‘Moonshiners’: Eric ‘Digger’ Manes & Mark Ramsey Get Candid About Prison Fears

Eric “Digger” Manes and Mark Ramsey are going back to their roots on Moonshiners. The run-in with the law last season was a sobering reminder of what could happen in their line of work with the fear of ending up in prison never far from their minds. After shutting down for six months, they went for a reset during the Season 15 premiere on January 6. The pair were facing potential arrest last year by law enforcement officer David Robertson after they were caught with a functioning illegal still. They were later released due to a hole that was drilled in it, which made the equipment non-functional. No charges were filed, but the ordeal shook them to the point of contemplating the next move. 

Their mindset this time around was to keep a low profile, lean into established customers and keep it simple. Digger and Ramsey also sent colleagues Amanda Bryant and Kelly Williamson away. The duo thought if they went down this time around, they didn’t want to take others down with them. 

Here, the partners open up about all they’ve been through and tease the obstacles to overcome as they try to stay out of jail. 

When you were detained at the end of last season, that must have been a reality check.

Eric “Digger” Manes: It will change your life. I promise you. Fortunately enough, knock on wood, we haven’t been arrested. We have been detained a handful of times, which is just a bad feeling I promise you. 

Mark Ramsey: It’s a threat that is always there. It’s something that could always happen. You never get completely comfortable with where you are, who you are with, other than me being with Digger. It’s just part of the challenge. It’s the life we chose. 

Digger: Every vocation has its challenges. 

Yeah, yours just feels a bit more high risk. 

Digger: I don’t know. Have you watched Shark Week? That’s not for me. 

Was there ever a point where you took the setbacks as a sign to do something else? 

Digger: It has its challenges and second-guesses. 

Mark: Digger and I, we both had day jobs, full-time jobs. Our jobs permitted this to still take place. We were always able to make a little bit of liquor and had time to do it. 

Digger: I worked for my dad, so I could disappear a lot. It was a whole lot easier for me to beg for forgiveness. 

Mark: Digger’s dad used to tell him, “Well, I guess you’re going to leave a couple of hours early today to make up for coming in late, ain’t you?” 

Digger: That was always my plan. 

One of the tough decisions you made right out of the gate was cutting Amanda and Kelly loose. How hard was that? 

Digger: You know it’s in our nature to pick people up and dust them off. We don’t like  knocking them down. That is what this meant with our machine as we call it. We had to push some people down. It wasn’t because we wanted to. It was because of their safety. 

Mark: Digger and I, eyes were on us hard. We’d be put in a police car. On J.B.’s counsel we got a lot of respect and admiration. Our old man J.B. Rader, he has never been caught. We stepped back and looked at things. He told us, just like popcorn, we got too damn big for our britches. We took his advice, and we’re going to move forward at a slower pace. 

Digger: If we could prevent somebody from being collateral damage from the attention we’re drawing, we’re going to do just that. 

I love that you referred to J.B. as your Obi-Wan. How important was it to get his reaffirmation as you began this next chapter? 

Digger: I’d say my bond with J.B. is just a little stronger than Marks’ because J.B. just about saved my life from dying of carbon monoxide poisoning running a still one time. I owe that to J.B. Mark can look at that being the reason he has had to put up with me for all this time. 

Mark: Yeah, so I can thank J.B. for a lot of my misery. If he left them on that catwalk, we may have been alright [laughs]. You know J.B. has been our friend forever and for years. We know that J.B. doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He loves us. We know that. He would never tell us anything to hurt us. He also won’t pull any punches with us. When he tells us something, he means it. We either listen to it or we don’t. That is where we are with him. His counsel is well respected. 

Digger: The old ways may not be as popular as the new ways, but Mark and I are of the mindset that if we lived the lives like we did back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, it would be a whole lot better world. It would be a little bit sad for some because they’d be bored. But it would be a whole lot better world. 

How would you describe your strategy this season? 

Digger: If you look at the moonshine today and all the things on the shelves, our predecessors admired in our neck of the woods would have laughed us out of the field. They wouldn’t have believed all this. We cut our teeth on corn liquor, making corn and sugar liquor. That’s just where we think we belong. 

Mark: The thing about it is the challenges we face this season came from a whole other angle. There were challenges we couldn’t foresee. The price increases and ingredients, that’s always a challenge. We kind of got blind-sided by something we never imagined coming. Not to give too much away, we had to address it in a whole other different way. We had to take approaches we wouldn’t usually take. 

Digger: If we were in the legal world, all we would have to do is call the United States Marshals Service for situations like we faced. But we’re not in a position to do that. 

What do you make of your bond and relationship? How is it working together after all these years? 

Digger: It’s still as exciting for me as it was the first day we ever pulled a ripcord on the shoot. Our bond, that’s the thing. Sadly enough, a lot of people don’t have a bond like Mark and myself. They don’t have lifelong friends. To them, friends are expendable. To us, they are indispensable. You can’t live without them. 

