Mark Farner Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

Grand Funk Railroad was the only unsigned act at the Atlanta International Pop Festival in 1969. They were novices with a fire to perform, and would often do so for free to gain exposure and experience. Manager Terry Knight persuaded the festival's promoters to put them on the bill, which they eventually did, granting them the opening slot. Mark Farner, the power trio’s guitarist and lead vocalist, gazed nervously out at the crowd of 180,000 on that 110-degree summer day, and then walked onstage. The band broke into their lively opener, "Are You Ready", and there was no turning back. This show led to a deal with Capital Records.

Though it appears the perfect Cinderella story, Grand Funk Railroad still had an uphill climb in their effort to establish themselves in the music world of the early ‘70s. Often snubbed by critics and disregarded by radio, constant touring became their key to developing a devoted fan base for their innovative style of hard driving, bluesy rock. However, five platinum and three gold records over the three following years was an achievement even the critics couldn’t ignore. Farner’s unmistakable signature lead guitar sound and funky rhythm chops conjured melodies that molded flawlessly with the hard thumping groove of Mel Schacher’s bass lines and Don Brewer’s pulsating beats. His instantly recognizable vocal talent is considered by many to be one of the greatest in rock history.

Despite the fact that 1969's On Time and 1970's Grand Funk received sporadic rock radio airplay at best, much of the contents, including "Are You Ready", "Heartbreaker", "Paranoid", and "Inside Looking Out" were hard rock favorites. Not exactly a household name up to this point, the celebrated Closer To Home album was released in the summer of 1970. The hit "I’m Your Captain", regarded by many to be one of the greatest rock songs in history, propelled them into the pop rock limelight. Its melodramatic vibe, unforgettable melody, and resounding string section added another dimension to the band’s sound. Learning the guitar parts became a crucial deed for budding young players everywhere.

The Live Album followed shortly thereafter. The fact that they were already recognized as a fantastic live band only added to its success. Many still place it high on the list of the top 10 best live albums of all time. Their infamous Shea Stadium concert of 1971 broke an attendance record the Beatles had set a few years earlier, a 72-hour ticket sellout that’s supposedly still intact today.

"Footstompin’ Music", the opening song to 1972’s E Pluribus Funk, was a preview of what fans would be getting from the second chapter of Grand Funk Railroad. With a funky organ arrangement as the nucleus of this R&B influenced hit, its effective yet simple melody was enjoyed by pop radio listeners and staunch rockers alike. Farner’s killer guitar solo midway through was just one in the many to follow in a long line of Top 40 hits the band would produce over the next few years. Though Mark held the position of both resident guitarist and keyboardist in those days, Craig Frost was added to the mix near the end of 1972. A dedicated keyboardist added a full, rich flavor to the rhythm section, one that allowed Farner to fully concentrate on guitar and vocals, especially in live settings.

Though these multifaceted changes (also resulting in shortening the band’s name officially to Grand Funk) weren’t exactly what diehard fans of the initial power trio were looking for, they certainly weren’t negative changes either. Mark, Don, and Mel, with Craig in tow, were then able to experience success from the opposite end of the rock ‘n’ roll continuum. Grand Funk Railroad went on to become the definitive American rock ‘n’ roll band and hit-making machine. Songs like "Rock ‘N’ Roll Soul", "We’re An American Band" (with Don singing lead), "The Loco-Motion", "Some Kind Of Wonderful", and others were released in a steady flow.

Grand Funk continued to evolve and change. 1976’s Good Singin’, Good Playin', produced by Frank Zappa, concentrated more on ability and musicianship than Top 40 hits. Unfor - tunately, messy circumstances being the rock business norm, a roller coaster ride of misunderstandings and legal situations troubled the members of Grand Funk as time went on, leading to numerous partings of the way.

Never one to slow down for long, Mark Farner went on to experience success as a solo artist. Delving into Christian rock for a while, or God Rock as he calls it, and back into his own version of rock and the classic R&B sound of Grand Funk, he keeps going strong in the rock ‘n’ roll vein. Pretty much the defining member of Grand Funk anyway, his music is still innovative and exciting. He tours regularly, thrilling fans with new material as well as the memorable hits of the '70s. He says he’s lucky just to be sucking air, but truth be told, we’re lucky to have one of the great rock singers and definitive lead guitarists of the ‘70s around to tell the tale, and to give us yet another day of great rock ‘n’ roll music, both classic and fresh.

Below is a conversation I had with Mark Farner on March 6, 2007, during a break in his current tour. We talked about playing guitar, Grand Funk Railroad, religion, politics, and the love of life, music, and family. Just as in the lyrics to his songs, Mark tells it like it is in a straightforward and concerned manner.

