Archive: Molly Hatchet and the confederate flag (2013)

By STEVE MASCORD

MOLLY Hatchet guitarist Bobby Ingram says the band is happy to comply with promoters who don’t want the Confederate flag used in their show  – but insists the controversial symbol is “not racist”.

The southern rock stalwarts used the United States flag each night as part of their performance but Ingram, who joined the band in 1987, tells Hot Metal that promoters sometimes ask them to refrain from using the Confederate flag, which is banned in many schools and universities in the south.

“It’s a very interesting issue,” Ingram says. “We’ve had different events that we play where they’ve asked us not to bring the Confederate flag out and we like to honour that.

“But we still stand by our heritage, which is the south. I don’t look at it as being racist at all. I look at it as heritage, not hate.

“There were a lot of southerners who died in the Civil War and why should we forget about them? That’s part of our demographic.

“We don’t mean anything bad by it if we’re bringing the Confederate flag out. It’s just part of what we’re all about and we bring the American flag out and that’s our heritage.

“So, people can make a big deal out of something that isn’t a big deal. It’s not the big a deal.”

Ingram says military families form a big part of Molly Hatchet’s support base.

He explains: “Sometimes we use the Confederate flag, the US flag. It’s southern, we’re American, it’s our heritage. We play ‘Dixie’ along with that. I think it’s very important. We’re American citizens, we’ve got a pretty good military that gets out there and protects our freedoms. We like to give back to them.

“A lot of times we do songs for the POWs and (those) missing in action and all the families … they have gone through a lot of struggles. We definitely like to recognise that because we wouldn’t have the freedoms in the United States if it wasn’t for our military.”

This story first appeared on the Hot Metal website on January 4, 2013