“Liquid Fire”: Mark and Digger’s Wildest Experiment Yet Leaves Everyone Gasping for Air on Moonshiners
let me ask you this real quick what do you know about Nashville Hot Chicken they they sell it in Nashville they do I know I love the h3ll out of it really oh my I’m A Chicken Machine anyway and Nashville hot just makes it better I have a client that has a bar and he is near a Nashville Hot Chicken store he’s watched the hot chicken just go National and he wants to follow that business model in his bar he wants moonshine from y’all with three different levels of heat to them he wants a hot mixture a really hot mixture and then an aggravator to Salt hot type mixure in
the liquor itself in the liquor Digger and myself we’ve never done anything with hot peppers we don’t know the process I don’t even know where to begin this is a pretty big a.ss that bees is coming to the table with we don’t use hot peppers and liquor we’re more traditionalist well this guy has a very successful business and he’s talking like he would want to place orders weekly for us we’ve got a golden opportunity right here we just need to make sure we know how to make spicy liquor correctly I’m excited about trying it but we do need to get some help this is out of
wheelhouse but I know somebody that does know about it been a while since we’ve been back here puss don’t bust the ice here watch these ankle rollers yeah it’s Slicker and d@mn deer guts on the door knob we’ve got an order for three different levels of spiciness in this pepper liquor we’re supposed to create or the liquor this guy wants several different flavor profiles of heat from the spices so given the fact that me or Mark neither one’s ever worked with any hot peppers and liquor we’ve called in Patty Bryant no Moonshiner from down in Louisiana I out a bowl
some water for us one of her staple recipes is a pepper moonshine let me go get you some water going this still side it’s just perfect got the Cosby Creek running right out of the Smoky Mountains National Park we take for granted what most people would give the end of the world for exactly there’s thousands and thousands of Acres Deep Cover this is just where we’re at home me and Mark Wayne we’ve run a million gallons of liquor out of this Creek you know the only reason we left this Ste side a few years back there was a policeman that was dogging me pretty good we
didn’t want him to follow us to this place it’s our favorite Ste sight in the world yeah we need to put as much sugar in here as we can because I’ve done a lot of pepper shine before and you don’t get much starches out of peppers if you didn’t put any sugar in it you’re going to have absolutely no no alcohol yeah don’t have rotted jalapenos rotted jalapenos all we’re getting from the peppers just the flavor and the heat y given the fact that this guy wants the spiciest liquor he can get we’re going to double the amount of jalapenos that Patty normally uses
in her mash the oil in a jalapeno is called caps see that right there this is your heat here you wouldn’t want to pick your nose right now to would you no I’ll pick yours though I’m okay now with any Lu at all this is going to be our entry level on the spiciness it’s going to be spicy but it’s not going to be so spicy it’ll run you Plum out of town let’s grind these summer g.uns up Crank that thing oh look at that orange one maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all about the third or fourth pepper here it comes there’s a cloud of d@mn caps and it’s in
her eyes and it’s getting in her lungs if that don’t suit that d@mn FEA for some hot liquor he can make it his d@mn self all I want is a jug of milk to drink pouring my eyes right now but that little puddle of oil that speaks volume to what this chipp or Shredder is doing it’s exposing those little membranes and busting them up and freeing all that oil up and that’s where the flavor’s at you stick your hand in that and you rub your eyeball it’s going to burn it you know these jalapenos they’re doing this to our respiratory system at 5,000 scov
units can you imagine pouring a bucket through a Carolina Reapers through this d@mn thing this is just the base for hotter things to come yeah one good thing about those other peppers I brought we’re not going to probably chop them up we might just pour a little bit in a thump ki our plan is to have three different levels of liquor of spiciness next time when we come in here we’re going to bring those hotter Peppers that I brought and we’re going to bring them in here and make way hotter shine than what these jalapenos will p a dam critor comes
