Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad

Don: Well I tell you it was pretty exciting. It was one of those things. As we're going through the Phoenix thing, as we're being sued by Terry Knight, as we're going through all this mess going on, we're out on the road actually supporting that Phoenix record, and Terry Knight is suing every city we're going into. So you know, I'm sitting in the back of the car all the time, and our manager, our new manager is a good friend of ours, Andy Cavalry, who was our road manager for the Terry Knight stuff, a good friend of ours, he was going, man you guys need to write songs about what you do, you know. You just go around, and you're riding around in limousines and you're doing this. Just write songs about what you do. And I thought okay, and the first thought that came to my mind was: we're coming to your town, we'll help you party it down. Because that's kind of how I looked at what we were doing. We'd come into an airport, we'd get into a car: we're coming to your town, we'll help you party it down. That was the line in my head. So I picked up my guitar at home, and I don't know that many chords, all the chords that I know are on We're An American Band, there you go. That's how many chords I know. And I only know two-finger chords. When I was showing every body in the band how to do this, I was going, this is it; like here, dat dah , dah dah, you know like that. And of course Mark had to put in the, whatever, the ninths, and the sixths, you know, I don't know what they are. This is the pattern I want. And I started coming up with the stuff. And the next thing I know, I need a tag. What was this song? Well that's where this thing We're An American Band came from. We're coming to your town, we'll help you party it down. What are we? We're An American Band. I got to tell you when we recorded it, everybody's in the studio, people from Capitol heard it, they loved it. Everybody loves this thing. And all I could do, was turn around and say: you guys really like this? (laughs) And the next thing you know, they put it out, and it's a huge hit. Wow. (laughs) Look at that.

antiMUSIC: Had you not written very much before that or was it just that your songs didn't make it on the records before?

Don: I would mess around a little bit with some of Farner's stuff before and I would take either some of the chord changes he had you know, I'd ask him, is it okay if I just take this home and work on it? And he'd say; sure, you know. And I'd work on lyrics or work on melody line or something. That's how I was writing before. When it came to the American Band thing, like I say, (laughs), I had this thought about, we're coming to your town, we'll help you party it down. And of course the Sweet, Sweet Connie from Little Rock is in there, and the four young chiquitas from Omaha, up all night with Freddy King. These were things that were going on the road. I'm just writing the songs, I'm just the reporter here. This is what I see going on out here. I'm just the reporter. So I put all this stuff together, and like I say I don't know a lot of chords on the guitar, but I say, I can do this you know, and I picked it up and it's just amazing that it became what it is. And it still amazes me today …(laughs)...It's being used in movies, and it's being used in commercials. But when I listen to it, when I heard, especially when I hear it on the radio, I got to tell you, Todd Rundgren, bless his heart, he did a great job on that record, I think. I mean it still today sounds to me like a quote unquote hit record. It does. It just sounds like a hit record. It has a life to it, that's just amazing.

antiMUSIC: That is the quintessential Grand Funk song, no doubt. But then you've got all these awesome songs on there like "Black Licorice" and "Walk like a Man", so it's not just like you yourself come out with the one-hit wonder. You were contributing pretty heavily to that whole record.

Don: Yeah, at that time period, yeah you know, I continued on, you know on the Shinin' On record I was doing some writing, and as we got a little further along, I got kind of bogged down in some of the things that we're going on, the politics that we're going on with the band, and I was losing interest. But yeah, that period I was really into, I guess I had assumed some sort of new character that I was living. (laughs) And that character was generating this music. It was great. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: Whose idea was it to cover "The Loco-Motion" and were you surprised by its success?

Don: Absolutely surprised by the success. We came into the swamp. We had a place called the swamp, a studio outside of Flint. That was kind of like our hang out, a place where we'd go and we'd rehearse every night and jam and practice. It was a band hang out. And we had finished the American Band record, had a huge success, been out on the road touring. When we came in, we had to have a follow up record. We got to have a big record. We started working on Shinin' On and again I had taken some of Mark's chords for this jam that we had, home for Shinin' On, came up with the whole Keep it Shining on stuff. We were kind of going for that kind of down and dirty R&B groove, you know. So that's what we were going for. We had worked our way through the whole record actually, and Todd was out there producing it, and we listened back to the stuff, and we go: you know, Shinin' On was good but we didn't feel like it was THE follow up hit to "American Band" and "Walk like a Man". They were huge, huge. So we would go out to McDonalds or we would send out for some food and this swamp, the studio was just across the road from Mark's farm. He had a farm out out there. And he would go home for dinner every day and we would all sit down for food or whatever. And one day he walked back into the studio, this is after we'd done a session and somebody had the radio on and there was Little Eva's version. And we said as a joke we should do it. So we got the lyrics and it was Todd's kind of idea to make it sound like a party going on. sort of like the The Beach Boy's "Barbra Ann". Sounds like there's a big party going on. of course with Todd, Todd's attitude is more like a big rock arena party. (laughs) And so we just went out and started fooling around with the chord changes and stuff, and Todd worked his magic on it, and that's what happened. It again, became a huge hit. It was kind of like the right time period for that, like a tongue in cheek thing, Grand Funk doing "The Locomotion". I mean, are you kidding me? How stupid is that? But it was a hit. (laughs) And still today we do "The Locomotion" early in the show and people are on their feet dancing, and it's just amazing.

antiMUSIC: The American Red Cross approached you to make a movie because they had polled young people at the time about their musical tastes and Grand Funk was by far their favorite choice. You guys offered to make a movie with you giving blood and urging everybody to do the same. That was shown in high schools across the country. Do you remember doing that? 

