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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob less Us Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Yesterday is the one and only Mark farn Martin. Good

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Speaker 1: to have the other podcast. Good to be here with

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Speaker 1: your brother, Bob. So how's your health. I know you

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Speaker 1: have a pacemaker put in back in So how are

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Speaker 1: you today? I'm good. And as a matter of fact, Uh,

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Speaker 1: the pacemaker, you know, they're supposed to be good for

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Speaker 1: seven to ten years, and uh, my date is coming

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Speaker 1: up October twenty three for the for the ten year mark.

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Speaker 1: And when I talked to the gal at the hospital,

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Speaker 1: you know, you put this little thing over your heart

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Speaker 1: and it sends it through the cell phone and gives

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Speaker 1: them a reading for the month, you know, and she says,

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Speaker 1: it's very extraordinary that you should have so much battery

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Speaker 1: life left in your pay pacemaker. But you're good for

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Speaker 1: a long time. Yeah. I love hearing stuff like that, Bob,

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Speaker 1: don't we all? So tell us the story of why

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Speaker 1: you needed the pacemaker to begin with. Well, my wife

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Speaker 1: and I were down in Detroit doing some promotions, and

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Speaker 1: uh we stayed at the Renaissance Center there and she

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Speaker 1: had gotten up to do her thing in the morning,

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Speaker 1: you know, she was in the bathroom, washing her face

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Speaker 1: and everything. And she said when she came out of

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Speaker 1: the bathroom, my left arm had was shot up into

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Speaker 1: the air, and and I was I started kind of

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Speaker 1: flipping around. I don't remember any of this, buddy, uh,

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Speaker 1: but I guess I looked like a wounded tuna, you know,

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Speaker 1: flipping around. And she calls, you know, the front desk,

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Speaker 1: and has a paramedics come up. They put me on oxygen.

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Speaker 1: They put me in a ambulance, and I go over

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Speaker 1: to to Harper in Detroit and I'm in the emergency

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Speaker 1: room and I gurney and they got me hooked to

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Speaker 1: an external pacemaker. And these three doctors, well I think

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Speaker 1: they were doctors. They had white coats and they had

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Speaker 1: their backs to me, uh, and they were maybe six

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Speaker 1: ft away from me, but they were looking at the machine,

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Speaker 1: the external pacemaker, and it was in the corner. And

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Speaker 1: as I look over, I'm glancing down at myself and

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Speaker 1: I see these wires hooked to me, and all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, I feel like they just plugged me right

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Speaker 1: straight into the wall. It was like bam. And I

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Speaker 1: hollered out to the top of my lungs. I was,

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Speaker 1: what are you it was like and and my wife

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Speaker 1: heard me holler, and she came running in from the hallway, Honey,

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Speaker 1: what's the matter. And I said, those guys are They

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Speaker 1: just plugged me straight into the wall over there. I said,

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Speaker 1: this is this is not you know. I think I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna die if they do that again. They plugged. They

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Speaker 1: did it again, and I died. Yeah, and uh so

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Speaker 1: on on that approach to come back in into the

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Speaker 1: bone suit. I didn't really want to make that trip, buddy.

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Speaker 1: It was so good. On the other side, it was

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Speaker 1: just like being home. I mean it was you know,

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Speaker 1: it was more secure than your mother's womb, if you

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Speaker 1: can imagine. Uh And and I knew all things in

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Speaker 1: that state of being and uh and but I could

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Speaker 1: hear my wife not now, you son of a bit.

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Speaker 1: She's beating up my chest. And this guy when I

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Speaker 1: when I re entered my bone suit, this the doctor

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Speaker 1: standing next to her with the paddles in his hands.

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Speaker 1: And uh it had they hit me again with this voltage?

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Speaker 1: I go again, and I'm in I'm in heaven, man,

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Speaker 1: I'm telling you, Uh, it's the most wonderful place. And anyways,

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Speaker 1: make a long story short. I hear him telling her

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Speaker 1: we've got him back twice, there's no guarantee we get

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Speaker 1: him a third time. We gotta get him to oh

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Speaker 1: our stat. And when he said stat, it was like

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Speaker 1: mash four oh seven seven scrambling around people, running, diving,

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Speaker 1: you know, pushing me. I was doing fifty miles an

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Speaker 1: hour down the hollway and they put the pacemaker in.

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Speaker 1: But what happened was, uh, you know, they've got two

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Speaker 1: parts to your your heart, the plumbing, of course, which

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Speaker 1: is very important, but then you have the electrical. Well,

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Speaker 1: my electrical had a short in it, Bob. They called

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Speaker 1: it a bundle branch block, and my nerve branch did

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Speaker 1: not receive the signal to squeeze the blood back up

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Speaker 1: into the top part of the heart. So that's what

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Speaker 1: happened to me. And I you know, now I have

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Speaker 1: this pacemaker that samples ahead and it can see when

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss a beat, and it'll throw it in

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Speaker 1: there for me. When it throws it in, do you

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Speaker 1: feel something, Oh, yes, very much, so you go, oh,

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Speaker 1: thank you. And how often does that happen. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: happen very often. In fact, it happened more frequently ten

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Speaker 1: years ago when I first got it put in. I

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Speaker 1: mean it was happening quite frequently. I would notice every day.

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Speaker 1: Now I go days without noticing. And is this hereditary

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Speaker 1: or from living or just some people get a bad number.

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Speaker 1: I believe it's hereditary, brother, because my grandfather, my dad's dad,

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Speaker 1: died in his sleep and they didn't know what it was.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this was, you know, back years and years ago,

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Speaker 1: and I think I might have picked something up from him. Wow,

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Speaker 1: that's quite a story. So do you have to hold

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Speaker 1: back in any activity or can you just live fine? No?

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Speaker 1: In fact, Bob, he said, he told my wife, you

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Speaker 1: tell Mark, don't baby that thing. You push that thing,

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Speaker 1: you make it work, you, you know, take it to

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Speaker 1: the limit. So I do, and on stage I make

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Speaker 1: sure that you know I'm keeping it in good shape.

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Speaker 1: And if I don't get to where I'm sweating and

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Speaker 1: to something is wrong. Now, frequently when people have these

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Speaker 1: near death or as you say in your case, actual

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Speaker 1: death experiences, when they come out of them kind of

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Speaker 1: changes their perspective in their life. Was your perspective changed

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Speaker 1: at all? Yes? I was telling my wife for a

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Speaker 1: few years prior to this adventure that I went on.

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Speaker 1: I told her the thing that's wrong with mankind in

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Speaker 1: general is debt consciousness, um I said, because once you're

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Speaker 1: indebted to someone or beholden to someone or something, you

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Speaker 1: you're compromised. You can't really be free in your expression

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Speaker 1: and your relationship with that person or thing, whatever it is.

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Speaker 1: That's that's you're in debt too. And on my re

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Speaker 1: entry into my bone suit that last time, Bob, I

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Speaker 1: had such a confirmation of that whole thing and what

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Speaker 1: the Bible is talking about when Jesus is saying, oh,

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Speaker 1: no man anything except to love him. You know, that

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Speaker 1: was the state of mind that he was in. And

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that's why there was all the miracles, because

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Speaker 1: when you're indebted to anyone or any thing, uh, you're

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Speaker 1: you're cutting yourself short. And I found out on on

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Speaker 1: that reentry that you know, and on the other side,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know all things immediately, you know, I

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Speaker 1: even had On that side of the fence, I had

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Speaker 1: the purpose. I knew what the purpose of these earth

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Speaker 1: years were. I mean, I knew what it was. And

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Speaker 1: on this side I couldn't tell you. I'm thinking maybe

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Speaker 1: it's like plugging a one ten fan into two twenty.

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Speaker 1: It would just smoke you. I mean, your brain is

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Speaker 1: only built for so much information. But the debt consciousness

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Speaker 1: as not just money. Debt, that's certainly part of it.

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Speaker 1: But what if you don't fulfill the expectations of some somebody,

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Speaker 1: some people. What if it was somebody in your family

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Speaker 1: and they called one of the siblings or somebody else

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Speaker 1: and they tell them the story of how now you're

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Speaker 1: indebted to them, you know, and then they call you

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Speaker 1: and you're put on the ship list and you're in

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Speaker 1: debt because of this situation. And it's all a misconception

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Speaker 1: because people aren't people aren't coming from that point of view.

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Speaker 1: They're not coming from the love that's in their heart

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Speaker 1: and trying to find the love. And everybody else they

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Speaker 1: are coming from a place of defense and coming from

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Speaker 1: a place of being offended. And uh, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: just it's a debt ladent world that we are living in.

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Speaker 1: We are moved from our place of comfort by this

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Speaker 1: silly four letter word d ebt. Holy crap, man, Let's

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Speaker 1: go down to the drug store and buy a box

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Speaker 1: and then and dump it on a table and look

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Speaker 1: at it. Or that are yet, let's get a tenure

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Speaker 1: dump truck full of it and have them dump it

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Speaker 1: in our front yards. A wee can weigh in this

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Speaker 1: stuff and really get familiar with it because even the

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Speaker 1: indebtedness of regret we can set ourselves free from. But

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Speaker 1: we are the only ones who can set ourselves free

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Speaker 1: from this. And people don't realize this, but that's what

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Speaker 1: I was that was revealed to me, and I was

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Speaker 1: that was confirmed in me on that last re entry.

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Speaker 1: I call it the re entry into this bone suit.

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Speaker 1: And I've been sharing that experience with people who are

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Speaker 1: profoundly jolted by this notion of being debt free and

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Speaker 1: that we are the ones who control what we will

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Speaker 1: accept as debt and uh and how not to accept

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Speaker 1: any debt. I think once you get that going and

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Speaker 1: realize who you are in this this simplistic form, this

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Speaker 1: human form, that then we can see love. Then we

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Speaker 1: can experience love, because you know that's where love lives. Buddy,

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Speaker 1: Can you give me an example or two of how

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Speaker 1: you changed your life relative to this debt insight. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I look at other people that prior to the revelation

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Speaker 1: that I've had brother, I may have held them responsible

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Speaker 1: for actions that that they took that had a bad

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Speaker 1: reflection on me, or had a bad influence on me,

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Speaker 1: or you know, left might have left me um angry.

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Speaker 1: And I just can't go there anymore. I can't go

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Speaker 1: there because people are so precious and we don't let ourselves.

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Speaker 1: We don't allow that tenderness to come through or to too. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I think that it could be in another person to

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Speaker 1: consider that and someone who's you know, maybe what if

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Speaker 1: alcohol was involved and one of your relatives said something

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Speaker 1: to you that was just off the wall. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's has happened with me, And since the revelation that

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Speaker 1: I've had, I can't hold that person in debt for that,

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Speaker 1: you know, for the words, for that experience that I

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Speaker 1: went through with him. I just have to let it go.

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Speaker 1: And it's like a lot of people have asked me about,

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Speaker 1: you know, the relationship that I had with the other

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Speaker 1: two members of the band, and uh, you know, doesn't

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Speaker 1: that piss you off? I want to know it doesn't

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Speaker 1: piss me off. It makes me feel sorry for somebody

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Speaker 1: who can't be truthful with the audience with our fans. Uh.

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Speaker 1: But I I refuse to let it piss me off,

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Speaker 1: because you know, that would keep me that would put

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Speaker 1: me in some kind of uh frame, a reference to

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Speaker 1: debt consciousness, and I don't want any more debt consciousness.

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Speaker 1: In fact, every day, brother Bob, before my feet swing

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Speaker 1: out and get put put on the floor, I lay

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Speaker 1: in the bed and I pray to the Creator and

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Speaker 1: ask to be shown where there's any more anchors in

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Speaker 1: my soul here, so that I can take these bolt

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Speaker 1: cutters that I have and cut that chain to that

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Speaker 1: anchor and get set free. Because I want to be

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Speaker 1: completely free before I leave this earth. And I think

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Speaker 1: even in that state of mind, if we can all

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Speaker 1: head that way, we'll be able to see some miracles

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Speaker 1: before we go. What is the truth that your two

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Speaker 1: other original band members are holding back from the public.

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Speaker 1: They advertise themselves as Grand funk It. They have a

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Speaker 1: legal right to do that because Uh the drummer came

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Speaker 1: to me one night after a gig we did up

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Speaker 1: in California telling me, and this is after a party,

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Speaker 1: you know, you know it, had a few beers or

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Speaker 1: have some drinks or something. Go back to the hotel room.

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Speaker 1: He comes to my hotel room says, hey, Mark, we

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Speaker 1: all we all need to sign the individual ownership of

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Speaker 1: the trademark into the corporation where it'll have this protective umbrella.

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Speaker 1: And he had gone to law school and I didn't

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Speaker 1: finish high school. And I thought, well, he's looking out

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Speaker 1: for the best interests of the band. And I said, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, I thought to myself, Yeah, okay, I'll do that.

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Speaker 1: He says, good, I'll go to my room and get

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Speaker 1: the papers. And I'm thinking as he left, I'm thinking,

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Speaker 1: why the hell didn't he just bring the papers with him.

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Speaker 1: But it didn't dawn on me that I was being

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Speaker 1: set up. Uh, And so when he came back, I

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Speaker 1: signed the papers, and so my ownership, my one third

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Speaker 1: ownership of the trademark, which is the name Grandfunk Railroad,

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Speaker 1: got put into the corporation where I found out, uh,

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Speaker 1: they had fired me as an officer. I was like

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Speaker 1: the vice president. Um, and I'm no longer an office.

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Speaker 1: I no longer have any say so in a corporation

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Speaker 1: with three people, when you got two of them against you,

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Speaker 1: it's just even even though I wrote of the music

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Speaker 1: and saying, you know, and did all the stuff, they

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Speaker 1: can go out with my music and make a living

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Speaker 1: and claim that they are Grandfunk Railroad. Legally because of

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Speaker 1: that mistake that I made. But I can't hold them responsible,

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Speaker 1: even though that's a shitty thing to do. I'm telling you, Uh,

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Speaker 1: I can't hold them responsible for that because I have

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Speaker 1: to view that in my current state of mind as

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Speaker 1: just them being off their path. But if they were

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Speaker 1: honest with people, they would have said Grand Funk revisited

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Speaker 1: or something to this degree, just like Credence Clearwater, you know,

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Speaker 1: authorities not with him. Uh, And they had a spat.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know what it was about. I didn't

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Speaker 1: read on it. I just knew that there was something

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Speaker 1: going on between them and the legally, that there was

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Speaker 1: something that you know, at least they said Credence Clearwater revisited,

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Speaker 1: which gave the fans heads up. Uh. I think the

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Speaker 1: other two guys in the band, if they would have

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Speaker 1: said grand Funk revisited, that would have given them, uh

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Speaker 1: a point of you know, some validity with the fans.

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Speaker 1: And you know, uh, they could have looked them online

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Speaker 1: and say, well, what's this about. But no, they just

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Speaker 1: go out and they don't tell the audience. There's no

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Speaker 1: way that they can say to the audience or advertised

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Speaker 1: that the guy who wrote and sang of the music

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Speaker 1: is no longer in the band. What was the impetus?

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Speaker 1: Obviously they had this all planned out. They wanted to

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Speaker 1: sign the document. They wanted to get rid of you

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Speaker 1: as an officer. What was going on that they wanted

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Speaker 1: to do that at that time? I don't really. I

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Speaker 1: can only say that it has to be a personal

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Speaker 1: grudge of some sort, some kind of vendetta. Uh. Mel

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Speaker 1: Shocker the bass player, and I have been friends. I

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Speaker 1: mean we went to school together. We we jammed together,

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Speaker 1: we we rode dirt bikes together, and uh, and we

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Speaker 1: smoked pot together as kids. I mean, you know. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I just could never understand how Mel uh could

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Speaker 1: have gone along with Don on that and and come

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Speaker 1: it in himself to it. But then just this year,

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Speaker 1: I was, after we started, you know, doing a few

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Speaker 1: more gigs, I was in the Delta Club in Detroit,

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Speaker 1: and Mel the bass player was in there. And I

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Speaker 1: didn't know he was in there. I was just I

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Speaker 1: had my headphones on and I'm over there listening to

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Speaker 1: some music I've been working on with Mark Slaughter and Uh.

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Speaker 1: And I see Malcolm walking around the corner and he

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Speaker 1: looks at me, and he puts his arms out, you know.

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Speaker 1: So I stand up, I give him a hug, and

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Speaker 1: he just says to me, you know, Mark, he says,

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Speaker 1: I really love what you do. I really love who

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Speaker 1: you are. You're the greatest, he says, And brother, I

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Speaker 1: just had to do what I had to do. And

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Speaker 1: at that moment, I looked at him and I just

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Speaker 1: felt so sorry for this kid. That he was an

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Speaker 1: only child and his mom and had died, and he

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Speaker 1: went through some stuff. His his wife died. He's been

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Speaker 1: through a lot, and I can't hold him responsible, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, for the two of them going out and

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Speaker 1: claiming to be the band and you know, grandfather and

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Speaker 1: not warning or not at least telling somebody. So I

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Speaker 1: looked him in the eyes and I told him, I said,

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Speaker 1: you know, I thought in my heart that that was

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Speaker 1: probably you know, what was going on, that it's something

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Speaker 1: that you had to do, because you know, with everything

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Speaker 1: that you have been through and and the things, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know that that all your bills don't go away

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Speaker 1: when things like this happened, and you become very aware.

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Speaker 1: And I said, I understand, Melvin, and I just I said,

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Speaker 1: I forgive you for that, and he give me a

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Speaker 1: big hug and that was it was like, man, that

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Speaker 1: was so good, dude. Uh, just to know that that's

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Speaker 1: how he felt. I can't, I can't say that. You know,

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Speaker 1: because of that, the band is going to get back together.

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Speaker 1: I think I had been trying to put the band

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Speaker 1: back together for twenty three years because I realized when

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Speaker 1: the Beatles were together and I was, you know, I

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Speaker 1: wanted them to go back on the road so I

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Speaker 1: could see him live. Man, I'm a Beatle fan, and

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, man, those all four of them guys are

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Speaker 1: still sucking air. Why can't they just bury the hatchet

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Speaker 1: and do it for us, do it for the fans

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Speaker 1: that bought all those records, you know, and so putting

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Speaker 1: myself in those shoes. Um, I kept petitioning those guys

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Speaker 1: to do it for the fans, to do it for

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Speaker 1: the sake of our fans, and I kept hearing people

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Speaker 1: say yeah, Don said uh, never say never. They asked

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Speaker 1: him in an interview if he'd ever get back together

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Speaker 1: with with you and if the original band would ever

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Speaker 1: go out, and he says, never say never. But that's

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Speaker 1: just easy to say. But when you when you feel

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Speaker 1: the you know, the virility the and when you feel

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Speaker 1: that hatred. Uh, Like when I when I went out

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Speaker 1: as Mark Farner's American band, I got a trademark. I

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Speaker 1: did it legally through lawyers. Uh. They sued me and

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Speaker 1: it cost us a lot of money. Not only did

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Speaker 1: it cost me to pay my attorn knees, one from California,

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Speaker 1: one from Michigan because it was a Michigan corporation. Uh,

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Speaker 1: I had to pay one third of their attorneys. Yeah, yeah, brother,

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Speaker 1: But I gotta let all that go. You know, I

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Speaker 1: cannot allow that to eat my lunch. That's my power, brother, Bob,

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Speaker 1: and I will use it in the manner which I choose.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any idea what Don's beef with you? Is?

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Speaker 1: Have not a clue? I really don't have a clue.

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Speaker 1: Let's go side. How do you know Mark Slaughter? Mark Slaughter,

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00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 1: we did a rock and roll fantasy camp years ago

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Speaker 1: and h and Marcus is Uh he's part Cherokee. I'm

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Speaker 1: part Cherokee. So on, just on that basis alone, we

338
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 1: have something in common that not a lot of people do,

339
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,679
Speaker 1: and that we're musicians in the rock and roll field.

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Speaker 1: That just gave us a head start on our friendship.

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Speaker 1: And our brotherhood. Uh. And we did the Howard Sterns

342
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Speaker 1: Show while we were in New York City and it's recorded.

343
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: It's on YouTube now. But we had Kip Winger on base,

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Speaker 1: Sandy Gennaro on drums, Teddy's Zigzag on the keyboards, um

345
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Speaker 1: Mark Slaughter on guitar, and Bruce Culick who now plays

346
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Speaker 1: guitar with Don and Mel. He was on the acoustic guitar.

