- 6 months ago
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MusicTranscript
00:00Welcome to Detroit. How are you, Don?
00:01Hey, good. How are you this morning?
00:03I'm wonderful, man. All I haven't said, I love the song.
00:07I got a question. I've never asked you this over the years.
00:10So after you guys listen to it,
00:12who's the first person outside of the band that you played the song for?
00:19My wife. She actually has a co-write on the song.
00:23It started out as I was sitting in a dining room table
00:27and I was playing some chords and she was in the kitchen
00:31and she has a musical mind.
00:33She had her own band years ago.
00:35She went into the professional stockbroker business and all that.
00:40But she turned around the corner and she said,
00:42that sounds like that should be called All I Haven't Said.
00:44And it just came out of nowhere.
00:46I'm like, what? Say that again?
00:48I was so surprised.
00:51And so I said, do you got any more compelling titles like that?
00:54She said, well, play some more compelling chords like that.
00:56Maybe I'll help you out.
00:59So the lyrics are great.
01:01And it's such a cool vibe to the song.
01:05Is it a compliment when I'm comparing it to other artists?
01:09Okay.
01:11It's Marshall Tucker to me.
01:12It's got a Marshall Tucker feel.
01:14Yeah.
01:14I like it.
01:17Yeah.
01:17It was kind of my throwback to the 60s jangly guitars.
01:21You know, we were big fans of the Searchers and Beatles and that kind of thing from so long ago.
01:27But so what's old is new again.
01:29We just put a little more power, power chords to it, you know, but yeah, some people said it has a little bit of country.
01:34I like the tambourine.
01:36I like hearing the tambourine.
01:37I think a tambourine works.
01:38I tell the guy, the sound guy live, I said, turn the tambourine up.
01:43It's important for this song for some reason.
01:49What he does is when we're introducing a new single live, you have to try to recreate the record, you know.
01:54So it's like he was making phone tapes every night and letting me hear them after the show.
01:59And I said, okay, you turn this, turn this harmony part up, turn the tambourine up, turn this, try to just focus in on a little bit better.
02:07Yeah.
02:08I was talking to, I don't remember who, I think it was Patton Oswalt told the story that when comedians release an album, those jokes are done.
02:16They can never do them live because everyone wants to hear what's next.
02:20Yeah.
02:20If a band releases an album, you're expected to play songs off the album.
02:25And then you have to, people want to hear everything from the past too.
02:28Yeah.
02:28It's got to be a weird little dance for you to sit down and go, all right, I've got a new album.
02:32We've got a new project coming out, you know, and then you want to fold it into all the great songs that you've done with 38 Special.
02:38That must take time to shake.
02:40Man, I'm telling you, you're walking me through exactly what we just did.
02:43Is that right?
02:44Okay.
02:44What do you do?
02:45Walk me through it then.
02:46Tell me how you guys do this.
02:47Because we're fortunate enough to have all those hit songs over the years, we have put some medleys together, several medleys where you do about two, two and a half minutes of it.
02:57And bang it right up against another song, another hit song.
03:01So we're just like to do about four in a row.
03:03And people are blown away.
03:04Like, oh, yeah, I remember that.
03:05Teacher, teacher.
03:06Oh, yeah, I remember that one.
03:07And so you're taking them for a ride.
03:10But at the same time, you can only play.
03:12We were doing 102 minutes.
03:14That's over an hour and a half, you know.
03:16So you have to steal time here and there and take something out that you played too long for too many years.
03:22It's like, okay, we've gotten that out of our system, you know.
03:25So we've got to save some time for the new single and then another one and that.
03:30So you eventually start kind of, what's the word?
03:34You just kind of mold them all together.
03:37So there's a part where I'll talk to the audience and give a second.
03:42But pretty much it's a ride all the way through the show.
03:44But, yeah, you're trying to borrow a minute here, a minute here, try to keep it all up.
03:49So you're not there all night long, you know.
