MOLLY HATCHET - Southern Hospitality, Loudly Delivered Page 2
by Martin Popoff

"Yes, it's going to get harder," laughs Ingram, predictably, asked about the next studio spread (the current album is '05's Warriors Of The Rainbow Bridge). "It's going to get harder because I think things are happening to us naturally that way, and I can't discuss too much about the new album, but we're going to be recording it for a 2007 release, on a global basis, so that's going very, very well, and we're getting ready. We've done some preproduction already, but the majority of it is going to be in December. You ask about the DVD. We have a DVD that was shot over there, and it's been released all over the United States. We're very, very happy about that. And in our shows now, we're trying to cover as much as we can, like we did in the DVD, so when folks come to see us, they're getting the full impact of the history of the band of Molly Hatchet - close to 30 years."

I've heard this story in the past, but can you tell me at the origin of the band name?

"It was drawn out of a hat," says Bobby, who of course wasn't there in the late '70s, having been handed down the tale through band lore. "Literally, it was drawn out of a hat. There were about 30 names in the hat and it was one of the last one drawn, and it was drawn, and it stuck, but it is actually (laughs)... it's a 17th century axe murderer called Hatchet Molly, who would behead her lovers the next morning, if they weren't good in bed that night before. You know, she got rid of them pretty quick. It was like, see you later, sayonara, you know, to the guillotine, and then here comes the next guy. I mean, I don't know if that's the Viagra of the 17th century or not, or what, but I tell you, I wouldn't want to be dealing with her. And I must add this: we don't condone this behavior, OK? (laughs). That's a disclaimer."

Along with the distinctive band name goes an instantly recognizable banner of a logo, and along with that goes the muscle-bound paintings all over mostly ever Molly Hatchet album in the band's 28 year recording history.

"Well, Frank Frazetta came up with the first two. Boris vallejo did a couple of them, Ezra Tucker did a couple of them, but, from 1996 to the present, and into the future, it's Paul Raymond Gregory. He's at Studio 54 in London, England. And these album covers are directly corresponding with the themes of the albums, and the songs of the albums. It's not just, you know, putting an album cover together, and this is your album cover, and now can you put the words on the back of it? Each album cover has a meaning, and if you listen to the album and look at the cover, you'll see what we're talking about. It's like the old days, when everybody used to sit and look at big LPs and listen under the headphones and look at the album for the entire thing."

MOLLY HATCHET - Southern Hospitality, Loudly Delivered Page 3