The new MTV series Busch Family Brewed premiered last night to not much fanfare. The series follows the Busch family, heirs to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, as they navigate daily life with seven kids ranging in age from 12-28.
The patriarch of the family is Billy Busch Sr., who decides to get back in the beer business (the family sold Anheuser-Busch in 2008) with a new family brand. Those familiar with the St. Louis family, however, know that Billy Busch isn’t quite the gentle family man he portrays himself to be.
The 2017 assault incident
Back in November 2017, Busch was attending his son’s basketball practice at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis. During the practice, Busch’s son Peter was involved in a scuffle with another student.
Busch intervened, grabbing that 11-year-old student and pushing him into a wall. The two had to be separated by another adult and, according to reports, the 11-year-old was left with a bloody nose.
As a result of the incident, Busch was issued a summons for assault in the fourth degree. Busch’s lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, asserted that the full story wasn’t being told. Rosenblum said that Peter Busch was being bullied and that Billy Sr. “did what every parent would have done in that situation” and that “his actions were directed at protecting the safety of his son and others involved.”
Busch and Rosenblum maintained that Busch was simply protecting his son when the adults present didn’t, but the victim’s lawyer, Derek Falb, paints a different picture.
“Mr. Busch’s son instigated an altercation with another middle schooler of his same age and grade level who defended himself,” Falb explained.
“While Mr. Busch may not have liked seeing his son receive a dose of his own medicine, him attempting to resolve his son’s conflict with another 11-year-old boy, let alone physically, is shameful…the fact is a grown man manhandled a child in response to an altercation his son initiated.”
Ultimately, Busch took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace.
Not Busch’s first brush with the law
The 2017 incident wasn’t Busch’s first brush with the police. Back in 1981, he allegedly bit off another man’s earlobe during a bar fight. Reportedly, the fight broke out when the other man accused the then 22-year-old Busch of cheating at arm wrestling. Charges were never pressed in that case.
Just a year after the earlobe incident, Busch again found himself in legal hot water when he was charged with assault of an employee at a restaurant. He was accused of attempting to punch the employee in the throat at the drive-thru window but was acquitted of those charges.
Neither MTV nor Busch has addressed the incidents since the Busch Family Brewed premiered.
Busch Family Brewed airs on Thursdays at 9/8c on MTV.