much my experience with Alan Walden.


Were you connected with Capricorn Records? I knew Phil Walden. I knew Frank Fenter better. And Dick Wooley, he was very important in the breaking of the Allman Brothers. Dick had Rabbit Records, and when I first started working with Molly Hatchet around 1976, he wanted to sign them to his label. He wanted to do it the old way, put out a single and see what happens and then exercise the options. I told him, “I like you Dick, but Molly Hatchet is an album oriented band.” We may never get a single out of these guys, but everywhere they play the crowds go crazy. And the venue does about three times their usual alco- hol sales. Wherever they went they were pulling in really good crowds, even before their album. But that’s how I got into the music business. I kind of backed into it. I was studying law on one hand and booking bands on the other. That’s how I got the Armstrong Agency. We had bands for everyone. At one time, we had over 300 bands that we represented. If you needed a band, we had one that could play that date. We were book- ing like crazy. During my senior year in Law School, I didn’t go to class much because I was busy booking. The top guy in my class came out making $14,000. Most of them made $8,000. My senior year I earned a quarter of a million. I bought myself a Continental Mark IV as a gradua tion present for myself. Back when you


could buy a t-shirt for a buck, print it for 50 cents and sell it for $3, I had a little company that did that. So, I was in on the early days. With Molly Hatchet, even at their peak, tickets were no more than $15- they were $6, and then 12 and then went to 15. But things have changed. 38 Special is making more money now than they did when they had hits on the radio. I was always on the business end, the legal side of the deal. Then I found out that I had really good ears. I could lis- ten to something and tell you whether it had a shot at radio or not.


How did you come to be associated with Molly Hatchet? I read that you designed the famous banner logo. Is that true? Yes. I did it in conjunction with the art depart- ment at CBS. Banner Thomas was always the


Molly Hatchet


malcontent in the band. He was very talented and very articulate. He turned me onto Frank Frazetta. I bought one of his calendars and then I bought a book on him. We liked the horseman, (The painting entitled “Death Dealer”- Ed) which was rather imposing. We bought the rights to use it on the album cover from Ellie Frazetta, who was Frank’s wife and manager. We paid $3000. For the second album cover, Flirtin’ with Disas- ter, we paid five or six thousand. We loved that painting! And for the third one we paid $8000. After that, they said that they wanted a percent- age of the sales. We said “nope,” and started using other artists with a similar style. When we would play live, I would have the banner 22 feet high and 35 feet wide behind the band. And then in the front over the speakers I’d have the two album covers, the first and the second. I tell ya, that really increased the sales on the t-shirts. It was great. The kids were always wondering what the next album cover was going to look like.


What was it like working with Hatchet? Well, they were just as rough off stage as they were onstage. We sent them down to a bar in Daytona, and there was a woman who ran the bar named Ringo. She used to make a drink called the Hippie Bitch. It was about eight or nine kinds of alcohol- vodka, bourbon, she’s mix it up. Some- times she’s put in Sprite or something. And they had this clear tubing that you used on motorcy-


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