Gary James' Second Interview With Grand Funk's
Mark Farner



He's one of Rock's most talented guitarists, singers, and frontmen. As a member of Grand Funk Railroad he racked up fourteen Top 40 hits, five Top 10 hits and two number 1 hits, selling over 30 million records worldwide. Grand Funk sold out Shea Stadium faster than any other band, and that includes The Beatles. The group has sixteen Gold and Platinum records, and their song "Bad Time" received the 1975 BMI Award for the most radio plays. That should give you an idea of how successful the band Grand Funk was.

And now he's leading a new band which just happens to include his name upfront. The gentleman we are talking about is is Mr. Mark Farner and his new band is called Mark Farner's American Band. We talked with Mark Farner about his new band, Grand Funk and some of the people he met along the way.

Q - Mark, I see you're getting ready to perform on a cruise ship soon. Given the state of this Coronavirus, will that ship sail? Are you still going to do that cruise?

A - I'm going to do that tour. The only cruise ships that have been affected are the ones coming out of Asia. I pray to God that nobody gets on that ship that's got it, and I mean you don't know if somebody's got it or not.

Q - That's right.

A - And you can't tell just by looking at 'em. "Oh, they're that kind of person. We better stay away from 'em." You can get too crazy out there.

Q - It is mysterious and will most likely have an impact on the cruise business in the future if it hasn't already.

A - Yeah, for sure.

Q - Where does your band usually perform?

A - Well, we perform all over the world. We performed in South America last summer (2019). We did twenty-one dates. We did Brazil, Peru and Chile. Then when I came home I flew over to St. Petersburg, Russia and I played at the Ice Palace with a Russian band called The Earthlings, but they fronted me. They did my music. You know, guys in their twenties. Great musicians. It was a great cultural surprise for me to rock with guys that rock that hard. They really adore who I am and what I've done for Rock 'n' Roll. No matter where I go in the world there's some fans waiting to tell me their story. (laughs)

Q - They know all your music?

A - Yes. They sang the music back to me Gary in American English. All the Russians are singing "I'm Getting Closer To My Home" or "Some Kind Of Wonderful". It's great, you know? They couldn't speak a sentence to you, but they can sing the songs. (laughs)

Q - It's amazing because there was a time when Rock And Roll was not allowed in Russia.

A - Yeah.

Q - I looked on your website (www.MarkFarner.com) and maybe I missed something, but who is in your band? I couldn't find the name of the guys.

A - I don't know. I never go to my site. (laughs)

Q - You don't go on the internet then?

A - I really don't. I've been writing with Jim Peterik from The Ides Of March. He will e-mail a track with an idea to it or I will e-mail him a track that I've done that adds to what he sent me, just so when we can't be eyeball to eyeball we've got that. And that's about the only thing I use it for, Gary.

Q - Do you still have your own record label? Lis Mark Records?

A - No. Lis Mark; I was really scammed into that by the guy Lisuk who gave me this pie-in-the-sky stuff, but he was very sincere, but of course I fell for it about re-releasing these things that had never been released on CD before. I got into that with him, but it was a total rip-off on his part. I got squat. (laughs) I did learn a lesson. Ouch!

Q - You were taken for some money then?

A - Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's over with. I don't know what he's doing. I don't keep up with stuff like that. It's hard for me to keep up with, "What are we going to eat his morning?" (laughs)

Q - You sound like me. In today's world you're expected to know everything about everything, and that's nearly impossible.

A - Exactly. Yeah, man. I got that same thing going on. Too much.

Q - Too much information. Information overload.

A - Yes, and my RAM seems to be reducing. Each year I have less RAM. (laughs) The Random Access Memory is shorter and shorter.

Q - Did Grand Funk lose all their master tapes back in 2008 in this Universal fire?

A - I couldn't tell you.

Q - You don't know?