through here and he’s tough enough to drink that M Bear’s glow like a light on a 44 now we making some liquor there we go this going to be an official run let’s Let It spew a little Vapor out over through that M the worm clean it out good since this is the first time this Steel’s been used this season well it should produce some good liquor out of it you know no matter where we’ve had a steel sitting up for one month or one year we always blow steam through it to clean it out it’s the most efficient way of cleaning all the bugs and dust and critters
that might be up in there out it sanitizes it same time we had just putting that MH in there it went up 90° before we were L far h3ll it’s done conding it ain’t it it was condense long d@mn d@mn we’re pepper spraying herself with our own pepper liquor we got to get some water going in that I know we’re using the steel that hadn’t been used in a while we don’t put any water in the condenser so that it will just transfer steam all complete through the whole system this cleans it this k1lls any bacteria blows out any bugs or cobwebs that
wasn’t the best idea had was it there’s one thing we hadn’t really counted on the d@mn heat from the jalapenos Vapor it will ch0ke you why didn’t you tell us better than that you just teaching us a lesson I’m teaching y’all it’s it’s running it’s our very first ever hot pepper liquor Patty it’s going to be spicy smell it you know the liquor it’s beginning to run and of course you can’t tell anything about the proof or the spice but the pepper flavor is coming through very well let’s taste it and see where we’re at I think Patty’s got us pointed in
the right direction ain’t that bad is no it’s not that bad it ain’t bad as the steam was is it it’s really good but d@mn it’s really hot I’m impressed with it it’s not too much for me it ain’t really what you expect it to be yeah it’s got plenty of spice in there but it’s good yeah that’s perfect it’s got that sweetness from the sugar liquor and then it balances out into that fiery pepper note then plays out kind of light on the back end it finishes off rather nice we got to get to the next level heat we’re going to go ahead and start blending
in some of the hotter Peppers these Habaneros are like 20 to 70 times hotter than jalapeno So the plan is we’re going to use a little bit of liquor pour it in on top of those Peppers blend them up into a slurry and pour them into the thump Kake you better not be touching anything tender after you handle all them that’s going to be mean here we come Thumper kep back up habanero slurry is in it lights the still back up here comes round two it didn’t take it long well we just about got a jar of liquor ready here I don’t even know we won’t tast to smell thatting or
anything don’t breathe in that’s way hotter than a jalapeno d@mn you got me scared to de4th who you’ve heard of people having d@mn dr4gon breath I feel like I could actually blow fire these things here are so strong they can nearly bl1nd you while we’re wearing these goggles this is just ins@ne I’m afraid to take the d@mn lid off of I’d be afraid too that’s Liquid Fire we fire this thing back up and it starts running liquor again you don’t have to get your face down that Vapor you just walk around in front of the condenser
you’re going to get you a dose of this hot pepper Vapor I mean it’s meaner and d@mn it yeah here Digger this stuff is so hot I’m telling you light you on fire you need a fire extinguisher holy you might as well be miserable the rest of us this surface of the Sun hot is simply burnt my goozle out usually when we make liquor we like to make something that we enjoy drinking ourselves this is not it what about us coming in here to do this and didn’t even think about bringing a quart of milk with us to each his own there’s people out there that love this
stuffff I’m happy for him to have it it’s just a good business opportunity thank you little one you have really learned us something yeah how hot your lips can get that falling off your human body
Tommy Dorsey wanted $60,000. That was the number. $60,000 in 1943 to release Frank Sinatra from the contract that owned a third of everything he would ever earn for the rest of his professional life. Tommy times Sinatra didn’t have $60,000. And then sometime in the fall of 1943, Tommy Dorsey accepted $1 instead.
No lawsuit, no negotiation that anyone has ever been able to fully document. From me to learn or accounts, no negotiation that anyone has ever been able to fully document, but there is a story, a specific story attached to specific names that has circulated in the music industry and in the organized crime circles that overlapped with it for 80 years that explains the gap between $60,000 and $1 better than any legitimate account ever has.
And that story, if true, contains the origin of the most famous line in American cinema. Mario Puzo heard it. He wrote a novel, then someone made a film, then 60 million people watched a scene in which a man woke up to find something in his bed that made him change his mind about something he had previously been very certain about.