347
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Speaker 1: But we were all doing rock and roll fantasy camp

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Speaker 1: for David fish Off and uh, and we did a

349
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Speaker 1: we did I'm Your Captain, and I was so impressed

350
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: by those guys. They made it sound believable because all

351
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,400
Speaker 1: those guys told me how much they loved me and

352
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 1: how much they appreciated that song in particular because it

353
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Speaker 1: influenced them as young musicians. And I'm I'm standing there

354
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Speaker 1: at the microphone singing the the in the chorus, and

355
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Speaker 1: then and then when we go to the bridge, am

356
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: I in my cabin breathe me? And I'm listening over

357
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 1: and there's Mark singing the high part and he is

358
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:46,640
Speaker 1: hitting it dead nuts, buddy, I mean seriously, it gave

359
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 1: me the chills and I thought, Wow, we're doing this.

360
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 1: I mean, this is really coming off good for for

361
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,560
Speaker 1: just setting up a couple of amps in a in

362
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Speaker 1: a studio up at Stearn's place. And so after that,

363
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 1: Mark and I kept in touch with each other, and

364
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 1: Mark sent me a copy of some of the music

365
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,880
Speaker 1: that he had been working on, and I said, man,

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Speaker 1: uh that some of that stuff is really speaking to me.

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Speaker 1: I said, the mix you have on that stuff, You've

368
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: really got the separation where you can hear all the

369
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Speaker 1: instruments and the vocals. He's got a song halfway there.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's beautiful. And uh, I said, man, uh,

371
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Speaker 1: I encourage you and I want to, you know, sending

372
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Speaker 1: you kudos on on the sound that you got. He says, well,

373
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Speaker 1: I want to do something with you. He says, I've

374
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,800
Speaker 1: got this stuff. I can make your music sound just

375
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Speaker 1: as good as this, if not better, he says, because

376
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Speaker 1: I'm always learning. And so I said, you know something,

377
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: I'm going to take you up on that because I've

378
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: got a song that my son Jesse told me before

379
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 1: he died. He said, Dad, that song. He says, there's

380
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: two songs that really stick out to me. He says

381
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 1: that one that you and he starts humming it to

382
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,399
Speaker 1: me and I and I go, oh, yeah, you really

383
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:25,600
Speaker 1: like that song? He says yeah, he says, uh, and

384
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 1: it's a hit. He says, I believe that's a hit song.

385
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:35,920
Speaker 1: I just feel it in my heart. And so the

386
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: one song titled Anymore Slaughter helped me finished because we

387
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 1: co wrote it. I had the initial idea, the chorus,

388
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 1: the first verse, the second first though, he really came through,

389
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: and it came through with a shining of forgiveness. And

390
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: it is forgiveness for the other guys for doing what

391
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:11,439
Speaker 1: they did and what they do. Uh, and it and

392
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:14,880
Speaker 1: it has a message. It carries that that love message

393
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 1: through it. And I think that's what Jesse was hearing

394
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,879
Speaker 1: because he was definitely into the love, especially in his

395
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: latter years. I'm proud to be working with. Why don't

396
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: you tell us a story of Jesse who had a

397
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,199
Speaker 1: tragic accident and then tragically passed. Can you tell us

398
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: a little bit more about that because not everybody knows. Yeah,

399
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: Jesse back in two thousand and ten was on camping

400
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: trip with his buddies and there was a bunch of

401
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: I call him kids. I mean, he's my kid, but uh,

402
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: you know, twenty some year old, and they were camping

403
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: out at this lake and it was the fourth July weekend,

404
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 1: and Jesse told me in the emergency room when we

405
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: went up there too, you know, we found out he

406
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: was hurt. We went to the emergency room at the

407
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 1: hospital where the the ambulance had brought him, and he

408
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 1: told me, he said, Dad, I drank too much and

409
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: tried to do something stupid, he says. Everybody was doing

410
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,720
Speaker 1: these back flips off the picnic table, he says, and

411
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 1: I just didn't land it, said too much beer, Dad.

412
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: And at that time he could still move his his arms.

413
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: He was paralyzed from his waist down. But the doctor

414
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 1: told us, the surgeon said, he's gonna lose the use

415
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 1: of his limbs too. Because he was laying in the

416
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 1: back of a pickup truck for eleven hours. He didn't

417
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 1: want to bring the police into it or ambulance out

418
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: there because he didn't want to ruin all of these

419
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: kids camping out and having a good time. So they

420
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 1: he just said, just lay me in the back of

421
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 1: that pickup truck and out sober up and get better

422
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: and whatever. If he could have gotten to the hospital

423
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 1: within the first four hours, there's a window of opportunity

424
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: where they could have injected um steroid right at the

425
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: point of the injury and arrested the edema. That actually

426
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: is what took his arms away from him and the

427
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: use of his arms, and the only he only had

428
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: the use of his head. I mean, he could move

429
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: his neck around and he drove his wheelchair with his mouth.

430
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: It was a sip and puff system and he was

431
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 1: real good at it. As a matter of fact, some

432
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: of his friends took the sip and off system and

433
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: attached it to a remote control device where he could

434
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: actually run these four wheel drive electric models. And uh,

435
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,880
Speaker 1: he had a boat that would do like eighty miles

436
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,720
Speaker 1: an hour on the water down here, and people would

437
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 1: just gather around him to see him run this stuff

438
00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:25,840
Speaker 1: because he was really good at it. And he took, uh,

439
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: he took a first place in Traverse City where they

440
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 1: were having these competitions with all these people. And when

441
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: people looked around and saw this kid driving this truck

442
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: with his mouth, you know, he was pretty good at it. Uh.

443
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: He was really blessed. But his condition kept going down

444
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 1: and the doctor told us, he said, it's like a

445
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: limb on a tree when when it gets crushed like that,

446
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 1: the life just starts leaving it. And he says, he

447
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:03,840
Speaker 1: told us there will be uh, you know, kidney troubles,

448
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: there will be internal organ troubles that that you just

449
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: can't do anything about, because that's what happens at this point.

450
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: And so we we had him here at our house

451
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 1: and my wife Lisa, God bless her heart. Um, she

452
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: took care of him most of the time. But then

453
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: we had help from uh people that would nurses and

454
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: people that were paid by the state to come in

455
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: and help and give her a break because it's really

456
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: strenuous for one person. I mean, it's you can't imagine,

457
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: and you have to do things like for a quadriplegic

458
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 1: who's on life support. Uh, you gotta roll them up

459
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: on their side, and in order for them to take

460
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 1: a ship, you gotta stick your fing here up in

461
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 1: there and stimulate that and then you got to catch

462
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 1: it as it's coming out. It's it's a very uh

463
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 1: humilifying experience for him. And when I volunteered, you know,

464
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: I said, Lisa, let me do part of this. Let

465
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 1: me and he looks at me, says, Dad, you're not

466
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 1: sticking your big finger in my ass. So anyways, his

467
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: his condition got you know, worse and worse, and then

468
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen he passed and we know that

469
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 1: he's whole. Now. We know that, you know, from my

470
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: experience of leaving, you know, exiting the bone suit and

471
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 1: coming back, I know his whole and I know that

472
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 1: as soon as he made the exit from the bone

473
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 1: suit that he was set free. And uh, we miss

474
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: him like crazy. I got a picture that pops up

475
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 1: every time I turn on my computer. There's Jesse and

476
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 1: his dog, him with his laying in bed with his track.

477
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: He had a tricky out of me and he had

478
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:26,800
Speaker 1: his life support, but he never lost his grin. He

479
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: never lost his love for life and had his friends.

480
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,600
Speaker 1: And we have a memorial out here on our farm

481
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: for him, and his friends come over and they go

482
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 1: back to the memorial and they leave little bunches of

483
00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: flowers or uh, pinted Jack Daniels. You never know what's

484
00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 1: going to be left at the memorial, but his love

485
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: will never leave them. I mean, he was that kind

486
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 1: of guy. He just he was real and uh, and

487
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: we miss him like crazy. But Lisa and I have

488
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:19,400
Speaker 1: definitely learned some valuable, valuable lessons through all of this,

489
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: and it's just to reiterate that love, you know. I mean,

490
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,440
Speaker 1: we we get here in the form of this little

491
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 1: infant and we, uh, we just hold that I feel,

492
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,240
Speaker 1: you know, the love and a little kid that the energy,

493
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:45,359
Speaker 1: and so we nurture them because you know, it's our instinct,

494
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 1: our human instinct, to care care for this little baby.

495
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,359
Speaker 1: But we're holding that love. That's really who we are

496
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: in our heart, you know, is that that bundle of love,

497
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:06,359
Speaker 1: that energy that comes from the great beyond. And we

498
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:11,319
Speaker 1: have learned how to look at people with eyes that

499
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 1: see that. No matter what other kind of physical representation

500
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:23,040
Speaker 1: there might be, or what kind of words we come

501
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:28,560
Speaker 1: out of the mouths of people, we always look in

502
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:35,040
Speaker 1: and see that love and and you know, know that

503
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: all that person needs is to to realign with it. Now,

504
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 1: do you have other kids? Yes, I have two other children,

505
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 1: two other boys with Lisa, and then I have two

506
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,359
Speaker 1: other boys with two other women. Okay, well let's stop

507
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,720
Speaker 1: here for a second. How many times you've been married twice?

508
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:55,680
Speaker 1: When did you get married the first time? How old

509
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: were you and what motivated you to get married? I

510
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,040
Speaker 1: just felt like it was time because I felt like

511
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 1: I was in love with this girl, and uh, I

512
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 1: wanted to be I wanted to UM at that point,

513
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I started in Grand Funk when

514
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 1: I was twenty. I had been two other countries. I've

515
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,799
Speaker 1: been on big tours, you know, sold out Shasee Stadium

516
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:29,960
Speaker 1: with my music, and H this was in them. That

517
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 1: was seventy one. So in seventy two it was like

518
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 1: I felt like I wanted to somehow put down, uh,

519
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:48,640
Speaker 1: the beginning of a permanent commitment. But as life goes

520
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 1: h both parties didn't see it that way, and so

521
00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 1: uh it was. I think three years later we were

522
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:06,040
Speaker 1: divorced and I said, man, I am never gonna get

523
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 1: married again. Forget about this. UM. We did not have

524
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 1: any children. My first wife and I did not have

525
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:21,240
Speaker 1: any children. My oldest son, Joey, came from a relationship

526
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 1: I had with my oldest sister's girlfriend app and uh

527
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 1: and dude, I didn't even orgasm. It was a one

528
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:38,880
Speaker 1: time thing and it was just it was just off

529
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: the wall, but it was enough to get her pregnant.

530
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 1: There was enough of the seed that got through even

531
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 1: without my experiencing anything like that. And Joey and I

532
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:59,319
Speaker 1: are very good friends. He's a musician. He's lives in

533
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:04,240
Speaker 1: Detroit and he's out doing gigs all the time. He's

534
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 1: a good songwriter, good singer, he's got he's got talent.

535
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 1: And his wife and him come up and we you know,

536
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:23,840
Speaker 1: we eat, have barbecues and we talk, we jam and

537
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 1: I go down there and his house. He's got his

538
00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:29,960
Speaker 1: stuff set up in the basement. He's got a nice

539
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:35,000
Speaker 1: recording thing set up. And so I have good relationship

540
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 1: with him. When was he born before or after your

541
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:42,800
Speaker 1: first marriage? Before? So that's one song, yes, and then

542
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: after I was divorced from my first marriage. We're on

543
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: the road and Wet Willie was the opening act for

544
00:39:55,160 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 1: the Grand Funct Tour Um. It was when the Local

545
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:06,279
Speaker 1: Motion was a number one hit um and and the

546
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: gals from Wet Willie they said, you know what we were,

547
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 1: We want to come out there and sing the backgrounds

548
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 1: for Local Motion with you guys. In fact, the whole

549
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,000
Speaker 1: band wants to come out. And we said, man, that

550
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 1: would be great, you know, because we used to do it.

551
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 1: And just as like the last song before our encore,

552
00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 1: and so Wet Willie would all come out on the

553
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:35,359
Speaker 1: stage and and I got very friendly with Donna, Donna Hall,

554
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,120
Speaker 1: who was one of the singers, and there was Jack

555
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: Hall and Jimmy Hall. Jimmy Hall was the lead singer

556
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: and Jack the bass player. But Donna moved in with me.

557
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:52,520
Speaker 1: And I wasn't thinking about marriage or anything. I just

558
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:59,200
Speaker 1: having a relationship and uh. And then I met Lisa,

559
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:04,280
Speaker 1: my wife that I'm married to, uh currently and forever

560
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 1: more forty four years now. Um, and man, I knew

561
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 1: as soon as I saw, as soon as I heard

562
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: her voice, soon as I was around her, that it

563
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:18,920
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god. And Donna came to me

564
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 1: and she said, Mark, I see what's between you and Lisa.

565
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 1: I can see it. You'd have to be blind not

566
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:30,919
Speaker 1: to see it. And she said, and I'm gonna bow

567
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 1: out of your life now. I'm going to go back home.

568
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,800
Speaker 1: I said, oh, are you kidding me? I said, I

569
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,200
Speaker 1: feel bad. She said, don't feel bad, she says. I

570
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 1: I love Lisa, and I love you, she says, and

571
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:46,400
Speaker 1: I don't want to be I don't want to hold

572
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:51,879
Speaker 1: you back from anything. That it's this precious And she

573
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 1: didn't know she was pregnant. Moved home back to Mobile, Alabama,

574
00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 1: and her mother, Bibie God Rest her Soul, called me

575
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: out of the blue UH and said, Mark, my daughter

576
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 1: is pregnant with your baby. And I went what And

577
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 1: she says, Donna, don't freak out. She says, don't freak out.

578
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 1: We're not mad. There's nothing you know. You guys didn't know.

579
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:25,839
Speaker 1: She didn't know when she left, and you didn't know.

580
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: So I just want you to know that we're gonna

581
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 1: take good care of this baby and that we will

582
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:42,200
Speaker 1: always love you. And that's what kind of relationship I

583
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:49,279
Speaker 1: have with the whole family, including my son Adam, who

584
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 1: came out on the road with Donna. Uh wet Willie

585
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 1: opened for us again down in New Orleans and UH

586
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:04,120
Speaker 1: and Donna had ad Adam with her and it was

587
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: the first time I met him, and I had my

588
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,520
Speaker 1: son Jason with me, and so Adam and Jason got

589
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:15,600
Speaker 1: together and they are still you know, there's there's there's blood,

590
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:21,799
Speaker 1: and there's no kind of questioning about that relationship at all.

591
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:27,800
Speaker 1: And in fact, we all went to Mexico together before

592
00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:33,239
Speaker 1: Jesse was hurt and UH and had a great time

593
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 1: together and you know, those memories. It's great to have

594
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:41,880
Speaker 1: those memories because they're built on it's just always a

595
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:45,840
Speaker 1: reminder of the love that has always kept us together

596
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 1: and has always found its way through any hurt and

597
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:57,440
Speaker 1: always uh made the glue that keeps us stuck on

598
00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:00,239
Speaker 1: each other. Are Adam and Jason up to jay Eason

599
00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:07,520
Speaker 1: is working at a shoe store doing good. He makes

600
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 1: good money. He does he works on a commission as

601
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,480
Speaker 1: well as his and he does things on the side

602
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: where he's he's got good money coming in. He lives

603
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: on his own in an apartment. And Adam works he's

604
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: a chef down in Mobile, Alabama. And Isaac and Sarah

605
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:34,080
Speaker 1: my grandchildren. Uh, he takes them on the weekends and

606
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:38,640
Speaker 1: his and his ex wife uh get some you know,

607
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:44,680
Speaker 1: through the week But he's doing good. He you know,

608
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 1: he's uh, it's just to have a job and keeping

609
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: holding down the fort at this point in life in

610
00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:57,640
Speaker 1: this country as really saying something. But they're not the

611
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,279
Speaker 1: kind of people that would set back and say I'm

612
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:05,759
Speaker 1: not gonna work, I'll let the government support me. You know. Uh,

613
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:15,600
Speaker 1: they're not that kind of people. And I'm proud of that. Okay,

614
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 1: you're really mellow understanding and love it. What were you

615
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:22,080
Speaker 1: like when you were a teenager and then in your

616
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:24,799
Speaker 1: twenties at the height of Grand Funk Road. I was

617
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:30,120
Speaker 1: very grateful for the experience, you know. When I wrote

618
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 1: Closer to Home, I'm Your Captain, I prayed for that song.

619
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 1: I always say my prayers. I always pray. I pray

620
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 1: every day, and at night, before I go to sleep,

621
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:46,799
Speaker 1: I pray, and I said, mine, Now I lay me

622
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,919
Speaker 1: down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

623
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:52,840
Speaker 1: If I should die before I wake, I pray the

624
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:54,960
Speaker 1: Lord my soul to take. And then I blessed all

625
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:59,520
Speaker 1: my aunts and uncles and cousins and grandma's, grandpa's and

626
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 1: you know. And I put a ps on the end

627
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 1: of the prayer, and I said, God, would you please

628
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: give me a song that would reach and touch the

629
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:15,360
Speaker 1: hearts of those you want to get to. And I

630
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 1: got up in the middle of the night and I

631
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:21,759
Speaker 1: wrote words. But I'm always getting up righting words. I

632
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:24,239
Speaker 1: didn't know it was a song. It could have been

633
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:28,479
Speaker 1: just a poem with you know. And when I wrote it, Bob,

634
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,960
Speaker 1: I was I was in a state of mind that

635
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:36,680
Speaker 1: was halfway between heaven and Earth. I was not in

636
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 1: a totally conscious uh state. And somehow I knew that

637
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:47,560
Speaker 1: if I went back to the top of the page

638
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:52,200
Speaker 1: and started reading the words again, it would stop. So

639
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:55,560
Speaker 1: I kept writing. I kept writing, and I kept writing,

640
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:59,880
Speaker 1: and I got through the whole thing. And I'm still

641
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:07,560
Speaker 1: in this frame of mind, not completely uh cognizant consciously,

642
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:12,240
Speaker 1: and I lay down the steno pad and the paper,

643
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:15,279
Speaker 1: you know, and the pencil, and I slipped back under

644
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:17,040
Speaker 1: the sheets and I go to sleep. And I get

645
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:20,720
Speaker 1: up in the morning and I have a coffee sitting

646
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:23,520
Speaker 1: on the table. I'm looking at my horses out in

647
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 1: the pasture, and I've got a George Washburn flat top

648
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:31,440
Speaker 1: and acoustic guitar sitting in the kitchen in a stand,

649
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:35,040
Speaker 1: and I grabbed it and I started playing but pop

650
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,640
Speaker 1: pop pop doo doo doo doo, and I went, wow,

651
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:40,600
Speaker 1: where the hell did that come from? And uh, it's

652
00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 1: like and then I grabbed this, this inversion of a

653
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 1: C cord that just it just spoke to me in

654
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:51,640
Speaker 1: such a way. It was like, man, and I'm looking

655
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 1: at that chord and I'm thinking, man, I can't forget

656
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:59,160
Speaker 1: this this chord right here, and I'm looking at it

657
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:04,439
Speaker 1: and then I thought, oh, the words, Maybe that's a song.

658
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:06,960
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a song. So I go in and I

659
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:11,600
Speaker 1: grab the lyrics and bring them out, put them on

660
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 1: the table. I pushed the button on my cassette recorder

661
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:20,839
Speaker 1: and I started playing it bad. Don't du dun, dude,

662
00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 1: everybody listen to me. You know, it just started coming.

663
00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:32,279
Speaker 1: And I took the cassette recorder to rehearsal that day

664
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 1: and I played it for the guys and and they said, man, Fearner,

665
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 1: that songs a hit. That songs a hit man. So

666
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:49,640
Speaker 1: they were right, and it's a hit with a lot

667
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:56,040
Speaker 1: of people, but especially with our military and back when

668
00:48:56,120 --> 00:49:00,440
Speaker 1: that song came out, it was during the Vietnam era,

669
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 1: and a lot of our brothers and sisters we're a

670
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 1: long way from home, but they wanted to be where

671
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:20,640
Speaker 1: I was. And so when the Vietnam Veterans of America

672
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 1: got ahold of my management in two thousand five, they

673
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:33,680
Speaker 1: asked me if I had come and play the the

674
00:49:33,960 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 1: at the memorial at the at the Wall, and it

675
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 1: was the anniversary h ceremony, and then I said, well,

676
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:47,960
Speaker 1: rather than to just bring my guitar, I said, are

677
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:51,600
Speaker 1: you guys going to have stage set up in lights

678
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:55,320
Speaker 1: and you know, oh yeah, we're gonna p a system

679
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:59,800
Speaker 1: and everything. I said, the whole band will come. We

680
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:03,640
Speaker 1: will put a show on a full show for the

681
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 1: Vietnam veterans there and will include the song that they love.

