August 2024
The Palladium // Saturday, Oct. 19, 8 p.m. ET
Marking 55 years since its formation in 1969 in Flint, Michigan, Grand Funk Railroad is “comin’ to your town (to) help you party it down.” In its ’70s heyday, the band packed arenas worldwide with its hard-driving sound and Top 40 hits, including “We’re an American Band,” “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home,” “The Loco-Motion” and “Some Kind of Wonderful,” which remain in regular rotation on classic-rock radio. On this tour, original members Don Brewer (vocals and drums) and Mel Schacher (bass) lead a five-piece band of rock veterans whose credits include .38 Special, Robert Palmer and Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band.
Purchase your tickets at thecenterpresents.org.
Janelle Morrison: How’s the tour going?
Don Brewer: It’s great! We’re kind of the weekend guys doing 41 shows so far this year, and, you know, it’s enough for us. We’re getting up there. [Laughing] We’re not like the young guys that get on a bus and do 120 shows, but it’s going really well!
JM: I’m curious, what are your audiences like now that differ from years past?
DB: A lot of people are reminiscing for sure. Then there’s a lot of people that are new to [our music]. We get generations of people that are curious about Grand Funk, and they’re like “Oh, yeah, they did that song,” and then they come to a show and they’re blown away. It’s a combination between the two things, and it’s a nice blend.
We start out with “Rock & Roll Soul,” which was not a huge song for Grand Funk but still is a song that people from that era know, and go into “Footstompin’ Music” and then “Shinin’ On,” and by the time we get to “The Loco-Motion,” we’ve got people dancing on the floor in [a] conga line! You can tell they’re having the time of their life, and it’s a ball … it really is.
JM: Decades later, did you guys ever think these hits would still impact people as deeply as they do?
DB: No. We had absolutely no inkling. “We’re an American Band” and “Loco-Motion” were hits, and we were going after that. “I’m Your Captain” and [the album] “Closer to Home” came along in a time period where we were making albums and weren’t focused on single hits. We could make seven-minute songs and still get played on FM radio. It all changed in 1972 when all the FM radio stations were getting bought up, and they hired consultants that told the [radio] jockeys what to play, and every song had to be three minutes long so the radio station could play more commercials and make more money. So, we had to start making hit records and hit singles, and I started doing a little more songwriting. We had no idea that “Loco-Motion” and “American Band” would still be around today and that people would know them. They played “We’re an American Band” on the opening day of the Olympics in Paris, and we were like, “Wow!” I would have never dreamt of it.
JM: I remember reading that you guys were heading down to play at the inaugural Atlanta Pop Festival, which had an iconic lineup, and you had a mishap with the U-Haul trailer.
DB: You did do some digging [laughing]. We were kind of a nobody [band], and Woodstock had been earlier that year, so it was a big deal for pop festivals. Atlanta launched their first international pop festival, and so we borrowed a van, rented a U-Haul trailer and hauled our stuff down to Atlanta. We were all in the van and were going to miss a turn, and when we tried to make it, the trailer rolled over, and our equipment went flying all over the interstate [laughing]. We picked up all of our stuff and finally made it to the festival. It must have been 100 degrees. There were 30,000 people in front of the stage, and they were hosing everybody down to stay cool.
We started playing, and two to three songs in, the audience started going crazy. They loved the band, and so we got invited back the next day, and the day after, and everybody was saying, “You’ve got to see Grand Funk.” We were the talk of the festival, and it was pretty cool.
JM: Having observed a lot of evolutions in the music industry, what are your thoughts on the industry today? And does technology like AI help or hurt the artists’ longevity?
DB: It’s just a whole new way of doing things. It’s all on the internet, basically, and people are just giving [their music] away to get noticed. Back in the day, we would put together a recording and go around knocking on all the radio stations’ doors, trying to get a jockey to play it. It’s a whole different scene today. I kind of look at music today as being disposable. I think people treat it as disposable, and for us [GFR], it was a treasure. It really was. I think music today is like a piece of candy that people chew and then move on to the next one.
I probably sound very old, but I don’t see these newer acts being around for 50 years. I just don’t. My God, just look at the Eagles, and the music they created is just so great … people can’t get enough of it. I just don’t hear that in the music and artists today.
JM: Out of the countless experiences you all have had as a band, can you think of one that stands out as the “rock n’ roll fantasy” come true?
DB: Undoubtedly, when we played Shea Stadium. We sold out faster than the Beatles. It was a true “pinch-me, is-this-real” moment. I was probably 21 at the time, and there we were in helicopters flying over Shea Stadium, looking down at Humble Pie, who was our opening act. We were ushered onto the stage, and the crowd went crazy. I’ll never forget it!
JM: Other than excellent music, what can we expect to experience when you come to Carmel to perform?
DB: We play all the Grand Funk hits, and we love to get everybody involved and up on their feet, smiling and dancing … having a great time. So, everybody can come out and expect to see a great show!