A - I don't know. But hey, listen. Back to my band members, I have to give credit where credit is due. I have on drums Hubert Crawford, who played with the James Brown Band. The great James Brown. He backed up James Brown. He played with The Bar-Kays and he played with The Eric Gayle Band. I don't know if you're familiar with Eric Gayle, but he's a monster guitar player. On bass guitar I have Paul Randolph, and Paul was the bass player on the Alice Cooper sessions that I did in Detroit this past summer (2019). The EP was called "Bread Crumbs". We did it with Wayne Kramer from The MC 5, Johnny Bee (Badanjek) from The Detroit Wheels, myself on guitar and Paul on bass. And the stuff rocked. It really rocked good. And it was great working with Alice again, especially Bob Ezrin. What an intense producer that guy is. On keyboard I have Bernie Palo. I met Bernie when I was doing some gigs with Alto Reed from Bob Seger's band. He's the sax man. We were doing some All Starr gigs. We had Dave Mason , Felix Cavaliere, Rick Derringer, Mitch Ryder, myself. We went out and played. Alto supplied the band, everybody but the drummer. I always brought my drummer in because once I got hooked on him it was playing with anybody else, they can't kick like that. So, anyway we did several shows together and Bernie Palo is the B-3 Hammond guy that was playing on all the shows. When I needed a keyboard player, because we were always switching up because of one thing or another, I thought well, I wonder if Bernie can sing? 'Cause my keyboard player has got to be able to sing, and lo and behold the boy can sing and he's in my band now, Mark Farner's American Band.

Q - That's a good name.

A - Yeah. He's a catchy guy. (laughs)

Q - You were part of Ringo Starr's All Starr Band. Of course when you were growing up, The Beatles were "it." Did you ever look over at Ringo when you were onstage with him and say, "That's Ringo! What am I doing onstage with one of The Beatles?"

A - (laughs) Well, actually when we went to Japan they did a big press conference in Tokyo before we went out and did any dates. This gal from the press corps came to the front and she said, "I would like to ask Mr. Farner a question." So, I stood up. She said, "What is it like being with a Beatle?" I looked over at Ringo. We were set up kind of like a real long table. Ringo was in the middle and we were down both sides. It was kind of like The Last Supper with Ringo as Jesus, if you can imagine. But, I look over at Ringo and I said, "Listen honey, Ringo puts his pants on one leg at a time just like I do." He stood up and said, "Thank you brother!" And he came over and gave me a great big hug. I hugged him back. He loved being recognized as just a guy rather than that guy. I don't know if you've ever seen his YouTube (video) where he tells everybody not to send anything for autographs. He's not signing anything anymore. He's over it. He was really adamant about it. He was kind of mad about it just because that's who everybody expects him to be, but that's living in the debt of someone's expectations and he doesn't fit there.

Q - Both Ringo and Paul no longer sign anything, except Ringo has a website where he will sign something if you pay him and the money goes to a charitable organization. Did you hear about that?

A - I didn't hear about that, but that's a good idea. You know Randy Bachman and I, when we were out with Ringo, Randy was so pissed off. He said, "Farner, you know those guitars we signed yesterday?" I forget where we were, but we had come back to the U.S. and we were doing the U.S. portion of the tour and I said, "Yeah." He said, "Some charity they turned out to be. Look at this." And he shows me they were listed on e-Bay for sale. He said, "Let's you and me make a pact. No more signatures on guitars." And I went, "Okay." So, you can't believe how many people I've turned down. I don't sign guitars. I don't sign a pick guard. I don't sign anything that has anything to do with an instrument anymore except I'll sign a drum head for somebody's wall 'cause I know they're not going to be beating on it. But that might go on e-Bay too. Who knows?

Q - Your father was a World War II veteran and a career fireman. What did he think about you pursuing a career in Rock 'n' Roll?

A - Well, my father died when I was nine years old, prior to me picking up the guitar.

Q - I didn't know that.

A - But my mother endorsed everything I did musically, even to the point where I had got laid off from high school. I tell everybody I got laid off because I'm from Flint, Michigan, (laughs) and they lay off people. I got thrown out of a school for getting in trouble with the football coach who was an algebra teacher as well. I had to go finish to get my diploma. I was going through this summer school, but it was really hindering my ability to practice with the guys when they were having the rehearsals for a gig. I was doing a little VFW Hall, wedding reception. Stuff like this with the guys back then that I was playing with. I went to my mom and step-dad and said, "Listen, I hate to say this, but I summer school is really messing with my ability to make money. I believe this is how I'm going to be making money anyway. I believe it's going to be with this guitar and my voice and I'm asking you guys to let me out of my commitment to go to summer school," and they both agreed. And I can't help but think my father, Delton Frederick Farner would've said the same thing. "Go ahead son and pursue what is in your heart."

Q - When you were in your early twenties you had an ulcer. Are you better today?