682
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:12,279
Speaker 1: And we did. Of course, we didn't charge them at all.

683
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:16,040
Speaker 1: I mean, god, how could you? And it was thirty

684
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:19,880
Speaker 1: six degrees, Bob, it was thirty six and we were

685
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:23,040
Speaker 1: warming our hands up on the lightbulbs that were in

686
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:26,839
Speaker 1: this trailer so that we could play our instruments when

687
00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:30,480
Speaker 1: we got out there. And when it came time to

688
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:36,479
Speaker 1: play I'm Your Captain Closer to Home, Man, I looked

689
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 1: out and there was not a dry eye any place.

690
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:46,839
Speaker 1: And not only our American brothers and sisters, but are

691
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:51,640
Speaker 1: Canadian brothers and sisters who are Vietnam veterans were in

692
00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 1: the crowd. And I had a very difficult time trying

693
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,759
Speaker 1: to sing because I was so choked up. It felt

694
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 1: like I had a softball in my neck. But it

695
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 1: was with all this appreciation and the emotional connection that

696
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:17,319
Speaker 1: I was making with this audience, Oh my god, Uh,

697
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:22,640
Speaker 1: the words came back to me, Uh for those you

698
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:27,279
Speaker 1: want to get to and h and those words got

699
00:51:27,360 --> 00:51:34,600
Speaker 1: to those brothers and sisters, and and that's that's what

700
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:39,960
Speaker 1: keeps me going today. I I always dedicate that song

701
00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:42,480
Speaker 1: when we get to it, and said, I always dedicated

702
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 1: to our troops and to our veterans, and just to

703
00:51:48,200 --> 00:51:53,799
Speaker 1: promise we would never forget them. We appreciate them so much.

704
00:51:54,680 --> 00:51:59,280
Speaker 1: They are kids following orders. They didn't start the damn wars.

705
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:03,879
Speaker 1: They're just kids following the orders. Now, back in that era,

706
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War era, it was a tumultuous time and

707
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:10,600
Speaker 1: there was the draft. How did you deal with the draft?

708
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:17,080
Speaker 1: I was physically disqualified. I got a four F. I

709
00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:22,239
Speaker 1: had some things, uh in my duadenal track and uh,

710
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:26,440
Speaker 1: some things that were you know, just we're wrong with me.

711
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:30,240
Speaker 1: And when I went down for my physical into Detroit,

712
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:35,040
Speaker 1: they took me out of the line. We're all, you know,

713
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:37,880
Speaker 1: marching along with our clothes in our hands and our

714
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:43,160
Speaker 1: skivvyes on. And it came over to me and they said, uh,

715
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 1: we want you to go over to this building um

716
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 1: at noon and uh, they all do the you know,

717
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 1: finished the examination over there. Well, what had happened part

718
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:03,239
Speaker 1: of the examination, as the guy in front of me,

719
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 1: when they when they're taking a blood draw. He lays

720
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:11,279
Speaker 1: his arm over the top of this board, and uh,

721
00:53:11,719 --> 00:53:14,359
Speaker 1: when they hit him, there was blood that just kind

722
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 1: of come shooting out and and it just made me

723
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,560
Speaker 1: sick to my stomach. Man, because I hate needles. I

724
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:24,840
Speaker 1: just I would have made a bad drug agg But

725
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: I got out there and I went to put my

726
00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:30,759
Speaker 1: arm over the board and that's the last thing I remember. Bam,

727
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:34,640
Speaker 1: I was gone. I was out cold. I passed out

728
00:53:35,680 --> 00:53:38,799
Speaker 1: from that experience. And I woke up on this cot

729
00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: and uh, you know that they had already taken the

730
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:49,200
Speaker 1: blood um when I was out, and they had did

731
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:52,480
Speaker 1: you know some of our other examinations, And she the

732
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:57,000
Speaker 1: the gal says, well, you need to go over at

733
00:53:57,040 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 1: this building and they'll finish over there. So I went

734
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:04,440
Speaker 1: over and talk to some people and they they said, uh,

735
00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:09,920
Speaker 1: well you're not physically fit. You're not fit for military service.

736
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:17,520
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, well, I guess it's it's my Uh,

737
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:22,320
Speaker 1: I'll stay home and serve with my music. You know,

738
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:27,120
Speaker 1: that was my attitude. Okay, what's so special about Michigan

739
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:30,160
Speaker 1: and the music? You've certainly been all over the country.

740
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:35,120
Speaker 1: Michigan known for hard rock, certain other things, certainly motom music.

741
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,880
Speaker 1: What is it about Michigan. I believe it is the

742
00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:42,879
Speaker 1: fact that we had all of these auto factories up here,

743
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:48,839
Speaker 1: Bob that drew people like my mother's family from Leech

744
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:53,160
Speaker 1: for Arkansas. When she was sixteen years old, she moved

745
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:58,680
Speaker 1: to Flint, Michigan. All of the you know Grandpacott and

746
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:03,399
Speaker 1: Uncle Woodie, Uncle Brian and uh, the whole everybody in there.

747
00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:07,240
Speaker 1: You know cousins came north to get these high paying

748
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:11,520
Speaker 1: auto factory jobs. Well, they brought their instruments with them

749
00:55:11,600 --> 00:55:17,680
Speaker 1: as well. And every Sunday, either at our house on

750
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 1: Davidson Road my mom and dad, or at my aunt

751
00:55:21,719 --> 00:55:26,200
Speaker 1: Dorothea's house on Normandy Court, there would be a jam

752
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:29,799
Speaker 1: session and all of the kid would come and bring

753
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:36,040
Speaker 1: the fiddles, banjos, guitars, uh and play music and sing

754
00:55:36,200 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 1: all of these old uh you know it's uh, I

755
00:55:42,239 --> 00:55:48,640
Speaker 1: guess country roots and some little gospel in there. Um.

756
00:55:49,280 --> 00:55:52,799
Speaker 1: But the women would sing and it was like, Oh

757
00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:56,600
Speaker 1: my God. I would just look up as this little kid.

758
00:55:57,040 --> 00:56:02,320
Speaker 1: I would never forget thinking these these ladies are actually

759
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:07,279
Speaker 1: angels singing because it was so beautiful. It was the

760
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 1: most beautiful thing I'd ever heard and uh and my

761
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:14,840
Speaker 1: mother could sing so good. In fact, everybody in the

762
00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:19,080
Speaker 1: family could sing. And it was always a good, you know,

763
00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:23,920
Speaker 1: good time. And we either had Southern fried chicken with

764
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:30,800
Speaker 1: those hockey puck biscuit uh, you know, or Sloppy Joe's.

765
00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:36,000
Speaker 1: It was one or the other. But the chicken and dumplings, man,

766
00:56:36,120 --> 00:56:38,160
Speaker 1: that was my favorite because I used to love those

767
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:44,400
Speaker 1: Doughey dumplings. Uh. And and just to everybody taking a

768
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:46,759
Speaker 1: break to eat, but then they'd returned back to the

769
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:50,279
Speaker 1: instruments and get to play in and it was just

770
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:54,480
Speaker 1: we spent hours every Sunday doing that. So it was

771
00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:59,759
Speaker 1: not just in our house, but everybody around Flint, and

772
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:05,080
Speaker 1: I'm sure around Detroit and Pontiac and all of the

773
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:11,400
Speaker 1: satellite cities that had automotive related uh you know, factories

774
00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:20,040
Speaker 1: and things to a c. Delco Turnsteads Fisher Body and

775
00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:22,560
Speaker 1: my mother was the first woman in the United States

776
00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:25,840
Speaker 1: to weld on Sherman tanks at Fisher Body in Flint, Michigan.

777
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:29,520
Speaker 1: And my dad was a tank driver in the seventh

778
00:57:29,640 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 1: Armer Division and returned home with four bronze stars. He

779
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:37,120
Speaker 1: was in four major battles and a lot of tank

780
00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:41,320
Speaker 1: drivers didn't get to see a second one brother. So

781
00:57:41,440 --> 00:57:45,080
Speaker 1: we were we were very blessed. But I knew a

782
00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: lot of other you know, people that that love to

783
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:51,960
Speaker 1: play music. And I think because of the North and

784
00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:56,440
Speaker 1: South thing. My dad he blew saxophone and play guitar,

785
00:57:56,600 --> 00:57:59,440
Speaker 1: but he was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. And

786
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:03,440
Speaker 1: and just the love that we had, it just it

787
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:08,080
Speaker 1: came out. Uh. And the kids, you know, of those people,

788
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:13,920
Speaker 1: myself included, we didn't want to be in the shop.

789
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:17,520
Speaker 1: We wanted to do something else. We you know, we

790
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:20,280
Speaker 1: saw that they were making good money and providing for

791
00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:23,040
Speaker 1: the family and had everybody had two cars and a

792
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:27,320
Speaker 1: boat and nice house. Uh, but we wanted something else.

793
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:32,640
Speaker 1: And so uh, you know, MC five came out, uh,

794
00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:39,640
Speaker 1: Iggy and the Stooges, the Rationals, Scott Richard, Kay's and

795
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 1: Boy Dukes, a lot of these bands. Uh. And we

796
00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 1: started hearing the sound that was being generated. And uh

797
00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:53,440
Speaker 1: so when uh the band that Don and Brewer and

798
00:58:53,520 --> 00:58:56,360
Speaker 1: I were in broke up. I told Brewer, I said,

799
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: we need to start a three piece man um just

800
00:58:59,640 --> 00:59:02,320
Speaker 1: a three piece band and and see what happens. And

801
00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:07,360
Speaker 1: that's when we heard Mel Shocker at in Bay City.

802
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:10,160
Speaker 1: He was playing with question marking the Mysterious and when

803
00:59:10,200 --> 00:59:14,280
Speaker 1: they took a break and Mel came walking out. We said, hey, man,

804
00:59:15,160 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 1: what are you doing. Would you like to join a

805
00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:21,080
Speaker 1: three piece band? And he of course, Mel and I had,

806
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:23,520
Speaker 1: like I said, we smoked dope together back when we

807
00:59:23,640 --> 00:59:27,120
Speaker 1: were kids. Uh. He said, Man, I am so ready

808
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 1: to leave this band. This is perfect timing. So Grand

809
00:59:30,040 --> 00:59:33,560
Speaker 1: Fox started the next week at the Flint Federation of Musicians,

810
00:59:34,040 --> 00:59:38,760
Speaker 1: the Hall on April Street and Flint, and we started

811
00:59:39,520 --> 00:59:44,800
Speaker 1: three piece. You can imagine. I had some guitar, of course, uh,

812
00:59:45,680 --> 00:59:48,760
Speaker 1: electric guitar, and it's amped that this guy was letting

813
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:52,520
Speaker 1: me use this West It was a West Fillmore amp

814
00:59:52,600 --> 00:59:56,040
Speaker 1: with two fifteen inch speakers, and it sounded so good,

815
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:59,280
Speaker 1: especially when I would hit that Jimmy Hendrix fuzz tone

816
00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:05,000
Speaker 1: and you just really uh. I remember Hank Guyer coming

817
01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:10,200
Speaker 1: out and saying, you boys, turn that stuff down. We

818
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:16,680
Speaker 1: can't even hear the phone's ring in here. But there

819
01:00:16,800 --> 01:00:21,400
Speaker 1: was a lot of us. Um you know, Alice Cooper

820
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:23,440
Speaker 1: came out of Flip, or not out of Flip, but

821
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:28,560
Speaker 1: out of Michigan. Glenn Fry, a lot of there was

822
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:31,560
Speaker 1: a lot of bands you know that that just came

823
01:00:31,600 --> 01:00:37,040
Speaker 1: out because of the North and South. Uh reunion that

824
01:00:37,200 --> 01:00:39,680
Speaker 1: we had in there, and it was like it was

825
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:43,360
Speaker 1: a family there was in the North. You didn't have

826
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:51,320
Speaker 1: the discrimination that you had in the South. Um, I

827
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:55,880
Speaker 1: had black friends, We hung out together. Uh, it was

828
01:00:56,400 --> 01:01:00,280
Speaker 1: it was totally different. When you hit the Michigan state line.

829
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:03,360
Speaker 1: It was like, man, there was a bunch of friendly people.

830
01:01:03,680 --> 01:01:06,480
Speaker 1: And it didn't matter what color you were. It didn't

831
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:10,480
Speaker 1: matter what nationality you were. Uh. If you were a

832
01:01:10,560 --> 01:01:14,680
Speaker 1: working man or working gal, then you were you were

833
01:01:14,760 --> 01:01:18,760
Speaker 1: part of the family. And and that's uh, I guess

834
01:01:18,840 --> 01:01:21,920
Speaker 1: that's what were you know, the music we call an

835
01:01:21,920 --> 01:01:25,800
Speaker 1: assembly line rock and roll just because of the nature

836
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:28,560
Speaker 1: where it came from. We are the kids of those

837
01:01:29,080 --> 01:01:31,960
Speaker 1: who worked those assembly lines. Okay, let's go back to

838
01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 1: the beginning. How many kids in the family growing up?

839
01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:39,680
Speaker 1: What kind of kids were you? Popular, unpopular, troublemaker, not troublemaker,

840
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:43,400
Speaker 1: good student, bad students. In my family there was six kids,

841
01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 1: but my mother lost two sets of twins and three singles.

842
01:01:53,200 --> 01:01:58,520
Speaker 1: You know. Uh, she was bound and determined to have kids.

843
01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:02,600
Speaker 1: And when my dad died, I was nine years old,

844
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:06,720
Speaker 1: and there were four of us in the family. My stepdad,

845
01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:13,040
Speaker 1: Reginald Russell, Fortune with a great guy. He married. My

846
01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:16,280
Speaker 1: mother was a couple of years after my dad died

847
01:02:17,480 --> 01:02:22,640
Speaker 1: and she lost a baby with him, and then had

848
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:26,720
Speaker 1: to my sister Julie, and my brother Jimmy, God rest

849
01:02:26,800 --> 01:02:32,520
Speaker 1: Jimmy soul. And we never looked at each other as um,

850
01:02:33,120 --> 01:02:36,600
Speaker 1: half this or half that, or step children or you know.

851
01:02:36,960 --> 01:02:43,240
Speaker 1: I called Reginald his his brother couldn't say Reginald. When

852
01:02:43,280 --> 01:02:47,000
Speaker 1: they were small, he called him pege, so we called him,

853
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:50,320
Speaker 1: uh pege, and I called him Dad because I want

854
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:55,560
Speaker 1: him to know that I accepted him as that role

855
01:02:55,800 --> 01:03:01,280
Speaker 1: in our family. And my brother Ricky is a guitar player,

856
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:06,360
Speaker 1: hell of a guitar player. My sisters all sing they

857
01:03:06,760 --> 01:03:13,800
Speaker 1: all good singers, and uh, they're still sucking air. And

858
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:17,160
Speaker 1: you know, except for Jimmy, and he had a stroke

859
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:22,000
Speaker 1: and we miss him, and uh and Page he died

860
01:03:23,360 --> 01:03:27,400
Speaker 1: he had a uh stroke as well, I mean later

861
01:03:27,480 --> 01:03:32,040
Speaker 1: in the years and uh and we miss him. But

862
01:03:33,280 --> 01:03:38,280
Speaker 1: we're still uh sucking Aaron and proud to be family.

863
01:03:38,440 --> 01:03:40,800
Speaker 1: And you were growing up going to school, go to

864
01:03:40,880 --> 01:03:44,960
Speaker 1: public school, parochial school, have a lot of friends where

865
01:03:44,960 --> 01:03:47,640
Speaker 1: you're good or bad. In school. Public school had a

866
01:03:47,720 --> 01:03:52,480
Speaker 1: lot of friends. And once the music started when I

867
01:03:52,640 --> 01:03:57,320
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old, was I started playing guitar, it

868
01:03:57,480 --> 01:04:03,439
Speaker 1: kind of really slid downhill for me because I I thought,

869
01:04:04,280 --> 01:04:08,320
Speaker 1: I'm I don't want to do anything but play music. Uh.

870
01:04:08,560 --> 01:04:12,040
Speaker 1: When I would go out and play music with whoever

871
01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:14,840
Speaker 1: it was, I would play with these guys. Those guys

872
01:04:15,520 --> 01:04:18,800
Speaker 1: I had several different groups that I would go out

873
01:04:18,880 --> 01:04:22,120
Speaker 1: with and we would pass the hat to get enough

874
01:04:22,240 --> 01:04:24,680
Speaker 1: gas money to get home. That's all we really were

875
01:04:24,760 --> 01:04:28,280
Speaker 1: concerned about was just getting back home. So we were

876
01:04:28,360 --> 01:04:30,960
Speaker 1: having a good time. And I didn't realize at the time,

877
01:04:31,040 --> 01:04:33,800
Speaker 1: but it was learning in the chops. It was learning

878
01:04:33,880 --> 01:04:38,000
Speaker 1: to belt out those songs and learning that when I

879
01:04:38,040 --> 01:04:41,440
Speaker 1: would hit those high notes, hey, you know, get up there. Uh,

880
01:04:41,800 --> 01:04:45,080
Speaker 1: people really would turn their heads around. So I would

881
01:04:45,760 --> 01:04:49,840
Speaker 1: visit that more often even, you know, just to get

882
01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:56,000
Speaker 1: some heads turning. And uh. When in in school to

883
01:04:56,160 --> 01:05:01,200
Speaker 1: high school, Um, I went to Cursionally High it was

884
01:05:02,200 --> 01:05:07,720
Speaker 1: Class B school and uh, there was a Catholic school

885
01:05:08,800 --> 01:05:12,640
Speaker 1: down the road that it was Holy Rosary and at

886
01:05:12,920 --> 01:05:18,760
Speaker 1: lunch hour, Um, these Holy Rosary students would come up

887
01:05:18,800 --> 01:05:21,920
Speaker 1: and finish the day at the high school. They started

888
01:05:21,960 --> 01:05:24,720
Speaker 1: the morning at Holy Rosary and then they came up

889
01:05:25,720 --> 01:05:30,920
Speaker 1: and I wasn't playing football at this time because I

890
01:05:31,080 --> 01:05:35,120
Speaker 1: had received some injuries. And the doctors told my mother,

891
01:05:35,920 --> 01:05:38,040
Speaker 1: Mark's not going to be able to play anymore ball.

892
01:05:38,160 --> 01:05:40,920
Speaker 1: He's not going to be able to run track, so

893
01:05:42,280 --> 01:05:44,840
Speaker 1: you know, you're gonna have to find something else for

894
01:05:44,920 --> 01:05:48,040
Speaker 1: him to do. And that's when she got me the

895
01:05:48,120 --> 01:05:51,320
Speaker 1: guitar lessons. She knew that I loved to hear my

896
01:05:51,560 --> 01:05:54,920
Speaker 1: name called out on that loud spo that was that

897
01:05:55,120 --> 01:05:57,640
Speaker 1: was far her number sixty in on the tackle and

898
01:05:58,240 --> 01:06:00,760
Speaker 1: I mean I would go prance in a cross that field.

899
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:05,400
Speaker 1: So anyway, she knew that I needed something that way.

900
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:07,520
Speaker 1: So I blame it on her that I got started

901
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:12,000
Speaker 1: on a guitar. And here it is two years later,

902
01:06:13,480 --> 01:06:17,680
Speaker 1: the Holy Rosary kids are coming in and the football coach,

903
01:06:18,640 --> 01:06:22,360
Speaker 1: who kind of was pissed at me because when I

904
01:06:22,520 --> 01:06:27,640
Speaker 1: quit playing ball, so did about half the team. We

905
01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:31,040
Speaker 1: just hung together. We were friends, and they said, man,

906
01:06:31,080 --> 01:06:33,680
Speaker 1: if you ain't playing, we ain't playing. You know, we're

907
01:06:33,760 --> 01:06:36,640
Speaker 1: just hanged together. And so he was kind of pissed

908
01:06:36,640 --> 01:06:42,800
Speaker 1: about that. And as the Holy Rosary bus pulls up,

909
01:06:43,720 --> 01:06:46,080
Speaker 1: he looks over at me and I'm standing with like

910
01:06:46,280 --> 01:06:50,080
Speaker 1: three of my friends around the radiator, uh, where the

911
01:06:50,160 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 1: heat was coming out. Um, and that's where we hung

912
01:06:53,880 --> 01:06:58,320
Speaker 1: out during the lunch hour. And uh. He says, Farner,

913
01:06:58,440 --> 01:07:01,600
Speaker 1: move your boys, and it made me feel like, oh,

914
01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:04,320
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? These ain't my boys? And I

915
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:08,280
Speaker 1: said that to him. I said, I said, Mr, these

916
01:07:08,320 --> 01:07:12,920
Speaker 1: are not my boys. These these are your students. And

917
01:07:13,120 --> 01:07:17,320
Speaker 1: he came over. He grabs me by the shirt and

918
01:07:17,440 --> 01:07:20,320
Speaker 1: he throws me up against the wall and my head

919
01:07:20,560 --> 01:07:25,560
Speaker 1: ricochets off this brass picture frame of the superintendent of

920
01:07:25,760 --> 01:07:28,920
Speaker 1: schools that was there at had had the light on

921
01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:33,560
Speaker 1: the top. And I reached back and I feel my

922
01:07:33,760 --> 01:07:36,120
Speaker 1: head because it was man, it was hurt like hell.

