind of their own, though. Motorcycles don't.
SPEAKER_00:Sometimes you can't. I don't know what's more dangerous, honestly.
SPEAKER_01:But do you and your wife still take carriage rides? Oh, yeah. Is that what it's called? All the time, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we go coaching, we call it coaching.
SPEAKER_01:Coaching, okay, where you put the theory. And you know what I was excited about? You said, come on, Callie. Is it Cali Callie?
SPEAKER_00:Uh uh, that was Callie.
SPEAKER_01:Well, she was at the farm. I met Callie because I heard you saying hi to her, and I'm like, Gordon, I met Callie. I was really invested in the show. I just have to let you know. So I do have some deep questions. I need to find out what's happened because not you didn't come back with another season yet, and you're leaving me hanging. I just need you to know that you need to come back and kids.
SPEAKER_00:I was hoping we would come back with another another season right away, but it was during COVID. I was gonna say that kind of messed things up a little bit for Hollywood. And uh they, you know, they talked to us about coming back another season. They interviewed us all again to talk about content, what we were gonna do for the second season, and you know, what was going on with the brewery and the farm and and all these things. And we uh we are we all had to write out the different things that we could talk about and the different things we could deal to put your life in front of everybody.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, honestly, that is a really big deal to to talk about you know your problems or things that are going on. And I know it's a show, and I know you can redo things, or but it was still real, it's still things that are happening in your life that you shared with everyone.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you're right. It's it's not easy to do, especially for a guy who grew up not talking to the media. My parents were like, you don't talk to the media because the media um that time they wanted to chase things, they wanted to find some scoop out that you know, and they were afraid it was gonna hurt Budweiser sales, you know. So, you know, you couldn't really talk to the media, so I was scared to death to talk to the media back in the day. Um I think I've gotten over that. The reality show helped me a lot.
SPEAKER_01:I think you did great. In fact, we really enjoyed it. I can even tell you the last scene you went into the water. Okay. And then she drives. Coaches on, whatever you want to call it. But it really was fun. And you can, you know what I told him we talked about afterwards. You have seven children.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:You and your wife have been together for how many years now?
SPEAKER_00:Uh 35.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. And and your kids were darling. They all are very close. Oh, thank you. I mean, you can only fake so much on television. There's only so much you can, and you could tell the real deep seated love that you all have for each other. And I think that was good to be able to see. I think it really projected who you are. You could tell your boys are very well mannered, they're hilarious at the same time, having fun. And I just I thought it was fantastic. And the the family party, yeah, we want the next invitation. You got a job. I want to put on a water slide into the lake.
SPEAKER_00:I I I looking back at it now, um, you know, a lot of reality shows aren't very wholesome, uh right, in a in a in a way. Um, but looking back at our show, I was I'm really proud of it now. You should be. I'm right, I'm proud of the fact that we were close, that it showed great family unity and the importance of family and being together and sticking together and working things out together. And we've always been like that. I gotta hand that off to Christy, though. Christy, I wish you were here too, Kelly, with us right now.
SPEAKER_01:But uh, this chair right here for her and a bottle of wine.
SPEAKER_00:She really is a great mother, and she really one of her her priority was always a family and making sure we all stuck together and we're close together. And still. So um, and I appreciate that because I don't know if I would have kept us all that close together like she did, but she was really the blue.
SPEAKER_01:And I think I I I'm sure she's a big grounding force for you because one of the things that again, I feel like I know you all from her words and things that were said, and she talks about where she came from and who she is, and she talks about coming into a family of like royalty. I mean, going into that castle. I remember the part where she says, I came in a little mini skirt, your cute little body at what, 20 years old, whatever it is. And it was a gala, formal, and all the women you can just imagine, and your elegant style of your mom and these gowns, and she's like, and I got a mini dress on, and I'm like little too. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_00:And she was the hottest girl there. Now I'm like, look at this one I got. Oh, more ass so brown.
