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When you and Donnie Van Zant started the band, his brother Ronnie was in the process of finding massive success with Lynyrd Skynyrd. How much of an influence were they upon what 38 Special was doing?<\/b><\/p>\n
Greatly influenced. We were all from the same city. Jacksonville is a Navy town, so a lot of these groups \u2013 Molly Hatchet, Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band \u2013 everybody came from that same area because of the Navy bases that we all played as young guys. We all played sailors\u2019 clubs; at 15 and 16 years old, you\u2019d make $100 a week. So all of those guys \u2013 Ronnie Van Zant, Duane Allman \u2013 everybody played the enlisted men\u2019s clubs because there was a venue there for young guys to put a little band together and actually go make a little money. It\u2019s kind of like the Liverpool thing, a port city.<\/p>\n
And then, of course, they had the proms, teen clubs and dances. Ronnie and all those guys were the best band in Jacksonville; they were called The One Percent. They would win the Battle of the Bands. And, of course, when they changed their name, we thought, \u201cOh, you gotta be kidding! Lynyrd Skynyrd?\u2019\u201d But we looked up to those guys and we saw them improve every day, every week. You\u2019d see Allen [Collins] and Gary [Rossington] and just watch them develop. And we were influenced by them.<\/p>\n
Tell me how 38 Special\u2019s sound developed.<\/b><\/p>\n
Donnie and myself, we had played in about eight other bands before 38 Special. Ronnie was about five years older than us, so he was kind of a mentor for the band. He would come by and hear us rehearse; we were pretty much copying what was going on at the time: styles of Southern rock, whether it was Marshall Tucker or the Charlie Daniels band or Outlaws.<\/p>\n
But Ronnie gave us a good piece of advice back then. He said, \u201cStop trying to be a clone of what\u2019s happened already. Try to find your own originality, find your own sound and do what makes your heart sing, because you\u2019re not going to get anywhere being the same as what\u2019s already been out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
So we realized that we were kind of introspective. We were British Invasion and Beatles fans with more melody, more song structure. A lot of those [other] guys were blues oriented in their approach. And of course, at the end of the \u201870s, Southern rock was kind of waning. [Popular music] was heading into arena rock with Boston and Foreigner, and we liked all that stuff.<\/p>\n
The thing is \u2013 back to the enlisted clubs, the sailors\u2019 clubs \u2013 by learning all those cover songs, you learn the structures of all the chord patterns and things like that. And you see there\u2019s actually a real craft, a little map that goes through songwriting. So you get educated at an early age on the foundational beginnings.<\/p>\n
And then you get a little cocky and you start thinking, \u201cWell, I can write my own songs.\u201d And that\u2019s when you go starve for the next ten years, because no one\u2019s ever heard of you and they don\u2019t care whether you live or die! But you have a lot to prove at that point. And everybody thinks that you\u2019re shooting toward a record deal, and when you get a record contract, people think you\u2019ve made it.
\nWell, actually, they just opened the door for you. And if you can deliver, you\u2019re going up in the major leagues. If you can deliver and win at this game, then they\u2019ll keep you on. But if you can\u2019t deliver, they\u2019re going to cancel your contract; you\u2019re going to be back in the clubs.<\/p>\n
That almost happened to 38 Special; the band took awhile to find major success. You changed your sound after a few albums in a Southern rock style. How did that come about?<\/b><\/p>\n
We were really behind the eight ball there. We had three albums that basically went straight over the cliff. Today people think that \u201cHold On Loosely\u201d was on our first album. That was our fourth<\/i> album! But, you know, it just shows you conviction and fortitude to keep yourself together. And a band is like a marriage: you\u2019re a support group there, and you\u2019re kind of married to five other guys. There are some guys who would get a little down and think, \u201cThis is not working out. I\u2019ve got to get a regular job. I\u2019ve got a family.\u201d But we would always be holding each other up and saying, \u201cIt might be right around the corner; we don\u2019t know. We got a few steps forward here, so let\u2019s keep at it.\u201d<\/p>\n