923
01:07:37,080 --> 01:07:39,160
Speaker 1: I reached back and I feel and I will, oh,

924
01:07:39,960 --> 01:07:44,120
Speaker 1: is that wet? And I bring my hand down and

925
01:07:44,280 --> 01:07:48,200
Speaker 1: I look and there's blood all over my hand. And

926
01:07:49,000 --> 01:07:52,720
Speaker 1: at that moment, I was so pissed at this teacher

927
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:55,760
Speaker 1: that I bam. I smacked him right in the eye

928
01:07:55,920 --> 01:08:00,920
Speaker 1: and down he went. And I had rings on that

929
01:08:01,240 --> 01:08:06,440
Speaker 1: hand and when I hit his eye like that, it

930
01:08:07,200 --> 01:08:11,840
Speaker 1: unzipped his eyebrow and the skin fell down over his eye,

931
01:08:13,160 --> 01:08:15,720
Speaker 1: and he was he stood up and he was throwing

932
01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:18,200
Speaker 1: haymakers at me, but he couldn't see me because he

933
01:08:18,280 --> 01:08:21,840
Speaker 1: had skin in his eye. And I was ducking duck,

934
01:08:21,920 --> 01:08:24,320
Speaker 1: and I was timing it out, and I was gonna

935
01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:28,280
Speaker 1: nail him again. As as I draw back, like I'm

936
01:08:28,280 --> 01:08:32,000
Speaker 1: gonna hit him, my friend Derry Speck, God bless him.

937
01:08:32,280 --> 01:08:35,160
Speaker 1: He grabs my army, says, Figer, you're in so much

938
01:08:35,240 --> 01:08:38,479
Speaker 1: trouble already, don't hit him again. Jesus, what's the matter

939
01:08:38,560 --> 01:08:40,879
Speaker 1: with you? Are you idiot? You know? And he drags

940
01:08:40,960 --> 01:08:45,840
Speaker 1: me off, and uh. I go back in front of

941
01:08:45,840 --> 01:08:50,360
Speaker 1: the school board with an attorney to get back in school,

942
01:08:51,120 --> 01:08:54,400
Speaker 1: and this teacher who had the stitches up in his

943
01:08:55,479 --> 01:08:59,840
Speaker 1: eyebrow there he's sitting across the table glaring at me,

944
01:09:01,320 --> 01:09:04,360
Speaker 1: and the school boarders saying trying to decide whether or

945
01:09:04,400 --> 01:09:07,880
Speaker 1: not they want to let me back in school. My

946
01:09:08,000 --> 01:09:11,000
Speaker 1: attorney and my attorney, and he was supposed to have

947
01:09:11,080 --> 01:09:14,360
Speaker 1: been a friend of the family. But when they mentioned

948
01:09:14,400 --> 01:09:16,519
Speaker 1: that I had long hair and I was using v

949
01:09:16,680 --> 01:09:21,960
Speaker 1: O five to you know, plaster it back. Uh, he says, yeah,

950
01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:25,720
Speaker 1: he does have those long sideburns. To my attorney says this.

951
01:09:26,680 --> 01:09:30,920
Speaker 1: So I was so pissed. Uh this this teacher who

952
01:09:31,040 --> 01:09:36,320
Speaker 1: was algebra, algebra teacher and football coach. He says, let

953
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:38,920
Speaker 1: me tell you something. If you let this kid back

954
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:44,599
Speaker 1: in school, I quit And so I stand up. I said,

955
01:09:44,600 --> 01:09:47,160
Speaker 1: I'll make it easy on you, and I walk out

956
01:09:49,080 --> 01:09:52,880
Speaker 1: because they were not going to fire him. Uh, and

957
01:09:52,920 --> 01:09:55,280
Speaker 1: they were not going to let him go. And I

958
01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:58,559
Speaker 1: could see the writing on the wall. And so as

959
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:02,360
Speaker 1: I'm walking down the road, this attorney pulls up behind

960
01:10:02,520 --> 01:10:07,800
Speaker 1: me and then uh, after the traffic went by, he

961
01:10:08,040 --> 01:10:10,960
Speaker 1: rolls his window, pulls up alongst that he says, get in, Mark,

962
01:10:11,600 --> 01:10:14,080
Speaker 1: get in. I'll take you home. I said, do you

963
01:10:14,200 --> 01:10:19,559
Speaker 1: want to look like that algebra teacher? I said, if

964
01:10:19,600 --> 01:10:21,800
Speaker 1: I get in that car, I'm gonna punch you into

965
01:10:21,840 --> 01:10:26,840
Speaker 1: your face. And so he just away he went, and

966
01:10:26,960 --> 01:10:31,320
Speaker 1: I walked the rest of the way home. I um

967
01:10:31,800 --> 01:10:36,360
Speaker 1: got into summer school. I started doing nights nights school

968
01:10:37,800 --> 01:10:42,000
Speaker 1: and it was interfering with my ability to go play

969
01:10:42,240 --> 01:10:45,439
Speaker 1: music and to make money. And I told my parents,

970
01:10:45,520 --> 01:10:49,479
Speaker 1: I said, I think you know it's more important that

971
01:10:49,640 --> 01:10:53,800
Speaker 1: I make money now, and and put it together because

972
01:10:53,840 --> 01:10:56,240
Speaker 1: I got a car. I gotta you know, I got

973
01:10:56,320 --> 01:10:58,519
Speaker 1: things I got and I need the money for in

974
01:10:58,640 --> 01:11:02,000
Speaker 1: this school, the schooling has taken it away from me.

975
01:11:02,160 --> 01:11:06,200
Speaker 1: So uh, you know, I would like to quit it

976
01:11:06,280 --> 01:11:10,200
Speaker 1: with your blessings and and continue in my music. They said, son,

977
01:11:10,320 --> 01:11:13,800
Speaker 1: you just do what your heart is leading you to do. Yeah.

978
01:11:20,680 --> 01:11:23,519
Speaker 1: How did you go from there to end up working

979
01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:26,280
Speaker 1: with Terry Knight? What were the steps there? Terry Knight

980
01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:29,760
Speaker 1: was a DJ and he started as C. K l

981
01:11:30,000 --> 01:11:33,519
Speaker 1: W in Windsor, Ontario, and then he was working at

982
01:11:33,680 --> 01:11:36,479
Speaker 1: W T A C in Flint, Michigan, A A M

983
01:11:36,600 --> 01:11:42,240
Speaker 1: Stations and he uh, he wanted to put together a

984
01:11:42,320 --> 01:11:48,479
Speaker 1: band because he had written some songs. And Don Brewer

985
01:11:48,760 --> 01:11:54,559
Speaker 1: and uh Kurt Johnson and Al Pippins, Bobby call Well

986
01:11:54,840 --> 01:11:59,639
Speaker 1: they were all in the pack and and HERM. Jackson

987
01:12:01,160 --> 01:12:05,840
Speaker 1: got the bass player got drafted and they said, hey,

988
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:10,000
Speaker 1: can you play bass guitar? I said, well, it's got

989
01:12:10,160 --> 01:12:12,599
Speaker 1: only got four strings and I'm playing a six string

990
01:12:12,680 --> 01:12:15,679
Speaker 1: now I know, I said, I think I could probably

991
01:12:15,720 --> 01:12:20,840
Speaker 1: do it. Uh. So I tried out and I made

992
01:12:20,880 --> 01:12:22,840
Speaker 1: the band because I could sing, I could do all

993
01:12:22,920 --> 01:12:28,120
Speaker 1: the harmony. Parts and playing bass. It came a little

994
01:12:28,200 --> 01:12:34,960
Speaker 1: easier for me because I played tuba in the marching

995
01:12:35,080 --> 01:12:39,720
Speaker 1: band before I got into playing football, so I had

996
01:12:39,800 --> 01:12:42,920
Speaker 1: that feel, the base kind of feel and uh, and

997
01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:46,080
Speaker 1: it just worked out for me. Okay, how many years

998
01:12:46,320 --> 01:12:49,080
Speaker 1: after you quit school? Was it before you got into

999
01:12:49,200 --> 01:12:51,640
Speaker 1: Terry Knight in the back? It was two years? And

1000
01:12:51,680 --> 01:12:54,280
Speaker 1: in those two years you were just digging with various bands.

1001
01:12:54,320 --> 01:12:56,680
Speaker 1: What was happening? Yeah, I was playing. I played with

1002
01:12:57,760 --> 01:13:01,479
Speaker 1: Dick Wagner and the Bossman. How'd you know Dick? Well,

1003
01:13:01,680 --> 01:13:04,680
Speaker 1: Dick Wagner. Of course I would go and see them

1004
01:13:04,720 --> 01:13:07,599
Speaker 1: because they were a fabulous band, and they would come

1005
01:13:07,640 --> 01:13:11,080
Speaker 1: and play the Riviera Terrorists in Flint, Michigan, and they

1006
01:13:11,080 --> 01:13:13,280
Speaker 1: would just tear it up. And they were a show band.

1007
01:13:13,360 --> 01:13:15,560
Speaker 1: They didn't just you know, stand at the microphone and

1008
01:13:15,640 --> 01:13:17,320
Speaker 1: saying they were all over the stage. You were a

1009
01:13:17,400 --> 01:13:21,320
Speaker 1: show band. And I always admired them for, you know,

1010
01:13:21,520 --> 01:13:24,759
Speaker 1: for what they did, especially Dick for having the ability

1011
01:13:24,800 --> 01:13:30,040
Speaker 1: to write all those songs. So uh, he asked me,

1012
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:33,160
Speaker 1: Dick Wagner asked me if I wanted to to come

1013
01:13:33,240 --> 01:13:37,599
Speaker 1: and join his band and uh and play out with him.

1014
01:13:37,600 --> 01:13:40,240
Speaker 1: And I went wow, and Dad be great man, Are

1015
01:13:40,280 --> 01:13:44,360
Speaker 1: you kidding me? So? And in fact that my first

1016
01:13:44,400 --> 01:13:48,160
Speaker 1: song that I had ever written, Heartbreaker, came as a

1017
01:13:48,280 --> 01:13:51,840
Speaker 1: result of one night Dick Wagner and I sat up

1018
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:54,760
Speaker 1: after a gig that we played in northern Michigan. We

1019
01:13:54,920 --> 01:13:59,800
Speaker 1: sat up in his UH studio in Saginaw, and we

1020
01:14:00,000 --> 01:14:03,200
Speaker 1: were playing our electric guitars reel, you know, not plugged in,

1021
01:14:03,560 --> 01:14:06,519
Speaker 1: just and and electric guitars are not very loud if

1022
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:09,599
Speaker 1: they're not plugged in. So his wife and kids are

1023
01:14:09,640 --> 01:14:12,920
Speaker 1: in the other room sleeping, and I he showing me

1024
01:14:13,040 --> 01:14:16,519
Speaker 1: some chord inversions and and I said, Dick, can you

1025
01:14:16,680 --> 01:14:19,599
Speaker 1: tell me how do you write all of these songs?

1026
01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:23,280
Speaker 1: He says it comes from within Mark. He says, you

1027
01:14:23,400 --> 01:14:26,599
Speaker 1: got it in you. I said I do. He says yeah,

1028
01:14:26,960 --> 01:14:29,360
Speaker 1: he says you can write songs. He goes to bed.

1029
01:14:29,760 --> 01:14:32,760
Speaker 1: I stay up and I write Heartbreaker. That was my

1030
01:14:32,920 --> 01:14:37,679
Speaker 1: inspiration when Herm was the Herm Jackson, the bass player

1031
01:14:37,720 --> 01:14:40,439
Speaker 1: of Terry Knight in the Pack was drafted. It was.

1032
01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:45,200
Speaker 1: It was right at at the end of my run

1033
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:48,840
Speaker 1: with Dick Wagner and the Bossman. And I say the

1034
01:14:48,960 --> 01:14:55,360
Speaker 1: end of it because the keyboard player Warren Keith got

1035
01:14:55,439 --> 01:15:02,080
Speaker 1: an opportunity to play with Hank Williams junior year, and

1036
01:15:02,720 --> 01:15:05,640
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? You're gonna go play with

1037
01:15:05,760 --> 01:15:10,240
Speaker 1: Hank so um At that time the band kind of

1038
01:15:10,280 --> 01:15:17,120
Speaker 1: split apart and and Dick Wagner formed UM, a different

1039
01:15:17,360 --> 01:15:23,400
Speaker 1: rock band in in Michigan, the Frost with you know,

1040
01:15:24,240 --> 01:15:30,080
Speaker 1: with some great musicians and they are the pack because

1041
01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:34,080
Speaker 1: of Herman's you know, being drafted. They asked me if

1042
01:15:34,280 --> 01:15:38,560
Speaker 1: I had come and play bass with him, so and

1043
01:15:38,840 --> 01:15:44,519
Speaker 1: I I took to the base. I loved playing and singing,

1044
01:15:45,080 --> 01:15:49,680
Speaker 1: but Don and I both thought that either one of

1045
01:15:49,760 --> 01:15:54,519
Speaker 1: us could have sung better then Terry did. And what

1046
01:15:54,720 --> 01:15:59,760
Speaker 1: he what Terry really had going for him was a

1047
01:16:00,040 --> 01:16:04,040
Speaker 1: lift of gab. He could, he could talk to about anybody,

1048
01:16:04,600 --> 01:16:11,639
Speaker 1: and he really had a schmoozing personality. So one night

1049
01:16:11,760 --> 01:16:15,679
Speaker 1: after a gig and and Terry wasn't hitting his notes

1050
01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:20,840
Speaker 1: very good, and and Don and I were just kind of, man,

1051
01:16:22,520 --> 01:16:25,040
Speaker 1: why are we doing this? That we were both kind

1052
01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:28,760
Speaker 1: of bummed out because like I said, either one of

1053
01:16:28,840 --> 01:16:33,639
Speaker 1: us could sing better than Terry h and we were

1054
01:16:33,680 --> 01:16:36,320
Speaker 1: seeing this was just feeding his ego and he was

1055
01:16:37,360 --> 01:16:42,360
Speaker 1: he was you know blowing up kind of blowing up

1056
01:16:42,400 --> 01:16:48,840
Speaker 1: from it, and so I said, well, you know, why

1057
01:16:48,880 --> 01:16:53,760
Speaker 1: don't we just have the pack without Terry night Brewer goes,

1058
01:16:54,200 --> 01:16:58,000
Speaker 1: I'm in it, dude, I am in it. Let's fire

1059
01:16:58,080 --> 01:17:01,920
Speaker 1: that s o b it's up. So we did. We

1060
01:17:02,120 --> 01:17:05,200
Speaker 1: fired him that we're going out as a pack, and

1061
01:17:05,320 --> 01:17:07,280
Speaker 1: we did. We went out as the pack. We went

1062
01:17:07,320 --> 01:17:12,519
Speaker 1: out as the Fabulous Pack. Uh where I was just

1063
01:17:13,760 --> 01:17:17,519
Speaker 1: uh stand up lead singer in the Fabulous Pack. It

1064
01:17:17,680 --> 01:17:21,720
Speaker 1: was this was just before Grand Funk, and we had

1065
01:17:21,840 --> 01:17:28,559
Speaker 1: Kenny Rich, guitar player from Canada Windsor, Ontario. Um played

1066
01:17:28,600 --> 01:17:31,720
Speaker 1: with steel picks on his fingers and he did a

1067
01:17:31,800 --> 01:17:34,960
Speaker 1: lot of this backpick and stuff. And we had Craig

1068
01:17:35,000 --> 01:17:40,320
Speaker 1: Frost on keyboards, and we had Rod Lester on basse

1069
01:17:41,240 --> 01:17:45,280
Speaker 1: Don on drums, and of course myself stand up singer.

1070
01:17:46,120 --> 01:17:49,040
Speaker 1: And the Delta Promotions who was doing some of our

1071
01:17:49,120 --> 01:17:54,200
Speaker 1: booking for us. They said, there's an opportunity that's opened

1072
01:17:54,280 --> 01:17:58,240
Speaker 1: up here where we could send you guys out to Boston,

1073
01:17:58,760 --> 01:18:04,320
Speaker 1: but you'd have to play these gigs for free, no money,

1074
01:18:05,479 --> 01:18:08,200
Speaker 1: and we would They said, we would handle all of

1075
01:18:08,320 --> 01:18:12,640
Speaker 1: your expenses. We'll make sure that you're fed, and you

1076
01:18:12,720 --> 01:18:14,720
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna die out there. We'll take care

1077
01:18:14,720 --> 01:18:17,840
Speaker 1: of it, we'll put you up, but you've got to

1078
01:18:17,880 --> 01:18:21,160
Speaker 1: do this stuff for free. And we looked at each other, said, well,

1079
01:18:21,240 --> 01:18:24,000
Speaker 1: what the hell. It'll get us out of Flint, you know.

1080
01:18:24,479 --> 01:18:30,240
Speaker 1: So we go out to East Sandwich, Cape Cod. We

1081
01:18:30,400 --> 01:18:34,960
Speaker 1: get two of these little cabins on the beach. Uh.

1082
01:18:35,200 --> 01:18:38,200
Speaker 1: And this is the first time us Michigan boys had

1083
01:18:38,240 --> 01:18:44,040
Speaker 1: ever seen an ocean. So we went out and you know,

1084
01:18:44,320 --> 01:18:48,040
Speaker 1: we're picking up all the starfish and picking up all

1085
01:18:48,120 --> 01:18:51,559
Speaker 1: the seashells, and oh man, each one of us had

1086
01:18:51,680 --> 01:18:54,640
Speaker 1: bags of this stuff, and we put them in the

1087
01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:58,960
Speaker 1: crawl space under these little summer cottages that were out there.

1088
01:18:59,640 --> 01:19:02,920
Speaker 1: And then and wouldn't you know it, the worst snowstorm

1089
01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:06,599
Speaker 1: in the history of the world hits the East Coast.

1090
01:19:07,400 --> 01:19:13,519
Speaker 1: Oh my god, in sixty there it's sucked in them

1091
01:19:14,160 --> 01:19:18,080
Speaker 1: this little space heaters that they had. Uh, we're not much.

1092
01:19:18,120 --> 01:19:20,160
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wouldn't heat the whole house. You had to

1093
01:19:20,200 --> 01:19:22,800
Speaker 1: be right next to it to feel any heat. The

1094
01:19:22,920 --> 01:19:27,360
Speaker 1: pipes had all frozen, the all the starfish and things

1095
01:19:27,400 --> 01:19:30,280
Speaker 1: that we were going to take back to Michigan. Uh.

1096
01:19:30,479 --> 01:19:34,960
Speaker 1: We're frozen in ice down in the crawl space, the

1097
01:19:35,120 --> 01:19:41,599
Speaker 1: pipes being frozen. We didn't have a functioning toilet, brother, Bob, Uh,

1098
01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:46,800
Speaker 1: you know, no tap water, So we would take a

1099
01:19:47,240 --> 01:19:50,880
Speaker 1: pan scoop snow come in and melt it down for

1100
01:19:51,040 --> 01:19:54,120
Speaker 1: drinking water. For the water that we used to make

1101
01:19:54,200 --> 01:19:57,800
Speaker 1: our oatmeal, which was the only thing we had for

1102
01:19:57,880 --> 01:19:59,960
Speaker 1: the last week we were there. We didn't have any

1103
01:20:00,040 --> 01:20:03,080
Speaker 1: sugar to put on it. We didn't have any milk

1104
01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:08,160
Speaker 1: or you know, anything to put in that oatmeal, just oatmeal. Uh.

