Josh Owens is one of the more popular stars on the liquor brewing show Moonshiners on the Discovery Channel, and for good reason. With his scruffy good looks and rugged devil-may-care attitude, he’s charmed the hearts of people all over the world. Recently, Josh was in a terrible accident while racing and almost died. So what happened?
Before Josh joined Moonshiners, he was a professional motocross racer with some serious experience behind him. He was a fairly popular name in the sport and seems to have come to the wonderful world of moonshining by happenstance. He was introduced to the world of distilling through his lifelong friend, the late Barney Barnwell.
Barney asked Josh to build a still underground for distilling, and unfortunately passed away before Josh had a chance to finish it. To honor the memory of his late friend, Josh took over Barney’s equipment with a couple friends. It was around this time that he was approached by the show and asked to be a cast member on the show.
In case you’re uninitiated, Moonshiners is a show where a group of ne’er-do-wells who produce “illegal” moonshine and teach people how to run and hide from the cops. Of course, they’re not really doing anything illegal. Apparently, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control asked the producers of the show to add a disclaimer that said the show was simply a dramatization, but they decided not to do that. Makes sense, why ruin the mystery?
The show premiered on Dec. 6, 2011 with six episodes and the 12th season aired from Nov. 2022 to April 2023. Season 13 is currently airing.
Josh first appeared on Moonshiners way back in 2012 in the second season and has been on the show ever since. He’s built up quite a following over the years from people who just enjoy watching him both race his motorcycle and decode the mysterious art of distilling moonshine. Part of that art: a coffee moonshine recipe that sounds like just what the doctor ordered (us not to drink). Seriously though that sounds amazing.
Did Josh Owens from Moonshiners lose a finger? His accident, explained
Now to the sad part. In March 2023, Josh posted on Instagram that he was racing at the Sons of Speed antique board track in Daytona, Florida. Then he went radio silent. We didn’t hear anything else from him until March 7, and it was his family posting on his behalf.
“Just wanted to make a quick post for all the supporters of Josh — we are focused on his healing right now but your love and concern has not gone unnoticed and once Josh has had time to recover we are sure he will reach out,” the family said.
We didn’t hear from Josh himself until three agonizing weeks later. He posted to Instagram on March 27 with an update because “everybody’s wondering what the hell happened to me.” In the video, he’s in a hospital bed and you can tell he’s in bad shape.
With an extra crawl in his usual drawl, he explains that he “got broken all to pieces” in a “bad motorcycle wreck.” He broke his neck, his back, both his legs and an arm. That’s just what he shared with everyone, so there’s probably more. He ends the video in typical Josh fashion: “I want y’all to know I’m tougher than a pine knot and I’m still here. And I’m gonna be here until God brings me home.”
This isn’t Josh’s first serious accident, either. He was taken to a hospital in March of 2018 after he got into a wreck during bike week. Per the The Daytona Beach News-Journal, he was “doing practice laps at the track on a 1919 Harley-Davidson motorcycle when his front tire exploded.” He “pile-drived” into the pavement. Yeesh.
In that accident, he broke all his ribs but one, punctured his lung, broke his shoulder blade and collarbone and (prepare yourself) stripped the skin off his pointer finger to the bone. He recovered though and lived to race and make moonshine again!
In fact, if you’ve been watching the show, it’s hard to even tell he got injured in the first place. He’s picking up buckets and repairing watermills like they’re made of plastic.