SPEAKER_01:So brown and still are, you can tell that as well. So I think it was just great. She stayed real and then danced on the bar top. It was so funny, but it was just, I really got a sense of just it made it so much more fun to get to talk to you today, knowing the other side of y'all. And there's always one that's the stronger root of the family. And she, you know, that that's just the way it is. But I think that you probably also came into it because you talk about your relationship with your dad, and one of the times where you were right in the middle of your mom and dad on the coach, and how you had their full attention when you come from a family of seven as well.
SPEAKER_00:And seven kids also have to be.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and then you go and have seven too. Yeah. So you seven is heaven. There, yeah. So you had that that time in between them, and your dad, you felt like you were pals. Right. When you're usually your kids had a job as a kid at house.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, you know, we were almost like an employee of dad's to a certain degree. Dad expected a lot of us, and um, and mom supported him and made sure that we followed what he asked us to do and and again told us to do. And it um it was like uh kind of a boss employee relationship a lot of the times. So we weren't real close that often. But the to have the uh occasion where I could be with my mom and dad, and I remember that so well. That's one thing that stands out as a child. Driving through the deer park on Grant's farm with mom and dad, because mom and dad or mom would always request one or two of the kids to come coaching with them after work in the afternoon at Grant's farm. That was dad's way of getting uh having relaxation and you know, uh chilling out.
SPEAKER_01:Like some guys go play golf or whatever. Your dad wanted to go to show.
SPEAKER_00:He wanted to drive the horses, exactly. So we so to be able to get on the coach, sit between mom and dad, and just listen and watch and not really say much because back then it was you could be seen but not heard, right? That's so very difficult.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Now the kids speak too dang much sometimes, right? But um, but just to listen and and to really feel what was going on. And I talk about it in the book, you know, it was uh late summer, it's kind of this time of year. Uh I'll never forget, and the elk were starting to bugle out in the deer park, and you know, the leaves were slowly starting to change, and the buckeyes were coming on the trees and starting to um almost starting to fall off, and and we always loved that. And to be able to be with mom and dad and listen to him talk about his day and how the brewery was going and um how sales were going and you know not only the good stuff but the challenges was always very interesting to me, and it was great to listen to. And then he'd ask me, What did you do today? Well, it was still summertime, so I wasn't in school yet. I said I worked on the farm, and he'd asked me exactly what I did, and so I had to explain it all to him. You know, I took care, I I took care of the sheep today. I had to muck the stalls and the sheep pen and um whatever there else there was to do. And then he would he had such an eye for detail, and that's I think what made him such an incredible executive at the brewery and such a great leader at the brewery, was because everything had to be in perfect place. Um not you know, on Grant's farm, I'm so I'm sure sure very similar to what how things had to be at the brewery, you know, the beer had to be perfect, everything had to look great, everything immaculately cleaned and all that. And if something was out of place, he'd see it right away and he'd let us know, go take care of that. Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I think too, you even though you grew up in a castle and the life that you led, it also was a different time in the fact that we're just talking about speak when you're spoken to. But your dad, when he came home, w would which is nice, we're so distracted we come home with computers and phones and technology. And so when you came home in in the days when we were little, you came home. It was that quiet time of you actually talked to one another. You weren't, you know, he didn't get to catch up what you did because you put it on Facebook. He had to actually ask you, you know, what you did for the take it off because it's on Facebook. Or take it off because it's on Facebook. Yeah, maybe that too. So it was probably, even though it was different the way you are with your kids now, the relationship and the communication that you had was really strong at the same time because it was good communication, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And you're a hundred percent right. I think sometimes I even catch myself like when we're all sitting together, getting on my phone, looking to see if I received an email or a text or needed to talk, you know, it never stops today, right with all all this, all these instruments that we have. Um, and so yeah, to be able to put that away is so important, especially this day and age when you have all this stuff coming at you.
SPEAKER_01:Well, before we take to a commercial break and come back and talk about your new venture in life and that as well, and you say in your book that you felt like elf. You lived in this bubble of the North Pole, and when you finally ventured out and saw that there's a whole nother world out there was quite incredible. So just tell us before we we go to break what it was like living inside, knowing now that there's a difference. Of course, you live in a beautiful home now as well, but the difference of growing up there, what what is that? I know you told us your fondest memory, but what it was like there, then we're gonna go to now when we come back after break.