A - Oh, I'm completely healed from that. My ulcer was in my duodenal tract. I was in the hospital. After they did the tests on my, the following morning I had like a carton on Pall Mall cigarettes in my drawer there. At that time you could smoke in the hospital and I was. The doctor walks in and here I am, smoking this cigarette. He slaps himself in the forehead and he looks at me. I'm thinking, "What the hell did I do?" He says, "Mark, you've got an ulcer that can't be operated on. It's in your duodenal tract and you are poisoning yourself right now." I said, "Doc, I'm not swallowing this smoke." He said, "Yeah, but you're swallowing the saliva in your mouth that comes in contact with that smoke and you're taking all those cars (carcinogens) down there and all that acidity and you're just flaring up your ulcer in your duodenal tract and you're pissing me off!" I reached over and I got that carton of cigarettes and I twisted it up into a pretzel and threw it in the waste can. I said, "That's it, man. Thank you. God bless you. I appreciated that." That's when I quit, when I was twenty-two years old. I started when I was eleven though Gary.

Q - What's different about your story, that story, is you actually listened to your doctor's advice.

A - Yeah. Thank God.

Q - You used West Amps on the first four albums of Grand Funk. Mr. West passed recently. Why didn't you use Fender, Vox or Marshall amps? How did using West Amps contribute to the sound of Grand Funk?

A - Well, the reason we didn't use Marshall and Vox and all the other ones that were out there; Fender had a good sound, but they didn't equip their amps with B-130 JBL speakers, and that's what I love hearing a guitar through. It's a fifteen inch B-130. The ones I played through were made for Fender 'cause they were B-130 F. But they had the best tone. I was a tone maniac right from the beginning and I wasn't so much into distortion unless it had tone to it. That's what the West Amps gave me. Come to find out, the one that I liked best, I had a speaker cabinet that held two of the fifteen inch B-130 F and it was a narrow cabinet, maybe not even a foot I'm thinking. But tall enough and wide enough, but it did something for that sound that set that West head, which was a Dynaco design. What happened, unbeknownst to Dave West, was when he was doing the design and printing it out and making copies so we could follow it, the guys that were soldering on the chassis and putting the components together; I did that for awhile and built cabinets for him too, but he had it backwards on one terminal and it gave it a very unique sound. He didn't discover this until, wow, two or three years into it. He went, "Holy shit, Farner!" I said, "What?" He said, "Don't change it, dude. Don't change it! Whatever you do, keep it the way it is because it is the best guitar sound." I could play that thing all day. It was that good to me.

Q - A simple mistake results in a unique guitar sound.

A - Yeah.

Q - You remarked in one interview that you're not in the Cleveland Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and that did surprise me. You say it's all political. What does that mean when you say it's all political?

A - Well, it's like the ownership of mainstream media. That's become all political because in 1995, when they deregulated the FCC, it became corporate conglomerate radio. Prior to '95 you could own seven AM, seven FM and seven television stations. It was known as the 777 rule. It was put in place to prevent any monopoly, which we are now suffering from and have suffered for years and years and years. I think because of the political positioning and the mirage, I call it a mirage because in life I have come to discover that nothing is the way it appears to be.

Q - Right.

A - And you find out as you go, but you can't anticipate all of these things so you have to live 'em out. I went to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I played in the building. My guitar, my Messenger that I started Grand Funk with, sat in a plexiglass case there for a number of years, but we were never even brought up to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I say it's political because they don't want my songs, which are all about people let's stop the war, save the land. If people love Grand Funk music they love me because I am whom my songs say I am, brother. Those songs, they don't want people listening to that because they're all about the perpetual war. Yes, even those in the Rock Hall because they're all tied to those who print our money and the families that own the Federal Reserve that not only print the money for the U.S., but for Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Africa, for every place there's been a British settlement on this globe. Those people, when they get to the United Nations, whichever way those families are voting, because we are beholden to them and all these other countries are beholden to them. Guess which way they're going to vote bro? It becomes very political.

Q - I do question some of the acts that are both nominated and inducted because they aren't really Rock 'n' Roll. But, that's just me. That's the way I think.

A - See, because you think of fairness. They think if they achieve the status of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame then that gives them something that they can jack their prices up a little bit because now you're getting a Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Famer. You get to add a little bit more to the marquee. So, it brings your value up. That's the political part. I can't stand that stuff. I've been told that the people who own Rolling Stone control the Rock Hall. I haven't studied it and can't tell you for a fact.

Q - Grand Funk came close in the planes you were flying in to have met a similar fate as Lynyrd Skynyrd.

