Mark Farner

And when I talked to the gal at the hospital, you know, you put this little thing over your heart and it sends it through the cell phone and gives them a reading for the month, you know, and she says, it's very extraordinary that you should have so much battery life left in your pay pacemaker. But you're good for a long time. Yeah. I love hearing stuff like that, Bob, don't we all? So tell us the story of why

you needed the pacemaker to begin with. Well, my wife and I were down in Detroit doing some promotions, and uh we stayed at the Renaissance Center there and she had gotten up to do her thing in the morning, you know, she was in the bathroom, washing her face and everything. And she said when she came out of the bathroom, my left arm had was shot up into the air, and and I was I started kind of

flipping around. I don't remember any of this, buddy, uh, but I guess I looked like a wounded tuna, you know, flipping around. And she calls, you know, the front desk, and has a paramedics come up. They put me on oxygen. They put me in a ambulance, and I go over to to Harper in Detroit and I'm in the emergency room and I gurney and they got me hooked to an external pacemaker. And these three doctors, well I think

they were doctors. They had white coats and they had their backs to me, uh, and they were maybe six ft away from me, but they were looking at the machine, the external pacemaker, and it was in the corner. And as I look over, I'm glancing down at myself and I see these wires hooked to me, and all of a sudden, I feel like they just plugged me right straight into the wall. It was like bam. And I

hollered out to the top of my lungs. I was, what are you it was like and and my wife heard me holler, and she came running in from the hallway, Honey, what's the matter. And I said, those guys are They just plugged me straight into the wall over there. I said, this is this is not you know. I think I'm gonna die if they do that again. They plugged. They did it again, and I died. Yeah, and uh so on on that approach to come back in into the bone suit. I didn't really want to make that trip, buddy.

It was so good. On the other side, it was just like being home. I mean it was you know, it was more secure than your mother's womb, if you can imagine. Uh And and I knew all things in that state of being and uh and but I could hear my wife not now, you son of a bit. She's beating up my chest. And this guy when I when I re entered my bone suit, this the doctor standing next to her with the paddles in his hands. And uh it had they hit me again with this voltage?

I go again, and I'm in I'm in heaven, man, I'm telling you, Uh, it's the most wonderful place. And anyways, make a long story short. I hear him telling her we've got him back twice, there's no guarantee we get him a third time. We gotta get him to oh our stat. And when he said stat, it was like mash four oh seven seven scrambling around people, running, diving, you know, pushing me. I was doing fifty miles an hour down the hollway and they put the pacemaker in.

But what happened was, uh, you know, they've got two parts to your your heart, the plumbing, of course, which is very important, but then you have the electrical. Well, my electrical had a short in it, Bob. They called it a bundle branch block, and my nerve branch did not receive the signal to squeeze the blood back up into the top part of the heart. So that's what

happened to me. And I you know, now I have this pacemaker that samples ahead and it can see when I'm gonna miss a beat, and it'll throw it in there for me. When it throws it in, do you feel something, Oh, yes, very much, so you go, oh, thank you. And how often does that happen. It doesn't happen very often. In fact, it happened more frequently ten years ago when I first got it put in. I mean it was happening quite frequently. I would notice every day.

Now I go days without noticing. And is this hereditary or from living or just some people get a bad number. I believe it's hereditary, brother, because my grandfather, my dad's dad, died in his sleep and they didn't know what it was. I mean, this was, you know, back years and years ago, and I think I might have picked something up from him. Wow, that's quite a story. So do you have to hold back in any activity or can you just live fine? No? In fact, Bob, he said, he told my wife, you

tell Mark, don't baby that thing. You push that thing, you make it work, you, you know, take it to the limit. So I do, and on stage I make sure that you know I'm keeping it in good shape. And if I don't get to where I'm sweating and to something is wrong. Now, frequently when people have these near death or as you say in your case, actual death experiences, when they come out of them kind of changes their perspective in their life. Was your perspective changed

at all? Yes? I was telling my wife for a few years prior to this adventure that I went on. I told her the thing that's wrong with mankind in general is debt consciousness, um I said, because once you're indebted to someone or beholden to someone or something, you you're compromised. You can't really be free in your expression and your relationship with that person or thing, whatever it is.

That's that's you're in debt too. And on my re entry into my bone suit that last time, Bob, I had such a confirmation of that whole thing and what the Bible is talking about when Jesus is saying, oh, no man anything except to love him. You know, that was the state of mind that he was in. And I'm sure that's why there was all the miracles, because when you're indebted to anyone or any thing, uh, you're

you're cutting yourself short. And I found out on on that reentry that you know, and on the other side, I mean, you know all things immediately, you know, I even had On that side of the fence, I had the purpose. I knew what the purpose of these earth years were. I mean, I knew what it was. And on this side I couldn't tell you. I'm thinking maybe it's like plugging a one ten fan into two twenty. It would just smoke you. I mean, your brain is

only built for so much information. But the debt consciousness as not just money. Debt, that's certainly part of it. But what if you don't fulfill the expectations of some somebody, some people. What if it was somebody in your family and they called one of the siblings or somebody else and they tell them the story of how now you're indebted to them, you know, and then they call you and you're put on the ship list and you're in

debt because of this situation. And it's all a misconception because people aren't people aren't coming from that point of view. They're not coming from the love that's in their heart and trying to find the love. And everybody else they are coming from a place of defense and coming from a place of being offended. And uh, you know, it's just it's a debt ladent world that we are living in. We are moved from our place of comfort by this

silly four letter word d ebt. Holy crap, man, Let's go down to the drug store and buy a box and then and dump it on a table and look at it. Or that are yet, let's get a tenure dump truck full of it and have them dump it in our front yards. A wee can weigh in this stuff and really get familiar with it because even the indebtedness of regret we can set ourselves free from. But we are the only ones who can set ourselves free

from this. And people don't realize this, but that's what I was that was revealed to me, and I was that was confirmed in me on that last re entry. I call it the re entry into this bone suit. And I've been sharing that experience with people who are profoundly jolted by this notion of being debt free and that we are the ones who control what we will accept as debt and uh and how not to accept any debt. I think once you get that going and realize who you are in this this simplistic form, this

human form, that then we can see love. Then we can experience love, because you know that's where love lives. Buddy, Can you give me an example or two of how you changed your life relative to this debt insight. Yes, I look at other people that prior to the revelation that I've had brother, I may have held them responsible for actions that that they took that had a bad reflection on me, or had a bad influence on me, or you know, left might have left me um angry.

And I just can't go there anymore. I can't go there because people are so precious and we don't let ourselves. We don't allow that tenderness to come through or to too. Uh. I think that it could be in another person to consider that and someone who's you know, maybe what if alcohol was involved and one of your relatives said something

to you that was just off the wall. You know, it's has happened with me, And since the revelation that I've had, I can't hold that person in debt for that, you know, for the words, for that experience that I went through with him. I just have to let it go. And it's like a lot of people have asked me about, you know, the relationship that I had with the other two members of the band, and uh, you know, doesn't that piss you off? I want to know it doesn't

piss me off. It makes me feel sorry for somebody who can't be truthful with the audience with our fans. Uh. But I I refuse to let it piss me off, because you know, that would keep me that would put me in some kind of uh frame, a reference to debt consciousness, and I don't want any more debt consciousness.

In fact, every day, brother Bob, before my feet swing out and get put put on the floor, I lay in the bed and I pray to the Creator and ask to be shown where there's any more anchors in my soul here, so that I can take these bolt cutters that I have and cut that chain to that anchor and get set free. Because I want to be completely free before I leave this earth. And I think even in that state of mind, if we can all head that way, we'll be able to see some miracles

before we go. What is the truth that your two other original band members are holding back from the public. They advertise themselves as Grand funk It. They have a legal right to do that because Uh the drummer came to me one night after a gig we did up in California telling me, and this is after a party, you know, you know it, had a few beers or have some drinks or something. Go back to the hotel room.

He comes to my hotel room says, hey, Mark, we all we all need to sign the individual ownership of the trademark into the corporation where it'll have this protective umbrella. And he had gone to law school and I didn't finish high school. And I thought, well, he's looking out for the best interests of the band. And I said, well, you know, I thought to myself, Yeah, okay, I'll do that. He says, good, I'll go to my room and get

the papers. And I'm thinking as he left, I'm thinking, why the hell didn't he just bring the papers with him. But it didn't dawn on me that I was being set up. Uh, And so when he came back, I signed the papers, and so my ownership, my one third ownership of the trademark, which is the name Grandfunk Railroad, got put into the corporation where I found out, uh, they had fired me as an officer. I was like the vice president. Um, and I'm no longer an office.