SPEAKER_00:I'd love to.
SPEAKER_01:So tell us now before you just give us something to go to break to talk about of what it was like running around the castle. Yeah, you just get told that from afar.
SPEAKER_00:Growing up on Grants Farm, it was a gated community, right? So you're all fenced in and uh the people there all knew you. And then when you when finally, you know, I started moving out, and and uh one great great example of that was when, and I talk about this in the book, when my brother and I went to Switzerland to stay with my grandmother over there, because my mom was from Switzerland, so I stayed we stayed with her mother, and we got on these we called them trochyness, but they're like little scooters, um, and we rode them around all all of Lucerne, Switzerland, there, where my grandmother lived, and we stayed with her for six weeks, and we thought everybody around there knew us, and we got lost one time. And we went to uh up to strangers and said, Hey, where the bushes, where the where's our house? Where do we live?
SPEAKER_03:And they looked at us like, Who are you? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it was like it was like, what? They don't know who the heck we are.
SPEAKER_03:Who are you?
SPEAKER_00:So that was the youngest, that was, you know, uh the youngest memory I have of being out and not and realizing a person. Yeah, being a person.
SPEAKER_01:Oh well, we are here with Billy Bush right now. We're gonna come back, talk more, find out about the great things that's happening out in Defiance, Missouri, right here on the Loot Information Station, KLIS590. We'll be right back. I think I do. It's just so high. Normally we just walk right in the door off. Yeah, we're not in a castle like Billy over here, but we are in like the high-rise apartment up here. So we're feeling kind of cool. So welcome back. We appreciate that you're here. We're coming back for the second half hour, and we still have Billy with Billy Bush with us. Thank goodness, because we have so much more to talk about. It's kind of funny. Like, I come in and I have all these notes and these questions. I really have any, I don't even know where I'm at or not, because I've just been like talking away about it. Oh, this is more fun. Don't look at the nice. Well, I just want to make sure that I don't miss anything or talk. I mean, your book has so much information in it, and it's it's it's really a very good read, and it really takes you into your life, and you're very honest as well. And that's so appreciative because you were just talking about in the break that sometimes you almost wish that you could be on still during the break, because there's like so much more that get talks about that your great grandfather um was of 22 sisters.
SPEAKER_00:He was 20, he was there was yeah, he had 21 brothers and sisters. So he came from 22. He was 21 of 22 kids, the 21st of 22 kids.
SPEAKER_01:And then he had 13.
SPEAKER_00:And then he had 13, and then my dad had 11. My grandfather had five, so my dad's dad had five. So we come from a big family, and then um my. Together. My mom and dad had seven together, and dad had two from his first wife and two from his second wife.
SPEAKER_02:And I love watching the show because I remember the girls saying, Oh, we have big parties, and it's like hundreds of people there now thinking, well, it was just the family.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. Just the family there. So your your kids are so you've you have a Billy Bush Jr., which is your oldest son.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And then Gussie, of course, you've taken a family name.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Peter's a family name. Are the other, are the girls, are they family names?
SPEAKER_00:They are not. No. And then there's Haley, Abigail, Abby, uh, Grace, and Madison or Maddie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Do they ever say why didn't we get a name? Why aren't I Lily? Why didn't I get Lily's name?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they could have been Gertrude, you know, there's a Gertrude or Beatrice or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Beatrice, that's good. Gertrude, Bertha, those kind of names that you don't hear anymore. Yeah, you just don't hear that anymore. There's a good reason why, maybe. Right. Right. Like my dad's name was Harry, which came back because of Prince Harry, I guess, but it's not really a name. How do you look at a little baby and go, Harry?
SPEAKER_00:Harry. I isn't that the truth. A little bald kid. Harry.
SPEAKER_01:So your family gets together, you decide. You know what? It's been well, first of all, you're the first to write a book that's coming from the source rather than somebody coming up with their their own words and then trying to get someone to stand behind it. You you and your wife actually sifted through letters and boxes and things to find out more, because obviously you're here for only so long to be able to know about the family. And then you were very honest, talking about everything from good to bad. Oh, sure. How was that doing that?
