Bruce Russell

Bruce Russell: Third Generation of a Legacy

Bruce Russell was born in 1989 in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Through the years Bruce would get the opportunity to learn from both his dad and grandfather.  His first lesson came long before any career decisions needed to be made at about the age of eight or nine years old. Bruce smelled what was in his dad Eddie’s glass and then he proceeded to talk about the family business. The reverence he had for Bourbon and Whiskey signaled to Bruce just how important this liquid was. Bruce’s family was just like every other small town family, except for all the whiskey everywhere. He spent a lot of time at the distillery growing up in his teens. Back in those days Bourbon wasn’t as hot and popular as it is today and Eddie and Jimmy were content on letting Bruce choose his own path.

Bruce actually wanted to go to school and be an engineer.  However, when you are in the bloodline of one of bourbon’s legacy names, it only makes sense to follow in the footsteps of your Dad, Eddie Russell, and your Grandfather, Jimmy Russell, the Buddha of Bourbon himself.  That’s exactly what Bruce did.  While attending the University of Kentucky in 2010 he was approached by Eddie about taking a job as a tour guide at Wild Turkey.  At the age of 21 in 2010, Bruce took that position for $10 and hour, but what he would start would be priceless.

Since joining the company Bruce has taken the time to learn and understand the traditions all while throwing in some ideas of his own tastes and curiosity. Bruce will be the first to tell you that Jimmy does everything the old fashion way and loves to do everything by sight, smell, taste and feel. On the other hand his dad Eddie loves to experiment a lot which has yielded some big award winning bourbons like Decades in 2016 which is part of the Top Shelf line in Master Keep Collection as well his first big hit in 1998 with the Diamond Anniversary Reserve which commemorated Jimmy’s tenure at Wild Turkey. In doing so Bruce has embraced these important lessons he has learned from Eddie and Jimmy and understands the true meaning for the bourbon experience of family and friends.   

Almost 15 years later, Bruce has discovered that each Russell has shared their own unique tastes and ideas that has greatly strengthened the product line of Wild Turkey.  While experiencing this he has been able to blend in his own ideas to further enhance the bourbon and rye products, especially since Bruce is considered the Russell family’s “rye guy.”  In late 2023 Wild Turkey released the first product that honors the collaboration of all three generations of the Russell family called Generations.  The bottle is the first to have the signatures for Jimmy, Eddie, and Bruce. He will tell you, “I take a lot of pride in what my family does. My personality is pretty close to Jimmy’s, and my ideas about whiskey are similar to Dad’s, so it works out pretty well.”

Today Bruce serves as a Brand Ambassador for Wild Turkey travelling the world promoting the brand he loves.  He is based in Austin, Texas but probably spends more time in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Although working with his dad and grandfather allows Russell to continue to enhance the bourbon and rye produced at Wild Turkey, he says he wants his legacy to be one a guy who was a real down to earth, honest person who promoted the brand Wild Turkey.