March 6, 1998

Interview with Grand Funk Railroad's Don Brewer - 3 March 98

Slant - Why do you think the "professional" press always hated Grand Funk at the same time Grand Funk was selling millions of records?

Brewer - Well we got off on the wrong foot with the press. Our manager at the time, 1969, 70 and 71, was Terry Knight. Terry's way of promoting was to piss everybody off, bad press, good press, it didn't make any difference, it was press. So he created this thing like, the bands too good for you, you don't need to speak to them, I'm bringing this supergroup up here and I'm responsible for everything happening and you can only talk to me, and the press really hated that whole thing, that whole approach. So every chance they had to blast us, they did! Plus, we were really a garage band. If you put us up against Jimi Hendrix and Cream and those type of bands, we were really more of a garage band. We were really kids that were screwing around with being rock and roll musicians, and because of that kind of a sound that we had, I think the audience related to it, but the critics just couldn't relate to it. So that was a little weird too. And as time went on, I think we got more critical acclaim, as we got into American Band, on and on, and had hit singles with "Some Kind Of Wonderful", and those kind of things. I think things changed. In the early days, I think things got off on the wrong foot, basically because of our manager.

Brewer - We are trying to organize a show for the Vietnam vets, actually we were trying to organize it for memorial day, but we can't get it together that fast. We've had this idea since last year and we'd like to organize an event for the benefit of the Vietnam vets who seem to be totally forgotten. And we just want to show our appreciation to them, you know, for all the years that they have supported Grand Funk. There was such a camaraderie amongst the people in Vietnam, and they used Grand Funk albums, I don't know, I guess to feel a little closer to home, I hate to use that as a pun, you know, but that's kinda what it was.

Slant - How did the band decide to get back together?

Brewer - It was a process. I remember Mark called me in 1993, I think it was, no it must have been 1994. He said a promoter was contacting him and his manager, and they wanted to know if we wanted to get back together, because of all the resurgence of classic rock. Everyone wanted to see how many of these bands wanted to get together and go out and make a fast buck. And that's what we were afraid of. We didn't want to come back like that. If we were gonna get back together and do it, we wanted to get it right and be in a respectable situation. We didn't want to go out and play in parking lots and that kind of stuff. We checked out the promoter and checked out the kind of shows they wanted us to do and that one didn't feel right. And then another promoter came along and he was gonna do these things and guarantee us a whole bunch on money, but we had to play wherever he wanted us to. And we said, "No were not gonna do that". If Funk is gonna do this, were gonna come back and do it on our own terms. We kinda kept practicing and talking and working on new ideas, sorta feeling each other out, to see if we wanted to do it, and finally in 96 we said, "well lets go out and do a little test market thing." We'll do fourteen shows up in the Midwest, kinda out in the middle of nowhere at first, which was "get back together and see if we want to do this". The response was phenomenal, we ended up with a show in Chicago and Pine Knob in Detroit, and there was massive sellouts and the audience was just going crazy and were going...this is kinda fun. So that's where we got back into it, in 96.

Slant - Do they still get the same feeling before a concert or during a concert that you did in the early days, or is it different now?

Brewer - Yeah, before the concert, you get a few butterflies going, you get nervous and you hear the crowd out there, yelling, hoop and hollering, and you get on stage. Now is not like it was twenty something years ago, I mean we were just kids and the audience was kids, and now the audience is our age, and they bring their kids with them, and there's a few college kids. It's a reunion, between the audience and the band, between the fans and Grand Funk. I mean that's how a lot of these shows feel. There just tickled to death to see Grand Funk, up there live on stage and we're tickled to death to be there.

Slant - Is the band working on a new album or new songs?

Brewer - We're working on some new stuff. We've got five things in the can, and we're working on more as we go along here. If someone comes up with a new idea, or we come up with an outside song, we'll start working on it. We're trying to build up enough stuff, so that you know, actually we're trying to define a new direction for Grand Funk. something that will fit into this music scene of the ninety's. Radio is so screwed up, it's pretty tough to figure out where we can get airplay.

Slant - Who's going to be the producer of the new CD?

Brewer - Ron Nevison, he produced the Bosnia CD, and we haven't signed anybody to work on it. It's just whoever we're working with at the time, that's what were gonna do.

Slant - What are the band's goals, is there going to be more aggressive promotion now that you have a new management team? I know that the only way I have heard about the shows is on the Roadkill list. [Roadkill is the internet mailing list fan club where fans can obtain information regarding Grand Funk. Send email to Grand-Funk@roadkill.com to get information]

Brewer - It's that bad up there, huh?

Slant - We just started to hear about it in the last couple of days.

Brewer - We've been on those people, trying to get that radio station to get on the case here, and we find that every time we run into these things where things go slow, it's because the radio station is just not doing their job. I mean, we've sold out three shows almost a month in advance of going to Texas, and it's because the radio stations there went out immediately and man the tickets just flew. And now we got a problem up in Orlando and Jacksonville where we hear the same thing over and over. "We didn't know you guys were playing", where's the promotion...where's the promotion?

Slant - Are there any plans to do any acoustic shows? A lot of your music would lend itself nicely to that type of style. Neil Young (Mr. Soul) and Eric Clapton (Layla) for example, seem to be able to reinvent their old material into some new sounds that could really take off.

Brewer - It's possible - we've discussed the possibility that if we do this Vietnam vets show that we're talking about doing in November. We would like to put together a special part of the set, more geared towards the Vietnam vets and that time period. And in that we would probably incorporate more of an acoustic kind of thing or a variation of the songs with something that's a little more gentle or however you want to describe it. Yeah, we've talked about it.

Slant - Yeah...as long as you don't do it to "Paranoid".

Brewer - (laughing) Or "Inside Looking Out". "Inside Looking Out" might be a little tough without the cranked up guitar.

Slant - Why not continue the "Finger Logo"? It's like the Stones tongue. It says "Grand Funk Railroad"?

Brewer - We are! We still use it on some of the T-shirts, and we're talking about changing our merchandise company, and we were talking to the guy the other day, and we said we have to keep that logo going as much as possible with the "Were An American Band" hand, with a flag behind it with "Grand Funk Railroad" and "The American Band" going around it. And the other logo we need to work on is the Mark, Don and Mel, Maybe put it on the sleeve of the shirt and really focus on those two logos all the time. We wanna do that.

Slant - Will the remaining existing catalog be released on CD (Phoenix, Born To Die, All The Girls In the World, Survival)?

Brewer - Yeah, well were working with Capital, you know how Capital is. All the fans have the same response when you mention Capital, it's like, "Oh My God", ya know, the slowest company in the world. They're telling us that they're going to re-master everything, and it will all be out. And we're saying, "Who's gonna re-master it?" We want to be involved in the re-mastering cause of what we've seen in the past. Hopefully it's gonna happen. They also are very very much up on doing an anthology. A four CD anthology. I keep talking to guys every week out at Capital, and they are working on the project. But they are slow, they are slow.

Slant - Can you change record companies, or is that a contractual thing?

Brewer - You can't. They own the masters. The only way we could get the masters, like over to Rhino or Rycodisk or somebody else that does that kind of stuff, would be if Capital is willing to sell the masters.

Slant - Rhino did a super job on the compilation disk "More of the Best".

Brewer - Rhino has done great work...they're good. Capital has started a new wing, which handles all of their catalog artists. That's what they want to do, just repackage their catalog artists, you know, and they're not very good at it. (laughing)

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