The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Family Reins: The Extraordinary Rise and Epic Fall of an American Dynasty by Billy Busch

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Family Reins: The Extraordinary Rise and Epic Fall of an American Dynasty by Billy Busch https://amzn.to/3YdEH0O The story of the iconic Anheuser-Busch dynasty, written -- for the first time -- by a Busch heir. As an heir to the Anheuser-Busch company and fortune, Billy Busch was raised on the real stories of how his family built one of America's oldest and most iconic brands. Since the company was formed almost 150 years ago, the Busch family, their beer, the famous Clydesdales in their advertising, and even their style of business have become a symbol of the American dream -- that not-so-outdated belief that hard work, grit, and a positive can-do attitude make anything possible. Growing up on the family's ancestral estate as a prince to the King of Beers, Billy lived a life only kids could dream up -- living in an amusement park, traveling by private rail car and yacht, and playing with his pet elephant, Tessie. But as he grew up, he realized that the Busch family legacy was not just wealth and privilege. With no separation between family and business, Billy’s father -- more boss than dad -- continued the tradition of preparing the next generation for corporate leadership, with high and exacting standards for his children. For Billy, all of this, combined with a dysfunctional family environment, was all too normal. Family Reins tells the story of a legendary American family, their rise to power, and their fall from grace through poisonous infighting, succession struggles, and a seemingly endless string of tragedies, scandals, and loss.About the Author Billy Busch is the founder of the Busch Family Brewing & Distilling Company and an heir to the Anheuser-Busch multi-billion-dollar fortune. He is the proud father of seven children and stars with his wife in the MTV reality series The Busch Family Brewed. A graduate of St. Louis University, he played professional polo, winning the US Open polo tournament. He and his wife, Christi, a film producer and head of Busch Productions, live on their seven-hundred-acre estate in St. Louis, Missouri.

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We have an amazing gentleman on the show and a storied family American history. This is kind of Americana, really. Is Americana the right word? We'll find out. Anyway, we have an amazing author on the show. His newest book just comes out August 1st, 2023. It's called Family Reigns, the Extraordinary Rise and Epic Fall of an American Dynasty. Billy Bush joins us on the show, and you may recognize that name, the Bush family and Bush

Beer, as it were, Anheuser-Busch. And I should probably mention when it says family reigns, that's family reigns as in like horse reigns as opposed to family reigns. But I believe there's some reign that goes on with the family. And Billy's here to share with us, talk to us about us, and give us a lowdown on his latest book and this amazing story of Americana. He is a heir to the Anheuser-Busch company and fortune. He was raised on the stories of how his family built one of America's most iconic brands.

Growing up on the family's ancestral estate as a prince to the king of beers, Billy lived a life other kids could only dream of. Welcome to the show, Billy. How are you? Great. Great to be here with you, Chris. Thank you for having me on. There you go. And thanks for coming on as well.

Do you have a dot com or any place you want people to find you on the interwebs uh not right now actually okay you have an instagram i think don't you i do have an instagram billy bush seven there you go well we'll just plug the book go buy the damn book already where you go books are sold that's uh that's always awesome so uh let me ask you this, what motivated you to write this book? Well, Chris, of course I grew up in the family. I watched my father as he grew the business. I think during his tenure as head of the brewery, I was August Bush Jr., better known as Gussie. I think it was probably the time of the greatest growth for Anheuser-Busch. And so I've been very, very close to the business and to the company all my life growing up, especially in the family. And, you know, there's never been a book written by a family member that's been published about the family and about the company.

So I really am very proud of the fact of what my family has accomplished, what my ancestors did, how hard they worked, their determination, their belief in themselves and in the country to live the American dream, I think is just amazing. I think the history to how they accomplished and got what they got done is just something that needs to be told and never forgotten. I'm very proud of it. And, you know, I think people are going to really enjoy how all that happened, how it all came about. And I think they're going to get an up close and personal look at how what it was like growing up as a Bush family member. And again, there's been a lot written about the family, never by a Bush family member.

