Dave Hlubek

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David Lawrence Hlubek [pronounced "LOO'-bek"] was born on August 28, 1951. Dave Hlubek was born a "Southern Boy" in Jacksonville, Florida. At the age of 5 or 6, Dave and his family moved to the Naval base in Oahu, Hawaii where he attended Waikiki Elementary school. From there, Hlubek's father was transferred and the family moved to Sunnyvale, Ca., then to Mountain View, and finally settling in San Jose, CA. He even went to the same Junior High School as Wayne Newton. It was the South Bay that Dave called home during the next few years, before moving back to Jacksonville, Florida around 1965 and there attended and graduated Forrest High School along with other legends of Southern Rock.

Hlubek, along with Steve Holland, founded the southern rock band Molly Hatchet. Vocalist Danny Joe Brown joined in 1974, Duane Roland, Banner Thomas, and Bruce Crump in 1971. Hlubek was the original vocalist when they started, as well as becoming the band's most prolific songwriter - writing or co-producing the majority of the group's songs, including their most famous, Flirtin' with Disaster. When at last they got their recording contract with Epic they got some help and advice from Ronnie Van Zant, who was originally supposed to produce the album, but was unable to due to the tragic plane crash in '77. While most people tagged Molly Hatchet as "Southern Rock," Hlubek admits it was only because of the location. He considered Molly Hatchet, along with Blackfoot, to actually be metal bands from the South. In fact, he has also said that, although hard to talk about, it was the demise of Lynyrd Skynyrd - who were on top of the world at that time - that opened the door for Hatchet.

In 1986 Hlubek - by his own admission being "unbearable," due to rock star excess that have left others dead - left the band, and was replaced by Bobby Ingram. After getting his life back together, Hlubek worked with several other bands for the next nineteen years, including the Dixie Allstars, renamed Southern Rock Allstars which he co-founded with Blackfoot drummer Jakson Spires. In January of 2005, Ingram invited Hlubek to rejoin Molly Hatchet where he remains today and in doing so became the only current member who was a part of the original band.

A little known fact is that Dean Markley Magnum guitar strings featured Dave Hlubek's face, in cameo, on the packaging for years and can still be found to this day.

During 2004 and 2005 Dave Hlubek added to his bio credits the film sound tracks for the following feature films: Monster, starring Charlize Theron; Run Ronnie Run; Suspect Zero and the new Dukes of Hazzard, starring Jessica Simpson and Johnny Knoxville and in 2007 the original cut of "Flirtin' with Disaster" made the sound track on the feature film Delta Farce.