DISGRACELAND - Pentagram: Demons, Curses, and Doom

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

In 1971, a teenage metalhead named Bobby Liebling flipped a five-pointed star upside-down, gave his band a cursed name, and summoned a sound so heavy it would echo for generations. But for Bobby and his bandmates, doom metal wasn’t just a genre – it was a prophecy. Drug addiction, jail time, sabotage, and strange hauntings followed, all as the myth of Pentagram grew louder underground. This is the story of the greatest band you’ve never heard – and the curse they could never shake. For a full list of contributors, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠disgracelandpod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To listen to Disgraceland ad free and hear an exclusive mini-episode about Bobby Liebling's wild night with the Rolling Stones, become a Disgraceland All Access member at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠disgracelandpod.com/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GET THE NEWSLETTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (formerly Twitter)  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook Fan Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Double Elvis. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When like young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in. Do that.

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Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the fourth. 14th season of Family Secrets. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets, starting May 7th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about inversion, about what happens when you take something ancient, something sacred, and you turn it upside down. It's about the sound of doom, echoing from the basement of a suburban Virginia home. It's about mystery tapes and cheap pawn shop stereos, about the thin line between myth and memory. It's a story about drugs, demons, and deals that may or may not have ever gone down. And it's also a story about a curse, one which may have been cast the moment a certain name was spoken out loud.

That name was Pentagram, a band that was supposed to be louder and heavier than anything else, but instead became a whisper on a worn-out cassette. Their music passed from one true believer to the next. Great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Haunted Star MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to Maggie May by Rod Stewart. And why would I play you that specific slice of feels like the first time cheese could I afford it?

Because that was the number one song in America on Halloween 1971. And that was the day that Bobby Liebling decided to form a band that he would call Pentegram. An unknowingly unleash a curse he could never shake. on this episode, doom, demons, drugs, curses, Bobby Leibling, and the greatest band that never was. I'm Jake Brennan,

and this is Disgraceland. The guy in the back of the pawn shop working on the stereo equipment, was he a really young-looking old dude or a really old-looking young dude? Was he white, black, Latino, Israeli? Was he either perpetually-taxually tanned or just plain filthy. And what was with the perm, the Grecian yearning, the sinewy frame and

piped wife-beater? And was that a gold star of David or a pentagram hanging around his neck? Most important, how did this dude look cool? So many questions. Rumors have persisted ever since he started working here. The pawn shop gig was the latest in a string of jobs out on the fringes. Bail Bondsman, straight P.I. Off the book, Snatching Grab Man. Word around town was that not only could he fix your turntable, he could play anything. Guitar, drums, sax, and most proficiently, the devil's instrument, the fiddle. The kids who came in the shop fucked with him. He was an easy target, part soul train, part porn star stand in. But when he pulled an old cassette tape and popped open the cheap plastic case with a flick of his thumb and shook

out the cream-colored cassette like he was shaking a mob roll red loose from the soft pack he kept in his shirt pocket, everything changed. At least it did for the two impressionable teenage headbangers who'd wound their way into the back of the pawn shop. Pass the 30-od six and the velvet Elvis and past the stuffed jackalope and the squire telecaster with the faded steelier face sticker peeling from the pickguard to where this dude was hiding in plain sight. He looked at them like he knew they were coming. And they looked at him like he had what they were looking for. And he did. They stood there with their Cliff Burton Peach Fuzz stashes and their torn Levi's jackets, ready to have their minds blown in a way that they knew the holier-than-thou 23-year-old down at the record store could never do.

And they stared at the dude's stack of tapes, with band names handwritten on the spines, names like Stone Bunny, Space Meat, Wicked Angel, and Virgin Death. They stared at the letters inked on the knuckles of this dude On his right and left hands Diaz Ere, Day of Wrath And they stared at the oily Chevron gas station workshirt That was chaotically tied around this dude's waist With a name patch over the left breast that read Teddy

Teddy knew that these two headbangers Weren't here for a busted watch or a faulty piece of stereo equipment They were there for this He popped the cassette inside a boom box that was sitting there on the counter. It has to be a cassette, Teddy told him. The shit doesn't sound right any other way. A CD is going to give you too much clarity, too much definition. And vinyl, fuck vinyl.

Vinyl's a pain in the balls. Yeah, I see you nodding your head before you even had time to process it. But of course I'm right. Vinyl sucks. Teddy pressed play. The riff came storming from the. The speakers, heavy, thunderous, laying the tape hiss to waste. The boys instinctively slammed their heads up and down.

