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Cult metal band Pentagram are now more famous than ever before — and it’s not because of their excellent new album Lightning in a Bottle or their long history as doom metal masters.
Rather, Pentagram and singer Bobby Liebling went viral when onstage footage of Liebling became a meme. In the widely seen clip, Liebling shoots an eye-bulging stare at the crowd while his wizard-like hair flutters.
As the shares and reposts piled up, Liebling suddenly became a recurring character on social media feeds — the screenshot has gained further reach as a meme template — and the singer says the newfound viral fame has had a direct impact on the band.
“The whole thing flipped me out at first,” said Liebling, who opened up about the meme in an interview with Altars of Metal (as transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar). “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 singer said that everywhere the band goes, someone asks, “‘Aren’t you that guy?'” Airports sound particularly fun.
“The band’s profile went through the roof immediately, which is pretty obvious that it would,” he said. “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…”
The meme is still fresh enough that Pentagram haven’t really been able to benefit from the exposure in ticket sales — their tours were already mostly booked-out with sold-out mid-sized venues — although Liebling said that the band has required police escorts after gigs.
“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,” he said. “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 are currently on the tail end of a US tour that runs through the end of May, and then they’ll hop the pond for a UK/European outing. Get tickets here.
Check out the new interview with Liebling and full original viral clip below.
English (US) · 