Molly Hatchet

Drawing its moniker from a notorious Southern woman reputed to have decapitated and disfigured her patrons, the Jacksonville-based Molly Hatchet combined raucous hard-rock boogie with the extended guitar-jam emphasis typical of Southern rock. The ensemble assembled in 1971, its founding roster including guitarists Dave Hlubek, Steve Holland, and Duane Roland together with vocalist Danny Joe Brown, bassist Banner Thomas, and drummer Bruce Crump. Their self-titled debut arrived in 1978 and attained platinum certification almost immediately, while the follow-up Flirtin' with Disaster proved even more commercially potent, exceeding two million copies sold. After the rigors of nonstop touring took their toll, Brown departed in 1980; Jimmy Farrar stepped in for Beatin' the Odds, yet his less distinctive vocal presence coincided with the onset of a gradual commercial slide. The band introduced horn sections on Take No Prisoners, after which Farrar exited to pursue solo work.

Brown returned in 1982, but the resulting No Guts...No Glory underperformed, prompting guitarist Hlubek to push for a stylistic overhaul. Following the straightforward pop/rock outing The Deed Is Done, the group paused activity in 1985 as Double Trouble Live, a retrospective of signature tracks, reached the market. Molly Hatchet resurfaced in 1989 without Hlubek, delivering the polished AOR set Lightning Strikes Twice; even longtime supporters largely ignored the release, leading to a swift disbandment. Mid-'90s reunion efforts restored them as a touring unit, yielding the first new studio album since Lightning Strikes Twice with 1996's Devil's Canyon.

Sustaining the sound of their peak era, Silent Reign of Heroes appeared in 1998, followed by Kingdom of XII in early 2001, the year after guitarist Bobby Ingram—who had joined in 1987—secured legal rights to the Molly Hatchet name. Subsequent years brought numerous live documents from a lineup that had undergone substantial turnover, culminating in the 2005 studio release Warriors of the Rainbow Bridge, which also marked Hlubek's return after nearly twenty years away. Their thirteenth album, Justice, surfaced in 2010. The post-2000 period likewise witnessed the deaths of several founding members: Danny Joe Brown in 2005, Duane Roland in 2006, Bruce Crump in 2015, and Banner Thomas in 2017, the same year that claimed co-founder Dave Hlubek. Steve Holland, the last surviving original member, died on August 2, 2020, at age 66.