What the fuck was this? Motorhead? No, this is more like Sabbath, but that definitely wasn't Ozzy on the mic. The guy sounded like an American. Teddy saw the excitement in their eyes, saw that they were having that full-body chills reaction to hearing something for the first time, that only kids of a certain age and suggestibility are capable of having. Teddy took in their reaction and breathed it in, really tried to absorb it in hopes that it would awaken some sort of long-dormant feeling that he lost possession of years ago.

And then, he exhaled. Hear that? That's doom. In that hiss you're hearing, too, that tape hiss, that's the tape breathing. That's how you know it's alive. Never been pressed. never been released, buried for more than a decade. Only those who know know about this.

I know what you're about to ask me. What's the name of the band, right? Check it out. Teddy just pointed at the gold chain hanging around his neck. Teddy laughed. And as he did, he arched his head back, stretching out the leathery skin of his neck. And the boys could swear they saw his blue eyes turn red.

Nah, man, Teddy said. This, he pointed out. at the gold chain again. And this time the boys heard a sound like a thunder cloud. An explosion. A billboard, all fiery red and blazing hot, seared into the back of their skulls. A billboard which read... Teddy Pentagrin...

Teddy kept talking. You haven't heard of the band Pentagram, have you? No one has. But they've been around for a while. Just like their namesake. The pentagram. The five-pointed star. That's been around longer than Christ.

The Egyptians. carved it into their tombs, the Greeks used it as a secret handshake. One Greek in particular called it the mark of perfection. One line, five points. You learn about the golden ratio in school yet? Well, anyway, I'm talking about protection, order, virtue. From the tinny speakers, Pentegram's guitarist lit into a solo so fuzzed out, it sounded like the boom box was melting.

Now, when you flip it upside down, the pentagram, all that order and virtue shes, shit, it goes out the window. Teddy then took his gold chain between two nicotine-stained fingers and demonstrated what he was talking about. Just like that, you got the devil's pitchfork, Satan's horns, not protection, damnation. He went on. Now Bobby Liebling didn't know all that back in 1971 on Halloween night when he was sitting in the basement of his parents' house in Alexandria, Virginia. Cus is getting stoned out of his gourd, passing a joint back and forth with his friend Jeff, trying to ignore all the neighborhood kitties as they went door to door with their pillowcases overflowing with that night's loop. You two need to understand that Bobby Liebling

was 18 years old, not much older than you guys, and just like you guys, he was chasing a heavy sound. He was sitting there on the pull-out sofa listening to his favorite band, Blue Cheer, at an ear-blistering volume. You know summertime blues, I'm not talking about the Who, and I don't mean Eddie Cochran either. Bobby and Jeff wanted to start their own band, and their one guiding principle was that they could be louder and heavier than Blue Cheer, which wasn't exactly in the cards for Bobby, seeing as his father worked for Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald fucking Ford. They called Bobby Leibling's dad Little Kisseter. Swear to fucking God. But while his dad was stamping out as Winston's and ashtrays at the Pentagon, his son, Bobby, was dropping

acid on his tongue. Actually, according to Bobby, he dropped acid direct. directly onto his eyeballs. At the mention of this, the two metal heads shared a glance, somewhere between horror and fascination. Teddy brought his voice down to a whisper. This was back when LSD was legal. Back when a dropper full of that shit

would blow the cobwebs out of your brain. Your mind would get so warped. You'd create people out of a whole cloth and have conversations with them. It wasn't long after that that Bobby got himself, acquainted with the needle. My point is, Bobby Liebling was not his old man. Bobby Liebling wasn't born to be a conformist, suit and tie, shaking hands with the leaders of the free world. Fuck

that. Bobby was put on this earth to make a racket, to rattle the minds of others the way that his own mind had been rattled. Now, just exactly how do you do that in the late 1960s and early 70s? that you know, you've read the books, you start a fucking rock and roll band. I don't have to tell you this. But when Bobby Leveling started his band, it was faced at the same question that every guy who ever picked the guitars asked themselves,

what am I going to call my band? What do I choose? What name conveys how the music I'm going to make sounds? Well, for Bobby, the answer came to him very quickly. It was what all the suburban housewives were scared of at the time. housewise like his own mother. They were haunted by images of crazy Charlie. Manson walking into court with those pinball eyes and with that big X carved into the flesh of his forehead.

