Jonathan Goldsmith, best known as the original most interesting man in the world from the Dos Equis marketing campaign that ran from 2006 through 2016, is back.

And he’s still thirsty, my friends, only this time he has a taste for Astral Tequila. He can be seen in a new commercial, essentially reprising the character that changed the face of Dos Equis, saying, “I told you, I don’t always drink beer. Astral Tequila.”

After becoming a globally recognized pitchman, Goldsmith can now pick and choose the brands he works with while also having the power to own a piece of the ventures, too. Ooma is another brand that he has an equity position in.

“I only want to do things that are important to me,” Goldsmith told AListDaily. “Dos Equis sent me to Mars, and I came back with Astral Tequila. Astral is an incredible tequila. The other day George Clooney sold his tequila company (Casamigos) for a billion dollars, and that was in just under four years. So, I hope that’s the coming trend. Astral is a double-gold winner and it’s going to be a huge launch over the summer; I’m very excited about that. I’ve got an equity position in the company. Master Sommelier Richard Betts has created something very, very special.”

Goldsmith said he’s part of an entire campaign for the new brand, which he expects will be another “meteor” in the advertising world.

“It’s going to be tremendous,” Goldsmith said. “It’s great.”

For a decade, Goldsmith was the face for arguably one of the most iconic marketing campaigns of this millennium for Heineken USA’s Dos Equis brand until they decided to go for a younger frontman.

Goldsmith said the fame eventually became so great that he had to move to Vermont. “I started to get a lot of recognition, not just from fans but also from the industry because it was a different kind of a sell,” Goldsmith said. “By the third year (of the campaign) we left Los Angeles. I had no anonymity whatsoever. I had no privacy. And I’m not complaining, believe me. You’re talking to a very lucky guy.”

Goldsmith knew the campaign was forever changing his life in the second year, when people who stopped asking if he was the Dos Equis guy and started asking if he was Jonathan Goldsmith.

“People started to know me, and then I got so many offers and invitations to do all kinds of things,” Goldsmith explained. “After the second year, a fellow came down to my boat and offered me way more than a million dollars—I don’t remember the exact fee—to say ‘I once made a mistake’ and hold up another beer.  Of course, I couldn’t do that.”

Goldsmith reveals a lot more about his life in the new Penguin Random House book, Stay Interesting, which is yet another opportunity that Dos Equis has opened up for the actor.

The 78 year-old actor had spent decades as a young man racking up over 500 television and movie credits, starring opposite John Wayne and Judy Garland during his career. But it wasn’t until the Dos Equis fame that Hollywood really rolled out the red carpet.

“I made a living as an actor and I did well, but I didn’t reach the heights that I wanted to,” Goldsmith admitted. “And this incredible campaign just took me to places that I never dreamt of before. It really was an extremely meteoric rise. Everything that had been closed to me all my life—the best tables, the recognition, the red carpets—it all just started pouring in. I was the face of the campaign, but the brilliant kids that wrote the stuff changed TV advertising. We won every single award in the industry.”

Goldsmith worked on an annual contract with Dos Equis. And after years of portraying the character, he began hearing rumors that the brand was looking for somebody younger.

“We just thought it was a matter of time before I was replaced, but I didn’t think it was going to happen at the height of the success of the campaign,” Goldsmith said. “They were gaining double digits in sales every year. I can certainly understand changing a campaign, but why at its height? But then we heard that they had a deal with ESPN television, and rumors had it that some of these executives wanted to go younger because of that. So that was a choice that they made, and I thoroughly enjoyed those years. As far as the new fellow [Augustin Legrand] is concerned, I wish him nothing but good luck.”

Goldsmith has had his share of good luck, especially after taking a 10-year break from acting to score the role of the most interesting man in the world.

“After I was replaced on the Dos Equis campaign, some beer companies apparently had spoken to my manager,” Goldsmith said. “I don’t know how serious they were, and I had a non-compete clause anyway. But I’m in a wonderful position that I never experienced before in my entire life, in that I can pick and choose and get involved with those projects that make sense to me, and that I can feel some passion about. Tequila certainly is one.”