1105
01:20:08,600 --> 01:20:12,040
Speaker 1: And and then happened to melt down the water, uh,

1106
01:20:12,200 --> 01:20:13,920
Speaker 1: you know, the snow to make the water to wash

1107
01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:16,960
Speaker 1: the dishes. And I mean it was really a pain,

1108
01:20:17,880 --> 01:20:22,080
Speaker 1: even to the point of you know, each one of us.

1109
01:20:22,560 --> 01:20:24,640
Speaker 1: Once in a while we got to do a number two, right.

1110
01:20:25,280 --> 01:20:29,679
Speaker 1: So we had these this old kitchen chair that didn't

1111
01:20:29,720 --> 01:20:33,479
Speaker 1: have a seat in it, uh, and that was our

1112
01:20:33,840 --> 01:20:37,680
Speaker 1: little potty. We would put a paper bag underneath that

1113
01:20:37,840 --> 01:20:40,519
Speaker 1: with the plastic in the bottom of it and do

1114
01:20:40,680 --> 01:20:43,439
Speaker 1: our thing, roll that paper bag up and go out

1115
01:20:43,479 --> 01:20:47,519
Speaker 1: and bury it in a snow. Bang. That was it, dude.

1116
01:20:47,640 --> 01:20:54,080
Speaker 1: And thank God for the The store at East Sandwich, Massachusetts,

1117
01:20:54,160 --> 01:20:56,280
Speaker 1: We didn't have any money to buy anything. But the

1118
01:20:56,360 --> 01:21:00,840
Speaker 1: guy would give us paper bags. He would give us

1119
01:21:00,840 --> 01:21:04,479
Speaker 1: a little stack of paper bags, and that got us through.

1120
01:21:05,240 --> 01:21:09,880
Speaker 1: And Don's mother we end up uh using the guy's

1121
01:21:09,960 --> 01:21:11,800
Speaker 1: phone up there. When it finally got to where it

1122
01:21:11,880 --> 01:21:14,880
Speaker 1: was working, the phones were down. I mean, there was

1123
01:21:14,920 --> 01:21:20,599
Speaker 1: no communication. And we were there for got ten days.

1124
01:21:21,040 --> 01:21:26,280
Speaker 1: You know. It was just horrible. Uh. But but Don

1125
01:21:26,439 --> 01:21:31,080
Speaker 1: called his mother and she Western Unions the money too

1126
01:21:31,600 --> 01:21:34,080
Speaker 1: for us to go rent this van. She was a

1127
01:21:34,120 --> 01:21:38,360
Speaker 1: school teacher in Swarts Creek, Michigan, and she Western Union

1128
01:21:38,439 --> 01:21:42,200
Speaker 1: the money to us, and Don you know, told her

1129
01:21:42,240 --> 01:21:45,160
Speaker 1: we al pay her back and everything. So we got

1130
01:21:45,240 --> 01:21:48,960
Speaker 1: the van. We rented. This is before the credit cards, man,

1131
01:21:49,040 --> 01:21:53,160
Speaker 1: this was cash. So we rented. We put all of

1132
01:21:53,200 --> 01:21:56,439
Speaker 1: our equipment in the van, came back to Michigan. We

1133
01:21:56,720 --> 01:21:58,960
Speaker 1: drive up the Bay City because we want to give

1134
01:21:59,640 --> 01:22:03,960
Speaker 1: Key a piece of our mind. We found out that

1135
01:22:04,960 --> 01:22:09,759
Speaker 1: we were getting paid for those gigs three fifty dollars

1136
01:22:09,800 --> 01:22:11,960
Speaker 1: a night, and back then that was not bad pay

1137
01:22:12,120 --> 01:22:17,720
Speaker 1: for you know, garage band three piece. Uh. But anyways, Uh,

1138
01:22:18,600 --> 01:22:22,479
Speaker 1: we were in the outer offices and that's when uh,

1139
01:22:23,240 --> 01:22:25,680
Speaker 1: we had already determined we were going to do a

1140
01:22:25,760 --> 01:22:29,360
Speaker 1: three piece thing, and we're going to go in and

1141
01:22:29,640 --> 01:22:33,599
Speaker 1: tell this guy Keyhole, uh that we knew we got

1142
01:22:33,680 --> 01:22:38,360
Speaker 1: paid and we want our money, you know. But during

1143
01:22:38,479 --> 01:22:43,120
Speaker 1: that waiting time in the out in that waiting room there,

1144
01:22:43,600 --> 01:22:45,920
Speaker 1: that's when we heard the base coming through the wall.

1145
01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:48,600
Speaker 1: I didn't know it was Mel. I didn't know what

1146
01:22:48,680 --> 01:22:51,400
Speaker 1: was question Mark and the Mysterions in that room playing.

1147
01:22:52,400 --> 01:22:55,040
Speaker 1: But when they took their break and mel walked out,

1148
01:22:55,479 --> 01:23:00,320
Speaker 1: it was like, wow, oh Melvin, you know. Uh. I

1149
01:23:00,400 --> 01:23:02,160
Speaker 1: told him what we were up to and he was

1150
01:23:02,439 --> 01:23:07,839
Speaker 1: very much into it, and uh and the rest is history. Okay,

1151
01:23:08,120 --> 01:23:11,640
Speaker 1: how long until Terry Knight becomes your manager? Why does

1152
01:23:11,720 --> 01:23:15,040
Speaker 1: he become your manager? And what happens before you get

1153
01:23:15,080 --> 01:23:18,040
Speaker 1: to Atlanta? When he starts promoting how successful you are?

1154
01:23:18,360 --> 01:23:24,840
Speaker 1: Don Brewer had kept in touch with Terry Knight, and

1155
01:23:25,760 --> 01:23:31,880
Speaker 1: Don Brewer came to the band and then he confesses, well,

1156
01:23:31,960 --> 01:23:36,719
Speaker 1: I've been staying in touch with Terry, and he says

1157
01:23:37,439 --> 01:23:40,000
Speaker 1: he could do us some good because he's got an

1158
01:23:40,040 --> 01:23:42,559
Speaker 1: apartment in New York City. He's made some friends there,

1159
01:23:42,600 --> 01:23:47,519
Speaker 1: he's got some connections, and I think we should let

1160
01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:50,720
Speaker 1: him manage us. He wants to manage us. And I

1161
01:23:50,880 --> 01:23:54,559
Speaker 1: thought for a minute, I said, he's gonna screw us Brewer.

1162
01:23:55,680 --> 01:23:58,120
Speaker 1: He says, yeah, but it will at least we'll get

1163
01:23:58,160 --> 01:24:04,240
Speaker 1: out of Flint, the Sable sable, you know. And I said, well,

1164
01:24:04,800 --> 01:24:08,240
Speaker 1: let's hear what he's got to say. Anyways, And so

1165
01:24:08,439 --> 01:24:14,920
Speaker 1: he came to Flint. He flew in. We we played

1166
01:24:14,960 --> 01:24:17,960
Speaker 1: him some of the music that we were you know,

1167
01:24:18,360 --> 01:24:22,720
Speaker 1: I was writing, we were putting together. And he says, oh,

1168
01:24:22,800 --> 01:24:26,920
Speaker 1: this is great stuff. He says, uh, if you got

1169
01:24:27,040 --> 01:24:31,160
Speaker 1: a name yet, We went no, you know, we've just

1170
01:24:31,280 --> 01:24:35,240
Speaker 1: been playing for you know, two three weeks here. We

1171
01:24:35,320 --> 01:24:38,519
Speaker 1: don't have a name yet. But he says, well, why

1172
01:24:38,560 --> 01:24:42,600
Speaker 1: don't you name your band? Oh the name of my

1173
01:24:42,800 --> 01:24:47,600
Speaker 1: song Grand Funk Railroad. And I thought, well, because the

1174
01:24:47,680 --> 01:24:50,960
Speaker 1: Grand Trunk and Western is an actual railway system that

1175
01:24:51,080 --> 01:24:58,200
Speaker 1: runs between Canada, you know, Ontario, Michigan and Ohio. Uh,

1176
01:24:58,880 --> 01:25:01,680
Speaker 1: that that would be a great play off of a

1177
01:25:01,840 --> 01:25:05,200
Speaker 1: very familiar name for US Michiganders and the people that

1178
01:25:05,439 --> 01:25:10,760
Speaker 1: are familiar with the railway system. So we adopted that name.

1179
01:25:11,560 --> 01:25:17,759
Speaker 1: And uh. The the attorneys for Terry in New York City,

1180
01:25:18,800 --> 01:25:24,160
Speaker 1: Bell Doc and Kushnik Um, we're doing the legal work

1181
01:25:24,640 --> 01:25:31,160
Speaker 1: for the Atlanta Pop Festival, which was on the fourth

1182
01:25:31,160 --> 01:25:35,360
Speaker 1: of July. It was actually uh, I think it was

1183
01:25:35,400 --> 01:25:38,800
Speaker 1: the third, fourth and fifth of July. And they worked

1184
01:25:38,840 --> 01:25:43,240
Speaker 1: to deal with the promoters that we're doing uh putting

1185
01:25:43,280 --> 01:25:47,400
Speaker 1: that on so that we could play because we are

1186
01:25:47,600 --> 01:25:51,320
Speaker 1: Terry's band, that we could open that festival and we

1187
01:25:51,400 --> 01:25:56,680
Speaker 1: would play for free and on all three days of

1188
01:25:56,760 --> 01:26:02,760
Speaker 1: the festival. So when we left Flint, Michigan, how long

1189
01:26:02,800 --> 01:26:06,280
Speaker 1: had the band been together before this happened, Oh, a

1190
01:26:06,400 --> 01:26:08,960
Speaker 1: couple of months, and he played any gigs around town,

1191
01:26:09,200 --> 01:26:13,839
Speaker 1: no play, no gigs. We did play the Hamburg County

1192
01:26:14,160 --> 01:26:20,479
Speaker 1: Fair in New York up by Buffalo. That was actually

1193
01:26:20,560 --> 01:26:25,000
Speaker 1: our first gig as a Grand Park Railroad and it

1194
01:26:25,160 --> 01:26:29,240
Speaker 1: was in a tent and the people really loved it.

1195
01:26:30,600 --> 01:26:33,519
Speaker 1: But it was, you know, all these music that was

1196
01:26:33,600 --> 01:26:39,800
Speaker 1: on the first album. So on our way down to Atlanta,

1197
01:26:41,600 --> 01:26:44,680
Speaker 1: the guy a jeep holland God Rest his soul. He

1198
01:26:45,400 --> 01:26:48,200
Speaker 1: loaned his van, he had a window Vanish Chevy window

1199
01:26:48,320 --> 01:26:53,000
Speaker 1: van and his driver, Jimmy, he loaned to the band

1200
01:26:53,280 --> 01:26:55,439
Speaker 1: and we rented a U haul trailer and put all

1201
01:26:55,479 --> 01:26:58,479
Speaker 1: of our equipment in the back and we headed to Atlanta.

1202
01:26:59,240 --> 01:27:04,000
Speaker 1: And when we went through Toledo, and we were on

1203
01:27:04,080 --> 01:27:08,240
Speaker 1: the other side of Toledo. Um, this was before I

1204
01:27:08,400 --> 01:27:11,920
Speaker 1: seventy was finished. There was a lot of back roads

1205
01:27:11,960 --> 01:27:13,760
Speaker 1: that you had to take, a lot of detours that

1206
01:27:13,840 --> 01:27:16,200
Speaker 1: you had to take and get around. And we were

1207
01:27:16,280 --> 01:27:20,080
Speaker 1: on one of those and it was just breaking daylight

1208
01:27:21,120 --> 01:27:24,320
Speaker 1: and I was riding shotgun and I opened my eyes

1209
01:27:24,680 --> 01:27:28,439
Speaker 1: and I see this sign coming at us. I se

1210
01:27:29,439 --> 01:27:31,519
Speaker 1: and the arrows going to the right, and I know

1211
01:27:31,720 --> 01:27:33,960
Speaker 1: that Jimmy's going way too fast. He ain't even seen

1212
01:27:34,040 --> 01:27:37,559
Speaker 1: this sign. So I said, Jimmy, I seventy five goes

1213
01:27:37,560 --> 01:27:41,400
Speaker 1: to the right, and he just jerks that wheel. I

1214
01:27:41,439 --> 01:27:43,559
Speaker 1: guess he forgot he had a trailer on the back.

1215
01:27:44,439 --> 01:27:48,759
Speaker 1: And the trailer rolls down through the dish. The safety

1216
01:27:48,880 --> 01:27:54,080
Speaker 1: change snap and it's we were lucky that it didn't

1217
01:27:54,120 --> 01:27:57,400
Speaker 1: flip the van over and you know, hurt us. But

1218
01:27:59,200 --> 01:28:02,680
Speaker 1: we take all the equipment out of the van or

1219
01:28:02,760 --> 01:28:07,560
Speaker 1: out of the trailer, and all the guys got on

1220
01:28:07,800 --> 01:28:10,760
Speaker 1: the other side. We flipped this two wheel trailer back

1221
01:28:10,880 --> 01:28:14,479
Speaker 1: over on its tires. We loaded back up with what

1222
01:28:14,680 --> 01:28:18,960
Speaker 1: we can you know, see visibly is our equipment is

1223
01:28:19,000 --> 01:28:24,320
Speaker 1: all broken up. The some of the chassiss of the amplifiers,

1224
01:28:25,000 --> 01:28:30,439
Speaker 1: the transformers had ripped completely off the aluminum chassis, and

1225
01:28:30,560 --> 01:28:34,719
Speaker 1: the wires were busted and cut and and we just said,

1226
01:28:34,880 --> 01:28:37,320
Speaker 1: well to fix it when we get there. So we

1227
01:28:37,439 --> 01:28:41,400
Speaker 1: throw everything in the trailer because we're running a little behind. Now,

1228
01:28:42,640 --> 01:28:46,479
Speaker 1: we go down. As we're going down the expressway, this

1229
01:28:46,960 --> 01:28:51,120
Speaker 1: tire passes up and I look back. I looked back

1230
01:28:51,800 --> 01:28:55,519
Speaker 1: and there has sparked flying out from underneath the trailer.

1231
01:28:55,600 --> 01:29:00,240
Speaker 1: I said, that's our tire. Then it goes bound, singing

1232
01:29:00,280 --> 01:29:05,760
Speaker 1: across the expressway, uh over the northbound traffic and just

1233
01:29:05,920 --> 01:29:08,920
Speaker 1: about hits the semi. If it wasn't if he wasn't

1234
01:29:09,120 --> 01:29:12,000
Speaker 1: been paying attention, it would have went right through his windshield.

1235
01:29:12,520 --> 01:29:16,960
Speaker 1: But it narrowly misses him and goes out into this field.

1236
01:29:17,840 --> 01:29:21,800
Speaker 1: We run down there and retrieve that tire. We take

1237
01:29:21,920 --> 01:29:26,120
Speaker 1: two lug bolts off the other side of the trailer.

1238
01:29:27,040 --> 01:29:31,800
Speaker 1: We put it back together. The tires doing this. Bob, Yeah,

1239
01:29:32,080 --> 01:29:35,040
Speaker 1: it's doing this, But we're only doing like twenty or

1240
01:29:35,200 --> 01:29:39,080
Speaker 1: fifteen miles at the most, and going right down the

1241
01:29:39,200 --> 01:29:44,479
Speaker 1: shoulder of the expressway. Well, luck would have it there

1242
01:29:44,560 --> 01:29:47,000
Speaker 1: was a U haul trailer place at that first exit.

1243
01:29:47,920 --> 01:29:51,040
Speaker 1: So we make the exchange of the trailer and we

1244
01:29:51,120 --> 01:29:53,040
Speaker 1: get back on the road and we are hauling the

1245
01:29:53,120 --> 01:29:57,679
Speaker 1: ass and we get to Atlanta just just a little

1246
01:29:57,680 --> 01:30:01,000
Speaker 1: bit before we're supposed to get on open that trailer,

1247
01:30:01,640 --> 01:30:04,479
Speaker 1: and here's all this equipment that's all messed up. The

1248
01:30:04,560 --> 01:30:07,880
Speaker 1: speaker cabinets were still in one piece, but the amps

1249
01:30:07,920 --> 01:30:12,320
Speaker 1: were all just like I said that, the transformers ripped

1250
01:30:12,439 --> 01:30:16,559
Speaker 1: from the chassis. And these guys, we had two roadias

1251
01:30:16,640 --> 01:30:19,080
Speaker 1: that were with us, and they're standing there like going,

1252
01:30:19,280 --> 01:30:22,120
Speaker 1: what the hell are we gonna do? And so all

1253
01:30:22,200 --> 01:30:27,720
Speaker 1: these other road eas from ten years after, uh, from

1254
01:30:27,960 --> 01:30:31,200
Speaker 1: you know, the ten wheel drive, a lot of the

1255
01:30:32,240 --> 01:30:34,559
Speaker 1: road eas I mean they're just hey, man, let's put

1256
01:30:34,600 --> 01:30:36,760
Speaker 1: it together. You guys got to get on stage. So

1257
01:30:36,960 --> 01:30:40,240
Speaker 1: you wouldn't believe the workbeat that happened in the last

1258
01:30:40,920 --> 01:30:44,880
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes. They were soldering wires back together. They

1259
01:30:45,040 --> 01:30:49,439
Speaker 1: sat the transformers up on top of the heads. Uh

1260
01:30:49,720 --> 01:30:51,519
Speaker 1: it was you know, there was a big hole where

1261
01:30:51,560 --> 01:30:53,200
Speaker 1: it used to go, so they put them up on

1262
01:30:53,360 --> 01:30:56,040
Speaker 1: top of the heads and they've got our stuff up

1263
01:30:56,080 --> 01:31:00,360
Speaker 1: there and it worked. They just you know, color matched

1264
01:31:00,400 --> 01:31:05,599
Speaker 1: the wires and it worked. Uh. And before taking the stage,

1265
01:31:05,720 --> 01:31:09,840
Speaker 1: you only the idea of you know, the enormity of

1266
01:31:09,920 --> 01:31:13,960
Speaker 1: this crowd was. We were looking out between the cracks

1267
01:31:14,000 --> 01:31:16,880
Speaker 1: and the fence and you could see the first few rows.

1268
01:31:17,000 --> 01:31:19,559
Speaker 1: You could see that it was they were having fun

1269
01:31:19,680 --> 01:31:22,439
Speaker 1: and it was wide. I kept, I kept. I looked

1270
01:31:22,479 --> 01:31:25,080
Speaker 1: down one side, I looked down the other way. Wow,

1271
01:31:25,240 --> 01:31:28,639
Speaker 1: is this a big crowd. But I didn't realize until

1272
01:31:28,760 --> 01:31:32,720
Speaker 1: we walked up and we were fifteen ft above this

1273
01:31:32,840 --> 01:31:36,960
Speaker 1: crowd's head. And I looked at it was the ocean

1274
01:31:37,160 --> 01:31:42,040
Speaker 1: of people, an ocean right out to pass the front

1275
01:31:42,040 --> 01:31:45,720
Speaker 1: of house, way out to the horizon. It was like

1276
01:31:46,120 --> 01:31:50,280
Speaker 1: just people everywhere. A hundred and eighty five thousand people,

1277
01:31:50,439 --> 01:31:54,960
Speaker 1: I believe is the figure. And Uh, I looked over

1278
01:31:55,080 --> 01:31:57,479
Speaker 1: at the at my guitar tech and I said, dude,

1279
01:31:58,040 --> 01:32:01,160
Speaker 1: you wouldn't believe how bad I got a piss he said,

1280
01:32:01,960 --> 01:32:04,280
Speaker 1: He says, put this thing on, man, you got work

1281
01:32:04,400 --> 01:32:07,200
Speaker 1: to do it. So we went out. We gave him

1282
01:32:07,240 --> 01:32:11,040
Speaker 1: our first album. We gave him all that music, and

1283
01:32:11,520 --> 01:32:15,320
Speaker 1: UH did for an encore because they kept calling us back,

1284
01:32:15,960 --> 01:32:20,120
Speaker 1: you know, they more and more so the promoter says,

1285
01:32:20,479 --> 01:32:22,800
Speaker 1: you got another one. We said, yeah, we got one more.

