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Few bands define an era quite like Grand Funk Railroad. One of the biggest American rock bands of the ’70s, GFR was led by the incredible guitar, outstanding voice, and, yes, “the wild, shirtless lyrics” (thank you Homer Simpson) of Mark Farner. Mark’s time with Grand Funk ended in the ’90s, but he’s still on the road today with his solo band. He is about to release a live DVD called From Chile With Love and took some time to talk about it and his career.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws.com Conversation with Mark Farner –
On the shows that were recorded for the DVD – Yeah, it’s in Santiago, Chile at Teatro Caupolican. That was a theater in the round that just lent itself to a great evening and the excitement of the audience and the emotional waves that hit that stage. Wow. And it’s all captured. You can hear the audience, they overcome the PA with their volume. It’s just awesome. Sixteen recorded tracks, performance tracks, two bonus videos, and five bonus songs for 14 99 such a deal…Pre-orders will be signed by yours truly. My wife Lisa and I take $3 from every DVD sold and we give it to Veterans Support Foundation, which is an organization that helps veterans returning from the wars get on their feet, to adapt back into civilian life, to have somebody to advocate for them to get what they have coming for putting in their time. I’d like to give an 800 number. If somebody knows a vet that needs help or a vet sleeping on the street give him this number. It’s 800-882-1316. That is a toll-free 800-882 1316. Veterans Support Foundation. :51
On his memories of the Shea Stadium show – The day was a beautiful day all day long, we were in New York City. We were excited because we knew it was a sell-out crowd, and we knew that it sold out faster than the Beatles sold out, which really put us up on cloud nine. The fact that that billboard in Times Square that covered an entire city block with our three faces on it, the cost of that was, like, $50,000 a month to rent it. We were up there for the first month, and then the billboard workers went on strike for some reason, and we stayed up there for additional four months for free. That didn’t hurt that show it Shea Stadium. That didn’t hurt that show at all. 4:20
“Rock and Roll Soul”
On continuing to write new music – I love to write music, and you know who Jim Peterik is from The Ides of March? Jim and I are writing partners. There’s a couple of us right there that write together.
Well, Mark Slaughter and I are getting together to write. I like to because it’s different from all the Grand Funk stuff. It was like they would shut me in a room and let me write it. Or they would go down to either get some McDonald’s or Burger King or something to grab lunch and while they were gone, I was supposed to write the songs, and I did. “You guys go get something to eat. I’ll have the song done by the time you get back”, and I swear to you, this is how it happened…I do (like collaborating) because I feel like there’s more of a bigger picture that we feed together because the love is that much more extensive when you get a guy like Peterik. He runs on love. He’s a very loving fellow, and I mean, listen to his songs. He’s a great songwriter. There’s a lot on his heart, a lot on his mind. I enjoy the back and forth when you’re in a room and you got a line and you’re writing a verse and then all of a sudden it’s like Peterik will say something and then I’ll say something we’ll both it will hit it back and forth kinda. Between the two, it’s like, “Oh, yeah, there it is right there, man”. It’s a blast. It really is. It’s a challenge. Part of my conditioning is that I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t listen to music. I never, ever listen to music unless I wanna dance and Lisa and I pushed back the coffee table, get everything out of the way and we’ll cut a rug in the living room. Turn on some Howard Tate, turn on some Motown, and just tear it up for a couple of hours. It’s good exercise. And it’s good for the soul. 5:51
On dealing with not touring for a year – It has been very difficult because I missed the community. I really miss not being a part of that universal language that we all love to get out and dance to and shake our head to, and shake our butt to. It helps us get on with life and the live performance inspires not only the musicians who are on that stage and getting the accolades, but it inspires the other musicians that are in the crowd watching, young people that are going, “Man, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to be”. So all of that is kind of been put on the back burner and we do these Zoom videos. I did Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp, I did (Ted) Nugent’s podcast. I’ve done a lot of podcast things with people, but I had never done anything like this prior. When you’re done with a song, when it’s live, the audience man, it’s like they are just begging you to get up, they put enough gumption into you, they wanna pour another 10 songs outta you. But without that reaction, without the audience participation and the encouragement that you get from the applause and it’s like you quit playing a song in front of your computer, there’s just you and the computer there. It is so strange, dude. 8:58
“From Chile With Love” DVD Teaser
