Last night Umlaut stumbled on the news that Danny Joe Brown, the original singer of Molly Hatchet, passed away on March 10th.
Umlaut was into Hatchet during his formative Music Geek years. He saw them twice on the Flirtin' With Disaster and Beatin' The Odds Tours.
It was a profound moment back then when I read in Guitar Player magazine that Hatchet's guitarist, Dave Hlubek, spent part of his childhood in MY hometown (Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley, CA) when his military dad was based at nearby Moffett Field. A Rock Star "from" Sunnyvale?! Wow. I felt the same civic pride when I learned Atari was based in Sunnyvale and when Sunnyvale was mentioned in the movie War Games.
When I saw Hatchet in 1981 I remember thinking to myself "The singer looked different when I saw them last Summer.." It wasn't until later that I found out that Danny Joe Brown had left the band and it WAS a different singer.
DUH!
Kids these days have it WAY too fucking easy getting information on the Internet. Circus magazine just couldn't give you that kind of up-to-the-minute Rock news.
Anyway, I don't really know where I'm going with this. Yeah, there was a brief time when I was into Molly Hatchet, but they didn't change my life as other bands have. I wore a Hatchet 3/4 sleeve tour shirt for awhile, but I ended up trading it with a penpal in England for some of his Black Sabbath stuff.
I guess I'm just sending out props to Danny Joe. No Rock Star should die forgotten. I put on my old vinyl copy of the Flirtin' With Disaster album while typing this. Oh, to be 16 years old again. Was I ever this redneck?
(The answer is "Yes" and it only got worse before it got better.. believe me.. as the ring on my left hand will attest to...)
Last year the Eagles of Death Metal designed their logo in Molly Hatchet-style.. and it made me laugh out loud.
"Flirtin' with disaster, y'all damn sure know what I mean..."