1286
01:32:23,680 --> 01:32:25,560
Speaker 1: So we go back and we give him Land of

1287
01:32:25,640 --> 01:32:31,599
Speaker 1: a Thousand Dances Wilson picket style. And during the song,

1288
01:32:32,880 --> 01:32:35,920
Speaker 1: I take my guitar off and throw it over to

1289
01:32:36,040 --> 01:32:40,600
Speaker 1: the tech and I've got this Paisley print shirt that

1290
01:32:40,760 --> 01:32:44,280
Speaker 1: I paid fifty bucks for that shirt back then. You know,

1291
01:32:45,600 --> 01:32:48,280
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of money. But it's sticking

1292
01:32:48,360 --> 01:32:52,400
Speaker 1: to me. It's a see through Paisley print shirt, and

1293
01:32:52,520 --> 01:32:56,880
Speaker 1: it's it's just got me constrained here, you know. So

1294
01:32:57,400 --> 01:33:01,040
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, this this audience deserves this,

1295
01:33:01,200 --> 01:33:05,519
Speaker 1: and I go I ripped the shirt off, and those

1296
01:33:05,680 --> 01:33:09,360
Speaker 1: people jumped to their feet, are going yeah. I was like,

1297
01:33:09,640 --> 01:33:13,000
Speaker 1: oh man, this party type and I go to dancing,

1298
01:33:13,560 --> 01:33:17,560
Speaker 1: and uh, I knew that that really worked. Taking the

1299
01:33:17,640 --> 01:33:22,840
Speaker 1: shirt off really worked. And so from that point on, uh,

1300
01:33:23,880 --> 01:33:26,840
Speaker 1: I would go with just a vest on and to

1301
01:33:26,920 --> 01:33:30,280
Speaker 1: take that vest off, like the second song, it was gone,

1302
01:33:30,960 --> 01:33:36,160
Speaker 1: you know, And that started. Uh. We opened at twelve

1303
01:33:36,280 --> 01:33:39,439
Speaker 1: noon the first day. The second day they put us

1304
01:33:39,520 --> 01:33:42,960
Speaker 1: on at seven pm, and the last night of the

1305
01:33:43,080 --> 01:33:47,400
Speaker 1: festival they had us on eleven o'clock with full lights.

1306
01:33:48,400 --> 01:33:52,360
Speaker 1: We had and they loved us. The people absolutely loved us,

1307
01:33:53,280 --> 01:33:56,120
Speaker 1: and uh that was a blessing from God. Man, I'm

1308
01:33:56,160 --> 01:34:05,080
Speaker 1: telling you, yeh okay. You know, I was in the

1309
01:34:05,520 --> 01:34:08,519
Speaker 1: New York radio market, and what I remember is these

1310
01:34:08,720 --> 01:34:13,200
Speaker 1: radio ads about all these people thrilled in Atlanta, which

1311
01:34:13,320 --> 01:34:16,439
Speaker 1: begs the question, I gotta believe that's Terry Knight. Would

1312
01:34:16,479 --> 01:34:20,120
Speaker 1: you have made it without his intense promotion? I don't

1313
01:34:20,160 --> 01:34:23,800
Speaker 1: think so. I mean it was Terry Knight that had

1314
01:34:23,880 --> 01:34:27,160
Speaker 1: that gift of gam None of the band did, and

1315
01:34:27,240 --> 01:34:31,639
Speaker 1: those attorney sure didn't. Uh. It was all that height

1316
01:34:32,840 --> 01:34:40,400
Speaker 1: and uh, his ability two convince people that we were

1317
01:34:40,400 --> 01:34:42,920
Speaker 1: going to be big, we were going to do it. Okay,

1318
01:34:42,960 --> 01:34:44,519
Speaker 1: So how did you cut the first record? And how

1319
01:34:44,560 --> 01:34:46,759
Speaker 1: did he end up being the producer? Well, we didn't

1320
01:34:46,800 --> 01:34:49,320
Speaker 1: know any better. We didn't know any producers. We didn't

1321
01:34:49,400 --> 01:34:53,040
Speaker 1: know that your manager didn't produce your records. We were

1322
01:34:53,120 --> 01:34:58,320
Speaker 1: twenty years old about Mel was nineteen. Don and I

1323
01:34:58,400 --> 01:35:03,400
Speaker 1: were twenty Mel was nineteen, and when we got the

1324
01:35:04,600 --> 01:35:08,639
Speaker 1: you know, I got the idea, well we better put

1325
01:35:08,760 --> 01:35:12,920
Speaker 1: this all this together in a record. Terry Uh knew

1326
01:35:13,000 --> 01:35:17,080
Speaker 1: this gal who worked at a bank, and she was like, uh,

1327
01:35:18,080 --> 01:35:23,320
Speaker 1: you know a big to do UM and and he

1328
01:35:23,479 --> 01:35:26,760
Speaker 1: could get him the money that he needed to record us.

1329
01:35:27,280 --> 01:35:31,480
Speaker 1: So we had her come to one of the engagements

1330
01:35:31,560 --> 01:35:38,240
Speaker 1: that we played UM in Ohio and Uh, she saw

1331
01:35:38,320 --> 01:35:43,680
Speaker 1: the band and she decided to finance the recording, and

1332
01:35:45,200 --> 01:35:49,400
Speaker 1: of course he paid her back. And she she had

1333
01:35:49,439 --> 01:35:52,559
Speaker 1: always come to the gigs whenever we were close enough,

1334
01:35:53,400 --> 01:35:56,639
Speaker 1: and we've we always had a great relationship with her

1335
01:35:56,840 --> 01:36:01,639
Speaker 1: because of her believing in US and and Terry getting

1336
01:36:01,680 --> 01:36:06,360
Speaker 1: her to make that investment. And we recorded at Cleveland Recording.

1337
01:36:07,240 --> 01:36:13,800
Speaker 1: Don Hammond down there had beautiful uh array. He had

1338
01:36:13,840 --> 01:36:19,679
Speaker 1: every microphone known to man, and his whole thing. Don's

1339
01:36:20,240 --> 01:36:24,040
Speaker 1: was don't eat Q the mix on the board. Don't

1340
01:36:24,080 --> 01:36:28,759
Speaker 1: eat that. We'll get the microphone that that closely fits

1341
01:36:28,840 --> 01:36:30,760
Speaker 1: it to where we don't have to use the e Q.

1342
01:36:32,320 --> 01:36:38,640
Speaker 1: And that cut a lot of the noise floor out. Uh.

1343
01:36:38,760 --> 01:36:41,479
Speaker 1: And when you got ears like Don Hammond had, oh

1344
01:36:41,560 --> 01:36:44,960
Speaker 1: my god. Uh. He was very critical. He could he

1345
01:36:45,040 --> 01:36:48,519
Speaker 1: could pick this stuff up. And Terry, uh, you know,

1346
01:36:48,640 --> 01:36:51,799
Speaker 1: he produced, he he mixed it, he pushed the faders

1347
01:36:51,920 --> 01:36:56,800
Speaker 1: up in the but Don was responsible more for the

1348
01:36:56,960 --> 01:37:01,759
Speaker 1: tone of everything. And uh, and that's where we recorded

1349
01:37:01,840 --> 01:37:04,240
Speaker 1: on an eight track. Scully, buddy, how did you get

1350
01:37:04,240 --> 01:37:08,200
Speaker 1: the deal with Capital? It was after the Atlanta Pop Festival.

1351
01:37:09,320 --> 01:37:13,519
Speaker 1: The there was a few Capital representatives there, you know,

1352
01:37:13,640 --> 01:37:17,479
Speaker 1: with the various bands that were on Capitol and uh,

1353
01:37:17,840 --> 01:37:25,360
Speaker 1: and Terry came back after the third night. He said, well,

1354
01:37:26,000 --> 01:37:29,360
Speaker 1: you guys, we got some interest. Capitol Records is really

1355
01:37:29,479 --> 01:37:32,960
Speaker 1: interested in you guys. I think I got a deal going. Well,

1356
01:37:33,040 --> 01:37:36,800
Speaker 1: what he did was he made a production deal with

1357
01:37:37,000 --> 01:37:43,080
Speaker 1: Capitol Records and signed us to his uh good Night Productions,

1358
01:37:43,200 --> 01:37:48,960
Speaker 1: his company. He told us that the six percent that

1359
01:37:49,080 --> 01:37:52,600
Speaker 1: we were splitting was more than the Beatles, Scott, so

1360
01:37:53,520 --> 01:37:57,040
Speaker 1: the two percent I got, two percent, Don got, two percent,

1361
01:37:57,200 --> 01:38:00,519
Speaker 1: Mel got was more than the Beatles got. We didn't know.

1362
01:38:01,120 --> 01:38:05,519
Speaker 1: We're twenty year old kids. Uh. We said, wow, that's cool.

1363
01:38:06,600 --> 01:38:09,519
Speaker 1: But we didn't realize that it was a production deal

1364
01:38:09,640 --> 01:38:12,400
Speaker 1: or we you know, we didn't know anything about that.

1365
01:38:12,520 --> 01:38:15,799
Speaker 1: We thought we were actually signed, uh you know, somehow

1366
01:38:15,880 --> 01:38:22,600
Speaker 1: to the company. But that's what caused really, Um. The

1367
01:38:22,760 --> 01:38:26,400
Speaker 1: breakup between Terry and Knight and us was it was

1368
01:38:27,200 --> 01:38:30,479
Speaker 1: three years because they had this contract. Terry Knight had

1369
01:38:30,560 --> 01:38:35,200
Speaker 1: us for three years exclusively and Uh, at the end

1370
01:38:35,240 --> 01:38:37,439
Speaker 1: of that three years. We were in New York City.

1371
01:38:37,479 --> 01:38:43,479
Speaker 1: We had just returned from Europe. We did uh Shafe

1372
01:38:43,479 --> 01:38:47,519
Speaker 1: Stadium that summer. Uh you know, it was a big

1373
01:38:47,640 --> 01:38:52,960
Speaker 1: year for us. And they said, you guys are in

1374
01:38:53,280 --> 01:38:56,080
Speaker 1: uh in trouble with the I R S. We go,

1375
01:38:56,520 --> 01:38:59,439
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? In trouble? We made all

1376
01:38:59,560 --> 01:39:02,200
Speaker 1: kinds of Yeah, you made too much money. You you

1377
01:39:02,360 --> 01:39:07,000
Speaker 1: owe over four hundred thousand dollars to the Infernal Revenue Service.

1378
01:39:08,160 --> 01:39:11,640
Speaker 1: And I go, what how did this happen? I mean,

1379
01:39:12,560 --> 01:39:16,280
Speaker 1: who's watching our books? Who's doing us? And he said, well,

1380
01:39:16,400 --> 01:39:18,720
Speaker 1: you know, just as the price you pay when you're big.

1381
01:39:19,720 --> 01:39:24,760
Speaker 1: And he says, but this is the attorney speaking. We

1382
01:39:24,960 --> 01:39:29,479
Speaker 1: will loan you that money if you will resign another

1383
01:39:29,680 --> 01:39:36,040
Speaker 1: three year contract with Terry Knight. And I looked at

1384
01:39:36,200 --> 01:39:39,200
Speaker 1: Don and Melt. I said, look, that's a big decision.

1385
01:39:39,960 --> 01:39:42,320
Speaker 1: We aren't just gonna make that kind of decision just

1386
01:39:42,520 --> 01:39:46,040
Speaker 1: standing here off the cuff. They said, okay, you guys

1387
01:39:46,080 --> 01:39:47,920
Speaker 1: stay in here. We'll go in the other room. You

1388
01:39:48,080 --> 01:39:51,160
Speaker 1: talk it over. So they left. They scurried out of there.

1389
01:39:52,800 --> 01:39:56,240
Speaker 1: I said, this is bullshit, you guys. I walk over.

1390
01:39:57,280 --> 01:40:02,320
Speaker 1: I sat down at Bell docks death in his chair.

1391
01:40:03,360 --> 01:40:07,280
Speaker 1: I kicked my feet up on his desk and I said,

1392
01:40:07,880 --> 01:40:11,759
Speaker 1: you guys, something in the milk ain't cream. This feels

1393
01:40:11,840 --> 01:40:15,080
Speaker 1: real bad to me. This feels so bad. It's like

1394
01:40:15,280 --> 01:40:20,280
Speaker 1: we've been we have been screwed here. And as I

1395
01:40:20,920 --> 01:40:25,200
Speaker 1: said that, I sat up and my foot dragged down

1396
01:40:25,320 --> 01:40:28,360
Speaker 1: off the top of the desk and opened that first

1397
01:40:29,040 --> 01:40:34,120
Speaker 1: big drawer, that's the long shallow drawer. And here's a

1398
01:40:34,200 --> 01:40:40,200
Speaker 1: copy of the contract between good Night Productions and Capitol

1399
01:40:40,280 --> 01:40:47,280
Speaker 1: Records for six Bob. So I tell Don and Melt

1400
01:40:47,360 --> 01:40:49,760
Speaker 1: I said, you guys, you're not gonna believe this. Come

1401
01:40:49,840 --> 01:40:56,439
Speaker 1: over here, look at that. And Brewer says, that son

1402
01:40:56,520 --> 01:40:59,599
Speaker 1: of a bitch, because here, you know, we're splitting, two

1403
01:41:00,040 --> 01:41:04,640
Speaker 1: said each and then him taking a management commission. He

1404
01:41:04,840 --> 01:41:07,880
Speaker 1: took my publishing. I mean it was twenty years old.

1405
01:41:07,960 --> 01:41:10,920
Speaker 1: My mom had designed a contract. So Terry and I

1406
01:41:11,080 --> 01:41:15,759
Speaker 1: takes my publishing, takes uh, you know, an enormous amount

1407
01:41:15,800 --> 01:41:20,320
Speaker 1: of money. Uh. And then and then takes a management

1408
01:41:20,400 --> 01:41:25,000
Speaker 1: commission from the pittance that the band was splitting. And

1409
01:41:25,280 --> 01:41:30,080
Speaker 1: we just we were boiling at that point, and I said, well,

1410
01:41:30,479 --> 01:41:33,400
Speaker 1: we're just gonna tell him we can't make up our mind.

1411
01:41:33,880 --> 01:41:35,960
Speaker 1: We need a week or so to think about this.

1412
01:41:37,160 --> 01:41:39,720
Speaker 1: And so when they came back in, well, I had

1413
01:41:39,760 --> 01:41:42,840
Speaker 1: shut the desk drawer, of course, uh, and I went

1414
01:41:43,000 --> 01:41:44,840
Speaker 1: way across the room so it wouldn't look like I

1415
01:41:45,000 --> 01:41:49,639
Speaker 1: was sitting in anybody's chair. And when they came back in, well,

1416
01:41:49,800 --> 01:41:52,320
Speaker 1: what do you what do you guys think? Said, we

1417
01:41:52,439 --> 01:41:54,200
Speaker 1: need a week or two to think about this. This

1418
01:41:54,439 --> 01:41:58,360
Speaker 1: is just just as just mind boggling how this could happen.

1419
01:41:58,720 --> 01:42:04,800
Speaker 1: And I came off as I was piste off. So okay, okay, okay,

1420
01:42:05,360 --> 01:42:07,479
Speaker 1: we'll let you We'll let you think about that. So

1421
01:42:07,680 --> 01:42:12,040
Speaker 1: then we we left, and uh we got a hold

1422
01:42:12,080 --> 01:42:17,000
Speaker 1: of Eastman and Eastman and John Eastman of course his

1423
01:42:17,160 --> 01:42:24,000
Speaker 1: sister Linda Well married Paul McCartney and he was a

1424
01:42:24,080 --> 01:42:28,320
Speaker 1: big name in in the in the city. And uh

1425
01:42:29,200 --> 01:42:31,920
Speaker 1: we said, you know, we want to we want to

1426
01:42:31,960 --> 01:42:35,280
Speaker 1: get out of this. And it went to court and

1427
01:42:35,880 --> 01:42:42,040
Speaker 1: we settled out of court. But Terry always told everybody, well,

1428
01:42:42,160 --> 01:42:45,000
Speaker 1: if those guys you know, would have waited to the

1429
01:42:45,200 --> 01:42:48,080
Speaker 1: end of the contract, and then he made up some

1430
01:42:48,240 --> 01:42:53,120
Speaker 1: kind of bullshit, uh, but tried to push the blame

1431
01:42:53,360 --> 01:42:58,679
Speaker 1: of the breaking up between him and the band upon

1432
01:42:58,840 --> 01:43:02,800
Speaker 1: the band. Uh when really that's uh, you know, when

1433
01:43:02,840 --> 01:43:07,200
Speaker 1: you find out some information like that, you don't want

1434
01:43:07,200 --> 01:43:11,280
Speaker 1: to ever see this guy again. And uh, and we

1435
01:43:11,400 --> 01:43:15,680
Speaker 1: didn't at this late date. Who owns the songs? Do

1436
01:43:15,800 --> 01:43:18,920
Speaker 1: you still get paid royalties? What's going on? Terry Night

1437
01:43:19,200 --> 01:43:23,519
Speaker 1: owned the publishing Storybook music. And as you know, the

1438
01:43:23,640 --> 01:43:29,479
Speaker 1: publishing is fift of the pie. The songwriter takes fifty,

1439
01:43:29,960 --> 01:43:34,080
Speaker 1: the publisher takes fifty. But I should have been the

1440
01:43:34,200 --> 01:43:37,560
Speaker 1: publisher on all of my songs because I was the

1441
01:43:37,640 --> 01:43:41,599
Speaker 1: one out singing them, promoting them. I wasn't shopping them

1442
01:43:41,680 --> 01:43:45,000
Speaker 1: to other artists to have them uh consider doing my

1443
01:43:45,200 --> 01:43:49,040
Speaker 1: song where. You know, a publisher would have earned his

1444
01:43:49,160 --> 01:43:52,040
Speaker 1: keep if he would get a song covered by a

1445
01:43:52,120 --> 01:43:55,559
Speaker 1: big artist or something. But I was the artist. So anyway,

1446
01:43:56,160 --> 01:43:59,519
Speaker 1: I didn't find this out until later about publishing and

1447
01:43:59,600 --> 01:44:03,760
Speaker 1: about you know how bad I got screwed. Uh. But

1448
01:44:04,720 --> 01:44:11,840
Speaker 1: the when we broke up Eastman, the breakup between Terry

1449
01:44:11,840 --> 01:44:16,680
Speaker 1: and Knight and and the Grand Funk, Eastman had the

1450
01:44:16,920 --> 01:44:21,600
Speaker 1: wherewithal to think, you know, we're gonna have to have

1451
01:44:21,800 --> 01:44:26,240
Speaker 1: your record royalties paid directly to each one of you guys.

1452
01:44:27,520 --> 01:44:32,640
Speaker 1: That way, there's gonna be no hanky panky, and uh,

1453
01:44:33,640 --> 01:44:35,680
Speaker 1: you know Terry Knight's not going to have anything to

1454
01:44:35,760 --> 01:44:37,679
Speaker 1: do with it. We get him completely out of the picture.

1455
01:44:37,800 --> 01:44:41,679
Speaker 1: So to this day we still get paid the record

1456
01:44:41,840 --> 01:44:49,519
Speaker 1: royalties for record sales and now streaming directly from Capital

1457
01:44:49,760 --> 01:44:53,640
Speaker 1: or I forget what the name of the corporation is

1458
01:44:53,720 --> 01:45:01,439
Speaker 1: that has Capitals Old Recordings, but it's still paid that way.

1459
01:45:01,600 --> 01:45:04,600
Speaker 1: I get my songwriters, I get my b M I

1460
01:45:05,840 --> 01:45:10,000
Speaker 1: uh because I ran all my stuff through UH Broadcast

1461
01:45:10,120 --> 01:45:16,559
Speaker 1: Music UM, but Terry Knight's state gets all the publish things.

