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After multiple platinum albums and legendary career success, lead singer Don Barnes is now the sole remaining original member of 38 Special and he is still rockin’ into the night. Barnes set much of the style and tone of the Southern Rock band that was also influenced by Southern Gospel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“My dad was the music director in a church when I was a kid,\u201d Barnes noted. \u201cThere were some songs he\u2019d sing — Baptist hymns — if you listen to \u2018Has There Ever Been a Good Goodbye,\u2019 it\u2019s a real gospel melody, a nod to those melodies in church.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty-five years of 38 Special have given Barnes an appreciation of the struggle, a perspective of the world, and a realization of his place in it.
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\u201cIt\u2019s those instant reactions of the people who come to our shows, the tears in the eyes from reminders of someone they may have lost, or a special time in their life,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cPeople are singing along. Let me tell you, it\u2019s the greatest job to bring that kind of joy to people every night.\u201d
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With Barnes’s voice integral to the 38 Special sound, here’s how he has managed to keep it in such good shape after all these years:
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/38-Special-album-cover-10-2019.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n“After the show, people tell me they can\u2019t believe I\u2019m even talking after a 90-minute show. I learned to sing correctly back in seventh grade. Greg Allman told me to sing like someone is about to punch you in the stomach. It hardens up your diaphragm and it keeps a lot of the energy down there, and you don\u2019t blow a lot of the air out of your larynx, which is something that can be worn out. You hear a lot of guys who sang from their face over the years and did it well, but they\u2019re burnt out today because there\u2019s too much air pushing on it (larynx). It\u2019s worn out. So it\u2019s a little bit of a Zen thing. You center it all the way down there. Like, I know on \u2018Fantasy Girl,\u2019 there are parts coming up that are going to be high (sings lyric \u201cI see clearly a vision\u2026\u201d ), and I actually don\u2019t push. I relax more and put it down there in my gut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I\u2019ll also tell you a little secret. There\u2019s this product called\u00a0Entertainer\u2019s Secret. A bus driver who used to be a DJ told me to try it. What it does is, as you spray, you breathe in and it gets right on the vocal cords and moisturizes them to simulate natural body fluids. So I\u2019ll have my mug of tea between songs, and I have the little bottles of it taped to the side of the mug. I\u2019ll just give it a little spray, and go out and do another song. I should get an endorsement.\u00a0I\u2019ve given it to Tommy Shaw (Styx), and Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) and friends of mine. It\u2019s not like a miracle, but it\u2019s like steam; it rejuvenates and revitalizes you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barnes and keyboardist\/vocalist Bobby Capps, drummer Gary Moffatt, bassist Barry Dunaway, and guitarist Jerry Riggs, will bring their energy-filled performance to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center on Sunday, October 20, at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the 1980s, the \u201cWild-Eyed Southern Boys\u201d of 38 Special ruled the radio airwaves and filled the cruising strip of downtown Van Wert. Songs like \u201cRockin\u2019 into the Night,\u201d \u201cHold On Loosely,\u201d \u201cCaught Up in You,\u201d \u201cIf I\u2019d Been the One,\u201d \u201cBack Where You Belong,\u201d \u201cWild-Eyed Southern Boys,\u201d \u201cFantasy Girl,\u201d and \u201cTeacher, Teacher,\u201d set the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 22:25:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}