38 Special releases ‘Milestone’ as it approaches 50th anniversary
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38 Special will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its debut album in 2027.
With the anniversary approaching, lead singer Don Barnes, the one remaining member from that original lineup, bought a new stage set with risers and new lighting to revamp the band's live show, which has been its primary focus for decades, playing about 100 dates a year.
During a telephone interview from his home in Atlanta, Barnes said the band's manager had another suggestion.
"He said, 'You know, you got to have new music, too.'"
38 Special will have a new stage set and new music when it performs Oct. 1 at Powers Auditorium in Youngstown.
Last fall 38 Special released "Milestone," its first studio album in more than 20 years. The band -- Barnes, lead vocals and guitar; Bobby Capps, keyboards and backing vocals; Gary Moffatt, drums; Barry Dunaway, bass and backing vocals; and Jerry Riggs, guitar and backing vocals -- recorded the album at the Atlanta recording studio owned by Collective Soul bass player Will Turpin during breaks from the road.
"We would cut like three basic tracks, and we’d jump back out on the road and do 10 more cities, and come back in and it's like, 'OK, where were we?" Barnes said.
Barnes recorded snippets of ideas when inspiration struck, but he hadn't completed many songs during that two-decade break between albums.
Six of the album's nine tracks were written with Jim Peterik, who wrote "Eye of the Tiger" and other Survivor hits as a member of that band as well as "Heavy Metal" with Sammy Hagar.
Peterik's history with 38 Special goes back to its first radio hit, "Rockin' into the Night," and includes what is arguably its most beloved song, "Hold on Loosely." That song was born when Barnes threw out "Hold on Loosely" as a song title, and Peterik immediately responded with, "But don't let go," creating what Barnes called the perfect couplet.
"It’s a daunting thing to show somebody a little bit of an idea," Barnes said. "He's a top songwriter, so you’re unfolding this idea, and you’re thinking, 'I don’t know if it’s any good or not.' But he’s like, 'That’s really good. Let’s work on that.' So then you’re validated at that point. You’re validated by professionals.
"It’s always always a good time with him. We have a lot of laughs, and that’s what it should be. It shouldn’t be a grind. ... There’s a certain chemistry with people. It’s hard to put your finger on it. But he’s a real giving guy."
Pat Monahan of Train, who covered "Hold on Loosely" with Joe Bonamassa, shares vocals on "Slightly Controversial." Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, co-wrote the song "Long, Long Train" and added a guitar solo. It's one of the older tracks on the record, penned about a decade ago during a songwriting session together in Nashville.
"We sat down and had a little bit of an epiphany, a little spiritual experience," Barnes said. "I think he was wanting to say a few things about what are we leaving the children and the state of the world and all that. And I had my own little things to add. We’ve never done any social commentary songs. We didn’t want it to develop into some kind of protest song. Nobody wants that, so we just kept it vague and just (focused on) nice melodies and good hooks."
Those at Powers Auditorium will get to hear some of the new material, but Barnes knows fans also want to hear the greatest hits, and the band is happy to play them.
"It's 90, 95 minutes of everything you want to hear from the history of the band," he said. "We've had to, because we had the good fortune of having about 16 hit songs, we put these little mini medleys together. It'll be like two-and-a-half minutes of it, and then we just bang it up right against another big hit and another one, and we just take them for a ride. That's always been our forte, our live shows."
If you go …
WHO: 38 Special
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1
WHERE: Powers Auditorium, 260 W. Federal St., Youngstown
HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $51 to $92 and are available through Ticketmaster.