Fun Furniture Fact #12: Billy Beer

In 1977, Falls City Brewing Company approached the country’s most visible drunken redneck, Billy Carter, about forming a partnership to help the company out of its slump—Thus creating Billy Beer.

Okay, so Billy Beer isn’t really a piece of furniture, but it’s got a pretty interesting history so we wanted to share. The gist of it:

By the late 70s, Billy Carter, Jimmy Carter’s younger brother, had been deemed a “professional redneck” and was known for his strong affinity for beer. As his buffoonish notoriety rose, the popularity of the Falls City brewing company was on a decline. A partnership between the two made sense in its mutually beneficial nature; the company would be represented by a well-known drunken society figure and Billy would drink for free, and get paid to do it.

Each can features Billy’s signature and his claim, “I had this beer brewed just for me. It’s the best beer I’ve ever tasted. And I’ve tasted a lot.” It all sounds very promising… However, the beer failed and so did Falls City.

These beer cans aren’t rare, but they do have a funny story associated with them.