As I’m sitting in the 37 Main rock club in Buford, GA, Molly Hatchet guitarist Bobby Ingram is finishing up a text to his publicist about our interview. As he’s typing away, Shinedown’s version of the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic “Simple Man” fills the room from the PA speakers. Bobby nods and smiles to himself as he’s finishing up his text to start our interview. Right off the bat I felt like I had known this guy for years. Bobby’s southern charm and drawl made me feel at ease right away and before I knew it we were talking like two friends that hadn’t seen each other in years. We talked a lot about the new Molly Hatchet album “Justice,” we discussed the concept behind the album and even talked about their bad to the bone artwork. It was a real treat to talk to this guy who is a part of one of the most iconic southern rock bands ever. I hope you’ll sit back, get a cold one and enjoy my interview with a southern rock icon!
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Bobby, thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to me. It’s an honor.
Thank you so much!
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So how have the shows been going so far on the “Justice” tour?
They’ve been going really good. We’re getting ready to go over to Europe in about three weeks. We’re going to Spain, France, Germany, Belgium yeah, we’re gonna pretty much hit everywhere and more things are coming in. That’s just for the end of this year. Even in this bad economy we’ve been having quite the success with this record. The tour’s been going excellent.
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I grew up in the South, so southern rock to me is a people’s music. Even through the harder times it’s what people turn to.
We are a people’s band! I think we’ve been able to open a lot of eyes with how far you can stretch southern rock and how much it’s growing and maturing. How strong you can make it because people are getting stronger. We’re not getting weaker as we get older, that’s the truth.
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In all honesty, aside from the classic debut album, I really knew little about Molly Hatchet, but this new album really drew me in. Do you get the sense that the new album is bringing in a new breed of fans?
You know, I’ve talked to some people about this. A couple of times in your career you have those magical moments where everything’s aligned, where the songs all come together and everything around you is just buzzing. That’s what happened on this album. We didn’t expect it to go like this. This album is starting to turn some heads as people are hearing it and that’s making me happy. To me, if this album were to have come out when “Flirtin’ With Disaster” came out I feel it would’ve had the same impact. It’s a timeless album.
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There seems to be an underlying concept to this new album. What is it and how did it come about?
Justice is something that connects with everybody. Seeking justice, having an injustice done to you and having justice served. I got a call a year ago to help with a fundraiser in Orange Park for a little girl named Sommer Thompson. She was 7 years old and was abducted, murdered and thrown in a Georgia landfill. I got the call to come help the family because they didn’t have the means to help bury their 7 year old daughter. I don’t know anybody that has the means to bury a 7 year old daughter. I was in my attic at 4:30 or 5:30 in the morning looking for stuff for the auction to raise money for the foundation to help bury Sommer. I found a couple of boxes of memorabilia that my wife before she passed away had been putting away for me. She had been putting away all this stuff, memorabilia that you can’t find anywhere from my career for this type of thing if I were to ever need it to help other people. I took 40 items down to the fundraiser and we raised over $20,000 in an afternoon. Then we did a concert two days later for the family and raised another $20,000 or so. Mrs. Thompson wanted to meet us and when she came out of the back of the house I saw the same look on her face that I had on me five years before on the death of my wife and even though the situations are totally different, the end result is the same: tragic death. We wrote a song called “Fly on the Wings of Angels” and it was one of the easiest songs to write yet one of the hardest songs to play and record. I totally trashed the record that I had ready to go and I wrote a new one in five days. “Fly on the Wings of Angels” is the song that spawned the “Justice” record. The album’s concept is about injustice done in humanity to humans, to countries, to religions, to nations, to cultures, the way you live the way you think. Along with seeing the injustice being done, we’ve seen a lot of people seek justice and we’ve seen a lot of people see justice served. In this case of Sommer Thompson, they’ve arrested this dude and they got his ass and we couldn’t be happier. They are seeking justice and are going to have justice served on him.
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That is such an amazing story! Not only does “Justice” have a great story behind but it has such a great sound to it. The production quality is amazing yet it still has so much grit and it’s so punchy.
Justice was recorded in a hybrid of analog tape and digital editing. We went back to the old school way of recording. It’s ballsy. The guitars sound sweet and mean and tough and ballsy and sensitive. It’s got all the aspects of what a guitar is supposed to be. I don’t know why or how all this has come together. All I know is that it’s come together.