Listen to a song from Mark Farner's new CD, For the People.

"Nadean"

Mark, what’s your secret for sustaining a career in the music business for close to 40 years?

Mark Farner: Exercise by reason of use. You’ve gotta use it. The fans have kept coming to the shows, making us feel as though we still need to be there. I’m almost 60 and I’m proud to be sucking air, let alone doing music. The fans keep us alive. God bless the fans.

Back in the ‘70s, you guys made up one of the most popular live bands around.

MF: Back in the day. [Laughing]

What has been the most profound change in the music business over the years?

MF: The advent of music videos changed everything, perception-wise anyway. Take the Simon and Garfunkel song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for example. Long before videos, they did a poll to find out what the song meant to people. They polled 100 different people and got a hundred different interpretations. There wasn’t a video that accompanied that song. It was up to each individual’s imagination, as it was in all early music. Just like when reading a book, the book is always better than the movie. Our imagination is that much better than what we’d see at the movies. That, I think, has been the biggest change in music. It’s highly video influenced now. We’re not using our imagination as much as we once did.

On your new CD, "For The People", the lyric content of the title song, as well as the song "Where Do We Go From Here", coincides with much of today’s social and political climate. Is that important to you?

MF: It is. It’s important because I’ve got children and grandchildren. For me, now that the music industry has changed so much with the corporate conglomeration of everything, just like every other aspect of living in the United States, everybody pooled their resources and got so big they grew out of their britches. But music still has the same potential to reach people on a level that a newspaper article can’t do. I believe there’s still hope to use music to influence people in a positive light. There’s definitely some thought in the two songs you mentioned. Hopefully it provokes people just to think. I’m not making any declarations or telling people this is what we have to do to get past our problems. I just want people to think and not settle for something second rate, because this country is not second rate.

I’ve listened to the album a few times over and I like it a lot. Your music still has that Mark Farner and Grand Funk flavor, and you still possess that exciting rock ‘n’ roll vocal ability. You still hit those high notes. Many classic rockers can’t do that.

MF: Well, I appreciate you saying that, Brian. But as I had said, just to be sucking air is great. [Laughing] Making music is, ah, pinch me, you know. But my wife takes good care of me. She’s thirteen years younger than I am. She loves me and keeps me healthy and we have a good relationship. I think that has a lot to do with why I’m able to get up and sing those same notes.

That probably has a lot to do with it. Talk about the song “Nadean”, also known as “Lesia”. Is that right?

MF: Yeah. The word Lesia didn’t sing as good in that place as Nadean, so Lesia’s gonna have to be Nadean for a while, just for one song. [Laughing]

You were into the Christian rock movement for a while.

MF: We call it God Rock. It wasn’t invented to entertain Christians. I mean, there are some Christians that happen to be musicians and some musicians that just happen to be Christians, you know. It’s just part of it. Coming from secular rock ‘n’ roll back in the early ‘80s and then getting into God rock, I was influenced by a lot of stuff that I’d never entertained before, you know, going to church and what have you. But I did finally recognize after, you know, you hear so many different versions of this and that, that there’s a lot of hypocrisy in church. There’s a lot of hypocrisy in the version of the Gospel of Christ, a lot of people preaching. After you hear their version of the Gospel then you can either accept it by saying this prayer, doing this, or following that. To me, it’s like, if Christ was supposed to set us free, then why does religion come along and put the chains back on? The grace is erased and you don’t have the communication on the soul level. You’re afraid you’ll go to Hell if you do something wrong.

The scare tactic.

MF: Yeah, absolutely. But I’m at a place now where the grace has taken over all other notions that I had, religious or not. I believed a certain way because people told me a certain way. I was talking with Hillary Girard, who was Ringo Starr’s manager and close friend. He’s Jewish but he practices a Buddhist belief system, so he’s a Jewish Buddhist. We were sitting in a bar one night and he asked me about my mother being Cherokee and my background as a Native American. He said, "Do you believe in the great spirit and Jesus Christ?" To me, they’re one in the same. Everybody’s God is one in the same. I then said, "If the Bible is right, and Jesus died for everybody’s sins and saved everyone from Hell, and the job was completed, then what do I do?" Do I have to do something to make it better? I don’t think I could measure up to Christ.

I believe that the unconditional love of the creator is all around us. There are a lot of bad people who have misused and corrupted the system, and have used it for their own selfish ambitions. It seems like it’s pretty bad out there with regard to that, because people are arrogant enough in their own mind to elevate themselves and their own thinking above others. I just can’t do that, and I don’t think music lends itself for that. I think music lends itself more for the equalization of the peace and the love that was coming out of it back in the ‘60s, back in the day. Back when I was wearing my love beads. [Laughing]

You had that Cherokee Indian look back then, no doubt about that. [Laughing]

MF: Yup.