But before the film, before the novel, there was a contract, a band leader, a singer, and a number that went from 60,000 to one. Frank Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra in January 1940. He was 24 years old. He had been singing with Harry James for 6 months, $75 a week, which Harry James had shaken his hand over when Sinatra left, wishing him well without drama or condition.
Tommy Dorsey was not Harry James. Dorsey ran one of the most commercially successful big bands in America, and he was known throughout the industry as a man who understood the value of things and extracted that value completely. When he heard Sinatra, he understood immediately what he was hearing, a voice that would be worth over the course of a career far more than the salary of any band leader’s vocalist had ever been worth before.
He made an offer. Sinatra, who wanted the opportunity badly enough not to negotiate the terms of getting it, signed. The contract gave Dorsey 1/3 of Sinatra’s gross income from entertainment for the rest of his professional life, plus 10% to Dorsey’s agent. This meant that if Sinatra became what he was already showing signs of becoming, Tommy Dorsey would collect 43 cents of every dollar Frank Sinatra ever earned, forever, without lifting another finger.
In 1940, this was the price of the opportunity. By 1942, it was something else. By 1942, the big band era was beginning its decline. The future of popular music was moving toward the individual singer, toward the voice that could exist independently of the orchestra surrounding it, that could fill a theater on its own name without 17 musicians behind it.
Sinatra could see this shift more clearly than almost anyone, because he was the singer it was shifting toward. He understood that what was coming for him professionally was larger than anything he could achieve while Tommy Dorsey owned a third of it. He wanted out. Tommy Times’ position was simple.
The contract was valid, the terms were clear, and if Sinatra wanted his freedom, he could purchase it. $60,000, that was the number. It represented in Dorsey’s calculation a reasonable approximation of what the contract would yield him over the coming years if Sinatra’s career developed as everyone expected it would.
It was not a punitive number, it was a businessman’s a.ssessment of what he was giving up. Sinatra’s lawyers negotiated. Sinatra appealed directly. Sinatra’s business manager appealed. Nothing moved the number, $60,000. Tommy Dorsey was not a man who gave things away, and he was not a man who could be argued out of a position he had arrived at through arithmetic.
For most of 1942 and into 1943, the stalemate held. Sinatra continued to perform with the Dorsey band. The royalties continued to flow in the contractually specified directions, and Sinatra continued to watch a third of his professional future accumulate in someone else’s account. And then, in the fall of 1943, it ended.
The settlement that terminat3d the contract specified a payment of $1 from Frank Sinatra to Tommy Dorsey, a full release of all future claims, and signatures from both parties indicating that the matter was concluded. There were lawyers present. There was paperwork. Everything that a legitimate business transaction requires was present.
Forbearance not present in any document, in any contemporaneous account, in any statement made by anyone who was in the room, was an explanation for why Tommy Dorsey had changed his position by $59,999. The explanation that was not in any document was the explanation that began circulating almost immediately among the people who knew both men.
Willie Moretti had gone to see Tommy Dorsey. Willie Moretti was a capo in the Genovese crime family, one of the most powerful organized crime organizations on the Eastern Seaboard, and he had been a presence in Frank Sinatra’s life since Frank was a teenager growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey. The nature of that relationship is something that neither Sinatra nor anyone close to him ever fully articulated publicly.
What is documented, Moretti attended Sinatra’s wedding in 1939. Their names appear in proximity in multiple FBI surveillance reports beginning in the late 1930s. The FBI file on Sinatra, which eventually ran to more than 1,300 pages, treated the Moretti connection as significant enough to monitor across decades.
What the rumor held, what has been pa.ssed from person to person in the music industry and in the world that overlapped with it for 80 years, was that Moretti, or someone acting with his authority, visited Tommy Dorsey in the fall of 1943. That the visit was not purely social. That the conversation that took place during the visit concerned the contract and the terms under which it might be resolved.
And that by the end of the conversation Tommy Dorsey had a clearer understanding of his options than he had possessed at the beginning. The specific detail that appears in the most persistent version of this account, the detail that Mario Puzo, by his own partial admission, had somewhere in the back of his mind when he wrote a scene that would be watched by 60 million people, is that a g.un was present during the conversation, not fired. Present.