And so they're going to get the truth here. And I think I hope people enjoy it. I know I have seven kids. I've told them stories about about the past. Now I've put it down in black and white so that they will have it and they know where they come from and know what runs in their blood. And it was important for me to leave that to them also. So, you know, it was a work of passion and I hope my ancestors are gonna be proud of what I wrote because they were amazing people.

I didn't know my grandfather or my great-grandfather. I knew my father, of course. But, you know, the hard work that they did to keep during Prohibition, Chris, to keep 2,000 employees employed during that time and have to come up with other products to sell when you couldn't sell alcohol and not knowing when prohibition was going to end or if it was going to end and to keep that going. What it took for my grandfather to do that, it basically killed him in the end, but he did it. And I'm very proud of that. There you go. And like you mentioned,

this is an insider story. So, you know, a lot of people write from the outside and people do their, what do they like to call it, quarterback, armchair quarterback stuff. They're like, oh, look over there. That's what they're doing. And I think, you know, some people don't see what the inside is like. And so I think that's what's great about your book is you talk to that. And I guess it's kind of a memoir. It's billed as telling the story of a legendary American family, their rise to power, their fall from grace through poisonous infighting,

succession struggles, and seemingly endless string of tragedies, scandals, and loss. It almost kind of sounded to me like a Camelot, almost, a Kennedy Camelot, maybe a little bit. Well, I'll tell you, it was interesting writing the book and what it did, it taught me a lot about the family. My father kept lots of notes. He kept lots of letters that he had. And it really gave me insight to who my family was, where my father came from. When I was growing up, we really never talked

about it. My dad was, he was born in 1899. So when I was born, he was 60 years old. He was still running the brewery. He didn't really have time to go back into the history with me and really explain to me what his father was like or what his grandfather was like. And to be able to read those notes, to be able to read some of the books that he kept and those letters and really get an inside look at where he came from, what his grandfather was like and his father really helped me understand a pattern. And that pattern was that when you talk about the, the leadership of the company was never guaranteed to the oldest son. It was guaranteed to the most competent son. And really what it, what it taught me was one of the reasons that the company is no longer part of the family was because that pattern, that pattern shifted in the fourth generation.

And, you know, it did not necessarily, well, it didn't go to the most competent son in the end. And that's one of the reasons Anheuser-Busch was taken over by InBev. And there's a, we'll get into that whole story of kind of, I think it was kind of a hostile or somewhat hostile takeover. But let's, for those people who just think beer is something you buy on a shelf at 7-Eleven, it's just always been there, let's talk about the story of history. Where did Anheuser-Busch begin? Who started it? And what gives it this long-distance prominence in Americana and American history,

making it a dynasty? Well, my great-grandfather, Adolphus Bush, moved from Germany over to St. Louis, Missouri, here in the United States back in 1857. And he came here because Germany was going through a revolution of sorts. The economy wasn't good, but he saw that there were opportunities in the united states and he could come here basically to live the american dream um he worked on the river and on the mississippi river which was very familiar to him because he grew up along the rhine river in in germany uh doing business um along the rhine river so it made sense for him he worked on on a riverboat, then other sorts of jobs. He met the love of his life, Lily Anheuser. Lily's father, Everhart, had a failing brewery down

on the riverfront in St. Louis. It wasn't doing well. He was a great entrepreneur, and his focus was on the other businesses, not so much on the brewing business. So he was going to either shut the brewing business down or he was going to sell it. But he first asked his son-in-law, Adolphus, if he would like a go of running the brewery. And basically, Chris, the rest is history because, of course, Ad all who said yes, let me give it a try. He discovered that the beer that E. Eberhardt Anheuser and Company Brewery was making was lousy. And he, you know, he knew he needed to upgrade the beer. He came up with a great recipe, him and his brewmaster.

Of course, that's called Budweiser. And he realized that, you know, in the heat of the summer, that a good lager beer was more refreshing than an ale. And, you know, and Budweiser became, you know, a staple household name as it is today, basically. But that's pretty much how it started out. There you go. And you guys made a lot of firsts. I mean, this is part of Building of America. You guys were the first companies to transport beer nationwide using railroad refrigerator cars,

pasteurization to keep beer fresh, and all sorts of different things that really serve that. And then you mentioned before that they, you know, I imagine it was a big trouble going through the prohibition years because, Jesus, everyone was sober. Exactly. Must have been miserable. It must have been tough. I mean, yeah, you're right. Hi, folks.