03:52I do like the fact that when I hear new music from artists that I love, like you guys with 38 Special and obviously your connection here to Detroit,
04:00we'll talk about ACDC and our apology when they open for you guys.
04:04We'll get to that in a minute.
04:05But, yeah, we need to address that because I never knew about that story until recently.
04:09That was Cobo Hall, yeah.
04:10I love it when you guys get out there.
04:13And I'm telling everyone, if you haven't listened to all I haven't said, you need to.
04:16But I want to hear you guys talk about it like you just told me.
04:18I like it when the artist gets up there and explains a story behind the song, the creative or what it means or why they wrote it.
04:25And then I lean into it.
04:26But if they go, here's a new song, I'm like, well, I'm off to get a beer.
04:29Well, I like to hear that, too.
04:31But, you know, again, it's time consuming to talk and explain songs, how you wrote them, you know.
04:38So, I mean, I guess that's kind of like what we're here for now, but to explain some songs.
04:43But, yeah, it's just, you know, again, it's kind of a, it's a nice, I guess it's a good experience to have that many songs.
04:56But at the same time, it's a little bit of a curse because you can't get everything in there, you know.
05:00So, yeah, we try to, you know, we try to balance it all out, you know.
05:04So, what the hell happened at Cobo with ACDC?
05:10Well, that was back when Bon Scott was singing, you know, it was open for him.
05:14But, and they, they, their dressing room was right next to ours.
05:17And they, you know, Bon Scott would put Angus up on his shoulders and go out in the crowd.
05:23If you remember all those years ago, they would do that.
05:26They would run out in the crowd.
05:27And it was their first time over here from Australia.
05:31And so, they, they were just trying to break in new ground.
05:34And they, they got, people started, you know, throwing garbage bottles and trash at them because, you know, it's a hardcore audience.
05:43They've seen it all and done it all, you know.
05:44So, they, they were really accepting of them the first time.
05:48And they were back there in the dressing room and they were really upset about it all.
05:52And I was trying to console, you know, their little, their little guys, you know, Australian guys.
05:57And I'm kind of towering over them and said, you just got to keep coming back and believing that these people believe in your music.
06:05And you got to keep hitting these cities over and over.
06:07You just, you just win them over.
06:09That's what we had to do.
06:10I said, we, we weren't very accepted either, you know.
06:12But, and so, you know, next thing you know, they're rock gods, the biggest in the world, you know.
06:18So, I think it took a good advice from me, you know.
06:21You're like, I'm the guy that gave the halftime speech from Friday Night Lights.
06:24Oh, yeah.
06:24And they gave him that.
06:25Oh, yeah.
06:26There's been a lot of experiences like that.
06:28There's been a lot of experiences like that through the years.
06:30Brendan O'Brien was a producer here in Atlanta.
06:34He went on to be the guy, the industry.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Pearl Jam and Aerosmith and just every, Bruce Springsteen, everybody.
06:41But I'd worked with him in a little eight-track studio.
06:44And he was, he had a, he had two little babies.
06:46His wife was coming to pick him up in a little Pinto with a 90-mile tire on it.
06:50And I was like, kind of concerned about their safety.
06:52I said, man, let me hear you.
06:53It was a couple of hundred bucks.
06:54Go buy yourself a tire and put on the car there, you know.
06:57And I told him, I said, man, you got some good ideas.
07:00You should be a producer.
07:01You should try to go out to L.A. and see if you can get your, you know, get in the door there.
07:06Next thing you know, he's huge.
07:08And so, I saw him again.
07:10I think it was at a Black Crow show.
07:12He produced them.
07:13And I said, Brendan, how are you, man?
07:15And he was like, hey, Don.
07:16You know, and I said, hey, remember that tire?
07:18I had $200 to loan you for that tire.
07:21Where's my money, rich man?
07:22I need my $200 back, right?
07:24I need a gold record.
07:26I need a platinum record from AC and DC.
07:28And I need my goddamn $200 back for the tire.
07:30Is that too much to ask?
07:31Yeah.
07:32Right.
07:33But it is interesting.
