Rob Dietrich Interview with Meltdown
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00:00well there he is the man with the dream job rob how are you good meltdown how are you doing my
00:10friend i'm doing a great a lot of things happen in the world of course metallica embarking on
00:15all sorts of tours are are you heading over to any of the shows overseas uh no i won't
00:20unfortunately be at any of the overseas shows i'll be at all the north american shows okay so
00:25right here in southeast michigan at ford field that's november 10th and 12th so you're coming
00:29in for you coming for both days or how's that work correct yeah i'll be in for the yeah the
00:33whole weekend oh okay so yeah so i do a master distiller experience um uh backstage and then
00:40we've got um you know we've got the night in between which is always amazing and uh you know
00:44possibly throwing in some bottle signing that sort of thing in between well don't forget your
00:49friend meltdown here on november 11th so that's excellent that's the day in between oh yeah good
00:55good good yes i would love to see you out there yeah we'll have to uh we'll have to get rolling
00:59with that so tell everybody what this uh i saw the the thing in pittsburgh you did so so you you you
01:04bring bottles there and you got let people taste them and you tell them how it's made and all this
01:08kind of stuff yeah so uh we'll do this you know we'll do this both nights um i'll do two sessions of
01:14of uh basically whiskey education uh do a little tasting explain how our process um you know how we make
01:20the whiskey and generally uh the the first first wave is all radio winners uh which is always a lot
01:28of fun um and exciting and then and then a lot of industry folks that are usually at the second wave
01:34but i'll walk everybody through you know our process uh the blend of uh bourbon and rye uh what sonic
01:41enhancement is our black noise process uh a lot of fun yeah the black noise process uh give us a little
01:47bit of a taste of what that's about i mean this is where you get innovation at its at its finest you
01:53know we are you know in in a world of making whiskey that is generally a lot of traditional
01:58methods uh being able to uh do something that's completely outside the box we take metallica music
02:05of course and we play it at a very low frequency so we worked with meyer sound which is the sound
02:10company that creates that wall of sound for metallica all those speakers systems um we worked
02:15specifically with them to create a proprietary device where we use low frequency music to
02:23pummel basically the whiskey aging in the barrel so if you think of regular aging uh during the heat
02:29of the day the pores of the wood are open the whiskey's moving into the into the wood of the
02:33barrel picking up all that flavor um and then when it's colder it expresses out in the belly when you
02:38apply sonic enhancement the black noise process you're moving rapidly in and out of that wood so you're
02:44picking up extra color extra flavor um and we've got some science behind it which is which is you
02:50know for me that's uh that's where i nerd out now today as we record this it's uh june 21st you guys
02:55have the uh 72 seasons batch out now yes yeah 20 uh actually today was the day we announced it
03:01yeah so if people are watching this later on down the road they can now get that oh yeah they can
03:08that is now in stores um and it's very recognizable uh we're going with that metallica the yellow that
03:14they've they've chosen for this tour and we've got 72 seasons on the bottle and we've also got the
03:19the metallica m on the on the shrink at the top very very good looking bottle um limited release on
03:26this uh but it's been it's been a lot of fun putting it together now with this uh with this batch
03:31here i mean this is probably an obvious statement but you made it with uh the music from 72 seasons
03:37playing correct yeah so what's what's wild about this is that the album wasn't even released they
03:42had like maybe two songs that were that they had teased out and so we had this kind of interesting
03:48uh in between kind of situation where we needed to use the entire album but they didn't want it out in
03:55the world they wanted to protect that and so but we needed to use the album to to do the sonic
04:00enhancement on it and so we we we kind of figured out a system one you know we we were very careful
04:05and very protective of of the entire album uh but we figured out a system to make it work
04:10uh to where we were we were pretty confident that it wasn't going to get leaked because i was i was
04:15nervous about that when did you start that process oh my gosh um the record came out on april 14th so
04:23when do you start right yeah so april 14th we were we had already been we had already been doing