Here's Voss here with a little station break. Hope you're enjoying the show so far. We'll resume here in a second. I'd like to invite you to come to my coaching, speaking, and training courses website. You can also see our new podcast over there at chrisvossleadershipinstitute.com. Over there, you can find all the different stuff that we do for speaking engagements, if you'd like to hire me, training courses that we offer, and coaching for leadership, management, entrepreneurism, podcasting, corporate stuff. With over 35 years of experience in business and running companies as a CEO.

And be sure to check out chrisfossleadershipinstitute.com. Now back to the show. Before the refrigerated railroad car, which Adolphus invented, he was a very innovative guy, were the ice houses that he actually also invented. And instead of taking the beer across the Mississippi where there was a tax on the beer, he decided to go down toward Texas. And I don't know if you know, but there's a hotel down there that he built because he spent so much time in Texas called the Adolphus Hotel, which stands today. But he built ice houses along the railway lines so that the railroad could stop and refresh the ice to keep the beer cold as they went as they as they shipped the beer down towards Texas and in Texas. So he did that. He also discovered pasteurization. He worked with Louis Pasteur to pasteurize beer. So he was the first one to do that. That of course allowed the beer to stay fresher for a longer period of time, which allowed them to also transport the beer further than

their competition. So he was ahead of his time. He was also a very gregarious guy, great marketing guy, knew how to work with people just like my dad did. My dad was very, very similar to him. And you put all those things together and it just made for a huge success. There you go. What are some of the stories in your book that people are going to stand out or what can we tease out and pick people to get them to go pick up the book? Well, I think one of the interesting things at the beginning of the book is how they discovered Budweiser, the recipe for Budweiser. And that's always a fun part. That's a little bit of a myth.

Maybe it's not completely true, but it's a myth that's been going on for generations now. That's one of the things. I think another fun thing at the beginning of the book is how my great grandfather got my grandfather to take over the brewery. He he wasn't interested in doing that at all. He was a cowboy outdoorsman. He didn't want to be he didn't want to run the brewery. He wanted to be a farmer or rancher. And how how his father handled that situation and made him change his mind. I think, you know, the interesting stories are how they got through Prohibition, which was a difficult 13 years, but they made it through.

After Prohibition, the interesting thing is how they marketed their beer, how they got up and running again, which was an incredible time. And of course, that's the beginning of the Clydesdale Eight Horse Hitch, which my father and his brother presented to my dad or to my grandfather to celebrate the end of Prohibition is another interesting thing. And then, you know, how my dad took it over, how he started with 3 million barrels of beer, I think they were selling. And he took it all the way up to almost 40 million barrels of beer sold in the 70s. And how we celebrated, because I was born then, I was living then. And how we celebrated those milestones was a lot of fun.

And then, you know, it's not all built around fun, though. Unfortunately, there's a lot of tragedy. It wasn't all fun and games. It wasn't all fun and games. Were people involved or something? It's a real life situation, a real life story. And I think people will relate that and understand that, you know, there's a lot of hardships that went along with it. And we tell them, I tell about that too. I talk about that because I, again, I wanted to tell the truth in this book. I wanted it to be truthful because it's not only for the public out there to read and I want to be truthful to them, but I want my kids, all seven of them to really know where they came from and understand,

you know, the shortcomings of what I went through also, because there were some shortcomings. And I think you got to learn from those to build a stronger and better family. There you go. And so what is it like for you? Give us a little tease out from the book, because I'm sure you cover it. What is it like for you to grow up? You're in an epic dynasty. There's lots of family members probably this point in play and probably people maybe jockeying to try and run the company or you know get get whatever they can i mean there's you know it ends up being kind of like the godfather where there's you know it becomes a dynasty of princes and kings and everyone's trying to get their i don't know whatever they want to do tell tell us about what it's like to grow up in that environment. You know, it's amazing because