A - Oh, yes. We thought that we were headed there a couple of times. Enough to make you wet your pants.

Q - You have to count your blessings every day of the week then, don't you?

A - Absolutely brother! I have the attitude of gratitude.

Q - I like that! That's a great saying.

A - Thank you.

Q - When your band mates were playing the New York State Fair back in 2006, I mentioned it to one of my neighbors. He said, "Grand Funk? I used to see them at a Washington D.C. bar in 1969."

A - (laughs)

Q - You literally went from playing bars to playing the Atlantic Pop Festival?

A - Oh, yeah.

Q - That's a big jump in a short amount of time.

A - Yeah. It just so happens that the lawyers we used out of New York City were doing the legal work for this Pop Festival. So they made a little arrangement. They said, "If you'll put our band on and let 'em open the show for everybody then we'll reduce our fee." And we didn't charge anything. In fact, it really cost us to go down there, but it was the best move we ever made. Until we had gone up to the stage level we could only stand on the ground and look out at the crowd. You could hear it was a big crowd, but you had no idea until you get the vantage point of looking and being able to see the entire crowd. Man! I looked over at the guitar tech as he's putting the guitar over my head, putting the strap over my head. I said, "Dude, I've got to piss so bad." (laughs) And he goes, "No. Not now Farner. You get your ass out there on that stage." That excitement of seeing that many people and the emotional rushes that we were experiencing from that crowd, even talking to you about it Gary I'm getting goose bumps.

Q - Did your management or your booking agency try to get you into Woodstock?

A - I don't know. What was the festival in Montreal? I think it was Strawberry Fields. We played that during the same time Woodstock was going on in the U.S.

Q - Since you came up during the late 1960s, did you ever cross paths with either Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison?

A - Morrison, no. But the other two, yes. Janis and I were great friends. We were not like boyfriend and girlfriend friends, but we were just good buddies. I remember coming off the stage at Winter Garden up on the West Coast, one of Bill Graham's places. During the show, I had gotten sick. I felt it was the flu or I might have had some food poisoning. It was that yucky feeling. And (Don) Brewer goes into his drum solo and I went to the dressing room. I tossed my cookies, you know. I came back and tell the guitar tech, who's standing behind my amp, I hand him this big cup and said, "Hold this thing in case I need it." I did need it. Janis was standing in the wings there and watching. Soon as the drum solo was done I said, "Man, this is it. I can't play another note. I am so sick." So I start walking off the stage and Janis put her arm around (me). "Oh, what's the matter honey? Are you sick?" She reaches down into her big bag that she carried around with her. It was like a paisley print, great big old bag full of her goodies. She pulls out a bottle of Ripple wine, dude. Oh, my gosh! She says, "I got just what you need." (laughs) She pulls this out and I about toss my cookies again just looking at it. "Oh, my God! Get that out of my sight!" (laughs) She was a very good friend, and so funny. We're on the road and everybody's trying to get her autograph. But we just wanted to be kids. We just wanted to have fun too. I remember when she rode back in the helicopter. When The Rolling Stones were going to close the show in West Palm Beach we played at a raceway down there and of course it was sold out, a bazillion people. They were using a Huey, a big Army chopper to go back and forth to the hotel so the bands wouldn't have to try and drive in and out of there. There was no way that was going to happen. So they got this helicopter. It was done up like a motor home inside. Nice cushions. Plush cushions. Pin spots. Beautiful. We're riding back 'cause she stayed to watch us. She had already gone onstage and we were to be the band just before The Rolling Stones. So, she jumps in the chopper with us. We go back and everybody's getting out, the crew. Everybody's walkin' out. This is two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. It's darker than the inside of a boot. As we're walking up, and all the roadies have their little flashlights, I look up ahead and said, "Where's Janis?" They're hollering back, "She's not up here." I said, "Give me one of those lights. I'm gonna go back down and check and see if she's still in the chopper." I go back down there. I look up inside the chopper and there she is. She looks like she's massaging the seats, the cushions that everybody sat on. And then she moved to the next one. I'm standing down there, scratching my head, going "What is that girl doing?" So, I step up on the rung of the chopper. I holler and it scared the crap out of her, dude. She turned around and said, "Oh, my God. I about jumped out of my skin." Then I step up into the chopper and I can see what she's doing now. Besides the Ripple wine in that big bag and the Southern Comfort and all the other booze, she had eleven dozen Hershey bars, chocolate, you know? And this is summertime in Florida and those Hershey bars were just squishing all over these seats. She's messing 'em up. I mean smearing chocolate over every cushion. I said, "Why are you doing that?" She looked up at me with this little grin on her. I could see the little girl in her. She says, "I wanna mess up Mick's britches." (laughs) She smeared chocolate all over those seats so she could mess up Mick's white satin pants that he used to wear with a big brown stain in the back. (laughs)

Q - I guess she didn't like Mick Jagger.

