A while back we published an interview with Jeff Carlisi from .38 Special – I enjoyed it so much I wanted to take the time to share the Video version in the first of our Interview series: ‘A ROCK AND ROLL LIFE’…
As a kid growing up in the UK I was fascinated by American Rock music of the 70’s and early 80’s. My best friend’s older brother had a huge vinyl collection that we could only access when we knew he was out of the house and it contained some of the greats of UK and US seventies rock like Thin Lizzy and UFO from the UK to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet from the States. It was American Rock though that he had most of and there were some real gems in there. Sadly there was no .38 Special, but on a trip to the local record store (a 40 minute drive down the road) I came across ‘Wild Eyed Southern Boys’ in the import bins. Being a young kid I was taken by the cover and a pound note was handed over (in those days import vinyl had a hole or a cut out on the cover). It wasn’t the Southern Rock I had been expecting… but I was hooked. Well the great news is that album is now being reissued along with ‘Special Forces’ and potentially others from the catalogue. I got the chance to chat with Jeff Carlisi who was with the band until 1997 to talk about… rock and roll, the early days and the Jacksonville scene. It’s one of my favourite interviews in the 11 years of the Rockpit and I hope to catch up with Jeff soon to dig deeper into the history of the band.