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easygoing Tennessee drawl . He ’ s an upstanding citizen , business owner and former state legislator , whose daddy was a third-generation moonshiner and bootlegger ( meaning he manufactured and delivered corn liquor ). “ My dad got killed in a moonshine raid , and people around here knew it ,” Hack told me . He was dressed in his signature white shirt , bolo tie and white straw hat . Hack , then only seven years old , remembers well the day in 1943 when his daddy got into a shootout with the state police who ’ d come to arrest him .
I met Hack in the lobby of his Caryville Hampton Inn , where he showed me his impressive collection of historical photographs and memorabilia , including the leather jacket — complete with bullet hole — his daddy wore when he was shot . After seeing papa John “ High Johnny ” Ayers killed before his eyes , Hack had no desire to enter the family business . “ I had a wonderful mother . She raised three teetotalers , nonsmokers and Christians ,” he said . He did grow up to ride motorcycles , however . Gazing wistfully at my Road King parked outside , he told me he ’ d owned one just like it , and sold it only last year .