Suburban moms didn't just know about Manson. They listened to Sammy Davis Jr., man. They read the Inquirer. They knew about Anton LeVay and his book, the Satanic Bible. It was like their worst nightmares were coming true. In the symbol, the pentagram, the one right there on the cover of Anton Lave's book. book, Bobby knew that that was the key that unlocked this other dimension, a dimension that the squares always thought never existed, but was now beginning to break through the fabric of

reality as they knew it. This was what Bobby Weebling wanted his music to do, pierce the veil. But again, just like the two of you, Bobby was young at the time he named his band Pentagram. And when you're young, you think you get the world by the balls, you think that any decision you make can somehow be unmade down the line if things get fucked. The thing about the pentagram, however, you draw that star one way. You keep the demons out. But you draw it the other way? Well.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriend. I'm Anna Sinfield and in this new season of the girlfriends Oh my God, this is the same man

A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist I felt like I got hit by a truck I thought how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care So they take matters into their own hands I said oh hell no I vowed I will be his last target

He's gonna get what he deserves Listen to the girlfriends Trust me babe On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Remember when you'd walk into your local video rental place and there were always those two employees behind the counter arguing about movies? Well, that's us. I'm Millie de Cherico. And I'm Casey O'Brien.

And now we're arguing about movies on our podcast, Dear Movies I Love You from the Exactly Right Network. Can I say something about the Criterion Clause? Go ahead, dude. They're letting too many people in there. Okay. That's another film. grape I got two. Sadly, that rental place doesn't exist anymore.

It's probably a store that sells running shoes. Or an ice cream shop with an extra pee and an E at the end. So consider us your slacker movie clerks in podcast form. I would like to establish a timeline of the moment you figured out who Channing Tatum was. Every Tuesday, we dig into the movies we can't stop obsessing over, from hidden gems to big screen favorites. New episodes drop every week on the exactly right network. Listen to Dear Movies I Love You on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, host of the Wicked Words podcast. Each week I sit down

with the true crime writers behind some of the most compelling true crime stories and discuss their years spent investigating and why it still matters. He sees his father coming out of the woods with his hands over his face and he knows something happened. His father just grabs him and says she's She's gone. These are the cases that leave survivors, families, and the journalists who cover them changed forever. Working in national television, it'll push you to your limits, and you'll end up doing things you never thought you'd do. You know, you look back at it, and you're like, I can't believe that really happened. Join me and step inside the investigation.

New episodes drop every Monday on the Exactly Right Network. Listen to Wicked Words on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. As Teddy hit a jacked on the boom box and flipped over the tape, the two boys couldn't help but focused on his singular long fingernail sticking out conspicuously from his pinky. And then there was the skull ring on the next finger over where some men would wear a wedding ring.

But Teddy didn't strike them as the marrying type. Here flanked on one side by a Sony receiver with a busted volume knob and on the other by a morance that no longer lit up powder blue when you flip the power switch Teddy was in his element he pressed play and once again the sound of the greatest metal band the boys had never heard seemed to suck all the air from the room their feet felt like they were glued to the floor and teddy teddy almost appeared to be lit from below as he continued to tell the tragic tale of bobby leibling and pentagram there's always demons man and the demons were kept at bay for a while, but only briefly. You see, at first, Bobby couldn't stick to the name. He probably knew deep down inside of himself that there was something wrong with it,

that it would do him more harm than good in the long run. So for a short period of time, he called the band Macab. And they released one single in 1972, this song called Be Forewarned. What a title, right? It's almost like he was talking to himself, you know. But like most great artists, Bobby Leveland couldn't take his own advice. And the Pentagram's pull, its power, it would not be denied. And so Bobby, with his friend Jeff on drums, Greg Main on bass, and Vincent McAllister on guitar, committed to that ancient symbol.

And they committed to that cursed name. Pentegram, the band, was now a thing. And this is at the very same time that Bobby's hometown, Alexandria, Virginia, that bedroom community, Just outside the nation's capital where his old man, little Kissinger, was holed up doing God knows what with the Secretary of Defense. It was here that the demons began to make their playground. And it was here that the bodies began to pile up, the bodies of women specifically.

