Slant - Will the Shea Stadium Video ever be released so the fans can purchase it, or the LA 74 video from Japanese TV. Any possibility that either of these soundtracks being released.

Brewer - It wasn't Japanese TV; I don't know why everybody thinks that. It was bootlegged by a Japanese company, yes. It's not a Japanese film. That film is owned by Grand Funk. It was a concert that was shot in San Diego, and it is possible that we'll market it, but it hasn't been to the point where it would be a profitable situation to just go ahead and start marketing these things. Number one, there's so many bootlegs out there. Shea Stadium, there are no bootlegs of Shea Stadium out there, and we are gonna keep it that way. There will be a time, I'm sure, that Shea Stadium will be released. I don't know when that is. We keep trying to get VH-1 or MTV or somebody interested in putting together, more like a anthology compilation kind of thing, using all the video, doing a story teller kind of thing, but we just haven't had any bites yet.

Slant - Is there a similar situation with the Don Kirshner's Rock Concert that you guys did?

Brewer - Don Kirshner's Rock Concert is not ours. That's a Don Kirshner owned film. We did that as a benefit for Phoenix House, which is a drug rehab in New York City. It was a show at Madison Square Garden. That's not ours, that's Don Kirshner. I don't know what the status of that is. If we get this compilation package going, I'm sure we'll get clearance to use it.

Slant - How about the Flint albums. Any change they will get release or included on a compilation? [Flint was a post-Funk band the members were in]

Brewer - I don't even know that Sony knows that they own them. (laughing) You're talking real obscure there. Those are REALLY obscure.

Slant - What's on the schedule for touring in the future? What are the chances of a European or South American tour being put together? You guys are regarded as a super group down in Venezuela.

Brewer - Yeah, we'd love to go back. We did a brief reunion tour in 81, 82. We did a South American tour. Caracas, I think a couple of places around Caracas, and yeah, they were great shows. Europe, so far, I've seen on the schedule one show in Denmark, a festival in Denmark. If we could plug into three or four festivals over there, we may go to Europe. It's not really worth it to go for one show.

Slant - If you read the mail on the internet, many of the e-mails say, When are you guys coming to "insert name of your town here?", you know whatever town they are from.

Brewer - Yeah, it's amazing, I read a lot of the stuff on the internet from the fans. My wife [Sunny Quin from WZZR radio in South Florida] is very involved with communicating with the Roadkillers and all these people. It's funny, how they think that we have say over where we play. I mean, it's not us, it's the promoters. The promoters have to make a bid to bring us to town. I mean it's not us saying, "Well, lets go over and play Dallas" or "Hey yeah, I just talked to a guy in Dallas and he wants us to play...yeah lets go!!!" (laughing)

Slant - I know you're familiar with Roadkill.

Brewer - I was with the Roadkillers last weekend. Out in Denver. Phil Catalano, the Catman.

Slant - How do you feel about the Roadkill group and that type of fan support?

Brewer - Are you kidding me...its GREAT. This is a great new thing that's happened. It's great to be able to communicate with these people and have people come to our shows and show the support, and we try to have as many meet and greets as we can after the shows and just talk to the people, and it's wonderful. I mean, every town we're in, they're creating this atmosphere of a little bit of our home town, having all these fans around, so it's great. I think the enthusiasm rubs off on the audience.

Slant - How do they feel about the things the Roadkillers do, for example, writing to radio stations, the meetings before some of the shows, the trading of mementos...etc.

Brewer - Sure, cause we've gotten a lot of information off the internet and there are things, just like you're talking about where someone will post on the internet, "hey, I'm here up around New Orleans, and I hear your playing around here, and the only way I found out was on the internet. I haven't heard anything on the radio." And we go to management and we say "Get on these guys, you know, how come they're not promoting the show!" I mean it's been very useful.

Slant - Then that must me you read the Roadkill e-mails.

Brewer - Oh absolutely! Yeah.

Slant - You must think they're helping.

Brewer - Absolutely, I think its wonderful.

Slant - What prompted you to tour with Bob Seger after Grand Funk.

