America’s most famous moonshiner, Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, died in his home yesterday. He was scheduled to report to prison this week to begin serving an 18 month sentence after authorities raided his stills and yielded more than 800 gallons of his “likker”. The death is being investigated as a suicide.
Tonight drink one for Popcorn and watch his documentary, How To Make Moonshine.
Bob Dylan – Moonshine Blues
American Gun – Moonshiner
Delta Moon – Clear Blue Flame
Jimmy Buffett – God’s Own Drunk
5 Responses to “R.I.P.: POPCORN SUTTON”
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I never had the pleasure of meeting Popcorn Sutton, but he was a local legend in the area in which I live. His passing does feel like the end of an era, the last link to an almost vanished way of life. It’s sad that Sutton chose to end his life rather than report to prison, but it was his choice to make, just as he chose time and time again to return to making shine. He had plenty of run-ins over with law enforcement and the courts, and if he chose to he could have made a living legally, by essentially playing himself. But Popcorn wouldn’t do that. So, while I’m sad he’s gone, he made his choice to live the moonshiner’s life and has no one to blame except himself for the way the story ended.
On
he made his choice to live the moonshiner’s life
that would be a great line in a song.
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I live in these mountains. I think popcorn lived his life and survived the way he was taught by his father and his father’s father. I think there was alot of wisdom lost. How many people in this world wish that their father could , maybe give them the same?
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venerated moonshiner or a man too lazy for honest work? we cant choose which laws we will obey….Sutton,like many others,thought the law didnt apply to him. a true hero is a man who goes to work everyday and obeys the laws of the land…but sadly we tend to ignore the working man and make heroes out of people who never worked and paid the bills to operate this nation a day in their life.
moonshiners aint no different than meth cookers…..aint a hero in the bunch.
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we cant choose which laws we will obey….
we all do that.