A - Well, she thought the same thing I did about the British Invasion. When we played that free concert in Hyde Park, I wasn't singing the King's English. I was singing in American English because American English is Rock 'n' Roll and that's why the Brits and the Aussies and the Germans, whoever they are, they have to sing in American English because it's not Rock 'n' Roll unless it is American English. So, the British Invasion actually happened two days before Christmas in 1913. It's called the Federal Reserve Act. There's your British Invasion. No music British Invasion, not to us who hold our flag up and love it.

Q - I always say to people, The Rolling Stones were and will always be Brian Jones.

A - Yeah, absolutely. I agree 100% Gary.

Q - Talk about Jimi Hendrix. Were you good friends with him as well?

A - Yes, I was. As a matter of fact, the first time we played the Fillmore East, New York City, Jimi was there unbeknownst to me. He was in the audience with of course some music business people surrounding him, kind of watching him. But when I got done with the show and we went up to the dressing room, Terry Knight (Grand Funk's manager) was walking ahead of the band, which he never, ever did before. It had me wondering, "What the heck is he doing up there?" He opens the dressing room door for my dressing room and I turn the corner and there's Jimi standing there with that big grin on his face. He had that hat on, that Hispanic type hat. The most educated thing I could say to him, all I could dig out of myself was, "You're a great guitar player!" (laughs) I go back to that time in my mind and I was so star struck because that was my guitar god. Jimi was my guy, man.

Q - What year was that?

A - 1970. Then we did a lot of festivals. We did Staten Island in New York City and there was a bunch of bands, Ten Wheel Drive, Joplin was on there, Ten Years After, Canned Heat, bands from that era. Jimi's gonna close the show, but Rabbit, Jimi's right-hand man came over to my dressing room. He said, "Hey brother Mark, man, Jimi wants to talk to you. C'mon over." So, I said, "I'll come over as soon as I get some dry clothes on," 'cause I just came off stage. I get dried off, put some duds on and I go over to Jimi's dressing room. When I walked in, Jimi gave me big hug and said, "How you doing?" We greet each other. I look over and those guys got what appears to be snow drifts on the table, line of... At that time I didn't know what that stuff was. I was very frightened about standing around people that were doing it, being in the same room with it. Rabbit hands me a rolled up hundred dollar bill and says, "Here, have at it!" I said, "No." I handed it back to him. "I don't do that." I never have done anything like that, man. "You guys go ahead and knock yourself out, but I'm gonna sit this out." Jimi looks at me and says, "Brother Mark, you know I wouldn't give you nothin' that would hurt you." And I thought, damn! He's wanting me to take some of this. I said, "Well, just give me a little, teeny, tiny bit, maybe on a corner of a piece of paper." So, Rabbit takes his knife, he push buttoned and the blade came out and he stuck the tip of his switchblade into that snowdrift and pulled out a little bit. I blocked one of my nostrils and snorted the stuff and it felt like it went right straight to the top of my head, man. I had never experienced anything like this before. As I'm trying to recover from that, thinking, "Holy crap, man! I'm glad I didn't decide to do a whole one of those snowdrifts." But those guys both hunkered down and that stuff was gone. As they're leaving the room and I'm leaving the room, I've already got it planned out I'm going to sit on the cab of our equipment truck, which was a box truck, like a twenty-four foot truck. I got a packing blanket up there and I'm gonna lean up against the box and sit on the cab. It was right at stage level. I'm gonna watch my guitar hero now. I get up on top of there and that stuff started to hit me. I started feeling a little nauseous to my stomach. I'm thinking, "Oh, my God! What is this?" But Jimi came out and he kept reaching for his guitar neck and he was missing it by a foot. He couldn't put it together. Some guy, thank God, who just popped up out of nowhere, barefoot, no shirt, just had a pair of bellbottoms on that he had walked the excess length off of, they were all ragged out; he walks up to Jimi from behind. He grabs Jimi's wrist and grabs the neck of the guitar and puts them together. Jimi just kind of looked over at him like, "Oh, thank you. That's a good move." He backs away and Jimi tried to play, but Jimi couldn't play. Jimi was so out of it, so high that nothing came together. So, he was having a very difficult time. The more difficult it got for Jimi, the more difficult it was getting for me. I was starting to really feel the effects of this stuff, but he kicked on his Echoplex and that thing was going on and that's what was going on in the inside of my brain. I fell off the truck. I wake up and I'm looking up and there's all these faces looking down at me. "Are you alright? Farner, are you alright?" I got up. I found out later what I took was half cocaine and half heroin. I forgot what they call that. It's not nice.

