WEBVTT - Pentagram: Demons, Curses, and Doom 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:15.440 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:20.280 story about inversion, about what happens when you take something ancient, 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:25.079 something sacred, and you turn it upside down. It's about 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.120 the sound of doom echoing from the basement of a 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:34.680 suburban Virginia home. It's about mystery tapes and cheap pawnshop stereos, 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.879 about the thin line between myth and memory. It's a 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:43.319 story about drugs, demons, and deals that may or may 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.640 not have ever gone down. And it's also a story 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.920 about a curse, one which may have been cast the 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.400 moment a certain name was spoken out loud. That name 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:59.120 was Pentagram, a band that was supposed to be louder 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.800 and heavier than anything else, but instead became a whisper 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.440 on a worn out cassette. Their music passed from one 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:12.120 true believer to the next great music, unlike that music 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:13.600 I played for you at the top of the show. 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.720 That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop for 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:23.520 my melotron called Haunted Star MK two. I played you 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.240 that loop because I can't afford the rights to Maggie 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.600 May by Rod Stewart, And why would I play you 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.320 that specific slice of feels like the first time cheese? 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.480 Could I afford it? Because that was the number one 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.960 song in America on Halloween nineteen seventy one, And that 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.679 was the day that Bobby Leebling decided to form a 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:49.240 band that he would call Pentagram and unknowingly unleasha curse 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:56.680 he could never shake. On this episode Doo Demons, drugs, curses, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:02.520 Bobby leibling and the greatest band that never won was Pentagram. 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:29.720 I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. The guy in 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.480 the back of the pawn shop working on the stereo equipment. 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.720 Was he a really young looking old dude or a 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:41.600 really old looking young dude? Was he white, black, Latino Israeli? 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.240 Was he either perpetually tanned or just plain filthy? And 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.160 what was with the perm the Grecian yearning, the sinewy 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.960 frame and piped wife beater? And was that a gold 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.320 star of David or a Pentagram hanging around his neck? 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:03.360 Most important, how how did this dude look cool? So 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:08.640 many questions rumors have persisted ever since he started working here. 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.800 The pawnshop gig was the latest in a string of 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:16.320 jobs out on the Fringes Bail Bondsman straight Pi off 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.120 the book Snatch and Grab Man. Ord around town was 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.920 that not only could he fix your turntable, he could 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:29.480 play anything guitar, drums, sacks, and most proficiently, the devil's instrument, 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.800 the fiddle. The kids who came in the shop fucked 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.520 with him. He was an easy target, part soul trained, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.800 part porn star stand in. But when he pulled an 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.960 old cassette tape and popped open the cheap plastic case 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:43.880 with a flick of his thumb and shook out the 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.480 cream colored cassette like he was shaking a Marlboro red 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.920 loose from the soft pack he kept in his shirt pocket, 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:54.120 everything changed, At least it did for the two impressionable 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.840 teenage headbangers who'd wound their way into the back of 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.480 the pawn shop, passed the thirty odd six and the 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.800 velvet el and passed the stuffed jackalobe and the squire 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.600 telecaster with the faded steel your face sticker peeling from 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.160 the pit guard to where this dude was hiding in 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.880 plain sight. He looked at them like he knew they 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.400 were coming, and they looked at him like he had 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.120 what they were looking for, and he did, And they 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.320 stood there with their Cliff Burton Peach fuzz stashes and 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.360 their torn Levi's jackets, ready to have their minds blown 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.560 in a way that they knew the holier than thou 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.080 twenty three year old down at the record store could 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.200 never do. And they stared at the dude's stack of 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:38.360 tapes with band names handwritten on the spines, names like Stone, Bunny, Space, Meat, 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.920 Wicked Angel In Virgin Death. They stared at the letters 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.240 inked on the knuckles of this dude on his right 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:50.720 and left hands diez Era Day of Wrath. And they 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.640 