Brewer - The reason I went with Bob Seger in the first place is that the Grand Funk thing that Mark and I were doing in 80, 81, maybe just a little bit into 82 I guess, Mel wasn't involved in it and I think it was a little too early for Funk to try and make a comeback cause we just basically quit in 76, we just basically let it be put on hold and said, "well, let's wait and see what happens here." 81, 82 when we went out, and Mel wasn't involved and it just wasn't the right time to be doing it. And then I got an offer to go and work with Seger on a tour, and I said "well, I've never done that before." And I looked at it as a way to expand my musicianship. I've never really played in a lot of other bands other than Grand Funk. It was a change for me to kinda spread my wings and see "am I capable of being in some of these other situations?" It was great, I loved it. It was a wonderful experience. I did two tours with Bob Seger. They were great.

Slant - How did you wind up singing in the band?

Brewer - Mark sings about 85% of the songs, I sing backup and stuff, but I sing a few of the songs.

Slant - I thought your "Some Kind Of Wonderful" where you come from behind the drum and only use drumsticks was really cool.

Brewer - Oh you liked it! We liked doing that whole Bosnia record, doing the different arrangements of the songs, you know doing the orchestra with "Mean Mistreater", doing that arrangement of "Some Kind Of Wonderful" which is kinda a capella up front, you know, and then the horns come in the second half, and then doing the different treatment we did with "Closer To Home". I thought that was a blast. To switch stuff around like that and give them a different treatment. They were real classy, the way everything came off.

Slant - You guys were probably one of the ultimate rock and roll musician horror stories.

Brewer - (laughing)

Slant - Coming out with albums that just sold a ton of stuff, and then you wound up being broke.

Brewer - We're not the only ones, I mean that happens a million times, you heard about Billy Joel, his wife and his brother....took everything. He ended up looking down at an empty pit. That's when he went back out. You know we're not the only ones.

Slant - Do you guys get royalties from all the sales of the early albums?

Brewer - Yeah, we still get our mechanical royalties. The fact Grand Funk had a deal as a band, and we get paid for that. Where we got ripped off was on the deal that Terry cut [Terry Knight, early manager of Grand Funk] for himself. He took a far greater share of the pie, and that still exists today. We get a small cut, but not the cut we should have had and it was a legal rip off. He got us to sign contracts that we shouldn't have signed cause we were stupid kids. But anyway, that's the way it is, and we moved on afterwards. We were able to come back with three or four big hit albums. We did OK.

Slant - When did you start playing drums, did you take lessons, and if so with who?

Brewer - I started playing drums, I think in junior high school because I got sick of playing clarinet. I started out being a musician when I was about ten years old, wanting to play guitar. I started playing guitar, I started my own first band at that time playing guitar. Playing things like Peter Gun and that kind of stuff. And then, as I got a little older, after I learned how to read music a little bit, I said, "I'm gonna try the junior high school band." I was playing clarinet, and I hated the whole thing, you know. I looked at the drum section, and the band leader, the band instructor said...The drum section was all girls, there were three girls in the drum section, and nobody could carry the bass drum in the marching band. And so he asked for volunteers. He said "would anybody like to switch to drums, to play drums, any guy, so that we can have someone who can carry the bass drum?" I said "That's me...I'll do it!" So that's how I got started playing drums, I was playing bass drum, and I started paradiddles [drum exercises] and learning how to do that type of thing in junior high school. And then my dad was a former drummer and he was really into it when I switched over to drums and he bought a kit for me down in the basement. I started smashing on those, listening to records, you know, Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley, and those, learning how to play rock and roll. Really, that's what it was. And that's where I started just wackin' along with it. I got fed up with...the band instructor would never let us play any hip music in the band, in the high school band, and I quit the high school band and started my own rock and roll band. And that's where I got into it. The band was Jazzmasters.

Slant - The bottom line is you got into it to meet girls.

Brewer - You could say that. Yes. (laughing) It certainly not so I could carry the bass drum.

Slant - Do you have any favorite drummers?

Brewer - Ginger Baker, Dino Dinelli from the Rascals who I first idolized. I thought he was great. I saw the Rascals on Ed Sullivan, and they did "Good Lovin" and at the end of "Good Lovin", Dino Dinelli threw his drumstick up in the air, caught it, and I said "Man..that guy is cool." I also loved Buddy Rich, a great big band drummer. I thought it was great that he never practiced, he just went out and played like crazy. Mitch Mitchell from Jimi Hendrix is good. John Bonham from Led Zepplin of course. With the foot stuff, he was terrific.

Slant - Did you ever consider putting out an instructional tape of any kind?

Brewer - Instructional tape...no. I have thought about it off and on, getting into the teaching end of it but I may.