04:28the sonic enhancement process i think it started in february okay so two months or prior okay correct yeah
04:35i got you now when you're when you're coming around this time we're on on tour are is there
04:39going to be any uh any cigar classes or anything like that i you know i'm definitely going to have
04:44cigars with me um i don't know if we're going to be doing any cigar classes just because of the
04:48the regulations inside of a stadium um you know obviously we won't be able to smoke inside
04:53inside the stadium um but i am doing some cigar events uh in on the day in between so anywhere that's
05:01got uh that that does have the black and m81 cigar um as well as black and whiskey uh i'll be doing a
05:07kind of a twofer um you know walk you through how to um how to how our whiskey process is and then
05:14and walk everyone through how uh how james and uh jonathan drew and myself um put this cigar together
05:22and it's uh it's been a it's been a fun journey now were you a cigar guy before before all this yes
05:28yeah yeah i i love cigars i i started smoking cigars when i was in the army okay and and that
05:33was kind of something i picked up i was a i was a cigarette smoker back then but i started i started
05:38getting into cigars and uh and really enjoying them and understanding and then i met jonathan drew who's
05:44the founder of drew estate cigars and i went to nicaragua with him and got to tour the cigar factory
05:50probably like gosh like eight years ago i think and and there was always something in the background
05:56of like hey we should we should do a collaboration together at some point and it was really kind of
06:01perfect because you know obviously you know james absolutely loves smoking cigars and what we did was
06:09uh drew estate would send us a variety of different cigars and we would keep a cigar journal so we would
06:15smoke the cigar keep a journal of like okay it's um this one's a little spicy this one's a little
06:20chocolatey um and kind of really narrowing it down what we liked and what we didn't like
06:24and and narrowing it down to a triple maduro now is is uh making a cigar uh uh uh consistently
06:32with the same like flavor or taste is difficult or easier than with uh making whiskey it's similar
06:38actually because you are you've got a couple of years of fermentation and and then you're you're
06:44you're drying the the leaves um a lot of times you'll see them in these big kind of piles and that's
06:50where they're they're curing at that point uh so it could take several years before that that
06:55tobacco is ready to be able to roll into a cigar so uh you know just like whiskey um we're making it
07:01on the on the front end and then aging it you know so we've got several years we've got to wait before
07:06the whiskey's ready so kind of similar in the in the sense just kind of opposite now with your black
07:11and whiskey uh where is where is that is where is that located is that in the middle of the country
07:15yeah so we our production facility is in uh columbus ohio oh okay all right so that's where
07:21that's where we're producing the whiskey um and uh and and the cigars are being made in in nicaragua
07:26so you have uh you have i mean you have warehouses full of barrels right now oh yeah absolutely yeah
07:32it's in and it's always about the with whiskey it's always about the long game you know it's it's
07:38always about uh i always kind of feel like i'm living in the in the in the past present and future
07:43you know what we laid down in the past affects what we can bottle today and what we're laying
07:47down now in a barrel is going to affect what we can bottle in the future yeah so it's it's always
07:53kind of this weird uh kind of dimension of algorithm of uh maintaining the whiskey uh um inventory
08:00how intense is is this job that you have where you have to like control i mean theoretically
08:06metallica's brand as far as it comes to this kind of thing yeah i mean that's what i that's what i
08:11pride myself on you know it's it's i am i'm where the rubber hits the road as far as maintaining the
08:17quality and consistency of the whiskey and then and then coming up with new expressions and always
08:23evolving the whiskey you know you're you're always going to be you're always going to be fine tuning
08:27i think it's like a hot rod you know hot rod i mean it sounds great but you're always fine tuning
08:32that thing because it's you know you got to keep that thing on the road are you a hot rod guy oh yeah
08:36i i uh hot rods motorcycles i i like you know i've got a i've got a few vintage motorcycles um
08:45i've had a few hot rods throughout the years right now my my project that i'm working i've got a 1941
08:50dodge power wagon and that thing is just a beast what motor is in it it is it's a straight eight