SPEAKER_00:It was um it was really it really kind of helped me understand myself better. It was um it was I I enjoyed every minute of it, honestly. Um, you know, just to be able to talk about some of the sad times and understand a little bit better what happened in life and how my life turned out the way it did. And then to be able to relay that to my kids and let them know kind of where they came from. But I was so lucky, you're right. I I was able, my dad left boxes and boxes of letters and relics of things that uh from his grandfather, from his father, excuse me, from s uh from his uh wives before my mom, uh from even some uh girlfriends that he had. And uh from, you know, he talked about the business and some of the th some of the documents that were left behind. And so to be able to sift through all that and to read these letters, um, and some of the letters that mom and dad wrote back and forth to each other, and even some old some letters um where they were going through the divorce, and they were, you know, you could tell that it wasn't quite at the point that they got to the divorce, but they were they were having big problems. Um and that uh things, you know, from those letters you could you could just read into a lot of things, and to be able to have those letters and to talk about it and to really understand where I came from was was cool as heck. I mean, to know that my great-grandfather came over here um as an adventurer to come over from Germany, it wasn't called Germany then, it was Europe, um, and to to come over and and be on the uh Mississippi River because he was uh he knew the rivers very well because he he grew up on the Rhine River over in in Europe and um he knew business and to learn the business and then to have the skill to get into the beer business and to grow the beer business with the innovation and the work that he had to put into it and the people person that he was was just so interesting for me to see how that all transpired and how he grew this incredible company. Um he must be. Yeah, and he was able to do that here in America, you know, and then to have a son who took over for him and kept it going, and then was able to keep it going through prohibition through a very difficult time and keep thousands of employees employed during that very difficult time because you had the Great Depression during that time too, was just it's just an amazing accomplishment. And I'm so that I'm so proud of after reading that, and how they stuck it out and kept it going, and then how his um how my grandfather's uh oldest son, Adolphus, took the company over, and he was older than my dad, so he um he was first right he had the first right to take it take things over, and how he kept it going through World War II and the patriotism that he exhibited during World War II to give back to the country to help the country win the war was just amazing and and uh did you meet some of the any of the and any of the presidents uh and coming through your home? Yeah, you know, um Lyndon Johnson came to our home. I don't I kind of remember him a little bit, but I remember my mom and dad going to Texas and hunting on uh on their farm on their ranch in Texas with Lady Bird and and Lyndon Johnson. And um other than that, I don't remember any other people in your butry truman came to Graham's farm and went coaching with dad, and and dad loved Harry Truman. And of course he loved Franklin Roosevelt because Franklin Roosevelt ended prohibition. Yeah, yeah. You could you could sell beer again.
SPEAKER_02:And I didn't know that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'll be darned.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he was one of our youngest presidents. I gotta ask you, because something that was on my mind, while you're sifting through photos and letters and things like that, what is the one thing that just jumped out at you and just surprised you the most out of looking through all of that?
SPEAKER_00:Um I would have to say the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that uh the family was able to keep the b the business going and become the number one brewery in the world. Um uh and the uh and just what it took, the the grit and the determination to succeed. And um and nothing was given to them, you know, they had to work for everything. And it killed my great my grandfather because that 13 years of prohibition where he couldn't sell where they couldn't sell a beer put so much stress on him, keeping all his and and how they loved their employees, and how their employees loved working for the company, the pride that it had. Um, all that just took me by a great surprise, and also about how patriotic the um the company became, how it backed the USA and all the different wars that we got into. Desert Storm was one of them, and then of course World War I and World War II, and and my dad was a colonel in World War II, and his job was really to go out and get industries to support um uh America during the war. And um, and he uh he became a colonel doing that. And they really gave a lot back. You know, my family gave a lot back to um to the country, to the community, and I thought that that was just amazing. Then the other thing that really stepped uh stood out was the fact was how what a genius my father was in marketing. You know, how he built theme parks around the the uh breweries when he opened up nine different breweries around the United States, going just from the one here in St. Louis and then nine more around the United States, and opening up the theme parks. And you know, the first thing when the kids turn 21 after going to the theme Busch Gardens, what are they gonna drink? They're gonna drink a Budweiser, right? Yeah, and that's what and that's you know, that's what made it the household name it became the uh Budweiser. It's because of that great marketing, and then buying the Cardinals um just really to market the products and not being able to call it Budweiser Stadium, so we they named it Busch Stadium, and then they came out with Bush Bavarian, a beer.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he so it was just incredible marketing, and then you know that carried on with my brother and um and then his son, August, uh August the 4th, and they did the frogs and Spuds Mackenzie and all those different wonderful marketing that that um that A B had, which was so which won all the Super Bowl awards, right? When we were there in the Super Bowl, and the Clydesdills, of course, were the biggest.