Does anything arouse your interest in today’s rock music scene? Are you listening to any fresh entertainers?

MF: Not really. I try not to listen to other music. I have to keep my mind open for what’s coming in as a songwriter. If I go into the gas station and pay for gas, whatever song was playing when I was in there is in my head for the next few days and I can’t change the channel. [Laughing]

I’m interested in learning about your idols and influences, primarily because your own style was so individualistic and signature to you. It was that Mark Farner sound. What guitarists motivated you back in the day?

MF: The early Clapton stuff, like Fresh Cream. I loved that tone and that approach. Of course, Jimi Hendrix, he was my guitar god. Jeff Beck when he was in the Yardbirds. Those guys, along with Rick Derringer, who’s a phenomenal rock ‘n’ roll guitar player.

Yes, he is.

MF: That’s what I listened to. I play every day, trying to improve, and I am getting better. Slow but sure. [Laughing]

Well, that’s the best part about playing an instrument. It keeps getting better.

MF: Yes.

Was it an easy decision for Grand Funk to leave the power trio formation and take in a keyboard player?

MF: It was a matter of me being outvoted. I didn’t want that to happen, but the other two guys did.

That scenario has happened to a few different trio bands over the years. But Grand Funk seemed to make one of the biggest and most profound changes in sound. Both styles were good, yet totally different, from an underground rock trio to a hit making, pop-rock quartet.

MF: Yeah, a whole different genre.

Grand Funk Railroad still tours, yet without Mark Farner. Isn’t that kind of like a beach without water? [Both Laughing]

MF: I appreciate that, Brian. A lot of people have said something like that, and I’m with you on it, of course. But my mistake was signing the ownership of my one-third of the trademark over to the corporation. I was told it was for a protective umbrella, but it was done by one of the band members who wanted it in there so he could manipulate it. I didn’t see it coming. It’s hindsight and it’s what it is, but I think it’s keeping the band apart.

Capital came out with the DVD that had footage from the Shea Stadium show and a CD release. I sat across the table at Capital Records in L.A., and I talked with them and told them we should put the band back together to promote this. Well, the other guys didn’t want to do it. They quietly turned it down and said they’d do better without me. It’s hurting people, and I just feel sorry for them. Most of all I feel sorry for the fans, because they’re not getting a true shake, and they’re not even calling themselves the New Grand Funk or something, and giving fans a heads up like Creedence Clearwater Revisited does. There’s a heads up there. It’s not “Revival”, it’s “Revisited”.

I know that Don and Mel are in this version of Grand Funk, just as Stu and Doug are in the Revisited version of Creedence. But just as CCR is basically John Fogerty music, Grand Funk is Mark Farner more than anything else. What's more is that the guitar playing style of both are signature segments of each band. But I don’t think it would affect your career much. Touring as Mark Farner must be rewarding enough on its own.

MF: Oh, it is. I won’t go there and tell people I’m Grand Funk. I never did that, and I wouldn’t ever do that. But it’s funny, some bands have just the original guitar tech or something and they call themselves the name of the original band. It’s just a total lie to the unsuspecting public.

I’d rather see the real deal or nothing at all. Everything else is just a cover band.

MF: I hear that, brother. I’m with you.

Grand Funk Railroad had quite an enormous and powerful influence on rock music. Looking back at it, it’s easily seen that you guys had quite an amazing career. How do you see it now? Is it a blur?

MF: It happened so fast that we didn’t actually realize the popularity of the band until after we broke up in ’76. Yeah, it was a blur. [Laughing] Doing 59 cities in 61 days, stuff like that’ll just get to you after a while.

That intro riff and chord arrangement in “I’m Your Captain”, how long afterward did it take you to realize how classic and popular that whole thing was?

MF: Well, it’s still amazing today. The people, even the younger ones coming to the concerts, know all of the words to it. It’s just one of those songs. It fit. Everything about it worked for that time and it still works today.

I remember as a kid, trying to get the riff and the chords to the song down. We didn’t have the resources kids have today, like videos, DVD tutorials, and tabulation.

MF: Yeah. [Laughing]

We had to drag the needle back and forth on the record. [Laughing] Either that, or rewind, fast forward, and hit play on the cassette or the 8-track cartridge, just to get that chord arrangement starting with the D and G, and that G6/C. It took us a while but we eventually got it down, the defining lead run as well.