On the current version of Grand Funk Railroad – There’s the legal part. But all that comes from hatred, just bad blood that I don’t even like to acknowledge because, why dwell on something bad? I feel sorry that the audiences are not getting the real band, and I feel bad that the guys didn’t have the conscience to tell people the guy that wrote in saying 92% of the music is not gonna be with him tonight. So consequently, I’ve heard a lot of people that come to my shows and go, “Yeah, I went and saw the other guys, but, you know, we thought we were going to see you, but it was somebody totally different”. But there’s not any integrity in the music business. I mean, I can’t say there’s not any, but there’s very little when you got bands going out there and they say it’s the name of the band, but they don’t even have one of the members of the original band in there. How honest is that? The advertising is just totally dishonest, dude…I’m not interested in hearing their versions. I mean, I’m interested in hearing the original version with the original singer playing to our fans, who would really appreciate the original version. 11:08
On whether the original GFR can ever reunite – I have been pitching that very scenario to the other two guys every year when I get with them for the shareholders’ meeting of the corporation. I’m a shareholder. I’m not an officer. I don’t have any say-so over anything that gets done in that corporation. That’s kind of the pickle that I’m in. I have, for over 20 years now, I have pitched, “Why aren’t we going out and giving the fans what neither one of us can give independent from each other? Why don’t we bury the hatchet, go out for the sake of our fans, God bless them, and give them the band, give them the real deal.” But I always get shot down. But I heard, though, somebody told me they read an interview, quite a few times I’ve heard this, where Don (Brewer) says, “Well, never say never”. But that’s just something that will get you on to the next question. It’s never really in his mind to never say never. He doesn’t want to. In fact, every sign that I get from them is contrary to that ever happening. 13:33
“I’m Your Captain”
On Grand Funk never being nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – It doesn’t upset me as much as I feel so bad, because the fans are getting manipulated like people are getting manipulated by “lamestream” media. The only reason that Grand Funk is not in the Rock Hall is we don’t have that brown ring around our lips that it takes to get in there. We don’t bow to that God. It’s politics there. It’s not the will of the people. If it was the will of the people Grand Funk would be in there, they wouldn’t have taken so long for Kiss. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of bands of that era that just belong there. If it was for the numbers and the sake of their popularity, hands down, they belong there. There’s a lot of people that are in there that don’t belong because they did never get to that plateau. But it’s a political machine and I think Steve Miller kind of summed it up. 15:28
On if Grand Funk would reunite if inducted into the Hall – I would hope so. I’ve pitched him on every occasion, at least once a year, sometimes twice a year when I get the chance. But it’s just falling on deaf ears. Even though it is the fiduciary duty of the officers of the corporation to produce the most income for that corporation, they’re not taking that seriously. 17:00
“Detroit City 2020” Alice Cooper feat. Mark Farner
On recording with Alice Cooper – The Breadcrumbs EP we did at Rust Belt Studios in Detroit and Alice and Bob Ezrin, God bless him. He just had an operation, had a little medical problem. But he’s good. What an intense human being. Then being able to be in the studio, with Wayne Kramer from the MC5 and Johnny Badanjek, Johnny Bee from the Detroit Wheels, and laying down the law with those guys and playing this music, this old Detroit stuff, Suzi Quatro and (Bob) Seger’s “East Side Story”. It’s just stuff that really when they started pitching me on doing this, I said, “Man, it’s cool”. Thank God that Alice is grateful for the area that he was born and raised in and he’s taking his hat and tipping his hat and saying, “Thank you”. I love being a part of that. He is such a gentleman. I mean, what a rock star gentleman he is. He’s a good Christian brother, and I’ve gone to lunch with him. I’ve watched and when his fork is halfway between his plate in his mouth somebody walks up and goes, “Alice, could you sign this”, he’ll put the fork down, dude, grab their hand and sign whatever it is. I mean, what a gentleman this guy is and he attends to the fans. He’s real. And I love him. I love working on the records. 17:40
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800-882 1316
1 Comment
I just now discovered this. Mark Farner is one of my favorite music artists. I am not a musician myself, yet, but I have been a heavy music listener since my teens, and Mark Farner and Grand Funk Railroad have been some of my favorite music artists since I was in high school in the late 1970s. My favorite era of Grand Funk is the 1972-76 band that included keyboardist Craig Frost, and I also really liked the 1980s GFR albums that bassist Dennis Bellinger was a member of the band. Bellinger played on Mark’s second solo album NO FRILLS, and it really is rockin’!!! Mark Farner’s Christian faith and music has been and inspiration to me, too. His three albums for Frontline Records are still very important to my life. Mark’s WAKE UP… album is one of my favorite rock albums.