said “No, no.” They said well, you have to get your attorney in touch with us. So, the attorney said “No. You can’t do that. It’s like a guy selling Coca Cola at his store, and the corporation in Atlanta forgets to file a renewal. He can’t go in there and say he owns it.” Now, when Danny came back into the band, I made sure that he had no rights, title or interest to the name Molly Hatchet. Bobby had always been a side man. I had picked him up in a band called China Sky. I was able to get them on Epic. The attorney said there was no way they could do that. I knew it wasn’t them doing it, it was all Steve Greene. He had done it before. He had cheated people, committed fraud and embez- zlement and been convicted and gone to prison and served three years. Now he was doing it again. So, I called Steve and I said, “We have a problem. You are booking Molly Hatchet.” He acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about. I said, well, you don’t have the right to book them. So, we are suing the band and we are suing you also.” He says. “Oh, shit.” I told him something had to be done. He had to take them off the road. He came back and said, “What if we license the right to use the name?” I said, well, that’s not my decision. That’s Duane’s decision. So, I went to Duane. He said look, I’m tired and I need some time off. If you want we will license the name to them as long as I get my percentage of the gross. So, we did that. And in five more years they filed again. I said Steve, I am getting ready to put a load of crap on your head. You’re the one doing it. You are behind it all. Of course, he denied it. The thing was, they’d play Thursday through Sunday, and I’d only get paid for the Fri- day and Saturday. We kept chasing and chasing them. Then we gave them a second renewal on the licensing. Steve said, “You’d be better off by just selling us the name.” I said I don’t think Duane wants to sell the name. Duane had just had hip surgery and was going to have to have an- other one. And the band at the time owed me about $850,000. With $800,000 of it being man- agement commissions for dates played where I wasn’t paid thanks to Prager and Fenton. Over about a ten-year period I was slowly recouping what was owed. So, Duane looked at everything and said “Screw it. Let’s just sell it to them.” I told him it would have to be enough for me to get paid my part, because the band playing live would not


be able to repay. He and I worked out a deal be- tween us that was fair and equitable to all. That’s how Bobby got the name. Steve Green put the money up to purchase it. Duane regretted it right after he did it. But the deal was done.


I’m excited to be a part of this documen- tary that is being done, The Soul of South- ern Rock. How did you come to be involved in it? Well, obviously, I lived through a lot of it. Being in school in Macon and working with Skynyrd and then Hatchet. About two years ago, Michael Fitzgerald was calling me about doing an inter- view. I told him I’d like to, but I was just too busy. But I met him and read his book, and he had done a good job of writing about all of the players who had come out of Jacksonville. We got to- gether and decided to start First Coast Films. Then I was introduced to Jerry Smith (Pine Ridge Film and Television), and he knows a whole lot about Southern Rock. Jacksonville was where the Allman Brothers had their first jam. Of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd came out of Jacksonville, as did 38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Grinderswitch, Cow- boy. Just a lot of the music called Southern Rock came out of Jacksonville. We are doing a mini-se- ries on the roots and history of the genre, from Jacksonville, Florida to Macon, Georgia; to At- lanta, Georgia to Spartanburg, SC; to Nashville, Tennessee, to Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and to Mississippi and Texas. It is a story that needs to be told. •


Danny and Duane.


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