1462
01:45:16,760 --> 01:45:20,040
Speaker 1: There were sixteen points in the deal, and each band

1463
01:45:20,120 --> 01:45:25,400
Speaker 1: member was getting to subsequent to your hiring Eastman. How

1464
01:45:25,439 --> 01:45:28,920
Speaker 1: many did you guys end up with? Well, I don't

1465
01:45:29,040 --> 01:45:34,760
Speaker 1: know what that was. I I don't know what the

1466
01:45:34,920 --> 01:45:39,760
Speaker 1: final number was. I just was trusting Eastman to get

1467
01:45:39,840 --> 01:45:45,920
Speaker 1: us the best deal. I do know that we renegotiated

1468
01:45:46,720 --> 01:45:49,880
Speaker 1: and David Fishoff, who does rock and roll Fantasy camp

1469
01:45:51,080 --> 01:45:55,640
Speaker 1: manage Grand Funk for one year on our reunion and

1470
01:45:56,920 --> 01:46:01,600
Speaker 1: six and we did the Bosnia album and uh we

1471
01:46:01,720 --> 01:46:06,759
Speaker 1: put a wing on the hospital in Sarajevour Children's Hospital,

1472
01:46:08,000 --> 01:46:16,920
Speaker 1: UH and David negotiated our rate up because no one

1473
01:46:17,120 --> 01:46:22,360
Speaker 1: had ever uh, you know, bargained up for the CDs

1474
01:46:22,520 --> 01:46:27,320
Speaker 1: and all the digital stuff that you know, we were

1475
01:46:27,439 --> 01:46:31,160
Speaker 1: evolving into into the music industry. All we had back

1476
01:46:31,240 --> 01:46:34,759
Speaker 1: then we're records and tapes, cassette tapes or eight tracks,

1477
01:46:35,479 --> 01:46:38,640
Speaker 1: you know when when we first did our deal. So

1478
01:46:39,400 --> 01:46:44,400
Speaker 1: we did get an update, uh, an upgrade in royalties then,

1479
01:46:44,520 --> 01:46:46,400
Speaker 1: but I can't even tell you what that is. I

1480
01:46:46,439 --> 01:46:48,920
Speaker 1: would just let's look at it a different way. Do

1481
01:46:49,000 --> 01:46:50,880
Speaker 1: you have to work to pay the bills? Or does

1482
01:46:51,000 --> 01:46:53,519
Speaker 1: enough money come in? No? No, I gotta work. I

1483
01:46:53,640 --> 01:46:56,080
Speaker 1: have to work since Squam Funk broke up, has it

1484
01:46:56,240 --> 01:46:58,920
Speaker 1: been financially good or has it been a struggle. It's

1485
01:46:58,960 --> 01:47:02,280
Speaker 1: not a struggle because I love to play and as

1486
01:47:02,360 --> 01:47:05,080
Speaker 1: long as I can play, I can pay. Okay, let's

1487
01:47:05,120 --> 01:47:08,840
Speaker 1: go back. The first album comes out, Rolling Stone gives

1488
01:47:08,880 --> 01:47:12,719
Speaker 1: it a terrible review, and certainly for the first couple

1489
01:47:12,760 --> 01:47:15,920
Speaker 1: of albums, reviews are not positive. How do you feel

1490
01:47:15,920 --> 01:47:18,080
Speaker 1: about that? How did you feel about it? Then? That's

1491
01:47:18,120 --> 01:47:21,880
Speaker 1: what I'm asking. We always thought, what show did they

1492
01:47:21,960 --> 01:47:26,240
Speaker 1: go see? They didn't come and see a grand function.

1493
01:47:27,600 --> 01:47:33,640
Speaker 1: They're not giving um a report of of how popular

1494
01:47:33,960 --> 01:47:36,840
Speaker 1: we are with the fans. They're just shipping on us

1495
01:47:36,920 --> 01:47:42,120
Speaker 1: because part of Terry Knight's whole scheme was to keep

1496
01:47:42,280 --> 01:47:46,640
Speaker 1: us from the press and create a mystique. And that

1497
01:47:47,000 --> 01:47:49,439
Speaker 1: was what he gave you. That was his story he

1498
01:47:49,520 --> 01:47:54,479
Speaker 1: gave us. So while we are not doing interviews, uh,

1499
01:47:54,800 --> 01:48:00,400
Speaker 1: Terry Knight has taken that opportunity to tout his managerical uh,

1500
01:48:01,240 --> 01:48:07,679
Speaker 1: you know, his talents and uh. And then when Billy

1501
01:48:07,920 --> 01:48:12,560
Speaker 1: Billboard and cash Box came out, uh in nineteen I

1502
01:48:12,640 --> 01:48:19,439
Speaker 1: think it was one the centerfold. Is Terry Knight doing this,

1503
01:48:19,920 --> 01:48:24,000
Speaker 1: given the finger to the world and he says and

1504
01:48:24,160 --> 01:48:27,040
Speaker 1: to all a good night, k and I g h

1505
01:48:27,200 --> 01:48:30,360
Speaker 1: d you know, and he had the ship eating grin

1506
01:48:30,479 --> 01:48:35,759
Speaker 1: on his face. UM. And that that is we paid

1507
01:48:35,880 --> 01:48:40,400
Speaker 1: for that attitude, Grand Funk. The guys in the band

1508
01:48:40,560 --> 01:48:44,640
Speaker 1: paid for that attitude that Terry had, and that he

1509
01:48:44,840 --> 01:48:47,920
Speaker 1: left a bad taste in uh, in the mouth in

1510
01:48:48,000 --> 01:48:51,240
Speaker 1: the mouths of the press and those people that wanted

1511
01:48:51,280 --> 01:48:54,080
Speaker 1: to do the interviews with us because he wouldn't let

1512
01:48:54,120 --> 01:48:58,240
Speaker 1: it happen. And when we you know, to this day,

1513
01:48:58,400 --> 01:49:03,360
Speaker 1: I believe that is part of why uh, you know,

1514
01:49:03,600 --> 01:49:06,519
Speaker 1: we got all the bad rap. So ultimately Terry Knights

1515
01:49:06,560 --> 01:49:10,080
Speaker 1: out of the picture. You end up working with Todd Rundgren.

1516
01:49:10,120 --> 01:49:13,439
Speaker 1: How does that happen? We drew names out of a hat, buddy,

1517
01:49:14,320 --> 01:49:17,880
Speaker 1: And I'm serious. There was a Rundgren was one of

1518
01:49:17,960 --> 01:49:22,400
Speaker 1: them because Lynn Goldsmith, are publicist, knew him very well,

1519
01:49:22,520 --> 01:49:26,760
Speaker 1: had worked with him, and she said, uh, man, he'd

1520
01:49:26,800 --> 01:49:28,920
Speaker 1: be great if he's if that's who you pull out

1521
01:49:28,960 --> 01:49:31,559
Speaker 1: of the hat. And there was up several other people

1522
01:49:31,600 --> 01:49:33,559
Speaker 1: that we put in the hat. You know, there's probably

1523
01:49:34,000 --> 01:49:36,920
Speaker 1: eight names. And I reached in and I pull out

1524
01:49:36,960 --> 01:49:41,519
Speaker 1: Todd Rundgren and that's it. And that's how Frank Zappa

1525
01:49:41,600 --> 01:49:45,400
Speaker 1: got h pulled two and we had names in a hat.

1526
01:49:46,280 --> 01:49:50,000
Speaker 1: Pulled the name Frank Zappa. Okay, let's let's ask them

1527
01:49:50,040 --> 01:49:53,880
Speaker 1: see if they'll do it. Uh. Todd was very willing

1528
01:49:54,000 --> 01:49:58,000
Speaker 1: to come out h and to Michigan and hear us

1529
01:49:58,080 --> 01:50:00,960
Speaker 1: and to work with us and see where we were

1530
01:50:01,080 --> 01:50:03,200
Speaker 1: recording and see if he could get it done there.

1531
01:50:04,320 --> 01:50:10,920
Speaker 1: And in fact, when Todd was producing, I lived across

1532
01:50:11,080 --> 01:50:14,760
Speaker 1: from the studio, which we lovingly called the swamp. We

1533
01:50:14,840 --> 01:50:17,720
Speaker 1: had to dig up pond there in order to get

1534
01:50:17,760 --> 01:50:20,519
Speaker 1: a perk test to put the building down and have

1535
01:50:20,680 --> 01:50:24,360
Speaker 1: a you know, septic system. Uh. But you couldn't see

1536
01:50:24,400 --> 01:50:27,360
Speaker 1: the farmhouse from the swamp because of the woods that

1537
01:50:27,479 --> 01:50:29,880
Speaker 1: we had to go through. And the driveway was kind

1538
01:50:29,880 --> 01:50:33,000
Speaker 1: of like an s and it's dirt, and where I

1539
01:50:33,080 --> 01:50:36,200
Speaker 1: lived on a dirt road, Partialville Road. And I went

1540
01:50:36,320 --> 01:50:39,720
Speaker 1: home for the for lunch to the farmhouse, and on

1541
01:50:39,880 --> 01:50:44,120
Speaker 1: my way back, it was a beautiful day. The sun

1542
01:50:44,360 --> 01:50:48,680
Speaker 1: was out, the birds were chirping and singing, and I

1543
01:50:48,760 --> 01:50:52,479
Speaker 1: could hear the guys in the parking lot at the studio.

1544
01:50:52,520 --> 01:50:54,760
Speaker 1: I could, you know, hear their conversation a little bit.

1545
01:50:54,800 --> 01:50:59,600
Speaker 1: I could hear them talking. So I start saying, everybody's

1546
01:50:59,680 --> 01:51:03,840
Speaker 1: dude in a brand who dance now? And then guys

1547
01:51:03,880 --> 01:51:08,160
Speaker 1: start singing the backgrounds from the parking lot, and and

1548
01:51:08,360 --> 01:51:11,479
Speaker 1: Rundgren comes walking out as I come around the corner,

1549
01:51:11,560 --> 01:51:14,280
Speaker 1: and now I can see the band and the crew

1550
01:51:14,720 --> 01:51:18,439
Speaker 1: and they're singing and I'm still singing, and we're singing

1551
01:51:18,479 --> 01:51:22,960
Speaker 1: the locomotion. Rundgren comes walking out of the studio. He said,

1552
01:51:23,040 --> 01:51:25,439
Speaker 1: what the hell is that? I said, what is that?

1553
01:51:25,680 --> 01:51:28,880
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? That's little Eva, that's the locomotion.

1554
01:51:29,479 --> 01:51:31,960
Speaker 1: He says, well, you guys get in here right now

1555
01:51:32,040 --> 01:51:37,120
Speaker 1: because we're recording the Locomotion. We went in, he pushed

1556
01:51:37,160 --> 01:51:40,320
Speaker 1: the button, we went in, and he came out to

1557
01:51:40,479 --> 01:51:43,439
Speaker 1: record with us. That's him singing all that high false

1558
01:51:43,439 --> 01:51:47,519
Speaker 1: settle part in Locomotion. We turned it into a party

1559
01:51:48,080 --> 01:51:52,240
Speaker 1: and when the guitar solo uh starts, he walks over

1560
01:51:52,360 --> 01:51:55,280
Speaker 1: to my rig Bob, and he grabbed the head on

1561
01:51:55,400 --> 01:51:58,360
Speaker 1: the eco plex and slid it from one end to

1562
01:51:58,479 --> 01:52:04,600
Speaker 1: the other and he go im gonna do that. It

1563
01:52:04,720 --> 01:52:09,559
Speaker 1: sounded like the car guitar was eating itself and people

1564
01:52:09,640 --> 01:52:11,599
Speaker 1: loved it. Man, that was a big hit for us,

1565
01:52:11,920 --> 01:52:14,439
Speaker 1: Number one. Okay, let's go back. I've talked to Todd,

1566
01:52:14,840 --> 01:52:18,519
Speaker 1: and Todd said when he was called that you had

1567
01:52:18,640 --> 01:52:22,519
Speaker 1: new management and were an American band. Was already written

1568
01:52:22,840 --> 01:52:26,280
Speaker 1: the song and he came in and cut it right away,

1569
01:52:27,120 --> 01:52:28,760
Speaker 1: and then it became a hit and then cut the

1570
01:52:28,840 --> 01:52:32,840
Speaker 1: album after. What's your memory of all that? Yeah? He Well,

1571
01:52:33,400 --> 01:52:37,040
Speaker 1: he was the first producer that we felt confident that

1572
01:52:37,240 --> 01:52:41,799
Speaker 1: he could make the records sound like we did on stage,

1573
01:52:42,439 --> 01:52:46,200
Speaker 1: that he could actually put the energy that the band

1574
01:52:46,360 --> 01:52:49,680
Speaker 1: was putting out and the and the sound, you know,

1575
01:52:49,840 --> 01:52:55,479
Speaker 1: the tone uh, which we never thought. Terry Knight did

1576
01:52:55,520 --> 01:52:58,320
Speaker 1: a very good job of replicating what we sounded like

1577
01:52:58,479 --> 01:53:02,240
Speaker 1: on stage on the records, as successful as they may

1578
01:53:02,320 --> 01:53:07,080
Speaker 1: have been. But but Todd had the magic. He had

1579
01:53:07,160 --> 01:53:12,120
Speaker 1: the musical genius. Uh. Easy for him. And one of

1580
01:53:12,240 --> 01:53:14,880
Speaker 1: is a musical genius. It's it is easy that they

1581
01:53:14,960 --> 01:53:19,360
Speaker 1: don't have to work at it. And I recall doing

1582
01:53:19,800 --> 01:53:22,880
Speaker 1: American Band. We we we did it. We cut it

1583
01:53:22,960 --> 01:53:26,000
Speaker 1: at the Step in the Swamp, but then we did

1584
01:53:26,080 --> 01:53:33,040
Speaker 1: the vocals at Criteria in Miami. And when we finished

1585
01:53:33,600 --> 01:53:39,760
Speaker 1: American Band, which, by the way, I said to Brewer, man,

1586
01:53:39,840 --> 01:53:42,960
Speaker 1: this song it needs a cow bell in the worst way.

1587
01:53:43,800 --> 01:53:46,240
Speaker 1: He says, I don't have a cow bell. I said,

1588
01:53:46,280 --> 01:53:48,160
Speaker 1: we need to get one. Dude, I'm telling you, I'm

1589
01:53:48,240 --> 01:53:50,599
Speaker 1: hearing cow bell on this. He says, all right, all right,

1590
01:53:50,640 --> 01:53:52,320
Speaker 1: all right, I'll pick one up on a way to

1591
01:53:52,400 --> 01:53:56,160
Speaker 1: rehearsal tomorrow. I said, no, man, pick up six and

1592
01:53:56,280 --> 01:53:59,840
Speaker 1: we'll pick the best one that matches this the chord

1593
01:54:00,000 --> 01:54:03,080
Speaker 1: that we're playing this song. So he did that, and

1594
01:54:03,240 --> 01:54:07,280
Speaker 1: and I taught him the drum intro that is my

1595
01:54:08,000 --> 01:54:09,560
Speaker 1: I heard that in my head and I said, this

1596
01:54:09,680 --> 01:54:12,080
Speaker 1: is what I'm hearing for an intro, and then we

1597
01:54:12,160 --> 01:54:16,040
Speaker 1: come in and he goes, man, I can't believe well.

1598
01:54:16,280 --> 01:54:21,240
Speaker 1: I kept encouraging him, and the nicest way that he could.

1599
01:54:21,400 --> 01:54:24,320
Speaker 1: I said, you know who you are. You're Don Brewer, dude.

1600
01:54:24,360 --> 01:54:30,160
Speaker 1: You could do this ship no problem. So we get

1601
01:54:30,200 --> 01:54:32,880
Speaker 1: it down, we rehearse it. We get this thing down

1602
01:54:33,960 --> 01:54:37,680
Speaker 1: and go to rehearse or go to Miami to record.

1603
01:54:38,600 --> 01:54:42,440
Speaker 1: And when we have done with the song, Don, it

1604
01:54:42,600 --> 01:54:45,240
Speaker 1: was at night. Don comes to me and he says, Mark,

1605
01:54:45,680 --> 01:54:49,600
Speaker 1: I've never had a songwriter credit on any song. Would

1606
01:54:49,600 --> 01:54:51,960
Speaker 1: you mind if I take it on this song? I said,

1607
01:54:52,000 --> 01:54:54,920
Speaker 1: go ahead. Even though I wrote the music. He didn't

1608
01:54:54,960 --> 01:54:58,200
Speaker 1: write those chord changes. I wrote those chord changes. I

1609
01:54:58,320 --> 01:55:02,800
Speaker 1: did the background vocal arrangement, and the Kyle Bell and

1610
01:55:02,920 --> 01:55:05,000
Speaker 1: the drum intro I did. I had a lot to

1611
01:55:05,040 --> 01:55:07,480
Speaker 1: do with that song. That's why he came to me

1612
01:55:07,600 --> 01:55:11,240
Speaker 1: and asked me. Because any other song prior to that

1613
01:55:12,000 --> 01:55:15,879
Speaker 1: that we had co written together, he did the lyrics.

1614
01:55:17,080 --> 01:55:20,920
Speaker 1: I did the music, and that's how we worked. I

1615
01:55:21,400 --> 01:55:27,520
Speaker 1: didn't try to interfere or you know, change the lyrics

1616
01:55:27,560 --> 01:55:29,920
Speaker 1: that he was writing. Whatever his ideas were, I wanted

1617
01:55:30,040 --> 01:55:34,080
Speaker 1: him to you know finish that. So he's not the

1618
01:55:35,680 --> 01:55:40,720
Speaker 1: songwriter of that song. And anybody that would ask him

1619
01:55:40,760 --> 01:55:43,160
Speaker 1: to go ahead and play it on whichever instrument he

1620
01:55:43,240 --> 01:55:47,000
Speaker 1: wrote it on that they would soon find out. Uh,

1621
01:55:47,680 --> 01:55:52,480
Speaker 1: but nevertheless, I have that's part of my lessons, That's

1622
01:55:52,520 --> 01:55:56,160
Speaker 1: part of my life lesson and uh, I don't regret it,

1623
01:55:56,320 --> 01:56:01,760
Speaker 1: because regret is debt, it's dead consciousness. Okay, you make

1624
01:56:01,800 --> 01:56:04,120
Speaker 1: two albums with Todd and then you work with Jimmy Ironer.

1625
01:56:04,160 --> 01:56:06,240
Speaker 1: How do you end up working with Jimmy and you

1626
01:56:06,320 --> 01:56:10,920
Speaker 1: have some success there? With Jimmy Einer was pulled from

1627
01:56:10,920 --> 01:56:17,280
Speaker 1: a hat and we knew with the raspberries that he had,

1628
01:56:17,680 --> 01:56:22,560
Speaker 1: you know, had some great sounds, especially vocals. He had

1629
01:56:22,600 --> 01:56:28,200
Speaker 1: a way with vocals man, and uh so we just

1630
01:56:28,360 --> 01:56:31,880
Speaker 1: working with him. He was every time I come into

1631
01:56:31,960 --> 01:56:36,880
Speaker 1: control room, Jimmy had this smile that was like looking

1632
01:56:36,960 --> 01:56:40,000
Speaker 1: at the moon. I mean, you know, it lit up

1633
01:56:40,080 --> 01:56:44,160
Speaker 1: the room and and he just loved what he was doing.

1634
01:56:45,240 --> 01:56:48,800
Speaker 1: And we worked at the record plant and did in

1635
01:56:48,880 --> 01:56:51,840
Speaker 1: a bad time to be in love there. Oh my god,

1636
01:56:52,360 --> 01:56:55,640
Speaker 1: he did the vocals. I just couldn't believe how it

1637
01:56:55,800 --> 01:56:59,360
Speaker 1: was coming out. And uh, he would have people from

1638
01:56:59,800 --> 01:57:03,360
Speaker 1: the record plant come up, some of the engineers that

1639
01:57:03,440 --> 01:57:07,040
Speaker 1: were downstairs, and the owner, he had her come up

1640
01:57:07,120 --> 01:57:10,520
Speaker 1: and and there he's wanting me to keep singing this

1641
01:57:10,640 --> 01:57:15,800
Speaker 1: song over and over over again. Uh you know that intro,

1642
01:57:16,160 --> 01:57:19,960
Speaker 1: I'm in love with you, and uh he just loved

1643
01:57:20,040 --> 01:57:24,400
Speaker 1: that part. And uh, I'm glad that we did it

1644
01:57:24,520 --> 01:57:29,760
Speaker 1: with him because that and some kind of Wonderful are

1645
01:57:30,240 --> 01:57:38,360
Speaker 1: probably the best vocally arranged and the vocal presence, uh,

1646
01:57:38,760 --> 01:57:44,280
Speaker 1: those two songs of the whole catalog, Grandfat Catalog. So ultimately,

1647
01:57:44,520 --> 01:57:49,040
Speaker 1: from an outside view, you have an awaking and you

1648
01:57:49,200 --> 01:57:53,160
Speaker 1: become very Christian. Was that something that people didn't know

1649
01:57:53,280 --> 01:57:57,400
Speaker 1: about or was there some significant turning point in your life? Actually,

1650
01:57:57,880 --> 01:58:00,160
Speaker 1: when my dad died, you know, when I was nine

1651
01:58:00,200 --> 01:58:04,320
Speaker 1: years old, I walked into the living room. My dad

1652
01:58:04,400 --> 01:58:09,800
Speaker 1: had just purchased our first television set. Prior to the TV,

1653
01:58:10,080 --> 01:58:12,600
Speaker 1: we used to listen to the radio. We had a

1654
01:58:12,640 --> 01:58:15,600
Speaker 1: big wooden radio, you know, like a twelve inch speaker,

1655
01:58:15,720 --> 01:58:20,200
Speaker 1: and would listen to the Lone Ranger and Flash Gordon

1656
01:58:20,360 --> 01:58:24,480
Speaker 1: and Creaking Door all this stuff, and and all the

1657
01:58:24,560 --> 01:58:27,280
Speaker 1: cousins would be around the speaker and we'd be eaten.