I no longer have any say so in a corporation with three people, when you got two of them against you, it's just even even though I wrote of the music and saying, you know, and did all the stuff, they can go out with my music and make a living and claim that they are Grandfunk Railroad. Legally because of that mistake that I made. But I can't hold them responsible,

even though that's a shitty thing to do. I'm telling you, Uh, I can't hold them responsible for that because I have to view that in my current state of mind as just them being off their path. But if they were honest with people, they would have said Grand Funk revisited or something to this degree, just like Credence Clearwater, you know, authorities not with him. Uh, And they had a spat. I don't even know what it was about. I didn't

read on it. I just knew that there was something going on between them and the legally, that there was something that you know, at least they said Credence Clearwater revisited, which gave the fans heads up. Uh. I think the other two guys in the band, if they would have said grand Funk revisited, that would have given them, uh a point of you know, some validity with the fans. And you know, uh, they could have looked them online and say, well, what's this about. But no, they just

go out and they don't tell the audience. There's no way that they can say to the audience or advertised that the guy who wrote and sang of the music is no longer in the band. What was the impetus? Obviously they had this all planned out. They wanted to sign the document. They wanted to get rid of you as an officer. What was going on that they wanted to do that at that time? I don't really. I can only say that it has to be a personal grudge of some sort, some kind of vendetta. Uh. Mel

Shocker the bass player, and I have been friends. I mean we went to school together. We we jammed together, we we rode dirt bikes together, and uh, and we smoked pot together as kids. I mean, you know. Uh. And I just could never understand how Mel uh could have gone along with Don on that and and come it in himself to it. But then just this year, I was, after we started, you know, doing a few more gigs, I was in the Delta Club in Detroit, and Mel the bass player was in there. And I

didn't know he was in there. I was just I had my headphones on and I'm over there listening to some music I've been working on with Mark Slaughter and Uh. And I see Malcolm walking around the corner and he looks at me, and he puts his arms out, you know. So I stand up, I give him a hug, and he just says to me, you know, Mark, he says, I really love what you do. I really love who you are. You're the greatest, he says, And brother, I

just had to do what I had to do. And at that moment, I looked at him and I just felt so sorry for this kid. That he was an only child and his mom and had died, and he went through some stuff. His his wife died. He's been through a lot, and I can't hold him responsible, um, you know, for the two of them going out and claiming to be the band and you know, grandfather and

not warning or not at least telling somebody. So I looked him in the eyes and I told him, I said, you know, I thought in my heart that that was probably you know, what was going on, that it's something that you had to do, because you know, with everything that you have been through and and the things, uh, you know that that all your bills don't go away when things like this happened, and you become very aware.

And I said, I understand, Melvin, and I just I said, I forgive you for that, and he give me a big hug and that was it was like, man, that was so good, dude. Uh, just to know that that's how he felt. I can't, I can't say that. You know, because of that, the band is going to get back together. I think I had been trying to put the band back together for twenty three years because I realized when the Beatles were together and I was, you know, I wanted them to go back on the road so I

could see him live. Man, I'm a Beatle fan, and I'm thinking, man, those all four of them guys are still sucking air. Why can't they just bury the hatchet and do it for us, do it for the fans that bought all those records, you know, and so putting myself in those shoes. Um, I kept petitioning those guys to do it for the fans, to do it for the sake of our fans, and I kept hearing people

say yeah, Don said uh, never say never. They asked him in an interview if he'd ever get back together with with you and if the original band would ever go out, and he says, never say never. But that's just easy to say. But when you when you feel the you know, the virility the and when you feel that hatred. Uh, Like when I when I went out as Mark Farner's American band, I got a trademark. I did it legally through lawyers. Uh. They sued me and

it cost us a lot of money. Not only did it cost me to pay my attorn knees, one from California, one from Michigan because it was a Michigan corporation. Uh, I had to pay one third of their attorneys. Yeah, yeah, brother, But I gotta let all that go. You know, I cannot allow that to eat my lunch. That's my power, brother, Bob, and I will use it in the manner which I choose. Do you have any idea what Don's beef with you? Is? Have not a clue? I really don't have a clue.

Let's go side. How do you know Mark Slaughter? Mark Slaughter, we did a rock and roll fantasy camp years ago and h and Marcus is Uh he's part Cherokee. I'm part Cherokee. So on, just on that basis alone, we have something in common that not a lot of people do, and that we're musicians in the rock and roll field. That just gave us a head start on our friendship. And our brotherhood. Uh. And we did the Howard Sterns Show while we were in New York City and it's recorded.

It's on YouTube now. But we had Kip Winger on base, Sandy Gennaro on drums, Teddy's Zigzag on the keyboards, um Mark Slaughter on guitar, and Bruce Culick who now plays guitar with Don and Mel. He was on the acoustic guitar. But we were all doing rock and roll fantasy camp for David fish Off and uh, and we did a we did I'm Your Captain, and I was so impressed

by those guys. They made it sound believable because all those guys told me how much they loved me and how much they appreciated that song in particular because it influenced them as young musicians. And I'm I'm standing there at the microphone singing the the in the chorus, and then and then when we go to the bridge, am

I in my cabin breathe me? And I'm listening over and there's Mark singing the high part and he is hitting it dead nuts, buddy, I mean seriously, it gave me the chills and I thought, Wow, we're doing this. I mean, this is really coming off good for for just setting up a couple of amps in a in

a studio up at Stearn's place. And so after that, Mark and I kept in touch with each other, and Mark sent me a copy of some of the music that he had been working on, and I said, man, uh that some of that stuff is really speaking to me. I said, the mix you have on that stuff, You've really got the separation where you can hear all the instruments and the vocals. He's got a song halfway there. Oh my god, it's beautiful. And uh, I said, man, uh, I encourage you and I want to, you know, sending

you kudos on on the sound that you got. He says, well, I want to do something with you. He says, I've got this stuff. I can make your music sound just as good as this, if not better, he says, because I'm always learning. And so I said, you know something, I'm going to take you up on that because I've got a song that my son Jesse told me before he died. He said, Dad, that song. He says, there's

two songs that really stick out to me. He says that one that you and he starts humming it to me and I and I go, oh, yeah, you really like that song? He says yeah, he says, uh, and it's a hit. He says, I believe that's a hit song. I just feel it in my heart. And so the one song titled Anymore Slaughter helped me finished because we co wrote it. I had the initial idea, the chorus, the first verse, the second first though, he really came through,

and it came through with a shining of forgiveness. And it is forgiveness for the other guys for doing what they did and what they do. Uh, and it and it has a message. It carries that that love message through it. And I think that's what Jesse was hearing because he was definitely into the love, especially in his latter years. I'm proud to be working with. Why don't you tell us a story of Jesse who had a tragic accident and then tragically passed. Can you tell us

a little bit more about that because not everybody knows. Yeah, Jesse back in two thousand and ten was on camping trip with his buddies and there was a bunch of I call him kids. I mean, he's my kid, but uh, you know, twenty some year old, and they were camping out at this lake and it was the fourth July weekend, and Jesse told me in the emergency room when we went up there too, you know, we found out he

was hurt. We went to the emergency room at the hospital where the the ambulance had brought him, and he told me, he said, Dad, I drank too much and tried to do something stupid, he says. Everybody was doing these back flips off the picnic table, he says, and I just didn't land it, said too much beer, Dad. And at that time he could still move his his arms. He was paralyzed from his waist down. But the doctor told us, the surgeon said, he's gonna lose the use

of his limbs too. Because he was laying in the back of a pickup truck for eleven hours. He didn't want to bring the police into it or ambulance out there because he didn't want to ruin all of these kids camping out and having a good time. So they he just said, just lay me in the back of that pickup truck and out sober up and get better

and whatever. If he could have gotten to the hospital within the first four hours, there's a window of opportunity where they could have injected um steroid right at the point of the injury and arrested the edema. That actually is what took his arms away from him and the use of his arms, and the only he only had the use of his head. I mean, he could move his neck around and he drove his wheelchair with his mouth. It was a sip and puff system and he was

real good at it. As a matter of fact, some of his friends took the sip and off system and attached it to a remote control device where he could actually run these four wheel drive electric models. And uh, he had a boat that would do like eighty miles an hour on the water down here, and people would just gather around him to see him run this stuff because he was really good at it. And he took, uh, he took a first place in Traverse City where they

were having these competitions with all these people. And when people looked around and saw this kid driving this truck with his mouth, you know, he was pretty good at it. Uh. He was really blessed. But his condition kept going down and the doctor told us, he said, it's like a limb on a tree when when it gets crushed like that,

the life just starts leaving it. And he says, he told us there will be uh, you know, kidney troubles, there will be internal organ troubles that that you just can't do anything about, because that's what happens at this point. And so we we had him here at our house and my wife Lisa, God bless her heart. Um, she

took care of him most of the time. But then we had help from uh people that would nurses and people that were paid by the state to come in and help and give her a break because it's really strenuous for one person. I mean, it's you can't imagine, and you have to do things like for a quadriplegic who's on life support. Uh, you gotta roll them up on their side, and in order for them to take a ship, you gotta stick your fing here up in there and stimulate that and then you got to catch

it as it's coming out. It's it's a very uh humilifying experience for him. And when I volunteered, you know, I said, Lisa, let me do part of this. Let me and he looks at me, says, Dad, you're not sticking your big finger in my ass. So anyways, his his condition got you know, worse and worse, and then in two thousand eighteen he passed and we know that

he's whole. Now. We know that, you know, from my experience of leaving, you know, exiting the bone suit and coming back, I know his whole and I know that as soon as he made the exit from the bone suit that he was set free. And uh, we miss him like crazy. I got a picture that pops up every time I turn on my computer. There's Jesse and his dog, him with his laying in bed with his track. He had a tricky out of me and he had

his life support, but he never lost his grin. He never lost his love for life and had his friends. And we have a memorial out here on our farm for him, and his friends come over and they go back to the memorial and they leave little bunches of flowers or uh, pinted Jack Daniels. You never know what's going to be left at the memorial, but his love will never leave them. I mean, he was that kind of guy. He just he was real and uh, and

we miss him like crazy. But Lisa and I have definitely learned some valuable, valuable lessons through all of this, and it's just to reiterate that love, you know. I mean, we we get here in the form of this little infant and we, uh, we just hold that I feel, you know, the love and a little kid that the energy, and so we nurture them because you know, it's our instinct, our human instinct, to care care for this little baby.