stared at the oily Chevron gas station work shirt that 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.920 was chaotically tied around this dude's waist with a name 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.920 patch over the left breast that read Teddy. Teddy knew 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.480 that these two headbangers weren't here for a busted watch 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.400 or a faulty piece of stereo equipment. They were there 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:14.440 for this. He popped the cassette inside a boombox that 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.320 was sitting there on the counter. It has to be 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.600 a cassette, Teddy told them. The shit doesn't sound right 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.359 any other way. A CD is gonna give you too 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:28.600 much clarity, too much definition, and Vinyl fuck Vinyl, vinyls 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.120 of pain in the balls. Yeah, I see you're not 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.640 in your head before you even had time to process it. 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:39.880 But of course I'm right. Vinyl sucks. Teddy press play. 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:46.880 The riff came storming from the speakers, heavy thunderous, laying 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.560 the tap hiss to waste. The boys instinctively slammed their 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.080 heads up and down. What the fuck was this? Motorhead? No, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.400 this is it's more like Sabbath. But that definitely wasn't 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.800 ausy on the mic. The guy sounded like an American. 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.320 Teddy saw the excitement in their eyes, saw that they 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.000 were having that full body chills reaction to hearing something 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.320 for the first time that only kids of a certain 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.919 age and suggestibility are capable of having. Teddy took in 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:18.839 their reaction, breathed it in, really tried to absorb it, 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.360 and hopes that it would awaken some sort of long 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:26.040 dormant feeling that he lost possession of years ago. And 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:33.359 then he exhaled. Hear that that's doom in that hiss 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:38.880 you're hearing too, that tape hiss, that's the tape breathing's 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:43.320 that's how you know it's alive. Never been pressed, never 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.080 been released, buried for more than a decade. Only those 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.040 who know know about this. I know what you're about 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.360 to ask me, what's the name of the band? Right? 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.960 Check it out? And Teddy just pointed at the gold 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.360 chain hanging around his neck. Teddy laugh and as he did, 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.200 he arched his head back, stretching out the leathery skin 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.000 of his neck, and the boys could swear they saw 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:11.440 his blue eyes turn red. Nah Man, Teddy said this. 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.680 He pointed out the gold chain again, and this time 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.880 the boys heard a sound like a thundercut, an explosion. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.720 A billboard all fiery red and blazing hot, seared into 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:28.280 the back of their skulls, a billboard which read Teddy Pentagram. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.120 Teddy kept talking. You haven't heard of the band Pentagram, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.720 have you? No one has. But they've been around for 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.760 a while, just like their namesake, the pentagram, the five 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.760 pointed star that's been around longer than Christ, and the 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.160 Egyptians carved it into their tombs. The Greeks used it 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.480 as a secret handshake. One Greek in particular called it 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.440 the mark of perfection. One line five points. You learn 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.240 about the golden ratio in school, Yet well, anyway, I'm 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:03.280 talking about protection, order, virtue from the tiny speakers. Pentagram's 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.080 guitarists lid into a solo so fuzzed out it sounded 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.080 like the boombox was melting. Now, when you flip it 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.760 upside down, the Pentagram, all that order and virtue, shit, 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:18.360 it goes out the window. Teddy then took his gold 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.360 chain between two nicotine stained fingers and demonstrated what he 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.880 was talking about. Just like that, you got the devil's pitchfork, 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:33.079 Satan's horns, not protection damnation, he went on. Now, Bobby 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.719 Leebling didn't know all that. Back in nineteen seventy one 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:37.840 on Halloween night, when he was sitting in the basement 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.000 of his parents' house in Alexandria, Virginia, he was just 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.960 getting stoned out of his gore, passing a joint back 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.600 and forth with his friend Jeff, trying to ignore all 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:48.560 the neighborhood kitties as they went door to door with 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.600 their pillowcases overflowing with that Knight's loop. You too need 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.040 to understand that Bobby Leebling was eighteen years old, not 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.360 much older than you guys, and just like you guys, 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.319 he was chasing a heavy sound there on the pullout sofa, 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.280 listening to his favorite band, Blue Cheer, at an ear 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.920 blistering volume. You know, summertime blues. I'm not talking about 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.480 the Who, and I don't mean Eddie Cochran. Neither Bobby 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.120 and Jeff wanted to start their own band, and their 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.160 one guiding principle was that they could be louder and 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:22.520 heavier than Blue Cheer, which wasn't exactly in the cards 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.480 for Bobby. Seeing as his father worked for Lyndon Johnson, 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.520 Richard Nixon, and Gerald fucking Ford. They called Bobby Leaving's 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.000 dad little Kissinger swear to fucking got well well, his 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.280 dad was stamping out as Winston's and ashtrays at the Pentagon. 