SPEAKER_02:Do you find that fascinating that all of the stuff that you see and how their family values and everything that they've gone through? But now we see that in you. And so it's kind of like it's interesting. Does it does that kind of touch your heart to say they instilled that into me as a as a young child, but even reading it from your great-grandfathers and stuff like that, do you see a lot of yourself in them now?
SPEAKER_00:You know, um, I wish I could say I saw more because they were so successful and and the beer business today is I mean, as a person, it's so there's so much to be said about success.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but success can be talked about in many different levels, not just so much in money, yeah, but as a person.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I hear you. As a person, I do feel like I'm I I have been um gifted uh the ability to go out and to um you know build a f a wonderful family and to be faithful and to um really have my prior priorities right, and I did learn a lot of that, not necessarily from my dad. He was kind of a wild guy. Yeah, but looking back at my great grandfather and my grandfather, they were very, very loyal to their wives and they were they gr and they had um incredible, tight, very structured families. I think what happened when it started to kind of break apart was and and I'm not speaking badly about my dad, but I'm just telling you that I think um when things when you're when you're married several times and you don't have that tight-knit family anymore, and then you start passing trying to keep the company in it in the family for another generation, it becomes more and more difficult. And looking back at it now and and understanding it the way I learned to understand it from writing the book, I really think that uh tight families are very important to really um have in order to continue a gener generational businesses.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's very important. And and um, you know, but uh you could start seeing after learning about this the cracks that started appearing. And then of course, you know, what happened with my dad and my half-brother, um, how the company was taken from from my dad in a kind of a harsh, in a very harsh way, actually. And um, you know, it was because of the competitiveness. We didn't come from the same mother, so I'm sure, you know, there was compet competition and um and worry, if you will, about who was gonna get it next. Could it be my dad's oldest my my oldest brother from my um mom, or could it be the oldest son of my dad from another mother? And so I'm sure, you know, so everybody was kind of jockeying for position and absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, you're I love I like one of my favorite songs, it's called Chainbreaker, and I think you're a chainbreaker because you're a family man doing everything great, and you're you've you now you're starting this new let's talk about the new thing. Let's talk about the new stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Let me just say, let me just say that I've been very, very fortunate because of what was left to me because of the hard work of my ancestors and my dad, um, that I have not had to go out and kill myself working because um I was left enough to be able to really spend time with my family and and have a you know and and raise my children with my wife and and take a big part as a father in that. So I'm very, very fortunate for that. So I have a lot to be thankful for to my family members that uh that did that worked so hard.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I hope your family will read your book. I hope that they will maybe take the time to even watch your show to really see what kind of people you are, and hopefully some of those family members that maybe you've been not able to be part of. I mean, we can't choose our family, we can choose our friends, but maybe it will help some understanding and bring that back. But I'm really excited about um being able to find out about your new place, which is your Bush family brewing and distilling, your Bush farm, um, which is out there in Defiance, which is absolutely gorgeous. We went out there, we took our grandson and got to enjoy uh a night, an evening with the concert.
SPEAKER_02:I thought we were going to see I was out there for the flag run too. That was fun.