But we're holding that love. That's really who we are in our heart, you know, is that that bundle of love, that energy that comes from the great beyond. And we have learned how to look at people with eyes that see that. No matter what other kind of physical representation there might be, or what kind of words we come out of the mouths of people, we always look in and see that love and and you know, know that all that person needs is to to realign with it. Now,

do you have other kids? Yes, I have two other children, two other boys with Lisa, and then I have two other boys with two other women. Okay, well let's stop here for a second. How many times you've been married twice? When did you get married the first time? How old were you and what motivated you to get married? I just felt like it was time because I felt like I was in love with this girl, and uh, I wanted to be I wanted to UM at that point, you know. I mean I started in Grand Funk when

I was twenty. I had been two other countries. I've been on big tours, you know, sold out Shasee Stadium with my music, and H this was in them. That was seventy one. So in seventy two it was like I felt like I wanted to somehow put down, uh, the beginning of a permanent commitment. But as life goes h both parties didn't see it that way, and so uh it was. I think three years later we were divorced and I said, man, I am never gonna get married again. Forget about this. UM. We did not have

any children. My first wife and I did not have any children. My oldest son, Joey, came from a relationship I had with my oldest sister's girlfriend app and uh and dude, I didn't even orgasm. It was a one time thing and it was just it was just off the wall, but it was enough to get her pregnant. There was enough of the seed that got through even without my experiencing anything like that. And Joey and I are very good friends. He's a musician. He's lives in

Detroit and he's out doing gigs all the time. He's a good songwriter, good singer, he's got he's got talent. And his wife and him come up and we you know, we eat, have barbecues and we talk, we jam and I go down there and his house. He's got his stuff set up in the basement. He's got a nice recording thing set up. And so I have good relationship with him. When was he born before or after your first marriage? Before? So that's one song, yes, and then

after I was divorced from my first marriage. We're on the road and Wet Willie was the opening act for the Grand Funct Tour Um. It was when the Local Motion was a number one hit um and and the gals from Wet Willie they said, you know what we were, We want to come out there and sing the backgrounds for Local Motion with you guys. In fact, the whole band wants to come out. And we said, man, that would be great, you know, because we used to do it.

And just as like the last song before our encore, and so Wet Willie would all come out on the stage and and I got very friendly with Donna, Donna Hall, who was one of the singers, and there was Jack Hall and Jimmy Hall. Jimmy Hall was the lead singer and Jack the bass player. But Donna moved in with me. And I wasn't thinking about marriage or anything. I just having a relationship and uh. And then I met Lisa, my wife that I'm married to, uh currently and forever

more forty four years now. Um, and man, I knew as soon as I saw, as soon as I heard her voice, soon as I was around her, that it was like, oh my god. And Donna came to me and she said, Mark, I see what's between you and Lisa. I can see it. You'd have to be blind not to see it. And she said, and I'm gonna bow out of your life now. I'm going to go back home. I said, oh, are you kidding me? I said, I

feel bad. She said, don't feel bad, she says. I I love Lisa, and I love you, she says, and I don't want to be I don't want to hold you back from anything. That it's this precious And she didn't know she was pregnant. Moved home back to Mobile, Alabama, and her mother, Bibie God Rest her Soul, called me out of the blue UH and said, Mark, my daughter is pregnant with your baby. And I went what And she says, Donna, don't freak out. She says, don't freak out.

We're not mad. There's nothing you know. You guys didn't know. She didn't know when she left, and you didn't know. So I just want you to know that we're gonna take good care of this baby and that we will always love you. And that's what kind of relationship I have with the whole family, including my son Adam, who

came out on the road with Donna. Uh wet Willie opened for us again down in New Orleans and UH and Donna had ad Adam with her and it was the first time I met him, and I had my son Jason with me, and so Adam and Jason got together and they are still you know, there's there's there's blood, and there's no kind of questioning about that relationship at all. And in fact, we all went to Mexico together before Jesse was hurt and UH and had a great time

together and you know, those memories. It's great to have those memories because they're built on it's just always a reminder of the love that has always kept us together and has always found its way through any hurt and always uh made the glue that keeps us stuck on each other. Are Adam and Jason up to jay Eason is working at a shoe store doing good. He makes good money. He does he works on a commission as well as his and he does things on the side

where he's he's got good money coming in. He lives on his own in an apartment. And Adam works he's a chef down in Mobile, Alabama. And Isaac and Sarah my grandchildren. Uh, he takes them on the weekends and his and his ex wife uh get some you know, through the week But he's doing good. He you know, he's uh, it's just to have a job and keeping holding down the fort at this point in life in this country as really saying something. But they're not the kind of people that would set back and say I'm

not gonna work, I'll let the government support me. You know. Uh, they're not that kind of people. And I'm proud of that. Okay, you're really mellow understanding and love it. What were you like when you were a teenager and then in your twenties at the height of Grand Funk Road. I was very grateful for the experience, you know. When I wrote Closer to Home, I'm Your Captain, I prayed for that song.

I always say my prayers. I always pray. I pray every day, and at night, before I go to sleep, I pray, and I said, mine, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. And then I blessed all my aunts and uncles and cousins and grandma's, grandpa's and you know. And I put a ps on the end of the prayer, and I said, God, would you please give me a song that would reach and touch the

hearts of those you want to get to. And I got up in the middle of the night and I wrote words. But I'm always getting up righting words. I didn't know it was a song. It could have been just a poem with you know. And when I wrote it, Bob, I was I was in a state of mind that was halfway between heaven and Earth. I was not in a totally conscious uh state. And somehow I knew that if I went back to the top of the page and started reading the words again, it would stop. So

I kept writing. I kept writing, and I kept writing, and I got through the whole thing. And I'm still in this frame of mind, not completely uh cognizant consciously, and I lay down the steno pad and the paper, you know, and the pencil, and I slipped back under the sheets and I go to sleep. And I get up in the morning and I have a coffee sitting

on the table. I'm looking at my horses out in the pasture, and I've got a George Washburn flat top and acoustic guitar sitting in the kitchen in a stand, and I grabbed it and I started playing but pop pop pop doo doo doo doo, and I went, wow, where the hell did that come from? And uh, it's like and then I grabbed this, this inversion of a C cord that just it just spoke to me in

such a way. It was like, man, and I'm looking at that chord and I'm thinking, man, I can't forget this this chord right here, and I'm looking at it and then I thought, oh, the words, Maybe that's a song. Maybe that's a song. So I go in and I grab the lyrics and bring them out, put them on the table. I pushed the button on my cassette recorder and I started playing it bad. Don't du dun, dude, everybody listen to me. You know, it just started coming.

And I took the cassette recorder to rehearsal that day and I played it for the guys and and they said, man, Fearner, that songs a hit. That songs a hit man. So they were right, and it's a hit with a lot of people, but especially with our military and back when that song came out, it was during the Vietnam era, and a lot of our brothers and sisters we're a long way from home, but they wanted to be where

I was. And so when the Vietnam Veterans of America got ahold of my management in two thousand five, they asked me if I had come and play the the at the memorial at the at the Wall, and it was the anniversary h ceremony, and then I said, well, rather than to just bring my guitar, I said, are you guys going to have stage set up in lights and you know, oh yeah, we're gonna p a system

and everything. I said, the whole band will come. We will put a show on a full show for the Vietnam veterans there and will include the song that they love. And we did. Of course, we didn't charge them at all. I mean, god, how could you? And it was thirty six degrees, Bob, it was thirty six and we were warming our hands up on the lightbulbs that were in this trailer so that we could play our instruments when

we got out there. And when it came time to play I'm Your Captain Closer to Home, Man, I looked out and there was not a dry eye any place. And not only our American brothers and sisters, but are Canadian brothers and sisters who are Vietnam veterans were in the crowd. And I had a very difficult time trying to sing because I was so choked up. It felt

like I had a softball in my neck. But it was with all this appreciation and the emotional connection that I was making with this audience, Oh my god, Uh, the words came back to me, Uh for those you want to get to and h and those words got to those brothers and sisters, and and that's that's what keeps me going today. I I always dedicate that song when we get to it, and said, I always dedicated to our troops and to our veterans, and just to

promise we would never forget them. We appreciate them so much. They are kids following orders. They didn't start the damn wars. They're just kids following the orders. Now, back in that era, the Vietnam War era, it was a tumultuous time and there was the draft. How did you deal with the draft? I was physically disqualified. I got a four F. I had some things, uh in my duadenal track and uh, some things that were you know, just we're wrong with me.

