‘Most Interesting Man You’ve Never Heard Of’ doc to feature late KY gov John Y. Brown, Jr.
The late Kentucky governor John Y. Brown, Jr. has already cemented his place in the history books.
Now the politician and entrepreneur, who died almost two years ago, could be featured on the silver screen in a documentary titled “John Y. Brown: The Most Interesting Man You’ve Never Heard Of.”
A documentary film on his complicated and multi-faceted life and legacy is in the works, according to Brown’s son, John Y. Brown III, and the director, Shane Dax Taylor. A trailer rife with some of the biggest names in sports, business and Kentucky politics came out this week, catching the eye of many in the state.
The son of a U.S. Congressman, John Y. Brown, Jr.’s life spanned various sectors of business, entertainment and politics. He oversaw Kentucky Friend Chicken’s rise to international relevance, he owned three different top-tier professional basketball teams and he married and made a family with Phyllis George, a former Miss America who became one of the most famous sports broadcasters of all time — not to mention his service as Kentucky governor.
Those interviewed for the film include former Louisville mayor and lieutenant governor Jerry Abramson, famed sportscaster Hubie Brown, late University of Louisville coach Denny Crum, former University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari, sports commentator Bob Costas and more. Though he wasn’t seen in the trailer, Taylor told the Herald-Leader he also interviewed former President Bill Clinton.
The list also includes John Y. Brown, Jr. himself, as well as his son John Y. Brown III, a former Kentucky secretary of state.
Taylor told the Herald-Leader that he and his team are in the process of shopping the film around to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV.
The trailer wasn’t meant to be publicly released yet — it was more of an “investor reel,” Taylor said — but he’s been pleased with the online reception since Dan Bayens, a Lexington-based GOP media consultant, posted the trailer Monday.
“Based on the last 24 hours, there’s an audience for this film,” Taylor said.
Taylor is a longtime filmmaker in Hollywood, having directed movies starring Luke Wilson, Val Kilmer, Hilary Duff, Kris Kristofferson, Kelsey Grammer, Dolph Lundgren and more.
Taylor’s also a Kentucky native and has known Brown since he was 10 years old. The filmmaker’s father was general manager of Captain’s Quarters, a Louisville area riverfront restaurant and tavern, when Brown owned it. That’s where his fascination with the larger-than-life character began.
“With John, his 100th-best story is what other people would lead with,” Taylor said.
Taylor said he spent close to 100 total hours in-person with the former governor to convince him that the documentary was a good idea. Over the course of several years, Brown rebuffed his attempts.
But during the COVID-19 pandemic, he came around to the idea. Once he said “yes,” he was a willing participant all the way up to his death in late 2022.
“Even up until the week before he died, he was still telling stories I hadn’t even heard of,” Taylor recalled.
Taylor said that the film features interviews with about 40 different subjects in total.
Not every subject featured in the trailer shared a rosy picture of the former governor and man who made Kentucky Fried Chicken into an international empire.
Greedy, selfish and centering his decisions around “making money for himself” without regard for others are some negative comments about Brown shared in the trailer.
But there are lots of positives. Subjects called Brown dynamic, charming, bombastic, loving and delightful.
Calipari, interviewed when he was still head coach at UK before he left for the University of Arkansas job, called him “visionary.”
John Y. Brown III told the Herald-Leader he thought Taylor did “an honest job” of rendering his father’s life. He and other family members viewed a rough cut of the film earlier this year.
“It’s not really a political documentary and the focus isn’t my dad’s time as governor; it’s really about his life story. There’s a lot about his childhood, a lot about KFC and other business ventures,” he said.
Before his death, the former governor was able to review some clips from the movie, including his son’s interview.
“He told me ‘next time you might want to look in the camera more and talk a little faster,” the younger Brown recalls his father saying. “’You might want to lose ten pounds, too.’”
The trailer for the film starts off with a brief clip of the primary subject and a story from Brown III on a part of his father’s origin story. Brown, Jr.’s parents were concerned about his development as a toddler and took him to a child psychologist; the psychologist spread a blanket across the floor, a ball at one end of the blanket and placed Brown, Jr. on the other end.
“Instead of crawling toward the ball, he just pulled the blanket until the ball came to him. He’s been doing that ever since,” Brown III joked.
The lion’s share of the trailer shows documentary participants trying, and sometimes struggling, to come up with one word that describes Brown. The word chosen by Al Cross, longtime Kentucky political observer and journalist, was “confidence.”
“It will win you votes, it will win you respect, and it will win you a place in history,” Cross said.
