Loose Change - 12 -31-89 (Chris Hicks From The Outlaws)

1. The Wheel
2. Never Know Why
3. Keep It Together
4. Love Is On The Line
5. Nobody knows




What was your first big break in music?

My first taste of the real thing was a band I had together called Loose Change. That was high school buddies that had a band that had changed faces and names and all that a few times through the years, but really a lot of the same guys played together for a long time. We started doing original music as well as some covers to get into the clubs and all. We started opening for bands, like Charlie Daniels, and The Atlanta Rhythm Section, and The Outlaws. We were kind of the hot band in town, so we always got the opening ticket for a few years, as well as killing them in the the clubs. We built us a little reputation and went to Muscle Shoals, Alan Walden was our manager then, and we recorded our album. We actually got an album on vinyl before they stopped doing that. It was released regionally and did okay, it didnít break no records but it did okay. We did a single that was going to be on our second album, by this time we were doing some pretty good shows, playing The Cotton Club in Atlanta and things like that. The song was used in a Jim Varney movie called ìFast Foods.î That gave us a little spark and we got a little air play. It was called ìLove is On the Line.î It wasnít an ìErnestî movie, but heís always the same type of character. It was a college type movie. And 96 Rock jumped on us and played us because of that.

So we opened for The Outlaws a bunch at that time. At the time, Alan was also Hughieís (Thomasson) publisher, so I had known Hughie for a few years during this time and weíd get together and jam, and Iíd sit in with The Outlaws. And when weíd go down to Muscle Shoals to record, Hughie and them would be down there a lot too, so I would play on some of their tracks and theyíd play on some of mine, mainly Hughie. We got to be big buddies and everything, which eventually lead to him asking me to join The Outlaws in 1989.

So we hooked up, and I still did a few dates that year with my band while playing with The Outlaws, and then we got going real well with The Outlaws and I ended up having to dissolve my band. I stayed with The Outlaws full time right up until the time I joined Marshall Tucker, really. I guess that was 1996, but we had kind of dissolved The Outlaws the year before that when Hughie joined Lynyrd Skynyrd. But weíre still going to do a couple of more records. - Taken From an interview from Gritz Magazine.

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