you get the front row seats to the Cardinal baseball games. You get to sit in the dugout. You get to go as a kid, grab handfuls of bubble gum out of the big jar in the locker room of the Cardinals. You get to shake hands with Lou Brock and Stan Musial and Red Shandies and Whitey Herzog and Ozzie Smith. And I could go on and on and on, Chris. You get to go behind the scenes at all the theme parks, the bush gardens and see the elephants and the and the cheetahs and all the different animals that there are to see. You can get in front of the line and ride on all the different

rides that they have, the roller coasters and what have you. But not only that, I got to grow up on a farm, which was open to the public. My dad opened it to the public. And really, that's what spurred him to build the theme parks around the breweries, realizing the brand loyalty that that, that, that, the grants farm where I grew up built. And, you know, I had my, I had a pet elephant growing up, which I talk about in the book. So it was amazing. Who had to clean up the poop? Sorry to interrupt you, but I just have to know that. You know what? You need a big shovel and a strong one.

I have two Huskies and it's bad enough. I can't imagine an elephant. That's right. But, but it was, it was, it was amazing when it's bad enough. I can't imagine an elephant. That's right. But it was amazing when it comes to that. But I will say, I think there were some things missing. I think it was always we had to live up to this legacy. We had to live up to this image of where we came from, of what we were promoting, which of course, we were always promoting the company and its brands. And I think, um, when you're doing that all the time, it becomes your communication. You lack communication with your siblings. You lack communication with your parents. I mean, real communication. Um, and I never really had that. Um, I had better communication with the

people that work for us. And I talked about a chauffeur who worked for us. His name was Nathan in the book, who actually became a mentor of mine and one of my best friends. And he helped me through some really tough times when I was being bullied because of my name. And, you know, again, I talk about that in the book. We were more like little soldiers and we had to be soldiers. We couldn't show emotion. We had to, and dad, our father was like our boss. And I think my mom felt the pressure of it too. And, you know, you'll be able to read about, you know, those kinds of things and how that affected us. Yeah. Everybody thinks that sometimes if you're involved in, you know, a dynasty of this

nature or wealth and privilege, that it's all just roses and whatever. And sometimes it's just more wars and more people, you know, negotiating and fighting over stuff. And, you know, there's more to fight over, I suppose, and, uh, different things. And I think some of, you know, you mentioned earlier the, the, the inheritance and the progression of the company and the leadership that was done down through the family and then ended up with this, uh, sort of hostage. I think you tell me what it was. Was it, you know, it was a hostage takeover.

I think it was a Swedish company, wasn't it? It was a Belgian company, Belgian and Brazilian company. It was a hostile takeover. I mean, they saw a good opportunity. The company wasn't being run well. They knew it. They had gotten into our distribution system because the leader of the company allowed that to happen. They were able to see the books. They were able to know exactly what it would take to buy the company. And they went for it. And there was really nothing. It was actually August the 4th.

My nephew who was running the brewery at the time, there was nothing he could do to stop it. I know that he tried to stop the takeover and he could have done that had the board gone along with them on buying the rest of Modelo because it would have made the company too expensive to buy for even InBev.

But the board turned it down. And so it was taken over. But, yeah, I mean, there was a lot of competitiveness in the family, you know, over things like that. It was always very competitive. That's the other thing that was not necessarily the most healthy thing in the world. The competition that we all felt to a degree, some more than others. So, yeah, that was a difficult thing, and I think that helped divide the family to a certain degree also.

There you go. You know, it's really interesting how all this has played out. In fact, you mentioned Modelo, which I think is the number one selling beer right now after the Bud Light kerfuffle. If you're watching this 10 years from now, you can read up about what that was about. But yeah,

it's, it's, you know, I've, I've watched different family dynasties. Like I know there's a lot of infighting with the in and out family dynasty and who is going to run that in the end. And,

you know, it's part of, it's part of life. It's part of human nature and it's part of what goes into all this stuff. But I think it's, I think it's most important because it's written firsthand by yourself and tells that real story. I mean, I can't look at a Clydesdale and you've got the beautiful Clydesdales on the cover of the book for those who are buying it. Um, I can't look at the Clydesdale without thinking about beer. No, absolutely. It was probably the greatest marketing move that the family ever made.