A high school junior found in a ravine with an ice pick jammed in her skull, an English teacher who had been slashed with a knife well over a hundred times. In an 18-year-old, a switchboard operator at the FBI who was found murdered were the pair of scissors in her apartment. These are only a few, the many murders in Alexandria, Virginia, in the 1970s that are still unsolved to this day. Murders and cases that are as cold as the February wind whipping off the Potomac. Teddy paused to let this information sink in.

The two metalheads just sat there listening, waiting for more. And Teddy went on. And when Bobby decided to call his band Pentegram for good, the demons rounded the corner and zeroed in. The curse first struck in December of 1975. This is right around the time that the band Kiss was turning into this phenomenon. A bunch of clowns and makeup, right? Wrong.

Kiss. K-I-S-S. Knights in Satan's service. Sure, the band denied that that was even a thing, and they laughed at it. They said how stupid Knights in Satan's service. But of course, that's what Satan's Knights would say. They do anything to shield the very existence of their master. Before too long, Satan's knights came to Alexandria, just as the demons had before them.

Only they came to make an unholy pact with Pentegram right there in Bobby Lieblink's parents' basement, literally. Let me back up for a second. Pentegram's first manager, this guy named Gordon Fletcher. He was connected. And one of those connections was to kiss. Now look, I always thought that band was a fucking joke, but whatever. The point is, they were huge at the time, super big deal. And so Gordon Fletcher convinced Kiss's manager to send Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley over to Alexandria to hear Pentagram play.

The idea was that Kiss would take Pentagram on the road and boost their profile, kind of like they did with Judas Priest later on. But from the jump, this whole meet and greet was fucked. Greg and Vincent, that's Pentagram's bassist and guitar. player, they had these crummy jobs as janitors somewhere in town. And seeing that they were struggling musicians, starving artists, so to speak, they had no car, which meant that they hitchhiked to work every day. And this day was no exception, this most important of days for the career of their budding metal band. The day that two nights in the service of Satan, Gene and Paul, were going to bring

Pentagram into their army. Was this done via blood oath, was there a sacrifice and offering to the Dark Lord, Greg and Vincent had no idea But you can imagine Their minds fucking wandered man Just like they themselves Wandered down the side of the road After they got out of work that day Just drifting along

Their thumbs out, their pride The bitterest of fucking pills to swallow Waiting for someone to take pity And stop to give them a ride And when they finally arrived at Bobby's place There were a sweaty mess And even worse, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley Have been waiting for close to an hour

Getting more annoyed by the minute But Pentegrams' private performance for two of the biggest rock stars on the planet, it seemed to put everything right, at least for the brief time while it was happening. They ran through songs like Forever My Queen, when the screams come and living in a ram's head. The Bobby did his best, possessed lead singer schick, and when they were finished, they felt triumphant. It was only then that they felt the sting of the curse. Paul Stanley was polite enough, tried to let them down easy but Gene well

you guys know Gene he didn't hold back he said you guys call yourself pentagram and yet there's only four of you you can't make a pentagram with four points that's just a fucking square which is what Bobby Jeff Greg and Vincent were to Gene Simmons at least

square and so Satan's army packed up and left and there was no blood oath no deal with the devil I'm not talking about demons because unlike the devil demons didn't make a deal. A curse is not the byproduct of a deal. And how does one go about lifting a curse

when you're unaware of its existence? The two metalheads looked at each other, confused. Teddy didn't care. He went on. So as all this is happening, Columbia Records comes calling by way of Murray Krugman. Murray Krugman at the time was one of Blue Oyster Cults, managers, and producers. And Murray Krugman ponied up cash to bring pentagram to New York City so that they could record a Demo. Murray Krugman brought them to the precipice. These four guys from a basement in Alexandria, Virginia, were now balancing on the edge of the big time. And right then, right there, right then at that pivotal moment, what did Bobby Liebling do? He tanked the session. He insulted Murray. He acted like they were making pet sounds or some shit, and he just had to get his vocal perfect just right. But to Murray, to Columbia, who saw him. Just a fucking demo, man. Fast, cheap, but Bobby couldn't let it be. Because something wasn't letting him let it be.

Do you understand what I'm saying to you? This story kept playing like a broken record. Pentegram's name was inked on the ledgers of seven different managers in five years' time. Every bridge Bobby crossed went up in flames as quickly as his feet got to cross it. Now back in the Middle Ages, way the fuck back. Chivalrous nights would display the pentagram on their shield. Sir Gawain, for one, had it on both his shawl and his shield. Five points for five virtues.

