HELLBILLIES

Hellbillies were a success right from the start in 1990, with hit songs, good record sales and lots of people at their concerts. Their feat is that they have managed to stay at the top of Norwegian music through all these years! They have delivered a long list of hit songs, they have become 17 gold records and they have played thousands of concerts all over the country.

Recognition has come in many different forms, ranging from the “Honorary Spellemann Award”, “Spellemann of the Year” and “Record of the Year”, awards from the Norwegian Association of Musicians, the Norwegian Artists’ Association, the Prøysen Award and the Medaas Award - to brilliant reviews of both records and concerts.

Hellbillies has been honored and respected for their ability to fuse American and Norwegian musical traditions, but still with a distinctive character so that there is never any doubt that it is Hellbillies that one is hearing. Not least, the lyrics of one of the founders of the band, Arne Moslåtten, have had great significance. With originality and high literary quality, they have, together with the music of Aslag and Lars Haavard Haugen, become an important part of Norwegian cultural life. This has made them a role model for many bands within their genre. They are therefore not only tradition-bearers, but also highly style-creating within the Norwegian music scene. It is therefore extra nice for the band that a number of young artists have picked up their songs and had success with them. That is no small recognition, either!

Despite all this success over the years, they continue to work hard every single day. The inner drive, the need to create and express themselves is the most important motive for continuing. And who knows - maybe this is precisely the secret behind their success over such a long time?