Post by HARD ROCK UNIVERSE on Jan 19, 2007 7:40:51 GMT -5
Don Brewer Of Grand Funk Railroad
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During the early to mid-1970's, there was arguably no hard rock band more popular than Grand Funk Railroad. Certainly not any American band. Although critically reviled, the band, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Mark Farner, bassist Mel Schacher and drummer Don Brewer (or simply Mark, Don & Mel, as they were known to fans) went on to sell over 25 million albums. Their first 11 records either went platinum or gold, and they sold out Shea Stadium's 55,000 plus seats in less than 72 hours in 1971 -- faster than even The Beatles, and it's a record which still stands to this day. Pretty impressive for three boys from Flint, Michigan! While their working class heavy rock seemed to repulse critics of the day, a fact which seems to thus far have kept them out of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, we as fans know differently. These guys kicked ass. Take a listen to the band's frenetic workout on The Animals' "Inside Looking Out," the epic "I'm Your Captain/Closer To Home," or their ultimate anthem, "We're An American Band", and you'll see that at their best they were equal to anything which was being put out at the time. Providing the backbeat and also supplying the band with their first #1 single in the afore-mentioned "American Band" was and still is drummer Don Brewer, who in addition to singing the song, also composed this timeless classic as well.
After their long string of hits ceased in the mid-'70's, following the release of the Frank Zappa produced 'Good Singin', Good Playin,' the band split up, reforming again first in 1981 for an album on Warner Brothers' Full Moon label, 'Grand Funk Lives;' which, despite having a track, "Queen Bee," on the 'Heavy Metal' film and soundtrack, failed to regain the commercial heights of their earlier albums. After a further recording 'What's Funk?' in 1983, they disbanded once again until 1997's 'Bosnia' benefit live CD, and after an extemely successful tour in support, vocalist Farner left the band once again to resume a solo career. Not to be deterred, Brewer and Schacher recruited former Kiss lead guitarist Bruce Kulick as a replacement, and along with ex .38 Special vocalist Max Carl and keyboardist Timothy Cashion, the band continues today, building a new audience while still attracting long time fans.
Recently I had the opportunity to catch up with Don Brewer while he was stuck in Detroit traffic during a break in his tour schedule where he's currently playing with Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, on the eve of a string of dates in the Detroit area. Where we discussed not only the tour with Bob, but the past present and future of Grand Funk, a future that as of this writing shows no sign of stopping anytime in the foreseeable future.
Special thanks go to Anne Leighton @ Leighton Media and Billy James @ Glass Onyon PR for coordinating, and a BIG thanks to Don for doing this interview for Rock N Roll Universe!
Interview and text by Nightwatcher for Rock N Roll Universe
January 07, 2007
Rock N Roll Universe : Don, first of all we'd like to thank you for taking the time out to talk with us, it's truly a pleasure...
Don Brewer : Great, thank you, it's a pleasure as well.
RNRU : Right now you're on tour with Bob Seger, as part of The Silver Bullet Band. How's the tour going so far?
DB : It's been a really great experience to play with Bob. I played with him in the '80's, a couple of tours, and to be this old and to be out here doing this kind of a tour again brings back a lot of memories. His fans are great. He sells out almost every night, big huge arenas. It's a great tour. Great band, great music, it's a lot of fun.
RNRU : A couple of months back with Bob, you were on the David Letterman Show. What was that like for you? I know you've done a lot of TV appearances during the years with Grand Funk... Do you still get a thrill knowing you'll be performing in front of millions of people?
DB : Yes, I was on Letterman and The View. Letterman was fun, because I got to talk with Paul Shaffer, who had done some work with Grand Funk during the '90's. We worked on the 'Bosnia' project together. It was fun to talk to Paul for awhile. It's always great to see the Letterman show, to be in the studio and see how it's actually done. I still get a thrill every night before I play, whether it's Seger or Grand Funk. I always get butterflies in my stomach. That's part of the reason you do it, to see if you can. (Laughs)
RNRU : Also with you in The Silver Bullet Band, you have former Grand Funk keyboardist Craig Frost. Do you get a chance during Bob's show to play a couple of Grand Funk songs?
DB : No, we don't do any. (Laughs)
RNRU : Let's go back almost to the beginning of the career of Grand Funk if you don't mind. Grand Funk appeared, for free, with no record contract, at the 1969 Atlanta International Pop Festival, in front of 140,000 people, on a bill which also included Janis Joplin, Spirit, Johnny Winter, CCR and Chicago, among others, which led to the band being signed to Capitol Records soon afterwards. What was that experience like for you, playing in front of that many people for the first time?
DB : Well, it was really kind of a fluke that we got on the bill. It was a favor to a friend of ours to get us on the show. We had to rent a trailer, and borrow a truck to get down to the Atlanta Pop Festival, to walk on, opening day, opening act... we were the very first act to play. We really didn't expect anything, then all of a sudden, the crowd gave us a standing ovation. There, Grand Funk was born. We weren't really being taken seriously in Michigan. We were The Pack prior to being Grand Funk, then we changed our name, so people weren't really taking us seriously there. Then to go to another state, play at a pop festival who had never heard of Grand Funk Railroad before, and to get a standing ovation, it was a shock. That's really what got the word of mouth going to get us on Capitol. Then to bring us back actually for the next two days... we were only supposed to play that opening day, but we got such a great reception that they put us on the next two days as well.
RNRU : Did you get a chance to check out any of the other bands that were playing at the festival?