SPEAKER_01:I thought we were going out to see the Bunker Broncos. Yeah. So we're gonna have to come back because I missed that. I had the wrong night. So September 6th, that's coming up because that just that that I cannot wait to watch. But you go out there, it's beautiful, you have so much going on. And in the show, Gate kind of enlightened us how you know you you wanted to bring brewing back to the Bush family. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that and the name of your beer, which uh well you're not wearing that hat, you've got the Bush family on. You usually have the craftic on. So tell us a little bit about this dream that's happening.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, and you're oh, sorry about that. And you're and you're right. I uh I really I really felt a strong tie and a and a strong um reason or calling to continue the brewing uh portion of the of the the brewing business because uh my family had done it for so long, and I just felt um, you know, I was in the beer business all my life and one respect or another, whether it was on the entertainment side with Grants Farm and maintaining Grants Farm and keeping the place beautiful for the public, or whether it was in the distribution um side of it when I um had we had distributorships and I worked at the distributorships delivering beer to retailers uh down in Houston and down in Florida. So um I, you know, I was around it all my life and I loved it, and it was always something that we were very successful and good at doing. And when it uh came when it left our hands back in 2008, InBev came in and took over our uh over the company. Um I just felt a strong calling that we needed to keep that wonderful tradition alive. So we started a company called the William K. Bush Brewing Company. We came out with two beers, Kreftig and Kreftig Light, and we contracted those beers. We didn't have our own brewery, so basically we were more of a marketing company than a brewing company, but we felt that um you know we could make the beer, we wouldn't have to spend the money on the on the on the brewery, and we could spend the money on marketing and grow the beer that way, and then eventually have our own brewery. Well, it didn't work out that way. At every turn, we were getting shot down by the bigger guys, you know, out there, um InBEV, um with AB NB and Miller and Miller Light Miller and the Secores, and they were always, you know, not allowing us to get traction. We couldn't um we couldn't get things going in in uh different retail uh stores.
SPEAKER_01:Do they not know who you are? I need to call them.
SPEAKER_00:No, I think they knew who I was, and that's that's what worried them, worried them. So to get promotion. Yeah, we couldn't get momentum and to so to get promote uh promotions and uh we had a great for instance, we had a great promotion at uh Bush Stadium, which um NBEV came in and told uh told uh the um the concession era there they better take it down or else uh they'd pull their products out. So of course they had to take it down. It was just that kind of stuff. We kind of had a target on our back because of the name. Honestly, the name helps you in a lot of ways, but it can hurt you also. So we did that. I did that for about eight or nine years and you know, worked hard. We had uh distribution in all of Missouri and a big portion of Illinois and Kansas and Wisconsin and Texas, and um, you know, trying to grow the business, and it's just impossible. And the margins are so thin that if you're not selling hundreds of thousands of barrels, it's really hard to um to sustain.
SPEAKER_03:Sure.
SPEAKER_00:And so we decided I talked to the family, I said, let's just build our own little brewery out at the farm. We can go back to our my roots, basically, our roots, because my kids grew up at Grants Farm. We can open the place up to the public, they can come out and they can drink our own beer, and we can have Kreftig and Kreftig light there, which people loved. And so we'll keep that going, and we can name some of the beers after the ancestors in honor of them. So we have like the Gussie Bavarian and the Adolphus Pilsner, and now we have the Eberhard Barrel-Age beer, which is Eberhard Anheuser, my grand, my great-grandfather from the Anheuser side, and great-great-grandfather, that would be. And um, and so that's what we did. And I I gotta tell you, I love every minute of it because the people that come out, like you said, Kelly, you and you enjoyed it, you and Gordon, you had a great time, and your granddaughter loved it. It's a great family atmosphere. Yeah, parents, grandparents can come out, sit around, eat, drink some cold beer, or anything.
SPEAKER_01:I know they showed some photos. I mean, you there's water that's around you, the fountains out there, the Clydesdales are there. Right. Um, the you just got in the alpaca. Yes. Um, the the big long bullhorns of Texas longs, thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Uh my favorite which was bullying the the new new uh what are they, the uh Highlander cows. My personal favorite, I was about to say the Highlander Cows.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my she was so muddy. She or I think it was a she, was it? It was a she, she was so cute, and she had mud all over her. And of course, we loved petting her, but but it's really fun. It is a very much a family environment out there. Coming up in October, you're gonna have a corn maze.
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, we'll have the corn maze out there. We have two more rodeos coming up in September and October. We've got two more music fests out there. We dropped the prices to get more people out to the music fest. And um, and and we've got we get almost 2,000 people out there for the rodeo, and they and the kids love it because they get to do uh the the uh mutton busting.