Courage, honor, kindness, truth, loyalty was meant as protection against demons. But Pentegram, the band? Protection was never in the cards. The only thing Bobby Liebling or anyone else could count on was the always present sound of doom. We'll be right back. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care.

So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, host of the Wicked Words podcast.

Each week I sit down with the true crime writers behind some of the most compelling true crime stories and discuss their years spent investigating and why it still matters. He sees his father coming out of the woods with his hands over his face and he knows something happened. His father just grabs him and says she's gone.

She's gone. These are the cases that leave survivors, families and the journalists who cover them changed forever. Working in national television, it'll push you to your limits. and you'll end up doing things you never thought you'd do. You know, you look back at it and you're like, I can't believe that really happened.

Join me and step inside the investigation. New episodes drop every Monday on the Exactly Right Network. Listen to Wicked Words on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Remember when you'd walk into your local video rental place and there were always those two employees behind the counter arguing about movies? Well, that's us. I'm Millie to Church.

And I'm Casey O'Brien. And now we're arguing about movies on our podcast, Dear Movies I Love You, from the Exactly Right Network. Can I say something about the Criterion Clause? Go ahead, dude. They're letting too many people in there. Okay. That's another film, Gripe I got to. Sadly, that rental place doesn't exist anymore.

It's probably a store that sells running shoes. Or an ice cream shop with an extra pee and an E at the end. So consider us your slacker movie clerks in podcast form. I would like to establish a timeline of, The moment you figured out who Channing Tatum was. Every Tuesday, we dig into the movies we can't stop obsessing over it. From hidden gems to big screen favorites. New episodes drop every week on the exactly right network.

Listen to Dear Movies I Love You on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back in the back of the pawn shop, Teddy stared at the two metal heads. And he said, close your eyes. I want you to imagine something. The two boys did as Teddy instructed. Each of them was conscious that they were still standing in the same place in front of the fix-it counter at the far end of the local pawn shop, and they were aware that they had been standing there for far longer than they had ever intended.

And it was because Teddy wanted them to do so. There was no denying it. Pentagram was some of the best shit they'd ever heard, but they couldn't leave even if they wanted to. What had begun is this weird guy playing an obscure metal band for them had turned into something else. Now, Teddy's obvious enjoyment of their enjoyment, simply listening to his cassette tape,

was kind of creepy, to be honest. It was like he was getting off on it or something. And so when he told them to close their eyes and imagined something, every fiber of their being said it probably wasn't the best idea, but they were powerless to deny it. So they closed their eyes. And Teddy put another pentagram tape in the boom box

and hit play. And then he went on. Now, I want the two of you to imagine you're stepping into the cockpit of a single-engine Cessna for the first time. You've only ever been on a plane once in your life, a big commercial jetliner when you went to visit your Aunt Rhonda in San Diego that one time. But now you're behind the wheel of this little Cessna and you're expected to fly it from Virginia all the way to Bogota, Columbia. What is that? 2,000 miles, at least? Yeah, you're good at following instructions, aren't you?

But here's the thing. First, you're going to get this big bird up into the sky, and then you have to keep it down low, so low, that you stay off everyone's radar. Because your maiden voyage here isn't exactly on the up and up. And that's putting it mildly, because you, my friend, are headed to Bogota, where you'll load up with kilo upon kilo of the finest Colombian cocaine and then smuggle it back into the United States. and you never met Escobar in person, but from what you've been told, that's a good thing.

If you ever did meet him, it would probably be for all the wrong reasons and you never walk away alive. The only people you meet down there are a couple of guys with no names and sunburnt faces standing next to a badly rusted pickup on the side of a windswept cliff high in the hills,

this remote field where a makeshift landing strip waits for you. You land the Cessna somehow, by the grace of God, You literally have no clue how you manage not to run out of gas and drop into the ocean, and then you load up quickly before the sun falls below the horizon. The next day, you're handing over the stacks of Coke to a distributor in Virginia, and he's handing you stacks of cash in return. I'm talking millions of dollars. Money which you then proceed to burn through, women, cars, houses, diamond rings, and chinchilla coats.