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.360 His son Bobby was dropping acid on his tongue. Actually, 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.000 according to Bobby, he dropped acid directly onto his eyeballs. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.800 At the mention of this, the two metal heads shared 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:55.320 a glance somewhere between horror and fascination. Teddy brought his 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.200 voice down to a whisper. This was back when LSD 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.840 was legal, Back when a dropper full of that shit 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.880 would blow the cobwebs out of your brain. Your mind 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.920 would get so warmed you create people out of whole 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.720 cloth and have conversations with them. And it wasn't long 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.080 after that that Bobby got himself acquainted with the needle. 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.600 My point is, Bobby Leaveling was not his old man. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.760 Bobby Leveling wasn't born to be a conformist suit and 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.000 tie shaking hands with the leaders of the free world. 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.440 Fuck that. Bobby was put on this earth to make 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.560 a racket, to rattle the minds of others the way 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:38.640 that his own mind had been rattled. Now, just exactly 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.000 how do you do that? In the late nineteen sixties 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.640 and early seventies. You know you've read the books. You 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:47.680 start a fucking rock and roll band. And I don't 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.320 have to tell you this, but when Bobby Leaveling started 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:53.839 his band, it was faced at the same question that 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.160 every guy who ever picked the guitars asked themselves. What 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.760 am I gonna call my band? What do I choose? 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:02.040 What name convey how the music I'm going to make 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:06.800 sounds well? For Bobby, the answer came to very quickly. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.120 It was what all the suburban housewives were scared of 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.520 at the time. Housewise, like his own mother, they were 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.680 haunted by images of crazy Charlie Manson walking into court 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.200 with those pinball eyes and with that big X carving 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.200 into the flesh of his forehead. Suburban moms didn't just 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.800 know about Manson. They listened to Sammy Davis Junior Man, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.800 They read The Inquirer. They knew about Anton LaVey and 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.559 his book The Satanic Bible. It was like their worst 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:38.200 nightmares were coming true. In this symbol, the Pentagram, the 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.040 one right there on the cover of Anton LaVey's book. 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.079 Bobby knew that that was the key that unlocked this 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.640 so other dimension, a dimension that the Squares always thought 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.200 never existed, but was now beginning to break through the 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.200 fabric of reality as they knew it. This was what 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.360 Bobby Leebling wanted his music to do, pierce the veil. 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.720 But again, just like the two of you, Bobby was 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.640 young at the time he named his band Pentagram, And 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.880 when you're young, you think you get the world by 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.640 the balls. You think that any decision you make could 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:13.600 somehow be unmade down the line if things get fucked. 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.040 The thing about the Pentagram, however, you draw that star 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.319 one way, you keep the demons out, but you draw 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:58.560 it the other way. Well, you let the man. As 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.000 Teddy hit a jack on the boom and flipped over 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.720 the tape, the two boys couldn't help but focus on 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.840 his singular long fingernail sticking out conspicuously from his pinky. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.000 And then there was the skull ring on the next finger, 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.600 over where some men would wear a wedding ring, but 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.920 Teddy didn't strike them as the marrying type. Here flanked 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.480 on one side by a sony receiver with a busted 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.120 volume knob, and on the other by a morants that 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.360 no longer lit up powder blue when you flip the 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.920 power switch, Teddy was in his element. He pressed play, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.920 and once again, the sound of the greatest metal band 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.480 the boys had never heard seemed to suck all the 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.679 air from the room. Their feet felt like they were 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.720 glued to the floor, and Teddy Teddy almost appeared to 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.559 be lit from below as he continued to tell the 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:54.920 tragic tale of Bobby Leebling and Pentagram. There's always Demons, man, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:57.960 and the demons were kept at bay for a while, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.880 but only briefly. You see, at first, Bobby couldn't stick 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.719 to the name. He probably knew deep down inside of 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.280 himself that there was something wrong with it that it 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.680 would do him more harm than good and long run. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:12.559 So for a short period of time he called the 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.439 Dan macab and they released one single in nineteen seventy two, 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:20.200 this song called Before Warren. What a title, right, It's 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.440 almost like he was talking to himself, you know. But 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.000 like most great artists, Bobby leveland couldn't take his own advice. 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.320 And the Pentagram's pull its power, it would not be denied. 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.040 And so Bobby, with his friend Jeff on drums, Greg 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.160 Main on bass, and Vincent McAllister on guitar, committed to 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.680 that ancient symbol, and they committed to that cursed name Pentagram. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.800 The band was now a thing. And this is at 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.920 the very same time that Bobby's hometown, Alexandria, Virginia, that 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.080 bedroom community just outside the nation's capitol, where his old 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:57.080 man little Kissinger was holed up doing god knows what 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.720 with the Secretary of Defense. It was here the demons 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.640 began to make their playground, and it was here that 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.240 the bodies began to pile up, the bodies of women, 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.600 specifically a high school junior found in a ravine with 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:15.160 an ice pick jammed in her skull. An English teacher 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.200 who had been slashed with a knife well over one 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.560 hundred times in an eighteen year old a switchboard operator 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.880 at the FBI who was found murdered with a pair 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.400 of scissors in her apartment. These are only a few 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:30.840 the many murders in Alexandria, Virginia in the nineteen seventies 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:35.040 that are still unsolved to this day, murders in cases 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.920 that are as cold as the February wind whipping off 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:43.400 the Potomac. Teddy paused to let this information sink in. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.640 The two metal heads just sat there listening, waiting for more, 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.320 and Teddy went on, and when Bobby decided to call 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.760 his band Pentagram for good, the demons rounded the corner 0:15:55.800 --> 0:16:00.120 and zeroed in. The curse first struck in December in 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.960 nineteen seventy five. This is right around the time that 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.440 the band Kiss was turning into this phenomenon, a bunch 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:12.160 of clowns and makeup right wrong Kiss Kiss Knights in 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.400 Satan's Service. Sure, the band denied that that was even 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:18.800 a thing, and they laughed at it, and they said, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.000 how stupid knights in Satan's service. But of course that's 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.440 what Satan's Knights would say. They do anything to shield 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:30.280 the very existence of their master. Before too long, Satan's 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.480 Knights came to Alexandria, just as the demons had before them, 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.280 only they came to make an unholy pact with Pentagram 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:41.880 right there in Bobby Leebling's parents' basement. Literally, let me 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:46.320 back up for a second. Pentagram's first manager, this guy 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.480 named Gordon Fletcher. He was connected, and one of those 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:54.440 connections was to Kiss. Now, look, I always thought that 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.000 band was a fucking joke, but whatever, the point is, 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.440 they were huge at the time, super big deal, and 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.760 so Gordon Fletcher convinced Kiss's manager to send Gene Simmons 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:08.199 and Paul Stanley over to Alexandria to hear Pentagram play. 