Despite 50 years in the trenches, the career of doom metal mainstays Pentagram career found itself mired in infamy more than commercial success. The actions of the band’s 71-year-old frontman Bobby Liebling bear a lot of blame for the lost momentum and missed opportunities.
Having spiraled into drug addiction and isolation in the 90s and early 00s, he and his band were given a new lease on life from the reception to his 2011 documentary ‘Last Days Here‘. Buoyed by the film, Liebling was able to turn his life around to a degree afterwards and get the band back on track.
However, it wasn’t smooth sailing by any means, as further controversies emerged several years later. In 2016, Wax Idols and King Woman exited a tour with the band, citing unprofessional conduct and harassment from the Pentagram camp. Roughly a year later, Liebling was arrested and sentenced to prison for assaulting his elderly mother. His bandmates would later stay that Bobby was in a ‘drug-induced rage’ at the time of the incident.
Upon his release from prison, a ‘remorseful and rehabilitated’ Liebling set out with the band once again, with the group remaining active since. However, this past February drastically changed the band’s visibility, after footage of a zoned out Liebling performing onstage went viral, racking up millions and millions of views.
Since then, the band’s profile has elevated substantially among the general public, going so far as to find Liebling and his bandmates requiring police escorts in certain territories. Chatting with Altars Of Metal about that several weeks ago (see below), Liebling spoke of how that viral footage has affected the band’s trajectory [transcribed by Ultimate Guitar]:
“The whole thing flipped me out at first. It was pretty weird. I always had this dream of maybe someday I can have a post on Instagram or Facebook, and it will be viral. And it was like… Jesus, wow…Careful what you wish for, because it kind of blew up more quickly than I expected it to for damn sure. But it was pretty cool, you know? And it’s really fun, though, playing music for over half a century and then becoming famous for being a joke.”
“The band’s profile went through the roof immediately, which is pretty obvious that it would. And we got stopped in airports by TSA people, and we’ve gotten stopped on planes by pilots coming out of the cockpit to say hello, and soccer moms in the airport and groups of little kids and stuff like that. It’s pretty wild, man. I really didn’t know how to react, and I still kind of don’t because everywhere we go, it’s someone [saying], ‘Aren’t you that guy?'”
He continued:
“When it happened, we were actually on tour already, and so the sales didn’t really increase or anything because the places were sold out, actually, when we were doing the West Coast tour, which is when it came about. And then the South American tour, which was mostly sellouts too.
So I don’t know how it really bolstered the situation of the attendance, but I do know the ‘seeming popularity’ – and Lord knows why – but it went through the roof. It was a trip. People are clawing, trying to get through crowds. And you got police escorts surrounding you to get to a van when you leave a gig. It was wild, man. It still is.”
Pentagram‘s next run of shows will find them out across the U.S. this spring, hitting the following cities:
05/11 Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live
05/12 Houston, TX – Last Concert Cafe
05/13 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
05/14 The Colony, TX – Lava Cantina
05/15 Springfield, MO – The Regency
05/16 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave (‘Milwaukee Metal Fest‘)
05/17 Flint, MI – Machine Shop
05/18 Syracuse, NY – Lost Horizon
05/19 Portland, ME – Geno’s Rock Club
05/20 Braintree, MA – Widowmaker Brewing
05/21 Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage (‘Maryland Deathfest‘ pre-fest)
05/22 Lynchburg, VA – Super Rad Arcade
05/23 Summerville, SC – Trolley Pub
05/24 Atlanta, GA – 529
05/25 Nashville, TN – The Cobra