SPEAKER_02:I noticed the sack races. Did that come from did that come from the show because I don't wanted it to be the sack racing? We go, we gotta have the sack races.
SPEAKER_01:You were out there dancing yourself out there, but what a great thing to be able to do with your family and be together on this and build something that obviously sounds like it's gonna continue to grow. I guess I mean one of the things you're careful about is not ruining the gorgeous country land. What is it, 700 acres?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we have 700 acres in all, but we designate about 150 just to the brewery and for the people.
SPEAKER_01:So that you're not taking away from the beautiful land that you have. So you appreciate that that you're not gonna go bulldozing that down for something. But it's really lovely. You've you and it's gorgeous inside um the building where you can go. Now, I know that you um you have a food service, but you do you also make some things that you can eat when you go in that's right on site then?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, we make our own food um for the most yeah, we have our our own food there.
SPEAKER_01:But larger events, you'd have someone.
SPEAKER_00:And and for larger events, we bring in food trucks or we we get a cater or two. So we're we're partnering with Butler Pantry, as a matter of fact, on some things. So um they help us out, and uh then we have the food trucks. There's a couple food trucks that just do an amazing job that we that we bring out, like the Mexican food truck, and they make great margaritas, by the way. And um, and then you know, we have an incredible chef, and he makes, well, to me, it's the world's best hamburger out there.
SPEAKER_01:It's nothing better than a good hamburger, a cheese rubber, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So when you think of you think of Bush Farm, you think of your Bush family, Bruna Distillion, what does that what achievement? Well, how do you feel passionately about that when you walk through those gates there or drive through the gates, I should say?
SPEAKER_00:When I drive through the gates, I feel kind of like my dad did when he came to Grants Farm and he checked out the farm to make sure everything was perfect. You know, everything had to look just right and everything had to be clean. Um, and and I feel very much like my dad had felt back when he was uh, you know, the boss and he was running things at the brewery in a grand's farm. And um very proud, too, to be able to uh open a place up for people to come out and really enjoy. And what makes it great is when you see people smiling and laughing and having a great time and coming up to me all the time and saying, we love it out here, and we get regulars back all the time. So that's a real good indication that people are enjoying themselves.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Well, it's wonderful. I'm so sad that we literally are gonna have to say goodbye. It makes me sad. Um, what do you want to say to someone out there that is a family and they're in business together? How can you inspire them and give them some words of wisdom? Because you've definitely lived a life of large families and now you're very own.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, I I would say, um, you know, you first of all you have to be uh you have to do what what makes you happy. You have to be passionate about what what you um and love what you do because if you're gonna have your own business, you gotta it's a lot of work and you gotta um so enjoy every minute of it. Um and if you don't enjoy it, it's not it's not gonna be it's gonna be torture. So enjoy what you do. Um don't force it on your kids if they want to be involved. If they want to be involved, that's that's icing on the cake, but that doesn't always happen like that, unfortunately. And and um, and you know, I think I think my kids will come around a little bit down the road. Right now, they're not too into it, but uh that's okay. They've got their dreams, they've got their own dreams, and they're doing some great things too.
SPEAKER_01:You brought them up to build their dreams, so that's even more important. And you've actually told me about one of the dreams that the boys are doing, and we look forward to sharing that as well. And I wish we had another hour with you. You can pick up the book Family Rain. I got my very own, that of course he's gonna have to sign before we leave. I just went to Amazon and there it was. So is there any other special place I need to let him know? But Amazon works.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think you can get it at the bookstores um around town here. So pretty much where books are sold.
SPEAKER_01:You'll be pleasantly surprised. So, Billy Bush, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. We look forward to all the things coming up. It's actually gonna be the on the cover of our magazines here coming up in October. So you're gonna enjoy getting to read the story that we're gonna share with you as well in the City Lifestyle magazine. So thank you so much for tuning into the In Your City show. Check us out at KLIS 590 AM or the LouInfo.com 247 streaming. And until our next show, you can say it with us, Billy. You guys say cheers. Cheers.