And when I went down for my physical into Detroit, they took me out of the line. We're all, you know, marching along with our clothes in our hands and our skivvyes on. And it came over to me and they said, uh, we want you to go over to this building um at noon and uh, they all do the you know, finished the examination over there. Well, what had happened part of the examination, as the guy in front of me,

when they when they're taking a blood draw. He lays his arm over the top of this board, and uh, when they hit him, there was blood that just kind of come shooting out and and it just made me sick to my stomach. Man, because I hate needles. I just I would have made a bad drug agg But I got out there and I went to put my arm over the board and that's the last thing I remember. Bam, I was gone. I was out cold. I passed out

from that experience. And I woke up on this cot and uh, you know that they had already taken the blood um when I was out, and they had did you know some of our other examinations, And she the the gal says, well, you need to go over at this building and they'll finish over there. So I went over and talk to some people and they they said, uh, well you're not physically fit. You're not fit for military service. And I'm thinking, well, I guess it's it's my Uh,

I'll stay home and serve with my music. You know, that was my attitude. Okay, what's so special about Michigan and the music? You've certainly been all over the country. Michigan known for hard rock, certain other things, certainly motom music. What is it about Michigan. I believe it is the fact that we had all of these auto factories up here, Bob that drew people like my mother's family from Leech for Arkansas. When she was sixteen years old, she moved

to Flint, Michigan. All of the you know Grandpacott and Uncle Woodie, Uncle Brian and uh, the whole everybody in there. You know cousins came north to get these high paying auto factory jobs. Well, they brought their instruments with them

as well. And every Sunday, either at our house on Davidson Road my mom and dad, or at my aunt Dorothea's house on Normandy Court, there would be a jam session and all of the kid would come and bring the fiddles, banjos, guitars, uh and play music and sing all of these old uh you know it's uh, I guess country roots and some little gospel in there. Um. But the women would sing and it was like, Oh my God. I would just look up as this little kid.

I would never forget thinking these these ladies are actually angels singing because it was so beautiful. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard and uh and my mother could sing so good. In fact, everybody in the family could sing. And it was always a good, you know, good time. And we either had Southern fried chicken with those hockey puck biscuit uh, you know, or Sloppy Joe's. It was one or the other. But the chicken and dumplings, man, that was my favorite because I used to love those

Doughey dumplings. Uh. And and just to everybody taking a break to eat, but then they'd returned back to the instruments and get to play in and it was just

we spent hours every Sunday doing that. So it was not just in our house, but everybody around Flint, and I'm sure around Detroit and Pontiac and all of the satellite cities that had automotive related uh you know, factories and things to a c. Delco Turnsteads Fisher Body and my mother was the first woman in the United States to weld on Sherman tanks at Fisher Body in Flint, Michigan. And my dad was a tank driver in the seventh

Armer Division and returned home with four bronze stars. He was in four major battles and a lot of tank drivers didn't get to see a second one brother. So we were we were very blessed. But I knew a lot of other you know, people that that love to play music. And I think because of the North and South thing. My dad he blew saxophone and play guitar, but he was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. And and just the love that we had, it just it

came out. Uh. And the kids, you know, of those people, myself included, we didn't want to be in the shop. We wanted to do something else. We you know, we saw that they were making good money and providing for the family and had everybody had two cars and a boat and nice house. Uh, but we wanted something else. And so uh, you know, MC five came out, uh, Iggy and the Stooges, the Rationals, Scott Richard, Kay's and Boy Dukes, a lot of these bands. Uh. And we

started hearing the sound that was being generated. And uh so when uh the band that Don and Brewer and I were in broke up. I told Brewer, I said, we need to start a three piece man um just a three piece band and and see what happens. And that's when we heard Mel Shocker at in Bay City. He was playing with question marking the Mysterious and when they took a break and Mel came walking out. We said, hey, man, what are you doing. Would you like to join a

three piece band? And he of course, Mel and I had, like I said, we smoked dope together back when we were kids. Uh. He said, Man, I am so ready to leave this band. This is perfect timing. So Grand Fox started the next week at the Flint Federation of Musicians, the Hall on April Street and Flint, and we started

three piece. You can imagine. I had some guitar, of course, uh, electric guitar, and it's amped that this guy was letting me use this West It was a West Fillmore amp with two fifteen inch speakers, and it sounded so good, especially when I would hit that Jimmy Hendrix fuzz tone and you just really uh. I remember Hank Guyer coming out and saying, you boys, turn that stuff down. We can't even hear the phone's ring in here. But there

was a lot of us. Um you know, Alice Cooper came out of Flip, or not out of Flip, but out of Michigan. Glenn Fry, a lot of there was a lot of bands you know that that just came out because of the North and South. Uh reunion that we had in there, and it was like it was a family there was in the North. You didn't have the discrimination that you had in the South. Um, I had black friends, We hung out together. Uh, it was it was totally different. When you hit the Michigan state line.

It was like, man, there was a bunch of friendly people. And it didn't matter what color you were. It didn't matter what nationality you were. Uh. If you were a working man or working gal, then you were you were part of the family. And and that's uh, I guess that's what were you know, the music we call an assembly line rock and roll just because of the nature where it came from. We are the kids of those who worked those assembly lines. Okay, let's go back to

the beginning. How many kids in the family growing up? What kind of kids were you? Popular, unpopular, troublemaker, not troublemaker, good student, bad students. In my family there was six kids, but my mother lost two sets of twins and three singles. You know. Uh, she was bound and determined to have kids. And when my dad died, I was nine years old, and there were four of us in the family. My stepdad,

Reginald Russell, Fortune with a great guy. He married. My mother was a couple of years after my dad died and she lost a baby with him, and then had to my sister Julie, and my brother Jimmy, God rest Jimmy soul. And we never looked at each other as um, half this or half that, or step children or you know.

I called Reginald his his brother couldn't say Reginald. When they were small, he called him pege, so we called him, uh pege, and I called him Dad because I want him to know that I accepted him as that role in our family. And my brother Ricky is a guitar player, hell of a guitar player. My sisters all sing they all good singers, and uh, they're still sucking air. And you know, except for Jimmy, and he had a stroke and we miss him, and uh and Page he died he had a uh stroke as well, I mean later

in the years and uh and we miss him. But we're still uh sucking Aaron and proud to be family. And you were growing up going to school, go to public school, parochial school, have a lot of friends where you're good or bad. In school. Public school had a lot of friends. And once the music started when I was fifteen years old, was I started playing guitar, it kind of really slid downhill for me because I I thought,

I'm I don't want to do anything but play music. Uh. When I would go out and play music with whoever it was, I would play with these guys. Those guys I had several different groups that I would go out with and we would pass the hat to get enough gas money to get home. That's all we really were concerned about was just getting back home. So we were having a good time. And I didn't realize at the time,

but it was learning in the chops. It was learning to belt out those songs and learning that when I would hit those high notes, hey, you know, get up there. Uh, people really would turn their heads around. So I would visit that more often even, you know, just to get

some heads turning. And uh. When in in school to high school, Um, I went to Cursionally High it was Class B school and uh, there was a Catholic school down the road that it was Holy Rosary and at lunch hour, Um, these Holy Rosary students would come up and finish the day at the high school. They started the morning at Holy Rosary and then they came up and I wasn't playing football at this time because I

had received some injuries. And the doctors told my mother, Mark's not going to be able to play anymore ball. He's not going to be able to run track, so you know, you're gonna have to find something else for him to do. And that's when she got me the guitar lessons. She knew that I loved to hear my name called out on that loud spo that was that was far her number sixty in on the tackle and I mean I would go prance in a cross that field. So anyway, she knew that I needed something that way.

So I blame it on her that I got started on a guitar. And here it is two years later, the Holy Rosary kids are coming in and the football coach, who kind of was pissed at me because when I quit playing ball, so did about half the team. We just hung together. We were friends, and they said, man, if you ain't playing, we ain't playing. You know, we're just hanged together. And so he was kind of pissed

about that. And as the Holy Rosary bus pulls up, he looks over at me and I'm standing with like three of my friends around the radiator, uh, where the heat was coming out. Um, and that's where we hung out during the lunch hour. And uh. He says, Farner, move your boys, and it made me feel like, oh, are you kidding me? These ain't my boys? And I said that to him. I said, I said, Mr, these are not my boys. These these are your students. And

he came over. He grabs me by the shirt and he throws me up against the wall and my head ricochets off this brass picture frame of the superintendent of schools that was there at had had the light on the top. And I reached back and I feel my head because it was man, it was hurt like hell. I reached back and I feel and I will, oh, is that wet? And I bring my hand down and I look and there's blood all over my hand. And at that moment, I was so pissed at this teacher

that I bam. I smacked him right in the eye and down he went. And I had rings on that hand and when I hit his eye like that, it unzipped his eyebrow and the skin fell down over his eye, and he was he stood up and he was throwing haymakers at me, but he couldn't see me because he had skin in his eye. And I was ducking duck, and I was timing it out, and I was gonna nail him again. As as I draw back, like I'm gonna hit him, my friend Derry Speck, God bless him.

