Tickle gained a wealth of old-time distilling knowledge from older relatives at a young age in Danville, Virginia. He experimented with recipes on his own ten-gallon still using a turkey fryer, jelly jars for double-thump kegs, and a shotgun condenser. Addicted to perfecting his craft, Tickle often states, “It gets in your blood. I’ll moonshine ‘til the day I die.”