08:57okay so it's a flat it's like a flathead straight eight wow okay but it was made by spitfire which made
09:03the airplane engines for during world war ii hmm yeah i got my harley in the shop right now and it
09:10it sprung a little bit of a leak and that's turned into a whole major ordeal but uh anyways i should
09:14have that back soon but i remember i asked james specifically one time uh back when they brought
09:20orion here which i think was 10 years ago actually almost to the day but i said i asked him how many
09:25hot rods he had or how many muscle cars he had and he started laughing and he says i have no idea
09:30and that's probably true i i was very fortunate to get a chance to go out um to the peterson museum
09:37where he had donated 10 of his his cars from his car collection and just some incredible stuff you
09:44know that he's not only restored um some really beautiful vintage vehicles but he's also created
09:51some from scratch like literally drawn them out on a piece of paper and figured out how to
09:57literally make uh the lines on on on one of the cars that he had yeah like kind of like a chip boost
10:03type thing yeah it's pretty it's pretty impressive i mean and and it's it's got to be it's got to be a
10:09lot of fun i mean to be able to just sit there and design a car from the ground up and uh and there's
10:16some just absolutely beautiful stunning work he's got a book out called um restored rust and it's got a lot
10:23of those books uh that it's got a lot of cars that he had donated to the peterson museum yeah so is is
10:30james the guy that you're like most in touch with in the band yeah i mean we live an hour and a half
10:36away from each other in colorado so we are and especially during covid when they the band wasn't
10:42touring i wasn't going anywhere i was spending a lot of time up at james uh james's house smoking
10:48cigars and just connecting over um a mutual interest life talking about family um and really
10:56just uh connected over honestly over cigars and and hot rods and and uh vintage bikes yeah james is
11:04uh he's a good guy i've had a chance to meet him and interview him a bunch of times yeah he's just
11:08like a yeah he's like he's like my rock star it's like that guy is like you know a guy you can relate
11:12to without a doubt and he's just he's just very down to earth um he knows what he likes he knows
11:18what he you know he spends a lot of time you know in the mountains um we're both avid hunters
11:23you know so we we talk a lot about that and you know we have a um kind of a good rapport with uh
11:29that guy can barbecue i will tell you i mean you will throw down some a rack of rack of ribs
11:34yeah that's cool do you remember the uh the first metallica song you ever heard
11:39oh yeah uh master of puppets oh was it master okay yeah yeah that was the first one that i i had
11:45heard um i was in my i was at my buddy paul's house and and he was like my my metal head friend
11:51you know we're listening to you know to everything and he's like you got to hear these guys and i was
11:56like what the hell is this this is amazing you know like this was the first time i was like okay
12:00this is my music that was about six or seven well yeah six seven years in their career
12:06uh right at the time was it was it brand new at the time or was it out for a little bit or what
12:10uh i think it was i think it just come out so this was like it was like probably six yeah early to mid
12:16uh 80s yeah yeah i remember the first record i ever bought the first vinyl i ever bought was uh
12:23ride the lightning i still have that actual album nice oh man i i mean i was all cassette tapes
12:29my parents had vinyl so i was buying vinyl and i think i remember my first my first vinyl record
12:37that i bought was van halen and and i think after that then i was you know then i had like
12:43deaf leopard and then and then uh and then it was metallica which i was i think at the time there
12:48was a little pushback from my folks because they were like wait wait wait this might be a little too
12:52much now when were you in the service what years uh 92 to 95 and how much did music play in uh in
13:00that aspect of your life oh man that was huge you know i did i did three deployments when i was in
13:05in uh with i was with the 10th mountain division um did two tours in somalia uh during the black hawk
13:11down uh incident and and uh and then i did a tour in haiti and you know at the time we were we we had
13:18the army of you know armed forces affiliated network would pipe in you know a radio station
13:24there was uh there was a dj named uh well yeah his show was mayhem and mogadishu
13:30and and uh and that was and he would play you know anything from alice and chains to metallica