Q - Speedball.

A - That's exactly what it was. That was the first and last time, but I was kind of coerced into it for my love of Jimi and his playing. I didn't want to let him down. I didn't want to seem like I was a party-pooper or something, but I wish I would have after that.

Q - After you told Hendrix, "You're a great guitar player," what did he say?

A - He said, "I love what you do onstage, kid. You sound so good when you sing."

Q - I interviewed a Hendrix tribute performer and when I asked if he had been a fan of Jimi Hendrix, he said he actually liked the guitar playing of Mark Farner. I just thought you should know that.

A - I'll be darned. Well, thank you for that. I appreciate you for sharing that.

Q - When I saw Grand Funk with Craig Frost at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York in October of 1972, people were just standing in the aisles, watching you sing and play guitar. It was almost like they were transformed by your performance. I saw that happen again when Ozzy (Osbourne) had Randy Rhodes in his band. With that being said, it's about time you get into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and get the recognition that's long overdue.

A - Thank you for that, brother. God bless you for that.

Q - When Don Brewer left the band he said something to the effect of "I've got to find something more stable in my life." Stable? What did he end up doing for however long? He's still a drummer. I don't get that.

A - I don't either. That was always a puzzle to me. Him and I had a clash of personalities. I'm more of a down to earth (person) I think as I look at myself. I intend, with every ounce of my intention, not to lift myself up. I've seen people I just don't want to turn out like, in the business where they treat people like they're lower than. I want to treat everybody as if they are the same as I am, that we are grateful to be here and have this attitude of gratitude. I there's so many that I have seen, and I won't mention any names, that really have let it go to their head and I don't want to go there. So, I prevent myself just by putting myself in check and saying flattery is as deceit. (laughs)

Q - A number of years ago I recall reading in Circus magazine that Grand Funk roadies had a wild reputation. What was that all about?

A - Well our roadies had a reputation. We had big guys, physically big people. Way bigger than me. We called the one guy, Bruce Bowles, "Tree" 'cause he resembled a California Redwood. (laughs)

Q - That's a big guy.

A - Yeah. He's big guy, and "Lurch", David Patterson was another big guy. He's like six feet, eight inches and three hundred pounds. We were doing concerts for the Phoenix Houses in New York City at Madison Square Garden. And we had sold out three nights there. During our rehearsal for the set-up for the first night, the Sheriff and some attorneys, the Sheriff in New York City and some attorneys came up onstage and announced they were going to take our equipment. They were going to confiscate our equipment. Well, the roadies surrounded them and looked down upon them and said, "Not today, boys. You're not going to take anything but your asses off this stage. Move!" And they did.

Q - Why did they want to take the equipment?

A - This was the time there was a lawsuit and Terry Knight claimed to own all our equipment. He was going to take it, but not with what he had, not with what the attorneys had in their hand. We said, "Listen, this is for charity. This is for drug rehab. Come back later. You're really messin' up. This timing is really bad." So they did. They came back, but of course they didn't get anything. At least they had enough sense to walk off that stage. It was not going to be a pretty sight. It was not going to be pretty. Our guys were very loyal to us and to the fans 'cause the fans loved us so much. They wouldn't have been happy about us not showing up onstage, buddy.

Q - You almost had Peter Frampton in your band. Craig Frost got the gig. Had Frampton been in the band, would we have seen you and Frampton engage in dueling guitar solos? How different would the music of Grand Funk have been at that time?

A - Well, you can imagine that, but I don't think it would've been dueling. It would've been complimentary to each other and supporting each other. If he would've been taking a lead I would've been playing the baddest ass rhythm guitar that you can imagine just to hold it up there where it belongs to make it shine. Very complimentary. Not any competition what-so-ever between Peter and I. We're not that kind of friends. We're friend friends.

Official Website: MarkFarner.com

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Mark Farner

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