Held in a way that communicated the specific thing it was meant to communicate. That the conversation was not one in which Tommy Dorsey retained the full range of options he was accustomed to retaining. The next morning, or within days, Tommy Dorsey accepted $1. Frank Sinatra was asked about this, directly and indirectly, many times across the 55 years of public life that followed.
His answers took two forms. Sometimes he said his lawyer had negotiated the settlement. Sometimes he said nothing, which in a man who had opinions about everything and expressed them with considerable force, is its own kind of statement. He never confirmed the Moretti version. He never denied it in terms specific enough to constitute a real denial.
He occupied on this subject a silence that was different in quality from his other silences, more deliberate, more maintained, more obviously constructed. When Sinatra called Mario Puzo a pimp in a Las Vegas casino in 1970, before The Godfather film was released, when only the novel existed, he was reacting to the character of Johnny Fontane, the singer whose mob connected patron helps revive his failing career.
Puzo said, clearly and repeatedly, that Johnny Fontane was not Frank Sinatra. He also said, in a 1972 interview, something that he clearly intended to be both a denial and something other than a denial. He said he was a novelist and he made things up. Then he paused. Then he said, “But novelists make things up from something.
” The something in this case was a story about a contract that ended for $1 when it should have cost $60,000. Tommy Dorsey was asked about it once in 1952 by a journalist who had heard the account and wanted to see if it produced a reaction. Dorsey said, “I like Frank. We had a business arrangement. Business arrangements end.
” He did not explain why this one had ended the way it had. He changed the subject with the practiced ease of a man who has decided what he is and is not going to say about something and has been consistent about that decision for nine years. He d1ed in 1956 at 51 in his sleep. He never elaborated. Willie Moretti was sh0t and k1lled in a restaurant in Cliffside Park, New Jersey in October 1951. He was 57 years old.
The k1lling was attributed to internal Genovese family politics. His deteriorating mental state, the result of advanced syphilis, had made him unreliable and the organization had concluded that his silence was worth more than his continued existence. He had been talking too freely to too many people for too long.
He had, in the years before his death, given several interviews to law enforcement and journalists that had made people nervous. He never gave an interview about Frank Sinatra’s contract with Tommy Dorsey. What was est4blished without any of these people saying so is a sequence a contract existed that gave one man a third of another man’s professional life.
The man who owned the contract wanted $60,000 to release it. He received $1. He never explained why. The man who benefited from this outcome spent the rest of his life not explaining it either. The man who in the most persistent version of the account was the instrument by which the outcome was achieved was sh0t before he could say anything further about anything.
And a novelist hearing a version of this story in the 1960s wrote a scene in which a producer woke up to find something in his bed that made him give a singer a role he had previously refused to give. Puzo changed the details. The horse’s head is not a g.un. A film contract is not a recording contract. Hollywood is not New Jersey.
But the architecture is the same. A man had something another man wanted. The first man refused to give it. Someone visited the first man on behalf of the second. The first man changed his mind. In the film the producer gives the singer the role and the scene ends. In the real story Tommy Dorsey took $1 and the reason was never explained.
Frank Sinatra went on to record in the wee small hours and songs for swinging lovers and come fly with me and only the lonely. The recordings that changed what popular music could be. The recordings that defined his artistic legacy. The recordings that would not have been made under the terms of the 1940 contract because Tommy Dorsey would have owned a third of all of them.
He recorded 281 songs for Capitol Records between 1953 and 1961. He sold hundreds of millions of records across his career. The third of all of it that Tommy Dorsey had owned and then accepted $1 to release would have been worth more than any of them could have calculated in 1943. $1 bought all of that. The reason was never explained.
There are other stories about the world Frank Sinatra moved through, the world that overlapped with the documented world, and the world that did not, the world of the rooms that do not appear in authorized biographies. Most of those stories have never been told in full. The next one involves a favor asked and given in 1955, not a threat, not a g.un, a genuine favor.
One man doing something for another because he could, and the consequences of that favor which Sinatra did not fully understand until 15 years later in a room in Las Vegas when someone finally explained to him what the favor had actually cost. That story we haven’t told yet. Subscribe if you want it when it comes.