13:36and i had my own cassette tapes i had a walkman that that uh that i brought with me and so i i mean
13:42uh and justice for all was was probably i listened to that thing on repeat you know and and so that
13:49was one of the one of the the records um alice and chains uh uh rooster was a huge that was like
13:56kind of our song you know like you know vietnam you think of uh paint it black or uh you know the
14:03doors or something yeah exactly for us it was it was definitely it was definitely metallica and
14:09and but rooster kind of became our our anthem uh from alice and chains yeah that was uh that was
14:15when i first started out in radio too and i just remember playing all the songs here brand new on
14:18the radio at the time back in the early 90s and now they're we're all talking about them in classic
14:22form oh i know i know it's yeah now it's classic but that was that was our that was our anthem for
14:28sure yeah so you've been doing this job now for a few years uh i mean it's had to exceed your
14:34expectations hasn't it oh without a doubt you know i i've i've stated this before but it's it's
14:41just really it's worth repeating i am i i have my dream job within my dream job yeah i get to i get
14:47to make whiskey but i get to make whiskey with metallica and that you know it couldn't be any
14:52better than that and uh this so this coming summer so you will be out of town out of you know you'll
14:58be in towns or whatever on uh friday saturday and sunday wherever they're playing when they come
15:02back to the states correct yeah so i'll be a lot of times i'm flying in on thursday flying out on
15:07monday but i'm doing all the north american tours i'll be up there in detroit um and but i'll be
15:13everything in north america including uh canada so we're i'm doing some of the canadian legs as well so
15:19that'll be a lot of fun yeah i might travel and check out some of those shows as a matter of fact
15:24i might see you before the detroit show at that power trip are you going to be there
15:28i i i'm supposed to be i'm not sure if i'm going to be yet or not because i mean that festival when
15:35it first came out i'm thinking okay this is an april fool's day joke i know i was i was looking at
15:40that lineup i was like wow these are these are all i didn't get to see a lot of those bands when i was
15:45younger because i grew up in southern colorado pretty remote uh i was like six hours away from
15:50denver so anything that was playing there was monsters of rock that would come through denver
15:54you know my buddies would get you know all their their money together and like road trip over
15:59and uh unfortunately i missed i missed going on one of those but this is kind of that same lineup
16:04yeah lineup yeah just completely insane and then uh you're also working with uh with wes
16:10henderson with black and x talk about that now wes henderson for the people that don't know
16:14his father was lincoln henderson and he was like a legend in the bourbon industry wasn't he
16:20he's like he's like bourbon whiskey royalty okay you know lincoln anderson um you know um and wes they
16:27they co-founded angels envy whiskey right and we have this program that's called uh the the masters of
16:35whiskey series and this is where i collaborate with other master distillers i did a collaboration with
16:40drew colesveen uh of will it distillery um and then we have the uh the collaboration i did with
16:48wes henderson uh you know and wes uh wes is um he was good friends with with dave pickerel who was my
16:55predecessor at blackened and so i really felt it was important that we did a collaboration together
17:00not only uh honoring honoring dave um uh but also being able to put together some incredible whiskey
17:09and that's you know that that was number two in our series we've got number three coming out
17:12this year um i'm not not uh at liberty to be able to speak about who that collaboration is with yet
17:19we're very very close um that'll be a fall release but we're we're excited and i'm working with another
17:25um another great whiskey and distillery um next year as well so we're keeping this thing going
17:31it just you know in the heart of the way metallica likes to collaborate with other other bands and
17:37other musicians we're doing the same thing in whiskey you know we're collaboration because we're
17:41always focused on the day in day out of making our product the best that we possibly can being able
17:48to kind of let your hair down a little bit and have some fun and do like a little art piece on the
17:53side uh is what as kind of how the masters of whiskey started as be able to create something with
17:59another industry um you know legendary industry uh professional and and be able to make some uh make
