RARE: Danny Joe Brown Band 1981

Danny Joe Brown was the original singer for Molly Hatchett. He and the band both were from Jacksonville, FL, and epitomized that rough, hard-working, hard style of Southern Rock. A couple years after Hatchet had made it big, Brown left for undetermined but highly rumored reasons, and shortly after started his own eponymously named band.

There’s really not any footage of DJB live out there so I was happy to see an old friend of mine, that was in the band, post this video on Youtube earlier this year. Apparently, from one of the comments, the person that posted it was part of a TV crew that was at the festival and just happened to turn his camera on while they were backstage for a bit. They quickly had to leave to head back to the studio. But in the process, we got almost 5 minutes of Danny Joe Brown Band footage we would never had seen.

The Danny Joe Brown Band album was recorded in Nassau, Bahamas. And was produced by the legendary, Glyn Johns. From what I’ve read and been told by a couple people that were there, it was pretty crazy. Let’s just say that the focus was not entirely on recording the music.

If you’re into the history of stuff like this, there’s pretty good piece from 2014 on the Folio Weeekly site about “The War Over Molly Hatchet.” It a lot like many other band’s stories. Personality clashes, excess, people leaving and coming back, people hating each other. It’s a pretty good read, and accurate from what little I know.