By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
It wasn’t a presentation, or the usual speech – it was a performance. Courtesy, Josh Quinn.
Quinn was the guest performer – not speaker – at this week’s Covington Rotary Club. The guest usually is given about 35 minutes of “show-time.”
Quinn needed more – he was that good.
“This may very well be the first time you have seen me with my pants on,” he opened with. “That’s because I’m a bagpiper, and have performed with the Kentucky Vets.”
Bagpipers wear kilts.
“Some people,” he said, “are like leaves — they change colors and fall off. Others are like branches – they may break over time.” And, finally he said some people are like roots: “My roots are from my mom and dad.”
Quinn ventured into police work and stayed with it for some 26 years and eight months.
“My mom and dad were mortified when I told them I wanted to be a cop,” he said.
Josh Quinn was more than a cop. He worked with Simon L. Leis in the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office, moved to Boone County, and finished his career with the FBI – offices in Louisville and on Buttermilk Pike in Northern Kentucky.
“I investigated national security issues,” he said. So, it was only natural his stage-time turned to terrorism – and he added tourism, as well.
He recalled James Fields, the Cooper High School grad who was involved in the Unite the Right rally on August, 2017. It took place in Charlottesville, Va. Marchers included members of the all-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, far militias – and Cooper High School grad James Alex Fields Jr., a self-identified white supremacist.
“This march really hit me hard,” Quinn said, “Because I’m Jewish.” Quinn mentioned that Fields had some “issues” as a kid. “He was arrested when he was seven, for throwing rocks at kids at a school bus stop,” he said.
At the rally, Fields deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters about a half-mile away from the site, according to published reports – killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 people. Fields fled the scene in his car, Quinn recounted, but was arrested soon afterward.
“He was tried and convicted in Virginia state court of first-degree murder, malicious wounding, and other crimes in 2018, with the jury recommending a sentence of life imprisonment plus 419 years,” Quinn said.
The following year, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes in a plea agreement to avoid the death penalty in his trial.
Enough hate and crime – as the show turned to bourbon, of all things.
“Things were rough for me when I left law enforcement,” Quinn said, “I even went back for a bit.” So, in 2015 The Boone County Distilling Company – originally formed in Petersburg – now in Independence with co-owners Jack Wells and Josh Quinn.
“When you think of a retired cop,” Quinn said, “You normally refer to that person as someone with no money.”
The Boone County Distilling Company also announced a partnership with NBA player Stephen Curry – in May 2023 – to distill the athlete’s “Gentlemen’s Cut” Kentucky Bourbon.
Boone County Distilling Co. currently have five different types of bourbons for sale. Their classic Eighteen 33 which is a standard bourbon whiskey, White Hall Bourbon Cream, a 12-year single barrel of their Eighteen 33, and two versions Tanner’s Curse whiskey, either made from a bourbon mash or a rye mash.
As for tourism, Quinn is the Product Development Director for MeetNKY – that is his day job.
“Our mission is simply to drive quality of life and economic growth for Northern Kentucky through tourism marketing and destination development,” he said.
Their job — to assist in making your next Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky events, meetings, or conventions as easy – and successful – as possible.
Perhaps with Josh Quinn as a guest – and a bottle of his bourbon.