He grabs my army, says, Figer, you're in so much trouble already, don't hit him again. Jesus, what's the matter with you? Are you idiot? You know? And he drags me off, and uh. I go back in front of the school board with an attorney to get back in school, and this teacher who had the stitches up in his eyebrow there he's sitting across the table glaring at me, and the school boarders saying trying to decide whether or

not they want to let me back in school. My attorney and my attorney, and he was supposed to have been a friend of the family. But when they mentioned that I had long hair and I was using v O five to you know, plaster it back. Uh, he says, yeah, he does have those long sideburns. To my attorney says this. So I was so pissed. Uh this this teacher who was algebra, algebra teacher and football coach. He says, let me tell you something. If you let this kid back

in school, I quit And so I stand up. I said, I'll make it easy on you, and I walk out because they were not going to fire him. Uh, and they were not going to let him go. And I could see the writing on the wall. And so as I'm walking down the road, this attorney pulls up behind me and then uh, after the traffic went by, he rolls his window, pulls up alongst that he says, get in, Mark, get in. I'll take you home. I said, do you

want to look like that algebra teacher? I said, if I get in that car, I'm gonna punch you into your face. And so he just away he went, and I walked the rest of the way home. I um got into summer school. I started doing nights nights school and it was interfering with my ability to go play music and to make money. And I told my parents, I said, I think you know it's more important that I make money now, and and put it together because

I got a car. I gotta you know, I got things I got and I need the money for in this school, the schooling has taken it away from me. So uh, you know, I would like to quit it with your blessings and and continue in my music. They said, son, you just do what your heart is leading you to do. Yeah. How did you go from there to end up working

with Terry Knight? What were the steps there? Terry Knight was a DJ and he started as C. K l W in Windsor, Ontario, and then he was working at W T A C in Flint, Michigan, A A M Stations and he uh, he wanted to put together a band because he had written some songs. And Don Brewer and uh Kurt Johnson and Al Pippins, Bobby call Well they were all in the pack and and HERM. Jackson got the bass player got drafted and they said, hey,

can you play bass guitar? I said, well, it's got only got four strings and I'm playing a six string now I know, I said, I think I could probably do it. Uh. So I tried out and I made the band because I could sing, I could do all the harmony. Parts and playing bass. It came a little easier for me because I played tuba in the marching band before I got into playing football, so I had that feel, the base kind of feel and uh, and it just worked out for me. Okay, how many years

after you quit school? Was it before you got into Terry Knight in the back? It was two years? And in those two years you were just digging with various bands. What was happening? Yeah, I was playing. I played with Dick Wagner and the Bossman. How'd you know Dick? Well, Dick Wagner. Of course I would go and see them because they were a fabulous band, and they would come and play the Riviera Terrorists in Flint, Michigan, and they would just tear it up. And they were a show band.

They didn't just you know, stand at the microphone and saying they were all over the stage. You were a show band. And I always admired them for, you know, for what they did, especially Dick for having the ability to write all those songs. So uh, he asked me, Dick Wagner asked me if I wanted to to come and join his band and uh and play out with him. And I went wow, and Dad be great man, Are

you kidding me? So? And in fact that my first song that I had ever written, Heartbreaker, came as a result of one night Dick Wagner and I sat up after a gig that we played in northern Michigan. We sat up in his UH studio in Saginaw, and we were playing our electric guitars reel, you know, not plugged in, just and and electric guitars are not very loud if

they're not plugged in. So his wife and kids are in the other room sleeping, and I he showing me some chord inversions and and I said, Dick, can you tell me how do you write all of these songs? He says it comes from within Mark. He says, you got it in you. I said I do. He says yeah, he says you can write songs. He goes to bed. I stay up and I write Heartbreaker. That was my inspiration when Herm was the Herm Jackson, the bass player of Terry Knight in the Pack was drafted. It was.

It was right at at the end of my run with Dick Wagner and the Bossman. And I say the end of it because the keyboard player Warren Keith got an opportunity to play with Hank Williams junior year, and what are you gonna do? You're gonna go play with Hank so um At that time the band kind of split apart and and Dick Wagner formed UM, a different rock band in in Michigan, the Frost with you know, with some great musicians and they are the pack because

of Herman's you know, being drafted. They asked me if I had come and play bass with him, so and I I took to the base. I loved playing and singing, but Don and I both thought that either one of us could have sung better then Terry did. And what he what Terry really had going for him was a lift of gab. He could, he could talk to about anybody,

and he really had a schmoozing personality. So one night after a gig and and Terry wasn't hitting his notes very good, and and Don and I were just kind of, man, why are we doing this? That we were both kind of bummed out because like I said, either one of us could sing better than Terry h and we were seeing this was just feeding his ego and he was he was you know blowing up kind of blowing up from it, and so I said, well, you know, why don't we just have the pack without Terry night Brewer goes,

I'm in it, dude, I am in it. Let's fire that s o b it's up. So we did. We fired him that we're going out as a pack, and we did. We went out as the pack. We went out as the Fabulous Pack. Uh where I was just uh stand up lead singer in the Fabulous Pack. It was this was just before Grand Funk, and we had Kenny Rich, guitar player from Canada Windsor, Ontario. Um played with steel picks on his fingers and he did a

lot of this backpick and stuff. And we had Craig Frost on keyboards, and we had Rod Lester on basse Don on drums, and of course myself stand up singer. And the Delta Promotions who was doing some of our booking for us. They said, there's an opportunity that's opened up here where we could send you guys out to Boston, but you'd have to play these gigs for free, no money, and we would They said, we would handle all of your expenses. We'll make sure that you're fed, and you

know you're not gonna die out there. We'll take care of it, we'll put you up, but you've got to do this stuff for free. And we looked at each other, said, well, what the hell. It'll get us out of Flint, you know. So we go out to East Sandwich, Cape Cod. We get two of these little cabins on the beach. Uh. And this is the first time us Michigan boys had

ever seen an ocean. So we went out and you know, we're picking up all the starfish and picking up all the seashells, and oh man, each one of us had bags of this stuff, and we put them in the crawl space under these little summer cottages that were out there. And then and wouldn't you know it, the worst snowstorm in the history of the world hits the East Coast. Oh my god, in sixty there it's sucked in them this little space heaters that they had. Uh, we're not much.

I wouldn't wouldn't heat the whole house. You had to be right next to it to feel any heat. The pipes had all frozen, the all the starfish and things that we were going to take back to Michigan. Uh. We're frozen in ice down in the crawl space, the pipes being frozen. We didn't have a functioning toilet, brother, Bob, Uh, you know, no tap water, So we would take a pan scoop snow come in and melt it down for

drinking water. For the water that we used to make our oatmeal, which was the only thing we had for the last week we were there. We didn't have any sugar to put on it. We didn't have any milk or you know, anything to put in that oatmeal, just oatmeal. Uh. And and then happened to melt down the water, uh, you know, the snow to make the water to wash the dishes. And I mean it was really a pain, even to the point of you know, each one of us. Once in a while we got to do a number two, right.

So we had these this old kitchen chair that didn't have a seat in it, uh, and that was our little potty. We would put a paper bag underneath that with the plastic in the bottom of it and do our thing, roll that paper bag up and go out and bury it in a snow. Bang. That was it, dude. And thank God for the The store at East Sandwich, Massachusetts, We didn't have any money to buy anything. But the guy would give us paper bags. He would give us a little stack of paper bags, and that got us through.

And Don's mother we end up uh using the guy's phone up there. When it finally got to where it was working, the phones were down. I mean, there was no communication. And we were there for got ten days. You know. It was just horrible. Uh. But but Don called his mother and she Western Unions the money too for us to go rent this van. She was a school teacher in Swarts Creek, Michigan, and she Western Union the money to us, and Don you know, told her we al pay her back and everything. So we got

the van. We rented. This is before the credit cards, man, this was cash. So we rented. We put all of our equipment in the van, came back to Michigan. We drive up the Bay City because we want to give Key a piece of our mind. We found out that we were getting paid for those gigs three fifty dollars a night, and back then that was not bad pay

for you know, garage band three piece. Uh. But anyways, Uh, we were in the outer offices and that's when uh, we had already determined we were going to do a three piece thing, and we're going to go in and tell this guy Keyhole, uh that we knew we got paid and we want our money, you know. But during that waiting time in the out in that waiting room there, that's when we heard the base coming through the wall.

I didn't know it was Mel. I didn't know what was question Mark and the Mysterions in that room playing. But when they took their break and mel walked out, it was like, wow, oh Melvin, you know. Uh. I told him what we were up to and he was very much into it, and uh and the rest is history. Okay, how long until Terry Knight becomes your manager? Why does he become your manager? And what happens before you get to Atlanta? When he starts promoting how successful you are?