07:33Like, what were you talking about in Detroit?
07:35I remember we had you guys here for Rockin' on the Riverfront.
07:37We would do that by Winter Garden.
07:39And over the years, and I was looking up all the time, you guys played Plain Nob and Kobo and all the different venues.
07:44We gravitate to you guys because I want a band that works hard.
07:50That you go on stage.
07:51I've, you know, the men and women that work their ass off here in Detroit, the blue collar mentality.
07:55Just like in the South, and you're like, okay, I want to have them drink, and I want to see some band that goes out there and just doesn't mail it in.
08:02And you guys always, and it's not pedestrian to say this, you bust your ass when you get on stage.
08:08You really lean into it.
08:09So that's the work ethic, I guess, is, you know, but we also appreciate the fact that people do make that drive to the arena.
08:18And, you know, they've got to find a parking place.
08:20First of all, they've got to find a babysitter.
08:22They've got to find a parking place, get in the building, get a beer and all that.
08:26So we appreciate it.
08:27It takes a lot to do that.
08:29So we want to come out and be 110%.
08:31And that's a work ethic.
08:32My dad drove a train for 40 years.
08:34He was an engineer.
08:35And he told me one time, he pulled a train.
08:38It was five miles long.
08:39He had five engines, five diesel engines.
08:42And he said it took a mile to stop.
08:44It took a mile to stop, you know.
08:46So he was one of those guys that was like, man, that work ethic, you know.
08:49So I guess I got influenced by my dad to go out there and make it happen every time.
08:55Well, I wonder, too, like you think about the whole influence of Skinner and obviously you guys, that whole world, which somebody, I mean, if you did like a Venn diagram where everything was overlapping.
09:05All those bands, you guys all just, that was part of it, right?
09:08I assume you pushed each other, too.
09:10It was.
09:11All those bands, you know, Ronnie Vanzant was a big mentor for the band.
09:15He was about five years older than us.
09:16But we saw them go out and they're like a football team.
09:19They went out to be triumphant.
09:21They weren't out there to stare at their shoes and say, thank you very much.
09:24Our next song is this, you know.
09:25They went out there to win every night.
09:28And we took some great influence from that.
09:30We actually opened for them back in the 70s, late 70s.
09:35And Ronnie would come backstage and say, how do you guys, how do you boys feel tonight?
09:38Because we're going to, you better put it out there because we're going to be coming for you, you know.
09:42And it's like, makes you steal up and really go for it.
09:44So we learned a lot of, a lot about that, going out and be triumphant.
09:48And God help, who has to follow you?
09:50That's really how our attitude was.
09:52Opening shows all those years was.
09:53And we got bumped off a couple of tours because of the headliner was getting shown up every night.
09:59Because they're not hungry.
10:00We were that hungry to go out there and win every night.
10:03You know, Peter.
10:06Okay, well, now we know.
10:10Because I'd always heard Skinner.
10:11It wasn't like the Rolling Stones told him, don't walk out of the tongue.
10:13And Ronnie said, screw you.
10:15And he went out there and did it anyway.
10:16Ronnie was defiant, man.
10:18He was one of those guys.
10:19It's like, you know, he was from the wrong side of the tracks and made the whole world listen to him.
10:23That's what made it fun.
10:24And that's what makes you guys fun.
10:26I always wondered, though, your guys' music, Don.
10:28And again, all I haven't said is just absolutely amazing.
10:32I love the sound of it.
10:33And it's a great summer song.
10:35I know the album comes out September, but it's got a great vibe to it.
10:37I call it, it's patio for me.
10:39I'm a patio guy.
10:41Oh, yeah.
10:41Yeah, yeah.
10:42Yeah, put it on.
10:43But the same thing can be said for, I wrote this down.
10:46I was thinking about if I'd been the one caught up in you, hold on loosely.
10:49There is a sonic nature to those songs that, not just the radio, anytime you put it on a Sonos speaker or wherever you hear it, were you guys, because you sounded just bigger than a lot of the southern rock bands when I would hear you guys.
