RACHAEL SYKES D I S T I L L E R NASHVILLE CRAFT
WE'RE EXCITED TO GET TO FEATURE YOU! YOU'RE A PERFECT FIT BECAUSE OUR FOCUS IS ON WOMEN WHO ARE INTERESTED IN MUSIC, FOOD/DRINKS, AND HOSPITALITY. I LOVE SEEING HOW THINGS YOU'VE DONE IN YOUR LIFE HAVE COME TOGETHER IN WHAT YOU'RE DOING NOW. I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT THAT. I KNOW YOU WERE BORN AND RAISED IN ARKANSAS. TELL US A BIT ABOUT HOW YOU ENDED UP IN NASHVILLE.
Okay. Yeah, so born and raised in Arkansas, and I moved to Nashville just a few months after I graduated college in 2001 and moved here shortly after. I can't believe I'm coming up on 20 years! I love music. It's always been what I wanted to be around. Nashville was always my dream city to live here. Initially, I moved to Franklin and worked in the service hospitality industry for a little while until a friend got me a nanny gig with Wynonna. I did that for several years until the kids didn't need me to nanny them anymore. And then I was like, okay, well, I need to find something else to do. And that was when going back to waiting tables and bartending, you know, came into the picture. Working at the distillery, even though my official title is a distiller and mainly what I do, on tour days like today, I bartended all day long. So it came around full circle even today. I love being able to interact with people and all that. It gives me that satisfaction of still being in the service industry I've been in after 20 years now. YOUR WHOLE PROGRESSION OF COMING TO NASHVILLE BECAUSE YOU LOVED MUSIC, WORKING FOR WY, AND BEING AROUND IT ALL TOURING WITH HER WAS SUCH A GREAT WAY TO BE INTRODUCED TO THE WHOLE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN NASHVILLE. DID YOU HAVE OTHER ROLES WITH HER?
I was her personal assistant for about a year, and then she moved me to nanny full-time after she just realized that the kids and I got along so well. It was way too much for me to try to be her assistant too. So yeah, from 2006 until about 2013, off and on, I was a nanny for her.
