Blessid Reunion!
I got a phone call a few weeks ago from our former bus driver Bobby Edwards letting me know he would be in town the next day with 38 Special doing a show in Blue Ash (Cincinnati, Oh) with Shooter Jennings and The Charlie Daniels Band, and would I like to attend. (Bobby now drives for 38 Special). Of course Bobby knows 38 Special was a huge influence on me when I was learning to play guitar and writing songs while I was playing in my first band Thunder Head. Then to my surprise he had invited my long time friend and former production manager of Blessid Union Of Souls Scott Griffith, pictured here with Bobby and I backstage while Charlie Daniels was playing.
Scott has since gone on to tour with many top acts around the country but has been working for Harry Connick Jr . for the past few years and is doing very well now. In the next few months I'll have Bobby and Scott on the website for a Live Video interview to tell some stories of the Old Blessid Union Of Souls from the road when we were traveling around the world with top ten hits on the radio and television appearances almost every day.
Pictured at the right is me with Don Barnes , the lead guitar player and one of the lead vocalists of 38 Special. He wrote and sang hits such as "Hold On Loosely " and "Caught Up In You" along with many others recorded by the group. Click HERE to see them perform Hold On Loosely on Youtube.
Besides writing songs with other members of 38 Special, Don also wrote songs with Jim Peterik with the 80's group Survivor which had many hits including "Eye Of The Tiger" from one of the Rocky movies.
Pictured at the left is me with Donnie Van Zant, the lead singer and master showman of 38 Special. Donnie wrote songs "Stone Cold Believer" and "Twentieth Century Fox" among many others. Donnie is also in a group with his brother Johnny Van Zant (The singer for Lynyrd Skynyrd) called of course "Van Zant " They have had great success with their last 2 cds titled "Get Right With the Man" and "My Kind of Country", both on Columbia / Sony Records. You can view their YouTube channel HERE.
Pictured at the right is me with drummer Gary Moffatt and keyboardist Bobby Capps. In the beginning I saw 38 Special many times when they rolled through Cincinnati and they had 2 drummers playing like one in front of a mirror. One of the things that always impressed me about 38 was how tight they played with their hard hitting drummers, which has always influenced me in the studio when we were recording the Blessid cds. Now steps in Gary which has a tough act to follow, and BAM! A hard hitting precise drummer that is better than any before him. And he puts on a great show. And then there is Bobby Capps on keyboards. He's tagged as the crazy one in the group, which was always my role in Blessid Union and he fills and rounds out the group great. Not only does he sing great background vocals, he sings lead on on one of 38's big singles "Second Chance". When not touring with the group Bobby is busy in the studio with the bass player from Lynyrd Skynyrd Ean Evans working on their project.
Well that's all the photos I had with the band but I want to mention the other two members. Larry Junstrom has always played bass guitar for 38 Special and was the original bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd before they made it big and the other guitar player, Danny Chauncey has been around 38 since 1987.
Well there it is, an evening with one of my all time favorite bands and a big influence on the writing and sound of Blessid Union Of Souls.