11:04Were you aware of that?
11:05I mean, was that a goal?
11:06Yeah, there's a lot of separation of guitars and, you know, and production, compression and that kind of thing.
11:12But, yeah, you're trying to make it kind of 3D.
11:15You know, you want it to come out where you see, you hear both sides all happening at once.
11:20You know, all I haven't said is that if you just listen to the right side, there's a droning guitar that just drones one note while the other guitar does the riff thing, you know.
11:29But it was a lot of those, like you were talking about other groups, they did use a lot of compression and that squeezes everything down into it.
11:38We didn't really marry ourselves to so much compression.
11:41We wanted it to be larger, you know, so big, bigger.
11:44And on radio, it comes out, well, there's natural compression on radio because it's being broadcast.
11:50But, yeah.
11:50Sure.
11:51But it's just painstaking efforts to make something that audio-wise, you know, pleasing and all that.
11:59And back to the song, All I Haven't Said, that was kind of a throwback to my influence.
12:06I was kind of an attentive student to all those hit songs with great choruses.
12:11I mean, I would have day jobs and I was married at 19 with a baby going to work and I'd hear these songs and just fell out of the sky.
12:18Just like Kansas, I told them, carry on my way, you know.
12:21I said, man, that just came out of nowhere.
12:23It's like it just fell out of the sky.
12:25And, you know, so, and I wanted to learn how to put songs together from that kind of, anyway, it was a kind of a throwback to the Searchers and the Beatles and that kind of English, British invasion harmonies and stuff.
12:38I like the guitar solo towards the end of the song in All I Haven't Said.
12:42I like the person.
12:43Yeah.
12:43Okay.
12:44Is that just me being weird or that's a very intentional thing where you guys put?
12:49Yeah, we just, well, we kind of wanted a little interplay with the organ too, the guitar and organ back and forth, you know.
12:55But Jerry's just a master at it, you know.
12:59You know, I actually purposely didn't play any solos on this record because Jerry is so good.
13:05And I've played so many solos, some 20, you know, 15 albums, you know, and I want him to be recognized.
13:14You know, I want all those guys to be recognized.
13:16We went in there, all five of us together.
13:18Back in those days, we were recording a little more carefully.
13:22You know, we'd layer things and overdub and by the end of the project, I'm thinking, where is that bombastic live sound that I was looking for?
13:30And it was a little too clean, a little too safe.
13:32And this one, we all went in together and just threw it down and we've been playing together for a long time.
13:37Even the new guys have been there 32 years.
13:40So, you know, so it's one of those things where we actually kind of have that chemistry.
13:45And not only you got the new single, All I Haven't Said, you got the new project and you shot a music video that you were aware was a music video.
13:52Not like the first time you guys stepped on MTV when I think you guys, did you guys think it was just like a promo shoot or something?
13:57Yeah, that was, we were the 13th video, the first day of MTV.
14:02And back then they'd had, they had no content.
14:04MTV was, you know, record companies weren't flooding them with videos.
14:08And so they had a three camera crew that came out to Denver.
14:11And my manager said, do you care if they film a little bit of live stuff?
14:15And it's like, man, whatever, what, what is this?
14:17And it's called MTV.
14:19I'm like, I don't know anything about that.
14:20But, but they came out and filmed and they, you know, he, he wanted me to do a little promo spot.
14:25He held up a card for me to read.
14:27And I remember saying, you're watching MTV, you'll never hear music the same way again.
14:31And I thought, what an odd little slogan that was, you know, in hindsight, I guess I should have bought stock in the company, you know, but at the time I didn't know, didn't know anything about it.
14:40But yeah, 13th video that day.
14:42But like I said, they would, they would send out their own camera crew and create content.
14:46So wait a minute.
14:47So MTV sent them to film you.
14:51MTV's camera crew, they flew them out to Denver.
14:53They were trying to just find things to air on the, on the station, the new station, you know, just started.
14:59It feels like ready, ready, fire, aim.