Oh yeah. I mean, just so classic. And you know, I lived through all the, as you did all the, all the Superbowls and the Bud Light commercials, the Warrington Bud Light commercials and the beer commercial, the beer wars, I think is how you called them. So any final thoughts on this before we go out? Any teasers you want to give out on the book and what people should do to pick it up? I just want to say that I think I carry the weight of the legacy to a certain degree. I want to keep it going. We're building a brewery on our farm right now. Oh, wow.

Our company is called Bush Family Brewing and Distilling, so there's going to be a distillery. And it's going to be very similar to the way I grew up. We invited people to our home growing up. Now I'm going to be inviting my family and I are going to be inviting people to our farm to come out, enjoy the farm, relax, see the beautiful countryside, kind of enjoy that farm to glass aspect. We've got the hops growing out there and the corn and the wheat and, you know, different things in barley that goes into, into the beer and, and the spirits. And, you know, we're going to continue that legacy because again, Chris, I'm very, very proud of, of it. And I just, while I'm alive, I just feel that it needs to continue in some way and be remembered because it's just so fascinating, the whole history. I mean, it's 150 years of history, you know, going through the Great Depression, through Prohibition, through the wars, and how my family, you know, they were patriots, and they loved this country, and they knew that

this country enabled them to build an American dream a brewing empire and they always gave back um and cared about uh where they came from and the people of this country and um i just wish we had more of it today so i think uh i think it's it's a great book for people to read i think they'll really enjoy it there you go uh someone this is kind of an interesting thing uh someone's peeing into me. I don't put the comment up because they put a.com on here and I want to run an ad for it. But they're talking about how this is something we've dealt with here in Utah. And the prohibition rules of how a lot of states still run with this prohibition rules that are 100 years old. And you're like, what the hell is going on?

I'm even shocked that when I lived in Vegas for 20 years by you can buy anything 24 7 anything really uh but i would go to california and like the walmart be like why are you buying uh wine at 3 a.m and i'm like don't you guys you guys are like the wine cap prohibition rules um and somebody so what are your thoughts on prohibition rules and and do we need to update? And somebody's asking me about a new technology for vending that will allow alcohol to be sold in unattended retail and vending machines. And it has some sort of age verification technology. I don't know if you want to throw any thoughts or kick around. I don't know about the vending machine idea. I think, I don't know how you would get over the hump of knowing who's a legal age or not, or if someone's been drinking too much. That might be hard to do, but with AI now and with all the

technology, it might be a great idea. As far as some of the old prohibition, the three-tier laws that came out of prohibition. I think some of that is antiquated at this point. I think, you know, there's over 10,000 breweries in the United States now, and a lot of breweries have to go through wholesalers in order to get it out to the retail accounts. And I think it shrinks your margins

and it makes it very, very difficult to make any money in this business anymore, unless you're a superpower like InBev or Miller Coors or something like that. So for the little guy, it makes it very, very difficult. I would like to see the wholesaler be cut out, honestly, and the ability for the manufacturer to be able to sell it right to the retailer. And that way they keep more of the profits themselves and their margins are better. Yeah. I mean, here in Utah, you couldn't even advertise beer on a billboard up until I think a few years ago. Yeah, it's crazy. Some states, I mean, I know Oklahoma, there were dry counties in Oklahoma for a long time. I don't

know. There still are. Utah was like that. And some states you can only buy 3-2. Some cities in some states you can only buy 3-2 beer, which is just amazing to me. But, yeah, they still go by that old prohibition, those prohibition laws. Yeah, it's the most grossest beer in the world, 3-2 beer. Oh, my God. It's basically fermented piss anyway thank you very much billy for coming on the show we really appreciate man it's a pleasure chris thank you very much for having me on there you go uh continued success and order the book

wherever fine books are sold but stay with the zallie way bookstores because uh you might get mugged or get tetanus shots out of one of them or something i I don't know. Uh, family reigns, the extraordinary rise and epic fall of an American dynasty by Billy Bush, uh, uh, came out or comes out. August 1st, 2023.

I'm in denial about this year getting past July. Evidently. Uh, thanks for tuning in. Go to good reason.com for just Christmas, youtube.com for just Christmas, LinkedIn.com for just Christmas. All the places we are on the internet.

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