Mark: Digger and I, we’ve been friends probably around 45 years. We always got along and always looked out for each other. We were polar opposites. What bothers him doesn’t bother me and what worries the hell out of me doesn’t bother him. We’ve never seen any reason to change that friendship. We trust each other with everything we got, including our freedom. It’s where we’re at and where we’ll stay. We’ll die as friends. 

Digger: It’s how we’ve always operated. I’d rather give him every nickel I own than to beat him out of one. I’d rather hurt myself 10 times than to hurt him once.

Mark: That’s our way of looking at each other.

I’d say a reason for your success. 

Digger: Young folks listening, pay attention to that. 

This is Season 15. Did you ever think a show like this would have such longevity or interest?

Mark: I think the fact they called me back after my first season, I thought, “Boy, I must have done something a little bit right. They really got bad judgment.” We never thought this show would last over five or six seasons at the most. Looking back at it, it’s still surprising. It’s surreal sometimes. It has been a journey. I promise. 

Digger: The most rewarding part is that me and Mark have lived blessed lives. Not only with what we’ve been afforded to be a part of, but we were fortunate by the grace of God to be able to live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and that’s East Tennessee Mountains. We get to share that with the rest of the world, along with the struggles and strife we’ve had to deal with. That just tells folks that every beautiful package always has its back side. We embrace the bad I guess and just love the good part of it. 

What do you say to critics who question the show’s authenticity? Is it frustrating when people are questioning if what they’re seeing is really happening? 

Digger: Well, it is in fact happening. It is in fact factual. It’s not the illegal part of this craft we really want to show people. It’s the fact how we do business and you do your very best to treat your fellow man as you’d want to be treated. We hope that catches on and spreads. 

What’s your take on the future of the industry? 

Mark: I don’t think changes in the industry will change how Digger and myself do business. We’re at the jumping off part. We’re long in the tooth. We’re old-timers now. We’re not going to change anything. But they say the best drink of liquor has never been made yet. 

Digger: I’d have to agree. 

Mark: That’s a monstrous challenge for young distillers growing up. Are you going to make that best drink of liquor? Will it ever be made? Will the best drink of liquor ever be made? Who knows? 

What do you make of the competition coming up on Master Distiller? 

Digger: Probably some of the best we’ve seen yet. It was hard to get good contestants in the beginning because our nature is moonshiners, we don’t let what we do be known widely. People wouldn’t apply to be contestants because they thought it was a trap. They thought it was the law trying to catch them and take their still away from them. But it was not that at all. We’re starting to get the cream of the crop now. 

Mark: We’re starting to get really great distillers. I think the first season and the end of Season 2 it was people trying really hard to be on television whether they knew what they were doing or not. It was very hit or miss. Initially, we had to choose the worst one. Now it’s extremely difficult to choose the best one. We have some great distillers out there. Digger, myself, Tim [Smith], whoever the judges are for each individual episode, we learn something from each one of these guys. Sometimes the good thing to learn is what not to do. The right thing to do is what not to do. We’ve opened ourselves up to that. 

Digger: Me and Mark have been told all our lives that you’re the smartest you’ll ever be the day you die. That means keep your eyes and ears open because you may just learn something. 

Robert Irvine was announced as a guest judge. How was it having him?

Digger: It was great. He was absolutely wonderful to work with. Mark and I especially don’t want to cross people’s boundaries. We want to respect that. We sat down and I said to Chef Robert, “Look, we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. What are your do’s and don’t’s? Where is that line, and we won’t cross it?” He snapped back right quick, “I have none of those. Lay it to me.” Then he grinned, “But be prepared to get it in return.” That’s what we love to hear. 

Mark: Yeah, we’re not afraid of a little criticism. We got tough skin. People need to thicken up their hide just a little bit and quickly be offended by everything. What he did did not offend me whatsoever. I loved it. I like being shot straight with. It was great. He was a great judge. 

Digger: Exactly. Everybody wants everything their way, and you don’t get it your way every time. Sorry. It’s a big kids’ world.

What do you want to tease for the rest of Moonshiners this season? 

Digger: It’s surprising. 

Mark: It is. We dealt with a problem this season. We thought we had corrected it and thought we had done the honorable thing with it. But we come to find out, it’s an old problem that just reared its ugly head again and we had to go in a different direction. We went our normal ways, but we played by different rules as they were given to us. 

Digger: It goes back to the old adage that when you’re dealing with a hundred year-old piece of wood, if you’re trying to drive those ten-cent nails in it, sometimes you need a bigger hammer. 

Moonshiners Season 15, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel 

Moonshiners: Master Distiller Season 8 premiere, January 27, 9/8c, Discovery Channel