Don Brewer had kept in touch with Terry Knight, and Don Brewer came to the band and then he confesses, well, I've been staying in touch with Terry, and he says he could do us some good because he's got an apartment in New York City. He's made some friends there, he's got some connections, and I think we should let him manage us. He wants to manage us. And I thought for a minute, I said, he's gonna screw us Brewer. He says, yeah, but it will at least we'll get

out of Flint, the Sable sable, you know. And I said, well, let's hear what he's got to say. Anyways, And so he came to Flint. He flew in. We we played him some of the music that we were you know, I was writing, we were putting together. And he says, oh, this is great stuff. He says, uh, if you got a name yet, We went no, you know, we've just been playing for you know, two three weeks here. We don't have a name yet. But he says, well, why don't you name your band? Oh the name of my

song Grand Funk Railroad. And I thought, well, because the Grand Trunk and Western is an actual railway system that runs between Canada, you know, Ontario, Michigan and Ohio. Uh, that that would be a great play off of a very familiar name for US Michiganders and the people that are familiar with the railway system. So we adopted that name.

And uh. The the attorneys for Terry in New York City, Bell Doc and Kushnik Um, we're doing the legal work for the Atlanta Pop Festival, which was on the fourth of July. It was actually uh, I think it was the third, fourth and fifth of July. And they worked to deal with the promoters that we're doing uh putting that on so that we could play because we are Terry's band, that we could open that festival and we would play for free and on all three days of

the festival. So when we left Flint, Michigan, how long had the band been together before this happened, Oh, a couple of months, and he played any gigs around town, no play, no gigs. We did play the Hamburg County Fair in New York up by Buffalo. That was actually our first gig as a Grand Park Railroad and it was in a tent and the people really loved it. But it was, you know, all these music that was on the first album. So on our way down to Atlanta,

the guy a jeep holland God Rest his soul. He loaned his van, he had a window Vanish Chevy window van and his driver, Jimmy, he loaned to the band and we rented a U haul trailer and put all of our equipment in the back and we headed to Atlanta. And when we went through Toledo, and we were on the other side of Toledo. Um, this was before I seventy was finished. There was a lot of back roads that you had to take, a lot of detours that

you had to take and get around. And we were on one of those and it was just breaking daylight and I was riding shotgun and I opened my eyes and I see this sign coming at us. I se and the arrows going to the right, and I know that Jimmy's going way too fast. He ain't even seen this sign. So I said, Jimmy, I seventy five goes to the right, and he just jerks that wheel. I guess he forgot he had a trailer on the back.

And the trailer rolls down through the dish. The safety change snap and it's we were lucky that it didn't flip the van over and you know, hurt us. But we take all the equipment out of the van or out of the trailer, and all the guys got on the other side. We flipped this two wheel trailer back over on its tires. We loaded back up with what we can you know, see visibly is our equipment is

all broken up. The some of the chassiss of the amplifiers, the transformers had ripped completely off the aluminum chassis, and the wires were busted and cut and and we just said, well to fix it when we get there. So we throw everything in the trailer because we're running a little behind. Now, we go down. As we're going down the expressway, this tire passes up and I look back. I looked back and there has sparked flying out from underneath the trailer.

I said, that's our tire. Then it goes bound, singing across the expressway, uh over the northbound traffic and just about hits the semi. If it wasn't if he wasn't been paying attention, it would have went right through his windshield. But it narrowly misses him and goes out into this field. We run down there and retrieve that tire. We take two lug bolts off the other side of the trailer.

We put it back together. The tires doing this. Bob, Yeah, it's doing this, But we're only doing like twenty or fifteen miles at the most, and going right down the shoulder of the expressway. Well, luck would have it there was a U haul trailer place at that first exit. So we make the exchange of the trailer and we get back on the road and we are hauling the ass and we get to Atlanta just just a little bit before we're supposed to get on open that trailer,

and here's all this equipment that's all messed up. The speaker cabinets were still in one piece, but the amps were all just like I said that, the transformers ripped from the chassis. And these guys, we had two roadias that were with us, and they're standing there like going, what the hell are we gonna do? And so all these other road eas from ten years after, uh, from you know, the ten wheel drive, a lot of the road eas I mean they're just hey, man, let's put

it together. You guys got to get on stage. So you wouldn't believe the workbeat that happened in the last like fifteen minutes. They were soldering wires back together. They sat the transformers up on top of the heads. Uh it was you know, there was a big hole where it used to go, so they put them up on top of the heads and they've got our stuff up there and it worked. They just you know, color matched

the wires and it worked. Uh. And before taking the stage, you only the idea of you know, the enormity of this crowd was. We were looking out between the cracks and the fence and you could see the first few rows. You could see that it was they were having fun and it was wide. I kept, I kept. I looked down one side, I looked down the other way. Wow, is this a big crowd. But I didn't realize until we walked up and we were fifteen ft above this

crowd's head. And I looked at it was the ocean of people, an ocean right out to pass the front of house, way out to the horizon. It was like just people everywhere. A hundred and eighty five thousand people, I believe is the figure. And Uh, I looked over at the at my guitar tech and I said, dude, you wouldn't believe how bad I got a piss he said, He says, put this thing on, man, you got work to do it. So we went out. We gave him

our first album. We gave him all that music, and UH did for an encore because they kept calling us back, you know, they more and more so the promoter says, you got another one. We said, yeah, we got one more. So we go back and we give him Land of a Thousand Dances Wilson picket style. And during the song, I take my guitar off and throw it over to the tech and I've got this Paisley print shirt that I paid fifty bucks for that shirt back then. You know, a hell of a lot of money. But it's sticking

to me. It's a see through Paisley print shirt, and it's it's just got me constrained here, you know. So I said, you know what, this this audience deserves this, and I go I ripped the shirt off, and those people jumped to their feet, are going yeah. I was like, oh man, this party type and I go to dancing, and uh, I knew that that really worked. Taking the

shirt off really worked. And so from that point on, uh, I would go with just a vest on and to take that vest off, like the second song, it was gone, you know, And that started. Uh. We opened at twelve noon the first day. The second day they put us on at seven pm, and the last night of the festival they had us on eleven o'clock with full lights. We had and they loved us. The people absolutely loved us, and uh that was a blessing from God. Man, I'm

telling you, yeh okay. You know, I was in the New York radio market, and what I remember is these radio ads about all these people thrilled in Atlanta, which begs the question, I gotta believe that's Terry Knight. Would you have made it without his intense promotion? I don't think so. I mean it was Terry Knight that had that gift of gam None of the band did, and those attorney sure didn't. Uh. It was all that height and uh, his ability two convince people that we were

going to be big, we were going to do it. Okay, So how did you cut the first record? And how did he end up being the producer? Well, we didn't know any better. We didn't know any producers. We didn't know that your manager didn't produce your records. We were twenty years old about Mel was nineteen. Don and I were twenty Mel was nineteen, and when we got the you know, I got the idea, well we better put

this all this together in a record. Terry Uh knew this gal who worked at a bank, and she was like, uh, you know a big to do UM and and he could get him the money that he needed to record us. So we had her come to one of the engagements that we played UM in Ohio and Uh, she saw the band and she decided to finance the recording, and

of course he paid her back. And she she had always come to the gigs whenever we were close enough, and we've we always had a great relationship with her because of her believing in US and and Terry getting her to make that investment. And we recorded at Cleveland Recording. Don Hammond down there had beautiful uh array. He had every microphone known to man, and his whole thing. Don's was don't eat Q the mix on the board. Don't

eat that. We'll get the microphone that that closely fits it to where we don't have to use the e Q. And that cut a lot of the noise floor out. Uh. And when you got ears like Don Hammond had, oh my god. Uh. He was very critical. He could he could pick this stuff up. And Terry, uh, you know, he produced, he he mixed it, he pushed the faders up in the but Don was responsible more for the tone of everything. And uh, and that's where we recorded on an eight track. Scully, buddy, how did you get

the deal with Capital? It was after the Atlanta Pop Festival. The there was a few Capital representatives there, you know, with the various bands that were on Capitol and uh, and Terry came back after the third night. He said, well, you guys, we got some interest. Capitol Records is really interested in you guys. I think I got a deal going. Well, what he did was he made a production deal with Capitol Records and signed us to his uh good Night Productions,

his company. He told us that the six percent that we were splitting was more than the Beatles, Scott, so the two percent I got, two percent, Don got, two percent, Mel got was more than the Beatles got. We didn't know. We're twenty year old kids. Uh. We said, wow, that's cool. But we didn't realize that it was a production deal or we you know, we didn't know anything about that. We thought we were actually signed, uh you know, somehow

to the company. But that's what caused really, Um. The breakup between Terry and Knight and us was it was three years because they had this contract. Terry Knight had us for three years exclusively and Uh, at the end of that three years. We were in New York City. We had just returned from Europe. We did uh Shafe Stadium that summer. Uh you know, it was a big year for us. And they said, you guys are in uh in trouble with the I R S. We go, what are you talking about? In trouble? We made all

kinds of Yeah, you made too much money. You you owe over four hundred thousand dollars to the Infernal Revenue Service. And I go, what how did this happen? I mean, who's watching our books? Who's doing us? And he said, well, you know, just as the price you pay when you're big. And he says, but this is the attorney speaking. We will loan you that money if you will resign another three year contract with Terry Knight. And I looked at Don and Melt. I said, look, that's a big decision.