Slant - Do you enjoy your endorsement with Peavey drums?

Brewer - Yeah, actually I was pretty impressed with Peavey. I tried them, and they were nice enough to send them out on the road with me. The first tour I went out on, I said "wow, these things sound great!" I've been offered other drums, and I just tell them, I'm real happy with Peavey. I like that fact that they look different and I love the way they sound.

Slant - You put so much energy into your solos, where does it come from?

Brewer - It certainly isn't drugs! (laughing) I don't know. I'm really kinda a reserved guy. Everybody that knows me outside of the band. They come to the show and say, "I never knew that guy existed." That's just the way I play. When I get behind a set of drums on stage, that's what I become. I don't know why.

Slant - Do you work out every day?

Brewer - No I don't. I go to the gym. I work out in the gym everyday, but on the drums, I usually start practicing every day about three weeks before we go out on a tour...just to get my chops back and get the hands working good. I find I'm fresher that way rather than trying to practice every day where you go stale.

Slant - Do you have a Peavey drum set at home?

Brewer - No, I got an electronic set at home. They're kinda antique now, Dynachord and D-Drum, and I use the Dynachord for the symbols and the D-Drums for the toms, the snares, and the bass. And I got a whole setup here with a midiverb echo on it, a mixer and a tuner and a stereo. I put my tapes in and I can put my headphones on and play along with it.

Slant - So you can play and not wake up anyone in the house.

Brewer - I don't wake up anybody.

Slant - Besides Grand Funk music, what other music do you like to play drums to?

Brewer - I pretty much play Grand Funk, that's what I practice to. I love listening to other drummers, but I really don't play along with them, no.

Slant - On the We're an American Band LP, the early ones were yellow plastic.

Brewer - Yeah, virgin vinyl they call it. It was, it was virgin vinyl. It's vinyl that hasn't been recycled. All the black vinyl is recycled. A lot of it came from recycled vinyl and it had a lot of pops and scratches and it just wasn't good. If you wanted to have the best possible record you could get, you had to have that clear, see-through, vinyl. It was called virgin vinyl. That's what it was, and there were 100,000 of those pressed. They're more expensive...absolutely!

Slant - Why don't you play more songs from the Phoenix LP?

Brewer - Yeah, we have worked with a couple of things. "Feelin All Right" is on there, right? No that was on Survival. Well, we do "Rock & Roll Soul". We don't do "Flight Of the Phoenix". We're running a request on the internet to ask "what songs aren't we doing, that you would like to hear?" And the number one biggest response so far is "Winter Of My Soul" followed closely by "Into The Sun".

Slant - That's a good one too...all of them are good.

Brewer - Yeah, we plan on adding some things as we go along. There's just not room for everything. We generally try to keep the show to and hour and a half. Maybe a little bit more and we try to hit the stuff...you know the thing that the internet fans and a lot of the closer fans have to realize is that the majority of the audience isn't them. A lot of the audience doesn't know that stuff. They don't know the obscure stuff. We can do them, actually we did "Winter Of My Soul" in the 1996 tour, and half the audience would just kinda sit there and look at us and go, "what in the world are you doing? What's that song?" They just didn't have a clue to what the song was.

Slant - I know there's a lot of songs that I would like to hear, just because I've played the albums so much.

Brewer - Sure, and we'd love to do that. What we'd like to do is do a couple of show, up around Detroit and just do...all of that stuff. Just do the shows of all of the obscure type of stuff.

Slant - Orlando would be a real good place to do that.

Brewer - Oh...do you think so? (laughing)

Slant - On the Japanese CD's. I guess you don't get as much on those?

Brewer - Right, and that's been a real issue with Capital. They've allowed that to happen because...EMI Toshiba is still part of Capital records. Just because they allow that stuff to come into the United States, they're still making money on it, but they don't have to pay us as much. So we tried to get rid of a lot of that stuff cause it's a rotten crooked record company. The only business that's more rotten and crooked is the movie and film business.

Murf Murphy Murf is a registered professional engineer....(i.e. haircut and a real job) who loves to play guitar. Vist Murf's home page. He lives with (1) wife who wishes he would grow up, (1) teenager who wonders how his parents got to this point in their lives without his help, (2) dogs who sleep a lot, (1) ferret who attacks when not looking and (1) cat who is basically useless. Other Articles I've Written