1658
01:58:27,880 --> 01:58:32,320
Speaker 1: You know, popcorn in these grocery bags, big huge bags

1659
01:58:32,360 --> 01:58:35,040
Speaker 1: full of popcorn, and they're grease soaked from the butter,

1660
01:58:35,560 --> 01:58:38,560
Speaker 1: you know, and and we're just our imaginations are going

1661
01:58:38,720 --> 01:58:42,720
Speaker 1: like crazy listening to Flash Gordon and the Lone Ranger

1662
01:58:42,760 --> 01:58:46,760
Speaker 1: and all this. Uh So, when we got the TV,

1663
01:58:48,000 --> 01:58:50,000
Speaker 1: my dad was very proud that he could get that

1664
01:58:50,160 --> 01:58:54,200
Speaker 1: for us. Uh and then he died like a week later.

1665
01:58:55,040 --> 01:58:59,080
Speaker 1: So I walk in out of the dining room where

1666
01:58:59,160 --> 01:59:05,200
Speaker 1: my mother and my aunts and uncles, Grandma and grandpa. Uh,

1667
01:59:05,920 --> 01:59:10,080
Speaker 1: they were all just crying. They were they were sobbing,

1668
01:59:10,200 --> 01:59:15,400
Speaker 1: and it was just a lot of voices that were hurting, hurting.

1669
01:59:16,160 --> 01:59:20,480
Speaker 1: And I walked into the living room where the TV

1670
01:59:20,760 --> 01:59:23,840
Speaker 1: was on, kind of faint, and I looked over and

1671
01:59:24,080 --> 01:59:30,040
Speaker 1: Billy Graham was doing a crusade in Flint, Michigan. He

1672
01:59:30,240 --> 01:59:34,800
Speaker 1: was at Shasta or Shake. He was at the stadium.

1673
01:59:35,040 --> 01:59:37,760
Speaker 1: What the heck his name of the Yankee Stadium? No, no, no, no, no.

1674
01:59:37,920 --> 01:59:41,120
Speaker 1: This was in Flint, Michigan. God, actually what was it

1675
01:59:41,240 --> 01:59:46,120
Speaker 1: Silver Dome? Anyways, he was there and that it was

1676
01:59:46,520 --> 01:59:52,480
Speaker 1: packed and as he's talented, you know, I'd walking in

1677
01:59:52,760 --> 01:59:55,960
Speaker 1: and he's telling the people if you need a touch

1678
01:59:56,120 --> 02:00:01,000
Speaker 1: from God, if you are hurting, if there's pain in

1679
02:00:01,160 --> 02:00:04,840
Speaker 1: your life. And I'm I'm going damn, he's talking to me.

1680
02:00:05,320 --> 02:00:09,840
Speaker 1: You know. I walked up to the TV and he says,

1681
02:00:10,280 --> 02:00:12,800
Speaker 1: I want you to pray with me. And I'm looking

1682
02:00:12,920 --> 02:00:15,680
Speaker 1: right into his eyes. He says, put your hand on

1683
02:00:15,760 --> 02:00:19,120
Speaker 1: the television set. I reach up and I put my

1684
02:00:19,200 --> 02:00:23,040
Speaker 1: hand on a television set and I received Jesus Christ

1685
02:00:24,040 --> 02:00:27,440
Speaker 1: as my savior. I confess it with my mouth. I'm

1686
02:00:27,560 --> 02:00:30,800
Speaker 1: nine years old. I've been to church a few times,

1687
02:00:30,920 --> 02:00:34,480
Speaker 1: but you know, on Easter with my great grandmother, you know,

1688
02:00:35,040 --> 02:00:39,240
Speaker 1: or some other special holiday. It wasn't every week, every

1689
02:00:39,560 --> 02:00:43,280
Speaker 1: you know, Wednesday, Sunday thing. It was just every once

1690
02:00:43,320 --> 02:00:48,280
Speaker 1: in a while. But what I prayed, I felt a

1691
02:00:48,480 --> 02:00:52,680
Speaker 1: piece come over me, an actual you know, nine years old,

1692
02:00:52,720 --> 02:00:57,879
Speaker 1: I can still remember that piece and it's that pieces

1693
02:00:58,640 --> 02:01:00,400
Speaker 1: part of who I am now. But I went on.

1694
02:01:00,960 --> 02:01:04,960
Speaker 1: You know, I was a big star in Grand Funk Railroad. Uh,

1695
02:01:05,320 --> 02:01:09,480
Speaker 1: you know, rock and roll icon what have you. And

1696
02:01:09,880 --> 02:01:17,360
Speaker 1: when I married Lisa, Uh, she's the love of my

1697
02:01:17,480 --> 02:01:25,480
Speaker 1: life and to let's be two. So four years into

1698
02:01:25,560 --> 02:01:30,080
Speaker 1: our marriage, we have two of the three boys that

1699
02:01:30,160 --> 02:01:34,800
Speaker 1: we had together. But Jason and Joseph we're at the house.

1700
02:01:35,720 --> 02:01:39,840
Speaker 1: I come home from the studio and there was a note,

1701
02:01:41,440 --> 02:01:47,000
Speaker 1: uh that she's she's left, She's gone, she's leaving me boom.

1702
02:01:48,160 --> 02:01:51,200
Speaker 1: And the kids were over at my sister in law's.

1703
02:01:51,800 --> 02:01:55,200
Speaker 1: So I went over and I tried to play like,

1704
02:01:55,960 --> 02:01:59,040
Speaker 1: you know, oh, she she'll be coming back anytime, blah

1705
02:01:59,080 --> 02:02:03,000
Speaker 1: blah blah. Well after that, after the first few days, man,

1706
02:02:03,120 --> 02:02:06,480
Speaker 1: I started going to church. I'm looking for God. I

1707
02:02:06,840 --> 02:02:08,920
Speaker 1: walk into this one. The first church I go into.

1708
02:02:08,960 --> 02:02:12,640
Speaker 1: It's like hell fire and brimstone and all this bullshit,

1709
02:02:13,520 --> 02:02:15,960
Speaker 1: and I went, I did, Nah, he got ain't here.

1710
02:02:16,040 --> 02:02:19,360
Speaker 1: And I walk out. You know, I walk in and

1711
02:02:19,520 --> 02:02:22,400
Speaker 1: part of my test, Bob was I put on my

1712
02:02:23,840 --> 02:02:29,240
Speaker 1: Hawaiian shirt, faded blue jeans with holes in the knees,

1713
02:02:29,880 --> 02:02:32,840
Speaker 1: and my sneakers, and I got a headband on and

1714
02:02:32,960 --> 02:02:37,360
Speaker 1: my long hair hanging down. I'm kind of hippified. I said,

1715
02:02:37,680 --> 02:02:39,600
Speaker 1: you know, part of it is if they can get

1716
02:02:39,720 --> 02:02:44,800
Speaker 1: past this, I might listen to them, you know. And

1717
02:02:44,920 --> 02:02:47,160
Speaker 1: that was part of the test for me. And then

1718
02:02:47,200 --> 02:02:49,280
Speaker 1: I got into this other, one of the other church

1719
02:02:50,000 --> 02:02:52,320
Speaker 1: I went. I went to one on Wednesday. I went

1720
02:02:52,360 --> 02:02:54,680
Speaker 1: to one on Friday. I went to one on Sunday.

1721
02:02:55,040 --> 02:02:58,680
Speaker 1: I'm looking for God, And finally I got into this

1722
02:02:58,800 --> 02:03:02,880
Speaker 1: little church where no but he knew who I was. Uh.

1723
02:03:03,800 --> 02:03:08,720
Speaker 1: These old ladies, I mean older ladies, uh came up

1724
02:03:08,760 --> 02:03:11,720
Speaker 1: to me. Hello, Sun, how are you doing, Welcome to

1725
02:03:11,840 --> 02:03:14,160
Speaker 1: the church, and blah blah, and they're hugging me, and

1726
02:03:14,400 --> 02:03:20,160
Speaker 1: I felt like, are these people for real? Wow, this

1727
02:03:20,360 --> 02:03:23,960
Speaker 1: is really kind of what I need, you know. Then

1728
02:03:24,040 --> 02:03:28,440
Speaker 1: the pastor gets up there, Pastor Exley, he was uh

1729
02:03:28,880 --> 02:03:31,840
Speaker 1: eighty four years old, preaching on the institution of marriage

1730
02:03:31,840 --> 02:03:35,480
Speaker 1: according to God's work, How people walk out the front

1731
02:03:35,640 --> 02:03:38,920
Speaker 1: door of the church and they leave the commitment that

1732
02:03:39,040 --> 02:03:42,560
Speaker 1: they've made, this holy matrimony. They leave it behind when

1733
02:03:42,600 --> 02:03:44,680
Speaker 1: they walk out the front door of the church and

1734
02:03:44,760 --> 02:03:47,800
Speaker 1: they just off, you know, doing their life, and they

1735
02:03:48,600 --> 02:03:52,680
Speaker 1: and the the Testament and and uh, what brought him

1736
02:03:52,720 --> 02:03:55,760
Speaker 1: together in the first place, and to that point gets

1737
02:03:55,840 --> 02:03:59,080
Speaker 1: left in the church and that's why marriages fall apart.

1738
02:03:59,160 --> 02:04:01,520
Speaker 1: And it was, man, it was like this guy had

1739
02:04:01,560 --> 02:04:04,360
Speaker 1: a gun and he and he was shooting me with

1740
02:04:04,560 --> 02:04:08,280
Speaker 1: this gun. He had no blanks in that gun. And

1741
02:04:08,640 --> 02:04:12,480
Speaker 1: it's like I'm thinking, he singled me out. He knows

1742
02:04:12,960 --> 02:04:17,560
Speaker 1: I got trouble, and he gives an altar call and

1743
02:04:18,040 --> 02:04:22,960
Speaker 1: I go up there. I scurried up there, and I said,

1744
02:04:24,200 --> 02:04:26,520
Speaker 1: I told him the story. I said, my wife left me.

1745
02:04:27,400 --> 02:04:29,800
Speaker 1: I said, I I gave my life to Jesus back

1746
02:04:29,840 --> 02:04:33,000
Speaker 1: when I was nine. But uh, you know, I've been

1747
02:04:33,080 --> 02:04:36,200
Speaker 1: involved in all this worldly stuff. I'm not really you know,

1748
02:04:36,320 --> 02:04:39,240
Speaker 1: a churchgoer or anything. I said, but man, I want

1749
02:04:39,320 --> 02:04:43,560
Speaker 1: my wife back. He said, Uh, well, I understand it,

1750
02:04:44,280 --> 02:04:47,520
Speaker 1: you know, Sonny. I said, well, can you pray with

1751
02:04:47,640 --> 02:04:49,800
Speaker 1: me to get her back? He says, I'll tell you

1752
02:04:49,920 --> 02:04:54,240
Speaker 1: what I'll do, son you pray and I'll agree. So

1753
02:04:54,520 --> 02:04:58,160
Speaker 1: I prayed. I said, God, I want my wife back.

1754
02:04:59,040 --> 02:05:01,320
Speaker 1: I want her back. I I want to have my

1755
02:05:01,440 --> 02:05:05,160
Speaker 1: life with her. I want to have the mother of

1756
02:05:05,320 --> 02:05:10,120
Speaker 1: my children. And I'm crying, you know, and I just

1757
02:05:10,800 --> 02:05:13,440
Speaker 1: just like I just said, and he agreed. He said,

1758
02:05:13,440 --> 02:05:19,600
Speaker 1: I agree on touching that prayer in Jesus name. And

1759
02:05:20,440 --> 02:05:23,960
Speaker 1: I found out my wife gave her life to Jesus

1760
02:05:24,080 --> 02:05:28,160
Speaker 1: that same day, fifty miles away in another city, Ah

1761
02:05:28,760 --> 02:05:35,520
Speaker 1: that morning. And AH. So we got back together two

1762
02:05:36,480 --> 02:05:39,400
Speaker 1: two days, baby three at the most, and we've been

1763
02:05:41,200 --> 02:05:45,640
Speaker 1: solely sold out to each other. And uh, and we

1764
02:05:45,720 --> 02:05:50,800
Speaker 1: have allowed that love to be real and to hold

1765
02:05:50,880 --> 02:05:56,680
Speaker 1: onto it and to um, I esteem my wife to

1766
02:05:56,840 --> 02:06:02,600
Speaker 1: be equal with myself Bob Um. How could you love

1767
02:06:02,760 --> 02:06:06,120
Speaker 1: somebody with everything you are? And I believe this is

1768
02:06:06,200 --> 02:06:08,360
Speaker 1: what we have to do, is man, that we have

1769
02:06:08,560 --> 02:06:16,480
Speaker 1: to give all of ourselves to that relationship, reckless, abandoned. Uh.

1770
02:06:16,720 --> 02:06:20,560
Speaker 1: You've got to give yourself to love and then it'll

1771
02:06:21,160 --> 02:06:24,000
Speaker 1: come back to you. And and that's the way we've

1772
02:06:24,040 --> 02:06:28,320
Speaker 1: played it. And for fort or four years now it's working. Okay,

1773
02:06:28,400 --> 02:06:31,040
Speaker 1: So family is the most important thing. But Grand Funk

1774
02:06:31,120 --> 02:06:34,080
Speaker 1: rail Road, what do we know? The song still stay alive.

1775
02:06:34,680 --> 02:06:37,520
Speaker 1: In the beginning, you said, well, you would like to

1776
02:06:37,640 --> 02:06:40,880
Speaker 1: get together with the other two for the fans. Yeah,

1777
02:06:41,240 --> 02:06:44,560
Speaker 1: But how do you feel about the legacy of Grand

1778
02:06:44,600 --> 02:06:48,040
Speaker 1: Funk Railroad? Do you think you've gotten to do? You know,

1779
02:06:48,160 --> 02:06:50,240
Speaker 1: there's always the question of the rock and roll Hall

1780
02:06:50,280 --> 02:06:54,120
Speaker 1: of Fame, whether that's an institution that has any gravitas

1781
02:06:54,400 --> 02:06:57,080
Speaker 1: or not. But how do you feel about it all

1782
02:06:57,120 --> 02:07:00,720
Speaker 1: these years later? Well? I feel like, uh, in the

1783
02:07:00,840 --> 02:07:06,960
Speaker 1: hearts of the true fans, they know who I am

1784
02:07:07,080 --> 02:07:13,920
Speaker 1: because I wrote that music and my songs are I

1785
02:07:14,080 --> 02:07:17,240
Speaker 1: am who my songs say I am. They are a

1786
02:07:17,360 --> 02:07:22,080
Speaker 1: testimony to my life, to my belief, to my love,

1787
02:07:22,200 --> 02:07:28,360
Speaker 1: to my convictions. And I can leave this world knowing

1788
02:07:28,480 --> 02:07:32,840
Speaker 1: that and pretty pretty happy. Guy. I would love to

1789
02:07:33,280 --> 02:07:39,720
Speaker 1: have that band entertain the fans the truth Grand Funk fans,

1790
02:07:39,880 --> 02:07:42,720
Speaker 1: just from that point of view. I was sharing earlier

1791
02:07:42,760 --> 02:07:44,880
Speaker 1: Bob about me being a Beatle fan, and I wanted

1792
02:07:44,960 --> 02:07:47,720
Speaker 1: to see, you know, the four dudes up there. I

1793
02:07:47,800 --> 02:07:50,840
Speaker 1: wanted to see them. I wanted to feel that magic.

1794
02:07:50,920 --> 02:07:54,960
Speaker 1: I wanted to be there. And I think that there's

1795
02:07:54,960 --> 02:07:59,920
Speaker 1: a lot of fans that would still really like to

1796
02:08:00,120 --> 02:08:03,760
Speaker 1: see the original three guys get up there and do it.

1797
02:08:04,760 --> 02:08:11,280
Speaker 1: But it's my feelings are not shared. So um, the

1798
02:08:11,400 --> 02:08:15,920
Speaker 1: way it stands is, I just have to keep telling

1799
02:08:16,040 --> 02:08:23,680
Speaker 1: myself and reassuring myself that at least my willingness and

1800
02:08:23,840 --> 02:08:28,800
Speaker 1: my uh trying, you know, my efforts to put the

1801
02:08:28,880 --> 02:08:33,280
Speaker 1: band back together for the sake of the fans, it's

1802
02:08:33,320 --> 02:08:35,800
Speaker 1: good enough. It's good enough for me. That has to be.

1803
02:08:36,880 --> 02:08:39,240
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let it become a burden to me

1804
02:08:39,360 --> 02:08:43,959
Speaker 1: because that would put me in debt. Brother, Okay, but meanwhile,

1805
02:08:44,080 --> 02:08:47,440
Speaker 1: you're working and you work with your band, you also

1806
02:08:47,520 --> 02:08:51,560
Speaker 1: work solo acoustic. Uh so how do you decide which

1807
02:08:51,600 --> 02:08:54,000
Speaker 1: show to do and how often do you work? I

1808
02:08:54,200 --> 02:08:59,640
Speaker 1: do them all, anything that comes along, as long as

1809
02:08:59,720 --> 02:09:05,760
Speaker 1: I and pay my guys and pay my air affairs. Oh,

1810
02:09:05,920 --> 02:09:10,280
Speaker 1: I do them all. I love to perform. I love

1811
02:09:10,400 --> 02:09:13,880
Speaker 1: it when people call my name out. I love it

1812
02:09:14,000 --> 02:09:16,760
Speaker 1: when my name was called out on that loud speaker

1813
02:09:16,800 --> 02:09:20,160
Speaker 1: and I was prancing across that football field. I love

1814
02:09:20,240 --> 02:09:25,360
Speaker 1: it when people holler out from the crowd, we love you, Mark,

1815
02:09:26,520 --> 02:09:30,240
Speaker 1: We love you Mark. I love you Mark, Thank you Mark.

1816
02:09:31,360 --> 02:09:36,520
Speaker 1: It's so gratifying. Two. I wish people could know this.

1817
02:09:36,680 --> 02:09:42,400
Speaker 1: I wish every person could know how it feels to

1818
02:09:42,680 --> 02:09:47,360
Speaker 1: truly be a brother. Too many people but a being.

1819
02:09:47,440 --> 02:09:51,080
Speaker 1: On that note, we're gonna leave it at that. You know, Mark,

1820
02:09:51,160 --> 02:09:54,120
Speaker 1: it's really it's just fascinating. You know, I've seen the band,

1821
02:09:54,680 --> 02:09:57,080
Speaker 1: and to talk to you gives me a lot of

1822
02:09:57,160 --> 02:09:59,760
Speaker 1: insight that I didn't have, And I think my listeners

1823
02:09:59,800 --> 02:10:02,720
Speaker 1: will feel the same way. And there are a lot

1824
02:10:02,760 --> 02:10:04,960
Speaker 1: of people who love you and love your music. You know,

1825
02:10:05,080 --> 02:10:08,920
Speaker 1: it's funny because certainly weren't American being phenomenal track and

1826
02:10:09,040 --> 02:10:12,440
Speaker 1: closer to home. You know, I'm your captain, but when

1827
02:10:12,520 --> 02:10:15,640
Speaker 1: I hear some kind of wonderful, you know, come out

1828
02:10:15,680 --> 02:10:18,240
Speaker 1: of the speakers, it just does something for me that

1829
02:10:18,360 --> 02:10:20,360
Speaker 1: I pull it up, you know on the streaming service.

1830
02:10:20,440 --> 02:10:23,640
Speaker 1: You know, it's just got that exuberance and you know

1831
02:10:23,760 --> 02:10:26,640
Speaker 1: that lives on you after fifty years of bullshit. You

1832
02:10:26,760 --> 02:10:30,120
Speaker 1: hear that and you go, wow, thank you. I appreciate

1833
02:10:30,240 --> 02:10:34,000
Speaker 1: those words, my friend. I appreciate that encouragement. Until next time.

1834
02:10:34,280 --> 02:10:35,600
Speaker 1: This is Bob Left Sex