MF: Yeah. [Laughing] The audience really gets going on that part.

I consider it up there as one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

MF: Thank you, Brian. I appreciate that.

“Inside Looking Out” was another we used to love covering.

MF: We’ve still got that one in the set as well.

I recently saw a CD of your songs in extended version form for sale on your website, recorded live in Chicago back in 2003.

MF: Actually, Sony/BMG put out the extended versions of my 3-piece. The keyboard player was sick or something and he couldn’t make it for a couple of gigs. We ended up having good gigs, you know, because the energy was up there. For a board mix, it wasn’t too bad. We put it out and then Sony/BMG licensed it from our record company, Boinkmore, and put it out. It’s doing rather well.

Do you improvise a lot when playing live or do you stick to the studio recordings?

MF: I stick to the record. I don’t like that improvisation stuff. Just as a fan going to see somebody, I’d rather hear the notes played just like the record or close to it. I don’t want to hear anything else. I like the record.

Does the Grand Funk recording studio still exist?

MF: Yeah. It has been renamed Alliance Recording Company. That’s where I recorded For The People, on 2" analog tape, at 15 IPS.

Did you use Pro Tools?

MF: After it was already put to tape. Then they bounce it over, or, I guess, capture it. They digitally captured it in Pro Tools and then did the massage on it there. It’s being sold on CDBaby, iTunes, all the Internet stuff, and of course, markfarner.com. It also can be downloaded there for 89 cents a song.

How’d your involvement in Ringo Starr’s All Star Band come about, and how was that experience?

MF: It came about through David Fishoff calling the Bobby Roberts Agency, my booking agency in Nashville. They wanted me to try out and see if I wanted to do this Ringo Starr All Star Band. After they said who was going to be in the band I figured I’d give it a try. Up until that point, I had done Mark Farner and Grand Funk music all my life, from ’69. I had to learn other people’s music. But I’ll tell you, it was a good move, Brian, because it was a good musical stretch for me. I’m a better player for learning from those guys. Randy Bachman showed me the chords to the versions he made. It was great because that stuff stayed with me. I’ll use that for the rest of my life in what I’m doing. I loved that aspect of the All Star Band.

We did a press interview when we arrived in Tokyo. They had a press corps there, and the band sat at a panel at the front of the stage. Each reporter asked different questions to different members of the band. Well, one gal came up to me and said, "Mr. Farner, what is it like playing with Beatle?" I said, "Well, let me tell you something honey, he puts his pants on one leg at a time just as I do." [Laughing] Ringo came over and smacked me on the back, and said, "Thank you, brother." Nobody treats him like a normal guy. He can put a hat and sunglasses on and he’s Ringo with a hat and sunglasses on. There’s no disguising that. [Laughing] We had fun.

Going further back, what do you recall most about the Atlanta International Pop Festival of 1969?

MF: It was a sea of people, the most memorable audience from looking out from the stage onto the crowd. It was the first time we’d ever been in front of more than 1,000 people. Here it was, 180,000, something like that. It was just a sea of people. I was so nervous; I had to take a piss at like the last minute. We got up there, hit that first note to “Are You Ready”, and people loved it. We played all of our original songs and people ate it up. They kept calling us back for encores. We just took off from there.

This is going back for me, because I haven’t seen the back of the live album jacket in years, but wasn’t it at that festival where a baby was born and the mother named it Grand Funk Railroad?

MF: Yeah. [Laughing]

Little Miss or Mr. Grand Funk Railroad is a young man or woman somewhere now.

MF: Somewhere. [Laughing] Wild stuff.

Talk about LisMark Records. Does it still exist?

MF: No, it’s defunct. That was just my own label. A friend and I started this website together and the label was just going to put out stuff that was formerly only available on vinyl, like the two Atlantic albums. The Complete Atlantic Sessions was released on LisMark. It was for that purpose, not to recruit or enlist anybody else. It was mainly me being an indie, you know. The label that my wife and I have now is called Boinkmore Records. The slogan is “Make love, not war ... Boinkmore.” [Laughing]

Want to say anything about the new release, “For The People”?

MF: Hopefully the song, “For The People”, will provoke people to think about the Constitution, about what the United States once stood for. Hopefully, there’s enough integrity left amongst us that we can still pull something out of this. It seems like a lot of people went for the heavy payoff and took a crap on the rest of us. The album, For The People, has songs on it that people can relate to, like a father’s heart calling out to the world, saying, "Hey! Is anyone else seeing what’s going on? Does anyone else feel the same as I do about this?"

