Molly Hatchet’s Bobby Ingram defends carrying on without any original members

Molly Hatchet guitarist Bobby Ingram has defended the decision to keep the veteran Southern rock band active despite the absence of any original members.

In a conversation with Rob Edwards on Talkin’ Bout Rock, Ingram argued that the group’s identity rests on its songs, history and continuing relationship with its audience. He described Molly Hatchet as a musical institution whose work can carry forward through successive lineups.

This is what a lot of people won’t know, is I gave Danny Joe Brown his first singing job before Molly Hatchet. Mel Powell, Phil Stotts, Robin Green and myself were the members of Rum Creek. We gave Danny the microphone to sing his first show. And I’ll never forget it because he said, ‘Bobby, I wanna sing for your band, Rum Creek.’ And I said, ‘Okay, who are you?’ He said, ‘Danny Brown.’ I’ll never forget it. And we became friends right that second. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I said, ‘Here’s the microphone.’ And I said, ‘Do you know how to be a frontman?’ He says, ‘What’s that?’ And he turned out to be one of the best Southern rock frontmen in the history of the whole Southern rock thing. It’s, like, who’s better than Danny Joe Brown? He’s number one in my book. So that’s something I’ll never forget.

So, yeah, it’s been a long history. And then when [Danny] quit Hatchet in ’79, [he] knocked at my front door on a rainy Sunday night and [he] said, ‘Bobby, help me put a band together. Let’s put a band together again.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ And that was the Danny Joe Brown Band. That’s when I met John Galvin, who’s still with the band now. John left for about — I don’t know — five or six years or something in the interim of all the chaos in the ’90s, but now John’s been back in the band since ’96, and we just move forward.

So, yeah, it’s been a lot of changes, and there’s been a lot of generational attributes and a lot of musicians that have come into the band. So it’s kind of turned into a faceless type of band. Molly Hatchet is a brand. It’s an institution. It is a legacy, a spirit, and a tradition, and we carry on that. That’s what I do. I carry it on, and that’s what I intend to do until the good Lord takes me, or till I can’t play any longer. This is all I’ve known pretty much all my life. Yeah, I’ve been to school and all that here, but I love music. I love playing Molly Hatchet songs. I love writing albums. I love producing albums. And we’ve had the most fantastic [record] label [Germany’s SPV GmbH / Steamhammer]. Me and Olly Hahn have been together now 30 years this year.

That’s when ‘Devil’s Canyon’came out; this is the 30th anniversary of ‘Devil’s Canyon’. Rainer Hänsel was my manager at the time. He was Motörhead’s manager and Manowar and Yes and whoever, all these other groups over in Europe. And they kind of introduced us to the European audience over there, so Molly Hatchet started spreading worldwide, and now it is worldwide. I’m doing interviews from Australia to Brazil to Russia to Finland to Sweden, all the way down to Nigeria — everywhere. And it’s pretty amazing to see how the legacy has perpetuated into these foreign countries now. So we just keep it going.

Molly Hatchet’s always been the hardest rocking of the Southern bands. That is a fact, Jack. And we will continue to be. And we have been embraced by the hard rock community over there in Europe, and we love it, man. And we still have our veteran core fans that listen to the band, come to all of our shows, and they’re bringing their kids, and in many instances, they’re bringing their grandkids, and it was each of their generation’s first concert. Man, that tears me up when I hear that. When you’re shaking the father’s hand and the son’s hand and the grandson’s hand, and they’re all standing in front of you…

There are no original members in the band now.

Well, and it’s, like, what is really original? What’s original? What do people call original? Danny and I started out before Molly Hatchet with Rum Creek. So what is that? Yes, everybody looks at the original six, but there’s been other factors here that everybody needs to look at. Danny and I looked at each other as we were original to each other with the Southern rock we were doing. Danny carried over it into Hatchet. He carried me into Hatchet. And then he was sick and left, and then I carried it on. So there’s been a lot of generation changes, and Molly Hatchet is a generational-type band. So are other bands. Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s another Southern band. And they’re carrying on. Johnny’s [Van Zant] doing a magnificent job, and Rickey’s [Medlocke] doing a fanta[stic job] … carrying on the legacy of that group. And those guys, they’re carrying on the tradition, legacy and spirit of Lynyrd Skynyrd. We’re doing the same thing with Molly Hatchet. It’s the songs. It’s all about the songs. That’s what’s timeless here.

The discussion comes as Molly Hatchet prepares “Lost Horizon”, its first new studio album in 16 years. The 12-song record is scheduled for November 27 through Steamhammer and was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.

The current lineup features Ingram on guitar, John Galvin on keyboards, Tim Lindsey on bass, Garrett Ramsden on drums and Parker Lee on vocals.