We aren't just gonna make that kind of decision just standing here off the cuff. They said, okay, you guys stay in here. We'll go in the other room. You talk it over. So they left. They scurried out of there. I said, this is bullshit, you guys. I walk over. I sat down at Bell docks death in his chair. I kicked my feet up on his desk and I said, you guys, something in the milk ain't cream. This feels real bad to me. This feels so bad. It's like

we've been we have been screwed here. And as I said that, I sat up and my foot dragged down off the top of the desk and opened that first big drawer, that's the long shallow drawer. And here's a copy of the contract between good Night Productions and Capitol Records for six Bob. So I tell Don and Melt I said, you guys, you're not gonna believe this. Come over here, look at that. And Brewer says, that son of a bitch, because here, you know, we're splitting, two

said each and then him taking a management commission. He took my publishing. I mean it was twenty years old. My mom had designed a contract. So Terry and I takes my publishing, takes uh, you know, an enormous amount of money. Uh. And then and then takes a management commission from the pittance that the band was splitting. And we just we were boiling at that point, and I said, well, we're just gonna tell him we can't make up our mind. We need a week or so to think about this.

And so when they came back in, well, I had shut the desk drawer, of course, uh, and I went way across the room so it wouldn't look like I was sitting in anybody's chair. And when they came back in, well, what do you what do you guys think? Said, we need a week or two to think about this. This is just just as just mind boggling how this could happen. And I came off as I was piste off. So okay, okay, okay,

we'll let you We'll let you think about that. So then we we left, and uh we got a hold of Eastman and Eastman and John Eastman of course his sister Linda Well married Paul McCartney and he was a big name in in the in the city. And uh we said, you know, we want to we want to get out of this. And it went to court and

we settled out of court. But Terry always told everybody, well, if those guys you know, would have waited to the end of the contract, and then he made up some kind of bullshit, uh, but tried to push the blame of the breaking up between him and the band upon the band. Uh when really that's uh, you know, when you find out some information like that, you don't want to ever see this guy again. And uh, and we didn't at this late date. Who owns the songs? Do

you still get paid royalties? What's going on? Terry Night owned the publishing Storybook music. And as you know, the publishing is fift of the pie. The songwriter takes fifty, the publisher takes fifty. But I should have been the publisher on all of my songs because I was the one out singing them, promoting them. I wasn't shopping them to other artists to have them uh consider doing my song where. You know, a publisher would have earned his keep if he would get a song covered by a

big artist or something. But I was the artist. So anyway, I didn't find this out until later about publishing and about you know how bad I got screwed. Uh. But the when we broke up Eastman, the breakup between Terry and Knight and and the Grand Funk, Eastman had the wherewithal to think, you know, we're gonna have to have your record royalties paid directly to each one of you guys. That way, there's gonna be no hanky panky, and uh, you know Terry Knight's not going to have anything to

do with it. We get him completely out of the picture. So to this day we still get paid the record royalties for record sales and now streaming directly from Capital or I forget what the name of the corporation is that has Capitals Old Recordings, but it's still paid that way. I get my songwriters, I get my b M I uh because I ran all my stuff through UH Broadcast Music UM, but Terry Knight's state gets all the publish things. There were sixteen points in the deal, and each band

member was getting to subsequent to your hiring Eastman. How many did you guys end up with? Well, I don't know what that was. I I don't know what the final number was. I just was trusting Eastman to get

us the best deal. I do know that we renegotiated and David Fishoff, who does rock and roll Fantasy camp manage Grand Funk for one year on our reunion and six and we did the Bosnia album and uh we put a wing on the hospital in Sarajevour Children's Hospital, UH and David negotiated our rate up because no one had ever uh, you know, bargained up for the CDs and all the digital stuff that you know, we were

evolving into into the music industry. All we had back then we're records and tapes, cassette tapes or eight tracks, you know when when we first did our deal. So we did get an update, uh, an upgrade in royalties then, but I can't even tell you what that is. I would just let's look at it a different way. Do you have to work to pay the bills? Or does enough money come in? No? No, I gotta work. I have to work since Squam Funk broke up, has it

been financially good or has it been a struggle. It's not a struggle because I love to play and as long as I can play, I can pay. Okay, let's go back. The first album comes out, Rolling Stone gives it a terrible review, and certainly for the first couple of albums, reviews are not positive. How do you feel about that? How did you feel about it? Then? That's what I'm asking. We always thought, what show did they go see? They didn't come and see a grand function.

They're not giving um a report of of how popular we are with the fans. They're just shipping on us because part of Terry Knight's whole scheme was to keep us from the press and create a mystique. And that was what he gave you. That was his story he gave us. So while we are not doing interviews, uh, Terry Knight has taken that opportunity to tout his managerical uh, you know, his talents and uh. And then when Billy Billboard and cash Box came out, uh in nineteen I

think it was one the centerfold. Is Terry Knight doing this, given the finger to the world and he says and to all a good night, k and I g h d you know, and he had the ship eating grin on his face. UM. And that that is we paid for that attitude, Grand Funk. The guys in the band paid for that attitude that Terry had, and that he left a bad taste in uh, in the mouth in the mouths of the press and those people that wanted to do the interviews with us because he wouldn't let

it happen. And when we you know, to this day, I believe that is part of why uh, you know, we got all the bad rap. So ultimately Terry Knights out of the picture. You end up working with Todd Rundgren. How does that happen? We drew names out of a hat, buddy, And I'm serious. There was a Rundgren was one of them because Lynn Goldsmith, are publicist, knew him very well, had worked with him, and she said, uh, man, he'd be great if he's if that's who you pull out

of the hat. And there was up several other people that we put in the hat. You know, there's probably eight names. And I reached in and I pull out Todd Rundgren and that's it. And that's how Frank Zappa got h pulled two and we had names in a hat. Pulled the name Frank Zappa. Okay, let's let's ask them see if they'll do it. Uh. Todd was very willing to come out h and to Michigan and hear us and to work with us and see where we were recording and see if he could get it done there.

And in fact, when Todd was producing, I lived across from the studio, which we lovingly called the swamp. We had to dig up pond there in order to get a perk test to put the building down and have a you know, septic system. Uh. But you couldn't see the farmhouse from the swamp because of the woods that we had to go through. And the driveway was kind of like an s and it's dirt, and where I lived on a dirt road, Partialville Road. And I went home for the for lunch to the farmhouse, and on

my way back, it was a beautiful day. The sun was out, the birds were chirping and singing, and I could hear the guys in the parking lot at the studio. I could, you know, hear their conversation a little bit. I could hear them talking. So I start saying, everybody's

dude in a brand who dance now? And then guys start singing the backgrounds from the parking lot, and and Rundgren comes walking out as I come around the corner, and now I can see the band and the crew and they're singing and I'm still singing, and we're singing the locomotion. Rundgren comes walking out of the studio. He said, what the hell is that? I said, what is that? What are you talking about? That's little Eva, that's the locomotion. He says, well, you guys get in here right now

because we're recording the Locomotion. We went in, he pushed the button, we went in, and he came out to record with us. That's him singing all that high false settle part in Locomotion. We turned it into a party and when the guitar solo uh starts, he walks over to my rig Bob, and he grabbed the head on the eco plex and slid it from one end to the other and he go im gonna do that. It sounded like the car guitar was eating itself and people loved it. Man, that was a big hit for us,

Number one. Okay, let's go back. I've talked to Todd, and Todd said when he was called that you had new management and were an American band. Was already written the song and he came in and cut it right away, and then it became a hit and then cut the

album after. What's your memory of all that? Yeah? He Well, he was the first producer that we felt confident that he could make the records sound like we did on stage, that he could actually put the energy that the band was putting out and the and the sound, you know, the tone uh, which we never thought. Terry Knight did a very good job of replicating what we sounded like on stage on the records, as successful as they may have been. But but Todd had the magic. He had

the musical genius. Uh. Easy for him. And one of is a musical genius. It's it is easy that they don't have to work at it. And I recall doing American Band. We we we did it. We cut it at the Step in the Swamp, but then we did the vocals at Criteria in Miami. And when we finished American Band, which, by the way, I said to Brewer, man, this song it needs a cow bell in the worst way. He says, I don't have a cow bell. I said, we need to get one. Dude, I'm telling you, I'm

hearing cow bell on this. He says, all right, all right, all right, I'll pick one up on a way to rehearsal tomorrow. I said, no, man, pick up six and we'll pick the best one that matches this the chord that we're playing this song. So he did that, and and I taught him the drum intro that is my I heard that in my head and I said, this is what I'm hearing for an intro, and then we come in and he goes, man, I can't believe well. I kept encouraging him, and the nicest way that he could.

