at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Pete Catalyst: It seems counter-intuitive that Grand Funk Railroad isn\u2019t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How do you feel about that?<\/p>\n
Mark Farner: It\u2019s not about what the people want, it\u2019s about whoever owns that damn place. It\u2019s about what they want. It\u2019s never been about the people. We\u2019ve been complaining about things since its inception \u2013 who gets let in there and who doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just business as usual. It\u2019s the same culprits. The people that have the money to own it, manipulate it. And I think they use it for their own fun. For their own crowd. For their own clique. And that\u2019s who gets in there.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t need anything from the Rock Hall. Because it\u2019s not a representation of my fans, it\u2019s representation of the people that own it. And that is a one-sided deal.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been against Grand Funk since its inception. That\u2019s because (band manager) Terry Knight didn\u2019t want us to do interviews. He did the interviews, where he could tout himself \u2013 such a magnificent manager, don\u2019t ya know. We were 20 years old, brother, and we\u2019re listening to a guy and thinking \u201cWell, he\u2019s our manager and he knows best. And he says he\u2019s going to create a mystique.\u201d We thought that\u2019s what he was doing, but he was really showcasing his abilities as a manager.<\/p>\n
As for the Rock Hall, I think the fans are startin\u2019 to get a clue.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those first six or so million-selling albums meant a great deal to a whole lot of people. When people talk to you, what do they bring up most?<\/p>\n
A lot of veterans have told me over the years, it\u2019s been reinforced story after story after story, about how my song \u201cCloser to Home\u201d got them through Vietnam. My band and I did a free concert in D.C., at the wall for Vietnam veterans, for the organization Vietnam Veterans For America. And it wasn\u2019t just American veterans, it was the Canadian veterans as well. And their spouses.<\/p>\n
They told me \u201cMark, when we got on that ship and we\u2019re comin\u2019 home, and we had \u2018I\u2019m Your Captain\u2019 playing. And when it would stop, we would start it again. And when it would stop, we would start it again. All the way home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The guy said \u201cWhen we got off that boat, we went on the shore and we kissed the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dude, I got a lump in my throat just tellin\u2019 you about it, because I\u2019m re-living it as I\u2019m telling you. The guy\u2019s face. I\u2019m seeing his face. And I\u2019m seein\u2019 the tears just rolling down his cheeks as he\u2019s tellin\u2019 me.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s proud that he hooked up with that song. He\u2019s proud that I wrote that song. He said they thought it was for them, the boys in Vietnam that were there, and they wanted to be home.<\/p>\n
And when we played the concert there at the monument, there was not a dry eye in the crowd. It was 36 degrees, brother!<\/p>\n
Is the name Grand Funk Railroad in limbo somewhere, and you can\u2019t legally use it?<\/p>\n
The truth of the matter is, Don Brewer came to my room one night in 1998, we played in California at Konocti Harbor. He came to my room after the show, and after the party that was after every show. Before the show, we always went on straight, but afterwards there were a few drinks, you know?<\/p>\n
So anyways, I get a knock at the door, it\u2019s Brewer. He says \u201cHey Farner, we all need to sign our individual ownership of the trademark into the corporation, where it\u2019ll have a protective umbrella \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t finish high school, and he had taken a bit of a course in law, and I thought \u201cWell, he\u2019s looking out for the best interests of the band.\u201d I said oh, OK, and he said \u201cI\u2019m going to go to my room and get the papers.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thinkin\u2019 why the hell didn\u2019t he just bring the papers with him, but it didn\u2019t dawn on me until after I was notified a couple of days later, that I was no longer an officer in the corporation. And that they were functioning as Grand Funk Railroad, the two of them, without me.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m still a shareholder in the corporation, but I\u2019m like the red headed stepchild.<\/p>\n
They go out as Grand Funk Railroad, but to my knowledge they\u2019ve never advertised or told anybody that I\u2019m no longer in that band.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
You and Don don\u2019t speak, I imagine?<\/p>\n
Yeah, the only time we speak is a corporate meeting once a year, and whenever we\u2019re in court together.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s St. Pete concert is an acoustic show?<\/p>\n
Yeah man, this is how a lot of songs started, acoustically. It\u2019s my guys that I use in the electric show, my keyboard player \u2013 and my bass player, who grew up in Detroit. He told me he knew almost all of my songs, because every time he\u2019d get in the car, his dad would slap on Grand Funk.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
How to you summon rock \u2018n\u2019 roll energy with acoustic instruments?<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s your attitude. It is my attitude \u2013 I won\u2019t say it\u2019s yours [laughing] \u2013 but it\u2019s mine, brother! It is my heart. And when I sing, man, it is the same voice, they will recognize who I am. And I stand there proudly because I am who my songs say I am.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even the long-festering disconnect between the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and reality has its own egregious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-141668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}