About .38 Special
Formed in 1974, the band toured tirelessly from the start, sharpening the explosive live show that’s been 38 Special’s calling card for a half-century. Along the way, the Florida natives fine-tuned their sound too: a blend of muscle and melody, filled with the arena-rock pop hooks that would soon become staples of FM radio. Years passed… trends changed… some band members retired from the rigors… but 38 Special remained, hitting the road year after year, flying the flag for an enduring form of classic rock & roll that never dies.
About Molly Hatchet
In the early 1970s, a new genre of music was emerging in Jacksonville, Florida. A mixture of blues, country, gospel, and the English invasion of rock and roll that later was to be coined the phrase “Southern Rock.” The music was filled with style and emotion and with bands in the forefront such as the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and a band from Jacksonville, Florida called Molly Hatchet. Named after a famous 17th-century axe murderess “hatchet molly” who would behead her lovers with the hand tool Lizzy Borden made famous.
Their self-titled debut album was released on Epic Records in 1978 and reached multi-platinum status as the band established their reputation of working hard, playing tough, and living fast through intense touring with such bands as Aerosmith, Bob Seger, The Rolling Stones, and many more. In 1979, Flirtin’ with Disaster was released, and history was in the making. The band continued touring on the road with an average of 250 live shows per year and like the first album, it also achieved multi-platinum status. Lead singer, Danny Joe Brown left the band in 1980 and contacted Bobby Ingram, a Jacksonville-based guitarist, and friend, who gave Brown his first singing gig in 1975 with a Jacksonville-based band called Rum Creek. Brown and Ingram then put together with keyboardist John Galvin the Danny Joe Brown Band and continued touring until 1982. The album was produced by the legendary Glyn Johns at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas as he has worked with legendary artists The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, and The Eagles and is known as the top recording/engineer/ producer in rock and roll history.