Talking with Grand Funk Railroad founder Mark Farner

Even the long-festering disconnect between the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and reality has its own egregious short-circuits. That the powers-that-be have consistently ignored Grand Funk Railroad is almost beyond comprehension.

Between 1969 and 1976, the power trio from Flint, Michigan scored seven consecutive platinum albums, filled London’s Hyde Park and sold out Shea Stadium faster than the Beatles did.

Grand Funk was the biggest band in the country (even in the years before they had their chart-topping single “We’re An American Band).”

Rooted in the blues, like Cream, the group’s British prototype, Grand Funk was openly despised by Rolling Stone, the “hip” periodical in those confused and confusing times. The magazine did not hide its disdain for the band’s simple, three chord boogie, working man appeal – and refusal to sit down for interviews.

The fans knew different.

Mark Farner, the singer and guitarist for classic-era Grand Funk Railroad, performs Saturday at Ferg’s outdoor Entertainment Complex. Long estranged from drummer Don Brewer and bassist Mel Schacher, Farner – author of “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home),” “Heartbreaker,” “Mean Mistreater,” “Footstompin’ Music,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Soul,” “Paranoid” and, in fact, 90 percent of the material – has pursued a solo career for much of the last 40 years. There likely won’t be any more reunions.

Tickets for Saturday’s 7 p.m. show are at this link.

St. Pete Catalyst: It seems counter-intuitive that Grand Funk Railroad isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How do you feel about that?

Mark Farner: It’s not about what the people want, it’s about whoever owns that damn place. It’s about what they want. It’s never been about the people. We’ve been complaining about things since its inception – who gets let in there and who doesn’t.

It’s just business as usual. It’s 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’s who gets in there.

I don’t need anything from the Rock Hall. Because it’s not a representation of my fans, it’s representation of the people that own it. And that is a one-sided deal.

They’ve been against Grand Funk since its inception. That’s because (band manager) Terry Knight didn’t want us to do interviews. He did the interviews, where he could tout himself – such a magnificent manager, don’t ya know. We were 20 years old, brother, and we’re listening to a guy and thinking “Well, he’s our manager and he knows best. And he says he’s going to create a mystique.” We thought that’s what he was doing, but he was really showcasing his abilities as a manager.

As for the Rock Hall, I think the fans are startin’ to get a clue.

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?

A lot of veterans have told me over the years, it’s been reinforced story after story after story, about how my song “Closer to Home” 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’t just American veterans, it was the Canadian veterans as well. And their spouses.

They told me “Mark, when we got on that ship and we’re comin’ home, and we had ‘I’m Your Captain’ 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.”

The guy said “When we got off that boat, we went on the shore and we kissed the ground.”

Dude, I got a lump in my throat just tellin’ you about it, because I’m re-living it as I’m telling you. The guy’s face. I’m seeing his face. And I’m seein’ the tears just rolling down his cheeks as he’s tellin’ me.

And he’s proud that he hooked up with that song. He’s 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.

And when we played the concert there at the monument, there was not a dry eye in the crowd. It was 36 degrees, brother!

Is the name Grand Funk Railroad in limbo somewhere, and you can’t legally use it?

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?

So anyways, I get a knock at the door, it’s Brewer. He says “Hey Farner, we all need to sign our individual ownership of the trademark into the corporation, where it’ll have a protective umbrella …”

I didn’t finish high school, and he had taken a bit of a course in law, and I thought “Well, he’s looking out for the best interests of the band.” I said oh, OK, and he said “I’m going to go to my room and get the papers.”

I’m thinkin’ why the hell didn’t he just bring the papers with him, but it didn’t 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.

So I’m still a shareholder in the corporation, but I’m like the red headed stepchild.

They go out as Grand Funk Railroad, but to my knowledge they’ve never advertised or told anybody that I’m no longer in that band.

You and Don don’t speak, I imagine?

Yeah, the only time we speak is a corporate meeting once a year, and whenever we’re in court together.

This week’s St. Pete concert is an acoustic show?

Yeah man, this is how a lot of songs started, acoustically. It’s my guys that I use in the electric show, my keyboard player – and my bass player, who grew up in Detroit. He told me he knew almost all of my songs, because every time he’d get in the car, his dad would slap on Grand Funk.

How to you summon rock ‘n’ roll energy with acoustic instruments?

Well, it’s your attitude. It is my attitude – I won’t say it’s yours [laughing] – but it’s 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.