Dreams I'll Never See The Creeper Molly Hatchet

Dreams I'll Never See Album: Molly Hatchet (1978)
The Creeper Album: Molly Hatchet (1978)
by Molly Hatchet

Molly Hatchet is an American band formed by guitarist Dave Hlubek in Jacksonville, Florida in 1971. They experienced popularity and commercial success during the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s amongst southern rock and hard rock communities and listeners. The band released six studio albums on Epic Records between 1978 and 1984. Molly Hatchet has released many more studio albums since their split with Epic Records in 1985, although none have been as successful as their early albums, nor have charted in the United States.

As of August 2, 2020, all of the band's original members are deceased.

Molly Hatchet was founded by guitarist Dave Hlubek in 1971. The band originated and was based in Jacksonville, Florida, and shared influences and inspiration with what is perhaps the most well-known act in the Southern rock genre, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

During the late 1960s, Hlubek (vocals, guitar), Sandy Heath (guitar), Skip Lake (drums), Tim Lindsey (bass) and Chris Caruso (keyboards) were in the Psychedelic music outfit Mind Garden. Hlubek and Lake formed a new band in 1971, along with bassist Tim Lindsey, lead singer/frontman Bobby Maddox and guitarist Steve Holland, who had replaced Caruso. Guitarist Donald Hall was also briefly a member in these early days, after Holland left temporarily in 1973. Lindsey left before Molly Hatchet's debut gigs, being replaced by Banner Thomas, but would rejoin the lineup decades later and is still a member to this day.

In an interview Dave Hlubek told the story of the band's name:

"A friend of ours went to University of Florida in Gainesville. Bobby Maddox was his name. This was long before Danny Joe. Bobby Maddox was a real Mick Jagger type. We were looking for a name for the band. We were wanting to work. There were around twelve rock clubs in the Jacksonville area in the 70s. You could make a hell of a living. By the time you made your way through the twelfth, it was time to start all over again. We were changing the name of the band every two weeks. They would just get used to the name of the group and we would finish the twelfth club and start over as "The Imbeciles" or something. People would not know who we were. This was the same band that packed the place a few weeks before. Finally, we said, 'We need to come up with a name for the group.' We took a John Deere Tractor hat and everybody came up with three names apiece and put them in the hat. We did it like the lottery. We said that whatever name was pulled out of the hat, by God, was going to be the name of the band and that's it. Well, the eighteenth name, the only one left, was Molly Hatchet! We said, ‘What the hell is that'? Everyone was asking, ‘Who's the girl in the band'? The people of Jacksonville took it upon themselves to start making bumper stickers. We just kept the name. Molly was an axe murderess. Her name was Abigail something. The history books called her Hatchet Molly. She was some passion killer.

Bassist Banner Thomas joined in 1973, invited by his friend Donald Hall. During this period, the band even toyed with changing the group's name to Bandit but soon went back to the Molly Hatchet moniker. Maddox was gone by this time and shortly afterwards, Hall was replaced by Duane Roland and Fred Bianco, a friend Thomas had met working in a music store, joined as drummer. Roland only lasted a month before he left and Kenny Niblick was the new guitarist until he and Bianco quit in mid-1975 as Steve Holland returned and Bruce Crump became the drummer. Roland (who had subbed for Hlubek for some shows) returned to take his position as third guitarist in the band later on the following year. And after Maddox had left, Hlubek was the band's vocalist prior to former Rum Creek singer Danny Joe Brown's entrance in the spring of 1976.

The first lineup of Molly Hatchet to record was in place by 1976. Guitarists Dave Hlubek and Steve Holland, bassist Banner Thomas and drummer Bruce Crump were joined in the spring of 1976 by Brown. And Duane Roland returned later during that same year to complete the group, leading to the so called "Three Guitar Army". In a 2008 interview in Modern Drummer magazine, Crump talked about the band's early days, signing with manager Pat Armstrong and Ronnie Van Zant's interest in producing Molly Hatchet:

"We started playing the Florida bar circuit until some of the guys from 38 Special recommended a guy they knew from Macon, Georgia who had managed a few bands. Pat Armstrong and his brother Jack ran a management/booking agency in Macon, so we went up and played for them. I guess they liked what they heard, because they encouraged us to start writing our own material. We did just that, and the next thing you know, we’re in the studio recording some demos. By now we’re into 1977, and Ronnie Van Zant from Skynyrd got wind of what we were doing and took us under his wing—even letting us cut some songs at the Skynyrd studio. As best as I can remember, Ronnie was given the green light to produce some bands and we were going to be one of them. Then the worst possible thing happened. We were coming back to Atlanta after playing a gig near Lynchburg, Tennessee. When we pulled into the hotel parking lot, Pat Armstrong, who had become our manager and had gone with us, went inside the hotel to check us in. All of a sudden, he walked onto the bus, white as a sheet, and said that the Skynyrd plane had crashed."

After meeting recording engineer Tony Reale in Atlanta, Armstrong was introduced to Epic Records producer and A&R man Tom Werman, who recommended them to Epic head Lenny Petze, who signed the band in December 1977. Werman, the producer on their first record, who was known for working with straight rock music acts such as Cheap Trick and Ted Nugent, combined boogie, blues and hard rock.

The band released their first album, Molly Hatchet, in September 1978, supported by "Dreams I'll Never See" (a cover of the Allman Brothers Band 1969 track "Dreams"), which got AOR (album-oriented rock) airplay.