DB : We stayed around for awhile, for most of the day, and we saw a lot of the bands who came on after us. I remember sticking around to see Johnny Winter, who was one of the headliners. That was really a treat to see him. Edgar wasn't with him at that time, it was just Johnny and his three piece band. We'd never seen an albino who played the blues, it was pretty incredible.
RNRU : Grand Funk throughout those years received some of the worst critical reviews of any major band at that time. The only other band I can think of which approached that level was Uriah Heep, who were similarly slammed by critics. Yet, despite that fact, you went on to sell over 25 million albums worldwide, with your first 11 albums either going gold or platinum. Why do you feel the critics were so merciless in attacking the band, and how did that make you feel?
DB : Part of the reason was that we were being touted by our manager, Terry Knight, as a manufactured act, and Rolling Stone Magazine didn't really dig that kind of thing. It was untrue, but that's what Terry wanted people to believe, so that's what he was putting out there. So they got a distaste for the band because of Terry Knight, really. He had a standing run in with all of the critics, and he believed there was no such thing as bad publicity. So if he could get bad publicity that was good, it didn't matter. He'd tick people off, then the critics took sides. It wasn't until we did 'We're An American Band,' that kind of stuff, that the critics really came around to our way. It was really unfair, but we dealt with it, and went on. The audience knew what was good.
RNRU : Did you feel any sort of vindication when you sold millions of records even while journalists were bent on slamming the band?
DB : It would really hurt. We'd go in and play a really great show, what we thought was a great show, and then they'd slam us as though they hadn't even been there. As though they didn't care that the audience liked the band. I just thought it was unfair.
RNRU : Do you feel at all that due to the negative critical response to the band, that the members of Grand Funk never perhaps got the respect as musicians that they deserved?
DB : Well, to some degree. I think we were slammed by the critics, and a lot of people thought that we weren't great musicians, but I think that the music has stood the test of time. Hey, I'm going on sixty years old, and I'm out playing with Bob Seger on a great, huge tour. There's got to be a reason for that.
RNRU : What big factor do you feel made Grand Funk such a huge success? Was it the fact that you were in fact an American band, at a time when most of the heavy groups, such as Zeppelin, Sabbath, Purple etc. were English?
DB : I don't know if it had anything to do with that. I mean, I do think that people related to this band as kind of the garage band down the street that made it. We kind of felt and looked like small town America. I think a lot of people picked up on that. The Mark, Don & Mel thing, referring to us by our first names... we were really kind of not like a lot of the other bands with these big, huge egos. I think people picked up on that.
RNRU : You just mentioned him before, and the history of Grand Funk wouldn't be complete without mentioning the late Terry Knight. The band and Terry had a very well publicized falling out after you split from him as your manager, and obviously with him suing the band there was a lot of bad blood there. That being said, though, do you think that the band would've succeeded like you did without his involvement?
DB : No, I think that Terry played a huge part in getting Grand Funk going. I don't know if we would've made it necessarily. I think he was definitely responsible for getting Capitol Records to take notice, and to get a lot of people to take notice, and take the band seriously. I think he opened a lot of doors that way, and was very good at coaching us, instructing us on how we should act on stage. He was really good with that. I've got to give him credit.
RNRU : In '71 the band played New York's Shea Stadium, selling out all 55,000 seats in 72 hours, faster than any band had sold out that venue, including The Beatles. It's a record which I believe still stands to this day. What was that like playing the Shea concert?
DB : We were just kids. I was probably 20 years old, and to be picked up in the north side of Manhattan and to fly into Shea Stadium in a helicopter, with everybody there to see Grand Funk Railroad, was pretty astonishing. The boys from Flint were pretty amazed at that going on. It was a real rock n roll star dream. I still cherish it to this day, and when I see the film, I flash back at the nerves that I had. I kind of felt that we really didn't play our best show that night, but when I look at the footage... it was just a great event, and it made us part of rock n roll history.
RNRU : That show was professionally filmed by the Maysles brothers, who had previously filmed the Rolling Stones' 'Gimme Shelter' movie, for a TV special that was never aired. Has there been any consideration to releasing that whole concert on DVD? What are your thoughts on that?
DB : There's been talk about it. We put a pretty good lengthy piece of it on the current 'Greatest Hits' CD/DVD. That really kind of gives the flavor of what the whole show was like. I don't know if the whole thing will ever make it out or not. We do have that film, it's in our archives.
RNRU : You also filmed other shows of that tour as well... perhaps maybe a compilation of that '71 tour?
DB : I don't know if there was a lot of other footage. There may be some other footage, but most of the stuff, the good stuff was the Shea Stadium stuff.
RNRU : You were responsible for writing and singing Grand Funk's first #1 single, "We're An American Band," back in '74. As it was the first single released with you on vocals, was there ever a feeling on your part of, "We should've done this sooner?"
DB : No, I just think that it was the right time to come along. That song just kind of popped up out of us being on the road, us fighting Terry Knight, the whole comraderie thing that was coming about. I just started expressing myself, and it just kind of happened. I don't think it was necessarily anything that should've come about sooner, we just branched off and went in another direction, and I was part of that direction.
RNRU : What was that like for you when you first heard that the song had gone to #1?
DB : Oh, it was amazing. I remember standing in the studio, with Todd Rundgren, he was playing it for some of his friends, and I turned to him and I said, because I didn't think it was that good, "Do you think that this is good?" (Laughs) He said, "Yeah, it's great!" (Laughs)