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.760 The idea was that Kiss would take Pentagram on the 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.160 road and boost their profile, kind of like they did 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.080 with Judis Priest later on. But from the jump, this 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.280 whole meet and greet was fucked. Greg and Vincent, that's 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.000 Pentagram's bassist and guitar player. They had these crummy jobs 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.040 as janitors somewhere in town, and seeing that there are 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.640 struggling musicians, starving artists, so to speak, they had no car, 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.800 which meant that they hitchhike to work every day, and 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.679 this day was no exception. This most important days for 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.400 the career of their budding metal band, the day that 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.480 two knights in the service of Satan, Jean and Paul 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.920 were going to bring Pentagram into their army. This is 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.920 stunt via blood oath? Was there a sacrifice at offering 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.399 to the dark Lord? Greg and Vincent had no idea, 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.600 but you can imagine their minds fucking wandered, man, just 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.040 like they themselves wandered down the side of the road 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.879 after they got out of work that day, just drifting along, 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.000 their thumbs out, their pride, the bitterest of fucking pills, 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.160 the swall, waiting for someone to take pity and stop 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.080 to give him a ride. And when they finally arrived 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.680 at Bobby's place, there were a sweaty mess and even worse. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.120 Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been waiting for close 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.720 through an hour, getting more annoyed by the minute. But 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.959 Pentagram's private performance for two of the biggest rock stars 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:28.120 on the planet, it seemed to put everything right, at 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.959 least for the brief time while it was happening. They 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.120 ran through songs like Forever my queen. When the screams 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.480 come and living in a ram's head, Bobby did his 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.760 best possessed lead singer stick, and when they were finished 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:46.280 they felt triumphant. It was only then that they felt 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.680 the sting of the curse. Paul Stanley was polite enough, 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.240 tried to let them down easy. Look, Gene, well you 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.920 guys know Gene. He didn't hold back. He said, you 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.840 guys call yourselves pentagram, and yet there's only four of you. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.520 You can't make a pentagram with four points. That's just 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.560 a fucking square, which is what Bobby, Jeff, greg and 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:12.800 Vincent were to Gene Simmons at least square. And so 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.159 Satan's army you packed up and left, and there was 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.399 no blood oath, no deal with the devil. I'm not 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.359 talking about demons, because unlike the devil, demons didn't make 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:26.159 a deal. A curse is not the byproduct of a deal. 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.400 And how does one go about lifting a curse when 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.240 you're unaware of its existence? The two metal heads looked 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.240 at each other, confused. Teddy didn't care. He went on, 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.600 So as all this is happening, Columbia Records comes calling 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.679 by way Murray Krugman Murray Krugman, at the time, was 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.720 one of Blue Oyster Cults managers and producers, and Murray 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.400 Krugman ponied up cash to bring Pentagram to New York 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.280 City so that they could record a demo. Murray Krugman 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.439 brought them to the precipice. These four guys from a 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.000 basement in Alexandria, Virginia were now balancing on the edge 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.280 of the big time. And right then, right there, right then, 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.919 at that pivotal moment, what did Bobby Leebling do. He 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.919 tanked the session, He insulted Murray, He acted like they 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.479 were making pet sounds or some shit, and he just 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.320 had to get his vocal perfect just right. But to 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:24.160 Murray to Columbia, just the fucking demo man, fast cheat. 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:28.520 But Bobby couldn't let it be because something wasn't letting 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:30.800 him let it be. Do you understand what I'm saying 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.679 to you? This story kept playing like a broken record. 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.960 Pentagram's name was inked on the ledgers of seven different 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:41.520 managers in five years time. Every bridge Bobby crossed went 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.040 up in flames as quickly as his feet got across it. 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.240 Now back in the Middle Ages, way the fuck back 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.800 chivalrous knights would display the pentagram on the shield. Sir Gawayne, 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.800 for one, had it on both his shawl and his shield. 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:02.640 Five points for five virtues, courage, honor, kindness, truth, loyalty. 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:08.760 It was meant as protection against demons, but Pentagram the 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:13.800 band protection was never in the carts. The only thing 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.960 Bobby Leebling or anyone else could count on was the 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:27.480 always present sound of doom. We'll be right back after this. 