15:01But yeah, that was always like, cause I remember like when we, when it first started, Don, we would hook up a cassette to a VCR and we would record music.
15:10We would record an hour of MTV and then listen to it in our car.
15:15Yeah.
15:16Oh yeah.
15:16Yeah.
15:17Ready, fire, aim.
15:18That's great.
15:18That's a good Joe Walsh song title.
15:20I can see him doing that, you know.
15:23So we got the tour, got the album coming out in September.
15:26We got all I haven't said now.
15:27I know you guys will be in Ohio, but we don't mind road tripping to Ohio as long as we don't have to stay there for a football game.
15:32We're fine.
15:35We're fine.
15:36We can, we can put up with that, man.
15:37We can, we can deal with them.
15:38We'll go down there and beat Ohio State's ass again one more time.
15:40Yeah.
15:41I don't say the B word there, you know, so.
15:43Don't do it.
15:44Yeah.
15:44Hey, one time Bruce was here years ago.
15:47I was at the palace of Auburn Hills when he said, hello, Ohio here.
15:53Well, I was handed God.
15:54I looked at my buddy and he goes, did he just, and little Steven like leans in and go, hey, Bruce.
15:59Yeah.
15:59No.
16:01Bruce went off.
16:02He was yelling.
16:03He goes 40 goddamn years.
16:04I've never done that.
16:05I'm so sorry.
16:08I had a stage manager one time we played in North Carolina and it was near Duke university.
16:14And they, and, and, uh, and they'd have Chapel Hill, their, their major rivals.
16:19And my stage manager said, Hey, uh, if you really want to win over a crowd, it was an
16:23amphitheater.
16:24And he said, say sometime during the show, say, Hey, how about those Duke devils?
16:28And I said, okay.
16:29Yeah.
16:29So I get out there and about halfway through and Hey, how about those Duke devils?
16:33Boo.
16:34The whole place booed.
16:35And it turns out we were closer to the rival school, Chapel Hill.
16:39I turned around and said, don't help me, man.
16:41Never again.
16:42You're done.
16:43I don't want to hear anything from you.
16:44Hey, I got one last thing.
16:46I was thinking about this.
16:47Like I was just watching the blues brothers movie and the scene with the chicken wire where
16:51they're getting beer bottles.
16:52And you talked about the guys at ACDC, but what about 38 special?
16:56Did you ever have a blues brothers moment like that?
16:59Uh, well, there was, you know, we did come through the dirt floor clubs and we, you know,
17:02there were times where it was literally dirt floor clubs, but we, there was someplace and
17:08I think it was Elizabeth, North Carolina or something, but the, uh, it was so bad of a place.
17:13She did not want to be there.
17:15We, uh, pretended that one of the amps blew up and we didn't have another one.
17:19So we had to just leave, you know, we just wanted to get out of there.
17:22That guy was like, Hey, I'm not going to pay you.
17:24That's okay too.
17:25We're just getting out of here.
17:26It's some places are really seedy.
17:28You know, that was the same place that we, there was a girl standing out there and Donnie
17:32Vanzant said, I thought she had shoes on.
17:35And it turned, it turns out her hat was her black feet.
17:38She was that dirty.
17:44You have to check with Ricky, you know?
17:46We've got a new, a second single coming out next month.
18:05And it's with Pat Monahan with the train.
18:07He helped me sing, did a duet with together.
18:09It's called slightly controversial and it's big guitar banger in your face.
18:13It's different for every song on the album is different from the, each one of them.
18:17We, it's, it's a real ride.
18:18It's a big, like I said, a lot of banger rock songs.
18:21And there's a couple of mid tempo introspective.
18:24The, all I haven't said was just a diamond.
18:26We just wanted to put that out there.
18:28They felt like it was more of a good gateway back to radio because of the, the sentiment.
18:33Yeah.
18:34Yeah.
18:34But there's a lot of stuff that's in your face, attitude songs, all that.
18:38So yeah, we're looking forward to the release there.