This is what Grand Funk music did, Brian, in like '69 or '70, the Vietnam War and all. I was writing songs about crooked politicians. Some things never change. Like “People, Let’s Stop The War” and “I’m Your Captain”, it was a time of protest and all. You’re not going to hear songs like that on the radio today, because the radio is bought and paid for by the people with the money, when it comes right down to it. The corporate conglomerates have really done a job on things. Everybody has an investment in music, it's so much of our life. We hate to see corporate conglomerates get a hold of it because it just becomes numbers, and it’s no longer something alive and something to move people, and to touch people, and to lift them up or bring them down. It’s just being hand picked by someone who really isn’t musical at all. I thank God for people like you who are doing interviews with people that are saying something about it. At least people will be able to read the truth.

I’ve noticed the difference between the guitarists I interview that are getting up on age, as opposed to the younger ones. The younger players are great, and they are the current generation of players, but the older guys are the ones who are in the know and have lived through it all. They talk from experience, and it often makes for interesting conversation.

MF: I hear you, brother.

By the way, where were the pictures on the CD’s inner booklet taken?

MF: In Nashville.

Looking at the barbed wire fence and all, it looks like it was “Inside Looking Out”. [Laughing]

MF: Yeah, well, that’s kind of what’s happening around the country. I think we’ve still got the greatest country in the world, but there’s a lot coming against us right now. We need to pull together in hope of giving something to our children and grandchildren.

I agree. Before we close, Mark, I’d like to talk about your gear a bit, your studio and road equipment. It seems you were never the type of guitarist who stuck with the same guitar for too long.

MF: Not until I got my Parker Fly.

Back in the early days I saw you with that Messenger Thinline Hollowbody a lot.

MF: Yup.

There was also the ’59 Les Paul. I know you played a Les Paul for a while.

MF: Well, the one I had for E Pluribus Funk was a double cutaway SG that I had gotten from Steve Marriott. I toured with that guitar. It just felt good. When you pick up an instrument or an effect that changes your sound that much, it inspires you in certain ways. I had that and an L5-S.

I remember the L5-S, too.

MF: I had a couple of different Microfret models, and the Velenos, of course, the aluminum guitar, for “Shinin’ On”. I had a Strat for a while, too. I like the single coil sound better. I have a hardtail Fly, without a whammy. I never did use them. It gives a better sound, to the Fly anyway, to have that cavity full of wood. My own guitar rig that I keep in Nashville still contains the D130F, the JBL. They were a bass speaker initially. But the D130F is a 15" speaker, and I have two cabinets with two speakers in each, so I’m in stereo.

I’m running my old stomp boxes that have been modified. I sent my BluesDriver to Robert Keeley to do a mod on it, to give it some more clarity and low end. He does a wonderful job. He did a mod on my Vox Cry Baby wah-wah pedal as well. I’ve got a little blue LED on it now that tells me whether it’s on or off. You know, you just guess with most wah pedals. [Laughing] I also have a Fuzz Head, which is a Keeley invention. It’s a very musical box. It’s not really an overdrive or a fuzz pedal; it’s just a unique box. I’m using a Line 6 delay, which is a modeling delay. It’s got the tap on it. I can have three different delay types. I got that one because there’s a real close slap in “Shinin’ On”, and it carries on. It’s for that song. The other two settings are just kind of generic delay. I run all of that into an SD-9 Sonic Distortion, a fluorescent green Ibanez pedal. I love that pedal, especially after the Keeley mod on it. From there I go into an Arion Stereo Chorus. It’s a left and right out, though the front end is mono.

I feed all that into the front end of my two Supers. I have a pair of Fender Supers that are rack mounted. They’re basically stock, but I replaced all the capacitors, and, of course, use all American made tubes. I’ve also got a volume pedal next to my wah pedal. I don’t have a volume control on the guitar. I have it wired wide open. The only things working on the guitar is the switch and the tone. The volume is nonexistent because my configuration has always been to control it with my foot. It’s easier that way for me, coming off a lead, to just rock it and be right back where you need to be. But that configuration with just those Super amps is so clean, man; I only have to run it on four. It’s super loud. And I mic the cabinets anyway. But on my fly dates, I’ll take the same pedal configuration and run them in front of a pair of silver face Twin reissues. It’s not with the 15" speaker. It doesn’t even come close to that tone I get with the JBLs, but it’s as close as I can get and still have something similar in every city I’m going to. Of course, who doesn’t have a Fender Twin in their town? [Laughing] We carry our own preamp tubes, mainly because a lot of the rental gear has been bounced around. We’ll test them out and usually replace the tubes with the ones we carry.

Related Links
Mark Farner
Brian D. Holland's review of For The People

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