The two-word comment left on a podcaster’s site caused Don Barnes to chuckle.
A listener called the band 38 Special “decaying corpses,” said Barnes, who is the last of the band’s original members still performing with the group that will be at the Columbia County Performing Arts Center Feb. 12. For tickets, go here.
“We laugh at the negative comments. I mean it’s like ‘Dude, you try to do this stuff for 50 years.’ You can say all you want – decaying corpses. We’re still young. When you get on the stage, crank the guitar to 10, you can be 22 years old again. It’s still a fun, fun job,” said Barnes. His words were intermingled with laughs.
Barnes and Donnie Van Zant founded 38 Special in 1974. Van Zant retired in 2013 for health reasons. Years of cranking guitars up to 10 took a toll on his ears. He and Barnes remain close friends.
A Jacksonville, Florida native, Barnes started playing the guitar as a kid. When he was 14, his dad would take Barnes, his guitar and equipment to play at birthday parties. His father, who was Barnes’s biggest fan, worried about his son’s future and encouraged him at one point to get a job with the railroad, but music called to Barnes.
He worked day jobs. He built house trusses and made deliveries while writing songs in the bed of a truck. Early years with the band included traveling to small towns in a dirty van that had a mattress in the back. After playing in a club, he’d wake up in the van, parked next to a corn field, questioning his life choices.
What kept him grounded and focused during those lean years was a quote by President Calvin Coolidge.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent,” Barnes recited.
Barnes cut the quote out and carried it in his wallet for years, looking at it when he needed encouragement. Now that same faded piece of paper resides in a shadow box, but the words are forever etched into his memory.
Barnes said he knew there were others who had more talent and brains, but he also knew he could be persistent.
“I’m too stubborn to quit,” he said.
The word “omnipotent” resonated with him. It gave him a sense of power, the power to never give up.
“I knew we were going to make it. It was around the corner someday,” he said.
And that someday eventually showed up. The first break came when the band was signed to a two-record deal. People think you’ve made it when you get a record deal, Barnes said, but the contract was only an open door. They had to go through the door and make something happen.
The band’s self-title debut in 1977 was followed with the 1978 record “Special Delivery”; which didn’t deliver. They got one more chance. Barnes said he wonders if the chance might have come because Donnie Van Zant had lost his brother, Ronnie, the founder of Lynyrd Skynyrd, in a 1977 plane crash.
38 Special finished a third album “Rockin’ Into the Night”.
When the producers heard the finished product, there was a problem. They didn’t hear a potential single. Without a hit, it would be back to the clubs, he said.
A friend of their manager introduced them to a song written by members of the band, Survivor. Barnes said the style of “Rockin’ Into the Night” was different from the Southern rock they played, and Van Zant, who’d been the soloist, had more of a bluesy voice.
“Donnie said he didn’t know how to sing that,” said Barnes who pulled out the harder rock sound to catapult the song.
“Rockin Into the Night” ended up being their first hit, reaching No. 43 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
But more than that, it helped forge a friendship and songwriting collaboration. Now that they had one hit, they had to produce another. Jim Peterik had helped write “Rockin’ Into the Night”. He and Barnes were talking about relationships one night. Barnes was going through a tough time in a relationship and asked the questions on his mind.
“Why do people try to change each other? Why can’t they tolerate their differences?” he asked.
Then he said the line he’d written down in a notebook one time “hold on loosely. To which Peternik immediately responded, “But don’t let go.
With the idea sparked, Peternik said, “Let’s craft a song with a good piece of advice.”
“Hold On Loosely” celebrates the 45th anniversary of its release Feb.11 – the day before the band plays in Evans. The tune peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The video was the 13th one played the day MTV debuted.
Over the years, the band has recorded other albums and songs, releasing the latest “Milestones” just last year. Barnes said they are damned if they do or damned if they don’t when it comes to new material. Some people want the 1970s/1980s sound while others want to hear something fresh.
The old favorites always evoke audience response. Barnes said it’s amazing to watch the crowd when they sing songs such as “Hold On Loosely.” Fans often sing so loud that Barnes’s sound technician has to turn him up a few notches to be heard.
“Those songs came from our hearts, and they (the fans) take them and they put them in their heart. We were just trying to get on the radio. People say ‘they meant so much to our relationship, our marriage.’ They say ‘it really saved us,’” he said. “What a great job to bring that kind of joy.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