Shit, man, you could have literally set it all on fire and it would have lasted longer. Then, just like that, you go back to your life as the leader of a metal band that no one's ever heard of. But actually, the band isn't there anymore because, you know, dynamics you're difficult to work with. A band is like being married to three or four people at the same time. There ain't even juice for the squeeze. Pick your reason. It's over. So you, a guy who just ran drugs for Pablo fucking Escobar and lived to tell about it,

you are back in your parents' basement, dreaming up Pentegram. Mark 2. Now tell me, do you believe that story? Hey, open your eyes. The two boys did as Teddy commanded. He looked beyond excited to see them again, almost as if they'd gone away while their eyes were squeezed tight, and now here they were again at Teddy's behest. So Teddy went on. Bobby Leveling said that all that really happened to him. They piloted a Cessna with Colombian Coke in the hold, but this is the same. same guy who said he dropped acid in his eyeballs. Maybe it was another hallucination in his

parents' basement. Remember what I was talking about earlier? Creating people out of whole cloth? Maybe Bobby thought he was staring at a briefcase full of millions when in reality he was looking at a shoebox full of roach clips. But that's not the only explanation. It's all this careless handling of the pentagram business. You invert it, even by accident. Now we're talking corruption of perception. The Wiccans, well, some of them at least, will tell you that the upright star in the pentagram keeps the spirit on the top.

The five points of the star being air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. But if you flip it upside down, now you got two points on top. And it doesn't matter which two points or elements they are. You get two different points up top, and that means the spirit has been suppressed below. The beast rises.

The spirit sinks. So all this could have led to Bobby seeing Escobar's product at his feet and also, as he later claimed, to finding himself at a party at George Harrison's house in Maryland, where John Lennon's guitar picks somehow ended up inside his pocket. Now did Bobby steal that pick, or was it gifted? Even more important, did George even own a home in Maryland? I don't think so, dude. Fucking Maryland, George Harrison is a beetle.

This is a delusion, okay? But somehow, Bobby Leebling managed to remain. in some part of reality long enough to restart Pentegram after the initial few lineups had fallen apart. And 14 years after the band was formed, Pentegram self-released their debut album in 1985. But at this point, the doom metal sound that they'd helped define had fallen out of fashion.

Quote unquote metal, at least to the mall-going, record-buying public, was rats round and round. in Motley Coors' Home Sweet Home, not hulking slabs of riff and songs about desecrated bones and maggot-infested flesh. The fucking curse, okay? Back to the curse. The curse was in control.

It buried the spirit and the beast took over. Just like when the pentagram flipped. Now look, it's right here in the album's artwork. Teddy reached down below and pulled out another cassette. This one being the self-titled pentagram album from 1985. The two boys looked at it like they'd been staring at a TV screen for hours, like their brains have been sucked out through their noses, almost like the image wasn't registering at all.

Teddy pointed to the band's logo, which was, of course, an inverted pentagram. And then he said, See, the balance has been tipped. And that was Bobby. That was the band, the Spirica buried, and the beast took over. Hey guys, earlier in the episode, our narrator here, Teddy Pentegram, mentioned Bobby Liebling's story about running drugs for Pablo Escobar and the cartels back

in the day. And then another one about a party at George Harrison's house and John Lennon's guitar pick. Bobby was a bit of an unreliable narrator, say the least. And his wild stories don't stop there. In fact, he's got a particularly crazy one about going on a bender with the Rolling Stones and their limo for hours. and we just didn't have time to cover that story here in the full episode. But you can hear it.

If you listen to this week's brand new mini episode of Disgraceland, which is available only to all access members to become a member, just go to disgracelandpod.com slash membership to sign up. All right, now back to this story about Doom Metal Godfather's Pentegram. Teddy rooted around in the pocket of his black jeans, clearly not finding what he was looking for. He pulled his hand out and dropped a couple of quarters on the counter, along with a guitar pick he'd made by cutting a triangle.

out of a Landlake's buttertub. Fuck is it? Oh yeah, here we go. His hand was back in his pocket, and this time he got it. A tiny metal vial with an even tinier metal chain attached. He unscrewed the cap and carefully tapped on the vial,

knocking some white powder out under that long pinky fingernail. Then he brought the fingernail up to his nose and inhaled sharply. The boys could see the blue veins in his biceps. His eyes bulged as the nasal pick-me-up took effect. And he fumbled with another cassette tape, plunked it into the boombox and hit play. This one definitely sounded like it was pentagrams circa the 1980s.

And Teddy was right. It did sound way better on this shitty cassette. Inspired by the music, Teddy continued his story. Those old pentagram tapes finally surfaced around the turn of the century. Now, this metal label out of Pennsylvania, relapse records, reissued them as a new compilation. Suddenly, all the Doom kids were lapping it up. They called Pentegram proto-legents.