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:34.600 We're we're, We're back. In the back of the pawnshop, 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.760 Teddy stared at the two metal heads and he said, 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:43.280 close your eyes. I want you to imagine something. The 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.520 two boys did as Teddy instructed. Each of them was 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:49.199 conscious that they were still standing in the same place 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.320 in front of the fixed counter at the far end 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:53.720 of the local pawn shop, and they were aware that 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.120 they had been standing there for far longer than they 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.360 had ever intended, and it was because Teddy wanted them 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:03.320 to do so. There was no denying it. Pentagram was 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:05.719 some of the best shit they'd ever heard, but they 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.720 couldn't leave even if they wanted to. What had begun 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.840 is this weird guy playing an obscure metal band for 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:17.000 them had turned into something else. Now, Teddy's obvious enjoyment 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.479 of their enjoyment simply listening to his cassette tape was 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:22.960 kind of creepy, to be honest. It was like he 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.000 was getting off on it or something. And so when 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.760 he told him to close their eyes and imagine something, 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:30.560 every fiber of their being said it probably wasn't the 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:34.479 best idea, but they were powerless to deny it. So 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.480 they closed their eyes and Teddy put another Pentagram tape 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:42.120 in the boombox and hit play, and then he went on, 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.080 Now I want the two of you to imagine you're 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.399 stepping into the cockpit of a single engine Cessna for 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.439 the first time. You've only ever been on a plane 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.359 once in your life, a big commercial jetliner when you 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:57.600 went to visit your Aunt Ronda in San Diego that 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:00.600 one time. But now you're behind the wheel this little 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:03.960 cessna and you're expected to fly it from Virginia all 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:07.280 the way to Bogatar, Columbia. What is that two thousand 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:11.600 miles at least? Yeah, you're good at following instructions, aren't you. 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.359 But here's the thing. First, you gotta get this big 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:17.520 bird up into the sky, and then you have to 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.640 keep it down low, so low that you stay off 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.840 everyone's radar, because you're made in voyage. Here isn't exactly 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.479 on the up and up, and that's putting it mildly. 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:31.639 Because you, my friend, are headed to Bogata, where you 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.760 load up with kilo upon kilo of the finest Colombian 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:39.240 cocaine and then smuggle it back into the United States. 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:43.080 And you never met Escobar in person, but from what 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:45.960 you've been told, that's a good thing. If you ever 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:47.960 did meet him, it would probably be for all the 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:51.160 wrong reasons, and you never walk away alive. The only 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:53.240 people you meet down there are a couple of guys 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:56.240 with no names in sunburnt faces, standing next to a 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:59.080 badly rusted pickup on the side of a windswept cliff 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:02.240 high in the hills, in this remote field, where a 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:07.000 makeshift landing strip waits for you. You land the Cessna somehow, 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.000 by the grace of God. You literally have no clue 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:11.919 how you manage not to run out of gas and 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:14.840 drop into the ocean, and then you load up quickly 0:24:14.920 --> 0:24:18.480 before the sun falls below the horizon. The next day, 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:21.359 you're handing over the stacks of coke to a distributor 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:24.640 in Virginia and he's handing you stacks of cash in return. 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.800 I'm talking millions of dollars money which you then proceed 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:34.240 to burn through women, cars, houses, diamond rings, and chinchilla coats. Shit. Man, 0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:36.159 you could have literally set it all on fire and 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.919 it would have lasted longer. Then, just like that, you 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:41.560 go back to your life as the leader of a 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:44.680 metal band that no one's ever heard of. But actually 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:48.680 the band isn't there anymore because you know dynamics. You're 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:51.119 difficult to work with. A band is like being married 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:53.160 to three or four people at the same time. There 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:56.360 ain't even juice for the squeeze. Pick your reason. It's over. 0:24:56.480 --> 0:24:59.600 So you a guy who just ran drugs for Pablo 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:02.600 fucking Escobar and lived to tell about it. You were 0:25:02.680 --> 0:25:07.320 back in your parents' basement dreaming up Pentagram mark two. 0:25:08.640 --> 0:25:14.720 Now tell me do you believe that story? Hey, open 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:19.359 your eyes. The two boys did as Teddy commanded. He 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:22.320 looked beyond excited to see them again, almost as if 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:24.800