Josh Brown used to be in a boy band. Now, this guy with long hair, a beard, and a friendly but energetic personality is Beachbilly. He's both a beach guy and a hillbilly. Hey, that's the purpose of life. Seriously, Brown is a professional beachbilly.
He also makes it a lifestyle.
Brown, 44, is the founder and creator of Beachbilly Lifestyle, a lifestyle brand born in Perdido Key. The brand has morphed into a massive business with many products and even a highly produced show, “Beachbilly Lifestyle,'' available for streaming. Amazon Prime.
Born as a YouTube series, the show shows Brown, his wife Jessica, and their three sons living a beachbilly lifestyle, from extracting honey with Perdido Key beekeepers to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. It shows the family's adventures in episodes. Some episodes in the first season also take Brown to other regions, including the Everglades, where he tangled with a python, and Nashville, where he visited to record his theme song, “Beachbilly Lifestyle.”
Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Brown was born in the area when her family was uprooted on her 18th birthday and moved across the state line to Lillian, Alabama, just across Perdido Key. I came to Mr. Brown, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall, said he was an athletic and “preppy” type of person as a teenager and was a “bad boy” in a boy band while attending the University of Mobile, where he met Jessica. Ta.
Brown said he is not much of an academic type.
“Did you know that after about the 6th grade, books no longer say “mathematics'' and are instead written “geometry'' or “algebra''? “I just said, 'Math,'” he said jokingly.
He dropped out of school, but continued in a boy band for a while.
Today, he is a beachbilly businessman with a wife of 22 years and three children, Logan, 20, Lucas, 16, and Rex, 12. After his parents died of cancer, Brown and his family purchased land behind Naval Air Station Pensacola. Gate.
He gathered a few chickens and a coop, had a small garden, and began living a more rural lifestyle. Meanwhile, the family spent much of their down time enjoying the beach at Perdido Key.
“I used to grow vegetables, but I had never raised chickens and I had no idea what I was doing,” said Brown, whose favorite Perdido Key spot, the Perdido Key Sports Bar & He spoke while hanging out in a restaurant. Burger” is on the menu. “One day, an older gentleman came out and helped me out a little bit. He said, 'I love the way you live. You live like a bunch of hillbillies on the beach.' ” As I was leaning my surfboard against the chicken coop, I couldn’t get the phrase “hillbilly on the beach” out of my head. ”
The YouTube series first came about a few years ago, showing Brown's transformation to a more off-the-grid lifestyle. He had videos on things like raising chickens and growing tomatoes in sandy soil.
But he ultimately decided to go all-in on the beachbilly lifestyle and launched a number of company-branded shirts, hats, stickers, and more, which are available online as well as at several Perdido Key locations. can.
He has reduced the number of gardens, goats and rabbits he once had. With a professional production team and brand growth, he spends more and more time on marketing, sales and shows.
“I really want it to be the next ‘Salt Life’ or something like that,” he said. “When a small YouTube channel that was once a fun hobby turned into a business.”
Perdido Key Sports Bar & Restaurant recently added his “Beachbilly Burger” to the menu. The hillbilly side of the half-pound burger features “a ton of bacon,” Brown said, while the beachy side features grilled pineapple with sweet barbecue sauce.
Sports bars and restaurants are among Brown's biggest supporters, he said. The on-site T-shirt case sells a wide variety of “beach billy” shirts, almost as many as business shirts.
Down the street, Perdido Key Souvenirs & More has even more “Beachbilly Lifestyle” merchandise and an eight-episode loop on the TV.
“We love him,” said BB Bagnato, who works at a souvenir shop. “When he comes in with his personality, it just makes you feel good. And the (Beachbilly Lifestyle) merchandise is popular. We just had two guys come in from Kentucky and say, “Bring your shirts.'' I tell them about 'Beachbilly' Lifestyle,' and the show is great in its own right and helps raise the profile of Perdido Key. ”
While Bagnert spoke, Brown was in the back of the store, beneath a television showing adventures in the Everglades, an Orange Beach man who was hooked on the “beachbilly lifestyle” even though he knew nothing about it. I was chatting with a couple from my hometown. A spectacle, a show, a play.
He finds out that they have a friend at the beach named “Billy” for whom he wants to buy a shirt. He gifted it to them and told them he would exchange it for Bhagnath.
“Please watch just one episode,” he asked the couple. “Half is fine. If you don't like it, that's fine.”
Tammy Turow, president of the Perdido Key Area Chamber of Commerce, said Mr. Brown's promotion of The Key is “excellent. He is a true representative of Perdido Key.”
According to her, at a board training camp, board members were asked the question, “If Perdido Key were a human, what would he look like?”
The majority said Brown, but a few older ones said Flora-Bama legend Pat McClellan.
“Josh is just playing the part,” she said. “He is Perdido.”
Brown said she is proud to be part of the community.
“Beachbilly Lifestyle is a community brand,” he said. “Perdido Key has given me everything. I love Perdido Key and Pensacola. I just want to be a positive force for this area.”
Although he didn't truly discover his rural side until he came to the Gulf Coast, Brown said that while rural life is a part of who he is, he associates it more with the “beach” side of Beachbilly. He said he is doing so.
“My father was a Southern Baptist preacher who was born in Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky, and raised 10 minutes south in Possumtrot,” Brown said. “I love telling that story.”
He said Beach Billy's lifestyle products are sold nationwide.
“When you go out to Johnson's Beach and walk through the crowded parking lot, you see license plates from all over Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia,” he said. Beach Billy too. These are people who live in the Southeast and like the country life, but once a year they save money and come here to live the beach life. They may not have seen the show, but they understand the beachbilly lifestyle. ”