Grand Funk Railroad Come Together

By Tony Sauro, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Jun. 19–Grand Funk Railroad truly is an American band.

Now, when the guys in this 39-year-old rock group get together, they criss-cross America from their homes in Los Angeles; Phoenix; Jupiter, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Traverse City, Mich.; to reconnect at the gigs.

It’s definitely not like the old days, when Grand Funk helped create a template for future hard-rock bands powerful enough to play in stadiums and arenas.

"It’s very cut down now," said Don Brewer, the original drummer in Grand Funk Railroad, which plays Saturday night at the San Joaquin County Fair. "We don’t have to carry a bus or a truck or any of that stuff. It’s kind of comfortable this way."

That’s partly possible because Brewer didn’t party away all his money after Grand Funk Railroad barreled out of Flint, Mich., to become one of the country’s biggest rock bands in the early 1970s.

For him, the rowdy "We’re An American Band" was the group’s signature song, not a go-for-broke lifestyle.

"Really, that’s it," said Brewer, 59, who also sings and never has worked at anything except playing music. "Ever since it started, I just wanted to be in rock ‘n’ roll. I was fortunate to put some money away back in our heyday. So, I’ve just sort of semi-retired this beast."

He said he unretires it "40 or 50" times a year, though, to crank out the group’s sturdy music.

Grand Funk’s brand-name song — "We’re An American Band," a million-selling, No. 1 single in 1973 — will be placed prominently Saturday night.

It’s played a prominent role in Brewer’s life. He wrote it.

"We were going through a big transition," Brewer recalled during a phone conversation from his Florida home. "We’d split up from our manager and attorney, because … they were ripping us off for everything we had.

"We were really in a bad situation. We had six gold albums but we couldn’t tour. FM radio had turned from being underground into a hits format. Now we had to come up with hit singles."

Mark Farner, the band’s original frontman and flamboyant lead singer, had been writing most of Grand Funk’s songs.

"I said, ‘I’ve got some ideas,’ " Brewer explained. "You know, ‘We’re coming to town to help you party it down.’ I didn’t know very many chords, but I knew a couple. I was just taking snippets from what happens on the road."

Todd Rundgren, then a precocious young rock musician who "understood the hit format," took it from there and produced the career-saving hit single.

"It just took off like a scream," Brewer said. The record earned the band enough money and credibility to resolve its legal problems.

Rundgren wasn’t finished.

A year later, he came waltzing into the recording studio singing "The Loco-Motion," a novelty tune written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin that had been a No. 1 hit for Little Eva in 1962.

Improbably, Rundgren’s production of it became a No. 1 single for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974. Its last one.

"It was like a tongue-in-cheek thing," Brewer said. "Grand Funk doing ‘The Loco-Motion.’ Maybe it’s so stupid it’ll work."

Somehow, it did. It still does.

Because of Grand Funk’s longevity — the band was formed in 1969 — it’s undergone several incarnations since Farner, now 59, first departed in 1976.

The current lineup, though, has been together since 2001: Brewer, founding bassist Mel Schacher, 57; guitarist Bruce Kulick, 54; singer Max Carl, 59; and keyboard player Tim Cashion, 44.

Brewer has toured three times with Michigan buddy Bob Seger while Kulick was a member of Kiss’ road band for 12 years. Oddly enough, he’s also played in Michael Bolton’s band. Cashion also has toured with Seger’s Silver Bullet Band.

However, Brewer long ago cut back on his 10- or 15-minute drum solo, a now-archaic talisman of the era ("people don’t want that anymore").

He exercises to stay in road shape and is prepared to face his 60th birthday on Sept. 3.

"It’s a little scary," said Brewer, married and the father of two adult daughters. "Fifty has been a little scary. You start seeing little changes in yourself."

He still sees the same old youthful enthusiasm in Grand Funk’s audiences, though.

"I just feel happy we still can play live," he said. "I don’t know how to account for it. It’s really remarkable. We’re out there still singing songs we made 35 years ago.

"Every night, the audience sings louder than I am. It’s not only older people but kids — grandparents, parents and grandchildren — who know this music. It’s extraordinary to me."

Contact reporter Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or tsauro@recordnet.com.

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

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