For the first time in over 20 years, Jacksonville-based southern rock band 38 Special released a new album. The aptly named “Milestone” celebrates the band’s 50th anniversary. Singer and guitarist Don Barnes sat down with WOKV’s Chase Bunker to reflect on his career, their bond with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and how it felt to get back to writing music.

“We were young boys with a dream,” reflects Barnes on reaching the five-decade mark. “We would practice right down at Riverside Avenue. We tried to...you know, made all our mistakes in public. But we ended up with 20 million albums sold later, but as time went on, it was a struggle. I even told Donnie Van Zant back at 30 years, I said, ‘man if I had known, I would be looking at your face 30 years from now (laughs),’ I told him I said, ‘if I shot you back when I wanted to, I would have been out of jail by now,’” jokes Barnes.

When it came time to write music, it was like riding a bike for Barnes; he was able to pick it back up quickly. “I had little bits and pieces of ideas. Some of them were half-written, three-quarters written, some of them basically just 15 seconds of a guitar figure, you know? But you use all your experience, you learn as you go through all those years, and use all of the little tricks you can pick up. Lyric writing was the hardest thing to learn over the period of years. I was always a guitar player. I always liked the big arrangements and band stuff, but I never really paid attention much to the lyrics. And so I had to learn that too; you have to learn everything. If you’re going to make it in this business, you better learn every single thing about it.”

You can hear Barnes talk about his brotherhood with Lynyrd Skynyrd, his favorite shows, and tell his favorite story about Ozzy Osbourne in the full interview.

38 Special’s album “Milestone” is in stores now.

You can listen to more of Chase’s interviews in the Chase Chats section of WOKV.com.

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