They called Bobby Liebling, the American Ozzy Osbourne. And before long, you even had guys like Hank 3, Hank Williams' grandson playing Pentegram songs, is part of his life set. This is where it's supposed to pay off for Bobby Weebling, right? Where all the years of struggling in the shadows, all the lineup changes, the missed opportunities with kiss and major labels, all of it worth it because now suddenly everyone wants a piece. But you guys know better than that.

You know that a curse doesn't just up and quit. The beast doesn't just let go. Like those demons down in Alexandria, they never went anywhere. All those coal cases there in Bobby's hometown, they're still unsolved. And the air there is still unsettled. And for Bobby, his life continues. to be just as unsettled. Only a few years back, in 2017, he was kicked out of his own band.

Some say he was admitted to a hospital, in fact, he had been arrested, charged with first degree assault and physical abuse of a vulnerable adult. Word was he pushed his 87-year-old mother down the stairs, and that got Bobby 18 months in prison and three years probation. And then, earlier this year, 2025, would Bobby back in the line. back in the saddle at 70 fucking something years old, Pentegram, incredibly, was once again riding a wave of delayed goodwill and opportunity. They were getting ready to embark on their very first tour of Australia, New Zealand.

But just weeks before, the promoter pulled the plug on the entire tour, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland, all of it. This whole thing was suddenly on hiatus. Pentagram was being denied the world stage some 50 years after they first began, and why? quote unquote current allegations. So you got to assume they're talking about the thing with Bobby and his mom, I guess, I don't know. Though why would a conviction from years earlier for which he'd already done his time, one would presume? Why would that be described as a current allegation?

Could the current allegation be the very thing I've been talking to you guys about this entire time? The allegation of Bobby Liebelings' associations with that upside-down star? The curse? The beast? Teddy suddenly hit stop on the boombox, and a shocking silence replaced the music. But there, seeping in ever so slightly, was the tape hiss. The sound slowly grew louder, even though the tape was no longer playing. And the boys... Wait. Wait.

Where were those two teenage boys? The boys who had been here the whole time. The ones who couldn't leave. who have been held captive by Teddy's otherworldly poll. Hey, you. Yeah, you, the one listening to me talk right now. What teenage boys do you think you're referring to? There's no one else here.

It's just you and me. You're the one who's been standing here the whole time. You nodded your head when I said that vinyl sucked. You closed your eyes and then opened them back up when I told you to. You remember, right? I'm dead fucking serious. You thought you were listening to a story? You thought you were one step removed?

Like you could ease drop from the safety of your car or your kitchen or wherever it is you're listening to this right now. No, man, you weren't listening to a story. You've been listening to The tape. And once you hear it, you can't unhear it. It's inside you. Just like it's inside Bobby. Just like it's inside me. You can call it a curse.

You can call it the beast. You can even call it a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. Hanging out with us and our very trusty narrator here, Teddy Pentagram for our Pentagram story. Question of the week, you know, we all had a Teddy Pentagram in our lives. Someone who shepherded us to the great music. Who was that for you? It was an older sibling, an uncle, was it someone at a record store, some cool dude in a band,

you know, your older sister, who, let me know. Who was your musical Sherpa who opened up the world of great rock and roll, punk rock, jazz, whatever it was, who turned you on 617-9066638 voicemail and text, and you might hear your answer on the after party bonus episode coming up right after this. Hit me up at Disgrace-Sandpot on the socials. All right, here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelampod.com.

If you're listening as a Disgraceland All-Axist member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com slash membership. Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at DisgracelandPod. and on YouTube at YouTube.com slash at Disgraceland Pod Rock a Rolla. When a group of women discover

they've all dated the same prolific con artist they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends.

Trust me, babe. On the IHart Radio app, Apple, podcast or wherever you get your podcast. This season on Dear Chelsea, with me, Chelsea Handler, we have some fantastic guests like Amelia Clark. When like young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever. My first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do? Rather be disappointed in.

Do that. David O'Yello. I love this podcast, whether it's therapy or relationships or religion or sex or addiction or you just go straight for the guts. Dennis Leary, Gaten Moderato from Stranger Things, Tena Mongeau, Camilla Morone, Carrie Kenny Silver, and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunts. funny stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.

He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets starting May 7th on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.