18:05some whiskey magic now did you know some of these guys i mean have you known some of these guys for a
18:09while or or just i have yeah yeah yeah it's kind of a small industry when you when you kind of narrow
18:14it down to right to whiskey makers and master distillers i you know i was the i was the master
18:19distiller at strand of hands colorado whiskey for 12 years i wasn't i wasn't the master distiller the
18:24entire time but that's the last portion of it um and so you really get to know a lot of folks when
18:30you're at these industry events whiskey whiskey fest um that's you know that's put on by whiskey
18:36advocate magazine there are you know whiskey x there's all these uh events where you you get to
18:42not only are you public facing and and really explaining how you make your whiskey but you're
18:47also able to uh it's kind of like a reunion you're getting to see people that you normally don't get to
18:51see uh on a regular basis yeah can you can you point back to like one decision or one instance
18:58that hooked you up with the metallica guys there's yeah there's kind of there's kind of two the main
19:07one was i i i admit i was at the event in san francisco where dave pickerel had passed away
19:14and you know it's that's that hits our our very you know small industry very hard you know and so
19:21i um and that was at a whiskey fest in san francisco and a month later i was at the whiskey
19:27fest in in new york and i went over to their booth and i and i talked to their their sales director
19:33and i just said hey i you know want to offer my condolences i you know dave was a great guy he was
19:38a friend and you know sorry to you know sorry to hear that he had passed and we talked about him for
19:44a while and and uh and then he said look i know this may seem kind of sudden he goes but we need a
19:50master distiller and he goes i think you would be perfect he goes with everything you're doing
19:54with cask finishing you got your rock and roll background from years being in the music industry
19:58as a stagehand and rigger and and stage manager he's like this is a perfect fit um is that something
20:05you'd be interested in i said well let's definitely talk i mean i'm and then the other connection was i
20:11have a friend who is friends with with james hetfield in in the you know up in the mountains their kids
20:19were playing soccer together and he was a big fan of what i was doing at stranahan's uh um my my my
20:25buddy and he had called me up and he said hey you know at first he had called me about dave pickerall
20:30and he said hey these guys are you know metallica's thinking about doing a whiskey what do you think
20:34about this dave pickerall guy and i was like oh my god he's there they've got the the cream of the
20:39crop the you know the the best guy they could possibly get and um and i said and let me know you
20:45know if if if it needs to be you know if i ever can get a chance to get in here and then after
20:50dave passed that was he had mentioned that to to james he said hey i've got i know this guy
20:55colorado boy who who's knows what he's doing with whiskey so kind of came from two different
21:02directions kind of came through the the director of sales and through uh kind of a a one degree of
21:08separation from uh from james yeah sometimes you never know what your what kind of connections
21:13you're going to make and like you said you just want to talk to the guy and send your condolences
21:17and and here comes like kind of an offer i mean it was and he said look well he goes i'll get your
21:23number and i'll give you a shout and and i didn't hear anything that was in december and i think in
21:29february i was in oaxaca mexico uh i was down there with a buddy touring some some mezcal uh palenques
21:37some distilleries down there and we were considering like you know importing mezcal and making our own
21:42mezcal brand that was what we were down there for and i get this call uh while i was there and i
21:49was like oh wait that's the that's the black and sales director i picked it up and and he's like
21:53hey man we uh we want to do an interview with you he's like we've got we're interviewing different
21:58distillers um at the time i was told that they had like about a dozen distillers that they were
22:02that they were all interviewing and it's like absolutely i'm in mexico right now when i get back
22:06i'll come meet you wherever wherever you want and they said well we'll we'll fly out to you in
22:10colorado so that's what they did they came out to colorado um we did the the first interview i went
22:16through like three interviews in that whole process and they they kept narrowing it down it
22:22was like oh we're down to like 10 10 distillers now that we're looking at now we're down to six
22:26and it and it was funny because it kind of felt like it was like american idol or something
