The Molly Hatchet story - page 1

1971

Florida rock band formed 'in 1971 in Jacksonville by guitarists Dave Hlubeck (b '52, Jacksonville) and Steve Holland (b '54, Dothan AL; ex-Ice). Origin: . I (Steve H) had only been in Jacksonville for two or three weeks. I walked around the corner and I saw Dave (Hlubek). He was playing a black Les Paul with three hum bucker pickups on it. I was just standing there listening to him play and he looked up at me and I said, "That guitar really sucks." He was looking at me like, "Who the hell are you?" I had hair down to my waist and it was Johnny Winter white. I was a surf punk who played guitar and built surfboards.

They were named after a famous 17th century Salem prostitute Hatchet Molly who despatched clients with a cleaver:

They couldn’t decide on a suitable name for the band. The band name changed so often that once they’d done the circuit of clubs in Jacksonville, and started again, nobody knew who they were. There were six in the band. DH: They took a John Deere Tractor hat and everybody thought up three names and put them in the hat. The band name would be whatever was pulled out of the hat. The 18th name, the only one left, was Molly Hatchet! We said, ‘What the fuck is that?’ It started out, ‘Molly Fucking Hatchet.’ Everyone was saying, ‘Whose the girl in the band?’ People of Jacksonville took it upon themselves to start making bumper stickers. We just kept the name. Molly was an axe murderous. Her name was Abigail something. The history books called her Hatchet Molly. As DH says: She was some passion killer. Some kinda ruthless bitch that was incestuous with her father. Hmm, sounds like most of the guys in the band....... with their fathers!!!!

Jacksonville based bassist Banner Thomas was the only other constant member in early years.

1975 - 76

The vocalist immediately prior to Danny Joe was a friend of Dave’s who went to University Of Florida in Gainesville. Bobby Maddox was his name. He was in the "Mick Jaggar style". The band replaced him with ex-Rum Creek and "What" singer Danny Joe Brown in 75. Danny’s audition comprised of him performing three Lynyrd Skynyrd songs for the band. Also that year, drummer Bruce Crump was added to the lineup. He was followed in 1976 by guitarist Duane Roland (b 3 Dec. '52, Jeffersonville IN)

The band paid their dues in the Jacksonville bars and clubs and were eventually referred to manager Pat Armstrong by .38 Special

Dave recalls putting the band together;

Let me tell you about the Hatchet organization. I liked to hire people in the band that weren't set in their ways. How old are you? You've been tying your shoes all your life one way. What happens is, you get set in that one way. What happens is when someone says, "I have a way to speed tie that." They're not receptive. I took musicians from Jacksonville like Banner Thomas, a great bass player. Nobody wanted him to play bass in Jacksonville because they thought he had a big nose. But he was a great bass player. Then you've got Duane Roland, our third guitar player. Him and I couldn't stand the sight of each other. He had a band called the Ball Brothers Band. He never played live anywhere in Jacksonville. All he did was rehearse in his dad's garage. He was so frickin' good. The way I hired him on is when he came one Saturday afternoon to see who "this Hlubek f***er was." He heard about my reputation. I was the hot dog player in Jacksonville and he wanted to see what the big to-do was. We were doing Charlie Daniels when he walked in and I said, "And Duane Rolland on that untuned guitar." He was impressed by that. He went on to be the guitar player.

 

Originally I was the singer for Molly Hatchet. We used to play BYOB from 2 am to 7 am in nightclubs. One time it was me and Banner and another drummer. Before I had Hatchet, I had a band called the Mynd Garden.

 

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