Resurrected
hellbound glory
july 29 the wingfield park amphitheater opening act:
Jake Houston & The Royal Flush
Hellbound Glory by Jeri Chadwell-Singley
T
here’s more to Hellbound Glory than just its raucous country and roots rock sound. Maybe that’s because— for frontman Leroy Virgil, at least—HBG is something more. It comes across in the often cryptic way he talks about the band he started in Reno more than a decade ago. It’s a bit perplexing. And talking with Virgil via text message while he was on tour in Norway in late June did little to dispel the mystery. “My sound is country, rockabilly, blues, bluegrass and metal,” Virgil said. “But it’s not about the sound. It’s about the eternal struggle between the Hellbound and the Glory. I’m always apprehensive to get out there as HBG because I know it ain’t good for my soul, but I gotta make a living.” The last time the RN&R caught up with Virgil, his band was touring the U.S. with fellow country outfit Supersuckers. That was in 2013, shortly after HBG had concluded a three-month-long tour opening for Kid Rock. The band was becoming popular with a national audience, but Virgil told reporter Laura Davis that he missed the Biggest Little City and was looking forward to an upcoming show at the Knitting Factory. “I just want people to know I love Reno, and I miss it, even my enemies,” Virgil told Davis in a phone interview. Davis didn’t report any mention of eternal struggles from her conversation with Virgil, but something was brewing. A year after the homecoming show at the Knit—and just months after the release of an EP LV—the country music news website called LV Saving Country Music reported a post from Hellbound Glory’s Facebook page that invited fans to “Witness The Death of Hellbound Glory” during a concert at the Buckhorn Lodge in Pioneer, California on Oct. 31, 2014. When asked about the event during this most recent interview, Virgil replied, “I tried to kill off the Hellbound Glory on Halloween 2014, but the spirit keeps coming back to haunt me. I tried to kill it off in a ritual sacrifice.”
After the 2014 show, Virgil spent some time touring under his given name, Leon Virgil Bowers. However, it seems he was telling the truth about the spirit haunting him, because less than a year had passed before he began playing shows under the Hellbound Glory name again. And in September 2015, he announced the release of a new HBG song called “College Girls.” But—despite the fact that he’s got gigs booked as far out as October 2016—Virgil insisted that he doesn’t consider himself a member of Hellbound Glory anymore. “It’s its own thing, and I’m just the biggest fan, and I pay tribute when the money’s right, or if the show is in Reno,” he said. “Everyone who’s ever been a part of it still loves the band. It’s just too much to live with.” Determining the truth behind Virgil’s relationship with the band he founded is made all the more difficult by his penchant for ambiguous language. Perhaps it’s just his sense of humor. On the other hand, maybe it’s not. If lyrics like “Why take the pain when I can take pain pills?” or “I’ve been out on a bender since I can’t remember” are in any way autobiographical, then perhaps HBG really is too much to live with. Either way, Virgil won’t point to a specific incident that led to his decision to take a step back from Hellbound Glory. “HBG has been off the rails since the song and band name came to me in a dream a week before I moved to Reno full time in 2003,” he said. “There have been countless signs and close calls that should have made me quit, but it was business that made me decide to step away from it. Glad I did too. Now it’ll never die.” For now, HBG is very much alive. And, according to Virgil, Reno fans can expect a true-to-form, rowdy experience during his Rollin’ on the River performance. Ω
a sp e ci a l s u p p l e me n t to th e r e n o n e w s & r e view • j une 2 3 , 2 016
13
2016