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Molly Hatchet over the years has been embraced by the metal community. I can’t think of many southern rock bands that can cross over genres like you guys have. Why do you think that metal fans can connect with Molly Hatchet on that level?
I think it’s because we’re the hardest of the southern rock bands. We’ve been lucky enough to be embraced by this metal/hard rock world. The Europeans in heavy metal and hard rock have totally embraced Molly Hatchet and we couldn’t be more honored because I love that kind of music. I love the style, the attitude, it just kicks fucking ass. Every time we go to Europe, I love sitting and listening to the opening acts because they’re fucking ass kickers. I’m not joking. We’re looking at these kids saying, “Look at these kids kicking ass!” and they’re looking at us going, “That motherfucker can barely walk, but he’s kicking everybody’s ass!” [laughs] It’s like hillbilly grandpa out there beating the tar out of somebody. We are embraced by this community that I really dig. There are no limits to southern rock because we can turn it up as loud as we want. We don’t have to be this limitation of having to be hee and haw or twang and twong. We can turn it up and get the fuck down with it. [laughs] You can still have a fucking attitude and rock your ass off.
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Molly Hatchet’s songs seem to tell stories of everyday people and their life experiences. What inspires you as a songwriter?
People are a huge influence on what I do musically. I feed off of people. I listen to their stories. I listen to the good times, the hard times, their struggles, their triumphs, their partying days, their non-partying days. I listen to everybody and I put it to song. I maybe say things in a way that people can relate.
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It seems that the 70’s can’t be discussed without bringing Molly Hatchet into the fold. I remember watching the show “Freaks & Geeks” and seeing Molly Hatchet t-shirts and even being discussed alongside bands like Led Zeppelin & Blue Oyster Cult. Is Molly Hatchet comfortable being a pretty big part of pop culture?
To be honest with you I’d be a little pissed off and hurt if we weren’t! [laughs] I mean, we’ve been at it for 30-something years and kicking ass. I’ve been with the band for 25 years solid and I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs happen with this band. I still love what I do and I’m out here kicking ass! I’m honored that we are considered a part of pop culture. I’m glad that people are re-discovering Molly Hatchet and we’re getting new fans now with this album. We’re getting grand kids coming to the shows and that’s fucking cool. I like that. It’s timeless. Molly Hatchet is timeless.
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One of the things that always intrigued me was the bad ass artwork on the Molly Hatchet albums. How did this come about?
Frank Frazetta did the first three records and it was fantasy art. It was this hardcore artwork that became a trademark of the band. On a few records in the 80’s we got away from it and I didn’t like it and the fans didn’t like it. When I got Molly Hatchet signed to SPV Records in the mid 90’s, we found Paul Raymond Gregory out of London. He does all of the Lord of the Rings stuff and he does Hatchet albums. We will talk maybe once about the album’s concept and the intention of the songs and he just listens to me talk for like 30 minutes. The artwork totally goes along with what’s happening musically. It’s not created beforehand. That artwork is a real oil painting that’s huge. Like on the new album, the guy on the horse. That’s the guy seeking justice and he’s pissed off.
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Are there any nights where you dread playing “Flirting With Disaster” or is still as fun today as it was back in the day?
Never. It’s always fresh and exciting to me. There are no times that I dread playing any of the music. Do I like some songs more than others? Yeah! Do I love to play them all? Yeah! Do I have my favorites? Yeah! [laughs] They’re all my favorites actually.
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For someone who’s never seen Molly Hatchet live, what can one expect seeing the band for the first time?
A complete walk through history of the band from the debut album to the Justice record. We are going to play songs you haven’t heard in many, many years and play songs that you’ve never heard which come from the Justice album. It’s a walking history and people can relate as we go along from the very beginning to now. They can experience and feel the history of the band. It’s important to show that we can still play like we did back then but listen to this new stuff too!
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Bobby, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me. I’m really looking forward to my first Molly Hatchet live experience!
Thank you Don. I gotta get to sound check now. See ya out there!
The Brainfart & Molly Hatchet’s Bobby Ingram (Thanks for the shirt Bobby!)
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