22:30of like distillers you know everybody just kind of getting narrowed down and my last interview was
22:36with the band um and at hq in in san rafael and it was you know and and i my mind i i knew there
22:45were other distillers they were looking at and i thought okay at the very least i get to meet the
22:49band and and and have a i have a sit down and and really enjoy this experience you know regardless
22:55of how it turns out and how i found out i had the job was uh i interviewed individually with each one
23:02each member of the band and then i spent some time with james that's when we first connected over
23:07over motorcycles and and kind of everything and he asked me he said hey i i understand you're you're a
23:13veteran that you you've served served overseas and combat and i said yeah and he said i've got something
23:18for you and he stands up and he and he pulled out a metallica coin and and any you know if if any um
23:27any veterans out there you know they anytime you receive a challenge coin you receive it in a
23:32handshake you know and that that's received in a handshake and james knew how to how to to to give
23:38the the coin and he uh and he shook my hand he said thank you for your service and uh he said welcome
23:43to the family and gave me this gave me this hug i looked down at my hand and and it the coin is uh
23:50scary guy and and it says i am family forever trust in who we are nothing else matters and i was
23:57like just i get goosebumps when i think about it because it was really probably one of the more
24:01extraordinary um things to have ever happened to me at that time if you have a challenge coin you
24:07have to have it on you so do you have it on you uh it's not on me it's in my desk okay gotcha
24:12yeah so i try to try to test you on that one yes yeah i got i got a few challenge coins from uh from
24:18the military so um it's i need to i need a special like uh bandolier of these things yeah i was just
24:26telling you that tonight here in detroit is three doors down and they actually gave me a challenge
24:29coin uh back in 2018 i'll tell you about that and when we get done but uh yeah that's a that's a
24:34great story i think i think that i've heard you've told me that before but it's still it's such a great
24:39listen and they they just seem you know that really is a family in that band and i mean just to and it's
24:45funny because you talked earlier about how you can't smoke in in some of these stadiums and whatnot but
24:49james is constantly smoking these cigars before he goes on stage he probably some of the video out
24:54there i see i see a lot of videos videos of him he's smoking the black and m81 cigar which is which
24:59is awesome um but that's all in europe yeah i don't know i don't know what's going to be like
25:04in the u.s as far as him getting it but they also you know they pull pyro permits fire permits so he's
25:10got to be i'm sure that that falls under the the pyro permit so if that's the case then i might be
25:16smoking some cigars back there yeah that's awesome it's like what are they going to say it's like kid
25:20rock goes up on stage and smokes in an arena what do they what do they say to him you can't say
25:24anything to him you know no no and i and i i'm sure that that all fits under the pyro permit yeah
25:29so uh wrapping things up here so uh this year you're going to do the metallica show as you said you got
25:34another uh you got another um uh whiskey uh um uh cohab collaboration collaboration with somebody else
25:43coming up actually and then another one next year what else you got going on um i've got those i'm
25:48working on a few other expressions just some ideas that i've been thrown uh tossing around
25:52so there's there's always something going on i've got my i've got my lab at home in colorado
25:58i'm always playing around with different plans and different expressions um and really just kind of
26:04fine-tuning um fine-tuning the process yeah well rob as always it's always great to see and talk to
26:11you and as always thank you for your service i like to say that because you know obviously you guys
26:15uh sacrifice so i can do this ridiculousness all the time but i appreciate that as you know so
26:20well that's very kind of you meltdown i appreciate you saying that it's always always a pleasure
26:24talking with you man i'm looking forward to seeing you in person out there yep coming back uh so yeah
26:28last time was in uh pittsburgh and uh that was and then next time we'll be right here in the motor
26:32city if not sooner so i'm looking forward to it man it's been a while since i've been out there
26:36yeah all right rob well listen you'll be well thank you for everything thank you my friend
26:40thank you
26:43thank you
26:45thank you
26:57thank you
27:01thank you