radio” with “Rock Into The Night”. “We knew
the next record had to back it up with
something more powerful, something
better.”
Wild-Eyed Southern Boys delivered. The
album, released in 1981, went platinum with
“Hold On Loosely” as a sort of anthem song.
Barnes remembers going with his manager
to pitch the single to a “trendsetter” radio
station in Los Angeles, CA. “Whatever that
station is playing 60 or 100 other stations
around the country will play it. So you want
that guy to like you… It was a big high rise,
glass everywhere, and he had his turntables
- it was back when people had turntables.
And we’re meeting with him, and this guy is
a powerful guy... He says, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll play
that.’ Just as simple as that, and it was like a
giant burden off our shoulders.”
Barnes wrote “Hold On Loosely” with his
friend Jim Peterik of Survivor, a rock band
from Chicago, IL largely known for their
hit “Eye of the Tiger”. Barnes says “Hold On
Loosely” was “a great piece of advice that
came from a negative time, a relationship.”
While hanging out with Peterik, Barnes
asked what he thought of a title he’d written
down. “I said ‘What do you think about
this title, Hold On Loosely?’ And he said ‘oh
yeah, but don’t let go’. It was the first thing
that came out of his mouth... and we wrote
a simple song… It’s the same chords in
the verse that’s in the chorus, and then it
repeats the verse again. So it’s really a linear
song, really simple, but there’s a lot of truth
in that song.”
Barnes says that “truth element” has kept 38
Special going all of these years. “All those
songs represent periods in our lives. We
wanted to put truth into those songs, and
8
truth can’t be denied… If it’s something
that came from a real story then people feel
like ‘Man I felt that same way, that’s telling
my story.’”
In 2012, 38 Special was inducted into the
Georgia Music Hall of Fame, where Barnes
ran into 38 Special’s producer. Rodney Mills.
“I hadn’t seen him for 25 years and he said
‘Can you believe all those little songs we
cobbled together back then are still played
every day across the country?’”
“It’s the ultimate validation after all these
years for people to know those songs,”
Barnes adds. “We appreciate everybody
making us a part of their lives all these years.
We genuinely show that gratitude.” ✽
November 2018
INSIGHT