‘Sylvester Stallone said it didn’t have balls. So we raised it one decibel – and he loved it’

Survivor had released two albums, neither of which had done particularly well, and we were worried our label was going to drop us. One day I came home, pressed play on the answering machine and I heard: “Yo Jim, give me a call, it’s Sylvester Stallone.” I went: “Yeah, right.”