I said, you know who you are. You're Don Brewer, dude. You could do this ship no problem. So we get it down, we rehearse it. We get this thing down and go to rehearse or go to Miami to record. And when we have done with the song, Don, it was at night. Don comes to me and he says, Mark, I've never had a songwriter credit on any song. Would you mind if I take it on this song? I said, go ahead. Even though I wrote the music. He didn't

write those chord changes. I wrote those chord changes. I did the background vocal arrangement, and the Kyle Bell and the drum intro I did. I had a lot to do with that song. That's why he came to me and asked me. Because any other song prior to that that we had co written together, he did the lyrics. I did the music, and that's how we worked. I didn't try to interfere or you know, change the lyrics that he was writing. Whatever his ideas were, I wanted

him to you know finish that. So he's not the songwriter of that song. And anybody that would ask him to go ahead and play it on whichever instrument he wrote it on that they would soon find out. Uh, but nevertheless, I have that's part of my lessons, That's part of my life lesson and uh, I don't regret it, because regret is debt, it's dead consciousness. Okay, you make two albums with Todd and then you work with Jimmy Ironer. How do you end up working with Jimmy and you

have some success there? With Jimmy Einer was pulled from a hat and we knew with the raspberries that he had, you know, had some great sounds, especially vocals. He had a way with vocals man, and uh so we just working with him. He was every time I come into control room, Jimmy had this smile that was like looking at the moon. I mean, you know, it lit up the room and and he just loved what he was doing. And we worked at the record plant and did in a bad time to be in love there. Oh my god,

he did the vocals. I just couldn't believe how it was coming out. And uh, he would have people from the record plant come up, some of the engineers that were downstairs, and the owner, he had her come up and and there he's wanting me to keep singing this song over and over over again. Uh you know that intro, I'm in love with you, and uh he just loved

that part. And uh, I'm glad that we did it with him because that and some kind of Wonderful are probably the best vocally arranged and the vocal presence, uh, those two songs of the whole catalog, Grandfat Catalog. So ultimately, from an outside view, you have an awaking and you become very Christian. Was that something that people didn't know about or was there some significant turning point in your life? Actually, when my dad died, you know, when I was nine

years old, I walked into the living room. My dad had just purchased our first television set. Prior to the TV, we used to listen to the radio. We had a big wooden radio, you know, like a twelve inch speaker, and would listen to the Lone Ranger and Flash Gordon and Creaking Door all this stuff, and and all the cousins would be around the speaker and we'd be eaten.

You know, popcorn in these grocery bags, big huge bags full of popcorn, and they're grease soaked from the butter, you know, and and we're just our imaginations are going like crazy listening to Flash Gordon and the Lone Ranger and all this. Uh So, when we got the TV, my dad was very proud that he could get that for us. Uh and then he died like a week later. So I walk in out of the dining room where my mother and my aunts and uncles, Grandma and grandpa. Uh,

they were all just crying. They were they were sobbing, and it was just a lot of voices that were hurting, hurting. And I walked into the living room where the TV was on, kind of faint, and I looked over and Billy Graham was doing a crusade in Flint, Michigan. He was at Shasta or Shake. He was at the stadium. What the heck his name of the Yankee Stadium? No, no, no, no, no. This was in Flint, Michigan. God, actually what was it

Silver Dome? Anyways, he was there and that it was packed and as he's talented, you know, I'd walking in and he's telling the people if you need a touch from God, if you are hurting, if there's pain in your life. And I'm I'm going damn, he's talking to me. You know. I walked up to the TV and he says, I want you to pray with me. And I'm looking right into his eyes. He says, put your hand on the television set. I reach up and I put my hand on a television set and I received Jesus Christ

as my savior. I confess it with my mouth. I'm nine years old. I've been to church a few times, but you know, on Easter with my great grandmother, you know, or some other special holiday. It wasn't every week, every you know, Wednesday, Sunday thing. It was just every once in a while. But what I prayed, I felt a piece come over me, an actual you know, nine years old, I can still remember that piece and it's that pieces part of who I am now. But I went on.

You know, I was a big star in Grand Funk Railroad. Uh, you know, rock and roll icon what have you. And when I married Lisa, Uh, she's the love of my life and to let's be two. So four years into our marriage, we have two of the three boys that we had together. But Jason and Joseph we're at the house. I come home from the studio and there was a note, uh that she's she's left, She's gone, she's leaving me boom. And the kids were over at my sister in law's.

So I went over and I tried to play like, you know, oh, she she'll be coming back anytime, blah blah blah. Well after that, after the first few days, man, I started going to church. I'm looking for God. I walk into this one. The first church I go into. It's like hell fire and brimstone and all this bullshit, and I went, I did, Nah, he got ain't here.

And I walk out. You know, I walk in and part of my test, Bob was I put on my Hawaiian shirt, faded blue jeans with holes in the knees, and my sneakers, and I got a headband on and my long hair hanging down. I'm kind of hippified. I said, you know, part of it is if they can get past this, I might listen to them, you know. And that was part of the test for me. And then I got into this other, one of the other church I went. I went to one on Wednesday. I went

to one on Friday. I went to one on Sunday. I'm looking for God, And finally I got into this little church where no but he knew who I was. Uh. These old ladies, I mean older ladies, uh came up to me. Hello, Sun, how are you doing, Welcome to the church, and blah blah, and they're hugging me, and I felt like, are these people for real? Wow, this

is really kind of what I need, you know. Then the pastor gets up there, Pastor Exley, he was uh eighty four years old, preaching on the institution of marriage according to God's work, How people walk out the front door of the church and they leave the commitment that

they've made, this holy matrimony. They leave it behind when they walk out the front door of the church and they just off, you know, doing their life, and they and the the Testament and and uh, what brought him together in the first place, and to that point gets left in the church and that's why marriages fall apart. And it was, man, it was like this guy had a gun and he and he was shooting me with this gun. He had no blanks in that gun. And

it's like I'm thinking, he singled me out. He knows I got trouble, and he gives an altar call and I go up there. I scurried up there, and I said, I told him the story. I said, my wife left me. I said, I I gave my life to Jesus back when I was nine. But uh, you know, I've been involved in all this worldly stuff. I'm not really you know, a churchgoer or anything. I said, but man, I want my wife back. He said, Uh, well, I understand it, you know, Sonny. I said, well, can you pray with

me to get her back? He says, I'll tell you what I'll do, son you pray and I'll agree. So I prayed. I said, God, I want my wife back. I want her back. I I want to have my life with her. I want to have the mother of my children. And I'm crying, you know, and I just just like I just said, and he agreed. He said, I agree on touching that prayer in Jesus name. And I found out my wife gave her life to Jesus that same day, fifty miles away in another city, Ah

that morning. And AH. So we got back together two two days, baby three at the most, and we've been solely sold out to each other. And uh, and we have allowed that love to be real and to hold onto it and to um, I esteem my wife to be equal with myself Bob Um. How could you love somebody with everything you are? And I believe this is what we have to do, is man, that we have to give all of ourselves to that relationship, reckless, abandoned. Uh. You've got to give yourself to love and then it'll

come back to you. And and that's the way we've played it. And for fort or four years now it's working. Okay, So family is the most important thing. But Grand Funk rail Road, what do we know? The song still stay alive. In the beginning, you said, well, you would like to get together with the other two for the fans. Yeah, But how do you feel about the legacy of Grand

Funk Railroad? Do you think you've gotten to do? You know, there's always the question of the rock and roll Hall of Fame, whether that's an institution that has any gravitas or not. But how do you feel about it all these years later? Well? I feel like, uh, in the hearts of the true fans, they know who I am because I wrote that music and my songs are I am who my songs say I am. They are a testimony to my life, to my belief, to my love, to my convictions. And I can leave this world knowing

that and pretty pretty happy. Guy. I would love to have that band entertain the fans the truth Grand Funk fans, just from that point of view. I was sharing earlier Bob about me being a Beatle fan, and I wanted to see, you know, the four dudes up there. I wanted to see them. I wanted to feel that magic. I wanted to be there. And I think that there's a lot of fans that would still really like to see the original three guys get up there and do it.

But it's my feelings are not shared. So um, the way it stands is, I just have to keep telling myself and reassuring myself that at least my willingness and my uh trying, you know, my efforts to put the band back together for the sake of the fans, it's good enough. It's good enough for me. That has to be. I'm not gonna let it become a burden to me because that would put me in debt. Brother, Okay, but meanwhile, you're working and you work with your band, you also

work solo acoustic. Uh so how do you decide which show to do and how often do you work? I do them all, anything that comes along, as long as I and pay my guys and pay my air affairs. Oh, I do them all. I love to perform. I love it when people call my name out. I love it when my name was called out on that loud speaker and I was prancing across that football field. I love it when people holler out from the crowd, we love you, Mark, We love you Mark. I love you Mark, Thank you Mark.

It's so gratifying. Two. I wish people could know this. I wish every person could know how it feels to truly be a brother. Too many people but a being. On that note, we're gonna leave it at that. You know, Mark, it's really it's just fascinating. You know, I've seen the band, and to talk to you gives me a lot of insight that I didn't have, And I think my listeners will feel the same way. And there are a lot

of people who love you and love your music. You know, it's funny because certainly weren't American being phenomenal track and closer to home. You know, I'm your captain, but when I hear some kind of wonderful, you know, come out of the speakers, it just does something for me that I pull it up, you know on the streaming service. You know, it's just got that exuberance and you know that lives on you after fifty years of bullshit. You hear that and you go, wow, thank you. I appreciate

those words, my friend. I appreciate that encouragement. Until next time. This is Bob Left Sex