18:40Did you ever have any connections with Ozzy other than like the rest of us being a fan
18:45of his music?
18:46Well, we, we did some shows we're in Europe and over here, we did some Superbowl of rock
18:51or something.
18:51There was a big stadium and had everybody there.
18:53I remember Triumph and they had Aerosmith and everybody, but we got there to the stadium
18:58and we, we were to share, they had just played Ozzy's band and just, it was when he was trying
19:03to do a solo career.
19:04And I think Randy Rhodes was there too, but they, they had just finished.
19:08And so we were to share their dressing room and it's a stadium.
19:11So it's basically locker rooms and showers and that kind of thing.
19:14So we walked in, we just got there and then look over in the shower and here comes Ozzy
19:18completely butt naked walking out.
19:20He said, hi mate.
19:22So we were like, okay, a little much to take.
19:25We just got here, Ozzy.
19:26You know, but yeah, he didn't care, but you know, it was funny.
19:30I think I always wonder that my son is 22 years old, Don, and he's studying music and he
19:35wants to be a producer, but he's in marketing.
19:37And he loves it and he loves Ozzy.
19:39And then I'm thinking our age, Ozzy is a one word guy that a hundred years from now,
19:45people will still talk about him with reverence for the arc of the music and everything about
19:49him.
19:50There's that emotional connection with songs and he, you know, somehow won over being
19:55a metal artist, but there are a lot of his songs about, I don't want, you know, I don't
19:58want to change the world.
19:59I don't want the world to change me.
20:01Those kinds of things like that.
20:02People feel that they make that connection.
20:03And that's what we try to do with songs too, is make some kind of emotional connection.
20:08Like you said, over, if I've been the one and all those songs in the past, people say,
20:12you know, I felt just like that guy.
20:14You know, you don't want it.
20:15Cause you can say, Ooh, baby, I love you.
20:17I miss you all day long, but it's just contrived, made up song, you know, but if it comes from
20:23real life experiences and your real feelings, then people relate to it.
20:27Special forces was, uh, I was in the Navy, the submarine service for eight years and when
20:33we would go to sea, we were gone for three months at a time underwater.
20:36Um, we only had so much room for cassettes.
20:38So you were in heavy rotation for two patrols, probably had 180 day period where you were
20:44one of five cassettes that I listened to every day.
20:47Wow.
20:48Thanks.
20:48Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, we did.
20:51It's true, man.
20:52And it just became a thing.
20:53So you, you are permanently ingrained in my mind.
20:56When I hear a 38 special song, I go back, I go back to there.
21:00And then I love the idea that I can listen to new stuff and enjoy it just as much.
21:03Sounds just as good.
21:05Right.
21:05No songs.
21:06So, you know, we were, we wanted to build them just like anything else.
21:09And, you know, there were, there was one thing that's back then where there was an element
21:13of desperation because it's a career and it's something that you don't really recommend
21:17somebody trying because it's a lot of chances to fail.
21:20So you want, uh, you know, you want to put something, your best foot forward.
21:25So we put, if I'd been the one, those kinds of songs, you know, uh, but, uh, you know,
21:30it, we, uh, at this, at this stage in our life, that element of desperation is not there.
21:35So we just have fun because we still do a hundred cities a year, year in and year out.
21:40We're, we're, we've got too much work to do.
21:42You know, our agent said, we have to turn down 50 offers every year because you just can't
21:47fit them all in there, you know?
21:49So.
21:50I'll, I'll drive to Ohio.
21:52Okay, fine.
21:52I'm driving.
21:53I'm going.
21:54I look forward to it.
21:55Come on down.
21:56I'll bring you a Michigan Wolverine jersey.
21:58So you get on stage.
21:58Yeah.
21:59How about those Wolverine?
22:02Yeah.
22:03Hey, congratulations on everything.
22:04We'll talk soon.
22:05You're always welcome.
22:05You know that anytime.
22:06Thanks, son.
22:07Love to see you.
22:08Thank you, bud.
22:08Thanks, man.
22:09Thanks, man.
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