LYNCHBURG — He’s in Lynchburg so often that we’re surprised he doesn’t have his own designated table at Woodard’s Market. On Thursday, October 9, Blake Redferrin – known to fans simple as Redferrin – will return to Lynchburg to play at the second annual BBQ Bash in the Hollow, sponsored by The Jack Daniel Distillery.

He also played the inaugural concert in 2024. The event’s slowly becoming the unofficial kickoff to the Jack Daniel World Invitational Barbecue weekend.

While back in Lynchburg, he’ll be sure to perform Jack & Diet Coke, his hit song, and one of the reasons he remains close to Lynchburg. To date, it’s been streamed over 30 million times globally.

“Yeah, so I started off as a songwriter in Nashville, and got a taste of being able to write a hit song, but never for myself,” Redferrin told The Times in 2024. “Jack and Diet Coke was the first one that took off for me on social media. For a long time, I was writing for other people and I was writing what I thought people wanted to hear. Jack and Diet Coke was a true story. It was real. It wasn’t just like catchy sounding. And I didn’t have a clue that it was going to be the one.”

Redferrin says the success of Jack & Diet Coke felt like a bit of redemption for him.

“I did a song called, Stuck, and it sounds a lot like Jack and Diet Coke. And that was the kind of music I wanted to make. But everybody around me said it was a little too dark sounding. It’s too rock and roll. It’s too this or that. Nobody would accept it,” he says. “They let me put one song out, but then they didn’t want any more of them. So, it was kind of fulfilling to me that the next song that took off was one that sounded like Stuff. Now that’s all they want from me.”

Redferrin often get tagged with monikers like rebellious and unorthodox in his press clipping but that’s not quite right. He’s both edgy and strong but also possesses an unflinching honesty that makes his songwriting resonate. The up-and-coming artist is a textbook example of authenticity and a world of cookie-cutter country artists.

“If you tell the truth, you ain’t got to think hard about the answer,” he explains – offering a bit of life philosophy. “If you wear what you really like to wear. You ain’t got to think hard about what you’re wearing. If you give people the truth, that’s all they’ll ever want. I don’t think it’s as tough as maybe we all think it is. You just got to be okay being who you are and be okay being liked or not.”

Lynchburg feels like home

Redferrin says the success of Jack and Diet Coke let to an invitation to Lynchburg – a place he now says feels like home. Jack Daniel’s Marketing Director Greg Luehrs discovered Blake Redferrin on Instagram. He says there was instantly something about him that resonated, so he reached out and invited Redferrin to visit Lynchburg. Eventually, he’d spend a long weekend writing songs in an Airstream up on Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Hill.

“Jack was just real inspiring – being from Tennessee and learning all this history. And it kind of inspired the the EP. That’s why I called it Old No. 7. I got to spend time here writing up on The Hill. I even recorded a song in that Airstream at two in the morning drunk up there,” he laughs.

The song, She’s Like Whiskey, isn’t about any former flame. It’s about his dog, Mellow.

“She had cancer and she got sick during our week on The Hill,” he says. “That was my last week with her. So, we gave her a bunch of treats, and we drank a bunch of that good Jack and we wrote a song about it. Yeah, it sounds like a love song, but it’s really about my dog.”

He eventually filmed the video for the song at the Distillery. You can watch it, by clicking here.

Nashville recording artist Jason McPhail will open for Redferrin. He’s a southern rock and country artist known for his high-energy stage performances. You can listen to some of his music on his website, Spotify, or Apple Music.

Doors will open on October 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Lynchburg Welcome Center located on the corner of Majors Boulevard and Main Street. Tickets for ages 21 and up are $50 each and come with three drink tickets. Under 21 tickets are also available for $25. Ticket pickup will happen the day of the event at the Jack Daniel’s Visitor’s Center across the street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To purchase tickets, visit jackdaniels.com. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the hometown newspaper of Lynchburg, Tennessee the home of The Jack Daniel Distillery. We get an up-close, insider view of news and events happening in The Holler. If you’ve visited, and would like to follow goings on here in Lynchburg until you return, give us a follow over on Facebook.}