Don: Yeah, I do. Yeah, I remember going into New York, and having people watch us, actually film us giving blood. And also we were very concerned with the drug situation back then. We supported a drug rehab facility in New York. We actually did a benefit for them, called Phoenix House. Because what we saw going on in the hippie movement, you know the drugs had changed from being recreational and fun, you know, smoking pot and that kind of stuff, to the drug dealers who were moving in and kind of taking advantage of this whole generation of people who were experimenting with drugs. And pretty soon heroin and cocaine and all this stuff was moving in and wrecking people. So we were opposed to that whole deal so we were making statements to make people aware of what can happen.

antiMUSIC: When I first heard the news that Frank Zappa was going to be producing Grand Funk, I couldn't believe it. It seemed like such an odd pairing. But I remember an interview where you said you were so surprised his first day in the studio, he came in with a thermos and lunch pail, just like he was going to work and you guys ended up on breaks shooting wrist rockets. Why did you ask him to produce and what was he like to work with?

Don: Well again, you know we were looking for a change, radio once again was changing. By 1975-76 we'd put out a couple of records, and we could feel the beginnings of disco coming on. And we kind of feared that unless we were going in a direction we were going to lose radio. We felt that we had gone off in a couple of directions that were not for us, All the Girls in the World, and Born to Die, really just wasn't where we wanted to go. So we were trying to get more back to: let's just be a rock and roll band. When we started talking about producers. Back in '72 when we were looking for producers, Zappa's name had come up back then. And we thought, that's a little too out there. So we got Todd. And then as we moved through this other time period, and we wanted to get back to our roots. Zappa's name came back up again. And we said, you know what, why not. Let's just fly him out, let's just see where he's at. Who knows? And you're right. He came out and it was totally what we didn't expect from Frank Zappa. We thought he'd be this super weird guy and musical genius, weird guy. And he was just a down to earth, regular guy and he actually liked what we were doing. And we were, are you kidding me? Frank Zappa likes us? (laughs) So it was exciting. Again he put a whole other spin on it. We got excited by the spin he was putting on it, the way things sounded, and the energy. It was fun to do. We had a great time making that record. It was unfortunate it was never a big hit. But it was a lot of fun to make.

antiMUSIC: Looking back, why do you think that your early 80s comeback with Grand Funk Lives wasn't successful? Was it just the musical climate at that time

Don: I think so. I think it just wasn't the right…Grand Funk music just wasn't what was going on in the '80s.They were starting to get into this Corporate Rock deal, bands were being overproduced, I felt, and then going off in this other direction. I don't think it was the right time for us to be making a comeback so to speak. It was actually too early for us to make a comeback. (laughs) Yeah, I think that's what it was. It just didn't click.

antiMUSIC: We've heard rumors of a new record for several years now. We know about the problems with Bands that are considered Classic Rock not being able to break new material. However, now with MySpace and indie artists being able to market themselves on the Internet, you can directly reach your audience this way. Can we expect a new record in the near future?

Don: Oh, sure. And we've had many discussions about doing that. It's just a matter of when do we want to get around to it and we're not in a big rush to do that. I think there's still a lot of shaking out, settling down that has to go on before a viable way to get your new music out there. I think it's very niche oriented right now, but I think it's heading in a direction where that's the only way that people are going to get music anymore. It's certainly going that way. I just don't think it's had time to completely work its way through everything yet. 

antiMUSIC: You've played with Bob Seger on several tours, along with Craig. What were those experiences like?

Don: Oh, incredible. A great learning experience for me. I just did this last tour with them. From November out until March. It's always a good way to check on your musicianship when you've got to play with a bunch of other musicians. And you learn parts that other people have played and you kind of turn them around and make them your own and going in that direction is always a great learning experience. And those are a great bunch of guys. I mean we've known Bob since the late '60s. It's always fun to work with him and that whole organization. It's like a second family for me, you know, with Craig and everybody involved in the band. It's a lot of fun. I have a good time doing it.

antiMUSIC: What does Don Brewer do when he's not involved with Grand Funk? Do you have a family? Where do you make your home?

Don: I have a family. My daughter just got married. And I'm looking forward to having me a couple of grandkids, maybe in the next year or two. And I've got a wife, and my step-daughter lives up in Seattle. I've got a great family. My sister lives up in Michigan. My nephew's on Broadway in New York, and he just had a child a year ago. And I've got a great family. Wonderful family.

antiMUSIC: Where do you make your home now?

Don: I'm in Florida. Jupiter, Florida.

antiMUSIC: You're booked it seems like for the rest of the year. Looking into the future, how long can you envision playing?

Don: (laughs) As long as I'm not in a wheelchair I think I can probably handle it. (laughs)

antiMUSIC: That's all the questions I have for you, Don. Is there anything else you want to tell me about the band that I didn't ask you?

Don: I think you covered it. It was a very good interview. Thank you.

antiMUSIC: This has been an awesome pleasure. I wish you all the luck with this summer's tour and hopefully I can shake your hand some day.

Don: Thank you Morley.

antiMUSIC: Thanks a lot for your time Don.

Don: You're welcome. Bye.

Morley and antiMUSIC thank Don Brewer for doing this interview.

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