A little while back I had the privelage to talk with former GRAND FUNK RAILROAD singer, guitarist, songwriter, and American rock legend Mark Farner. I had got onto Mark’s latest album Closer To My Home when I’d featured a ‘story behind the album cover’ with album cover artist John O’Brien, in which John mentioned doing the cover for Closer To My Home. I got the album the next day, and it is exactly as I would’ve expected – a good mix of different great songs. And it is highlighted by a new version of the classic “I’m Your Captain (Closer To Home)”, re-done almost 55 years after it’s initial release in June of 1970, when it soon became a Top 30 hit in Canada and the US . If you were a Grand Funk fan, you’d want to check this album out. Mark still has a lot to say, and the man can still play and sing. But more on that another time….Enjoy the read, and check out the links at the end.
How important is it for you as a veteran rocker to produce new material as opposed to just living off of touring the hits?
Well, it’s important, but I think more importantly, to know that that part of me – the writing ability that I have, which is a God-given ability, God invested that talent in me, Kevin. I want to give him a return on his investment. I want to give more than he gave me. And it’s all about, because God is love. In my eyes, I don’t care about all this religious horse crap that’s out there. The modern day church makes me sick, to tell you the truth. So I want to give love the investment that he made in me. I want to give him that increase. And the only way I’m going to do that is by keeping in touch with the audience through the songs that I write from my heart. And people know who I am because I am who my songs say I am, brother.
I see a lot of bands from that era that are still going, but they have nothing new for 20 years. I saw your former bandmates about 15 years ago, and they just tour the hits. And there’s a lot of bands that do that, and they don’t offer anything new. If I’m going to see an old band, I want to see something new as well.
I knew there was something I liked about you right off.
Can you tell me a bit about the new album? It’s not like the ’70s where everybody’s doing two or three albums a year, you’ve got a little more time in between. How did all the new songs develop into an album, and what kind of got the ball rolling?
The new songs, the current new single, I’ve got a video for it on YouTube, “Same Game”, Mark Farner “Same Game”, and you can see the video there.
I’m curious, when you started the album to where it ended up getting released, what was the time-frame and what it started with and who you started with?
I got started on it, I had songs that I had already written. I’ve got a plethora of songs that are either just little fragments of a song, they’re ideas that I put down as I get that idea. Sometimes I don’t get the whole song, sometimes I’ll go back 15 years, 20 years and grab something that moved me back then. Now today, I’m seeing it in a new light. I’m hearing it with new ears; so I’ll finish that song. I’m compelled to do it that way. It’s inspirational for me that way. A lot of the songs that are on Closer To My Home, which is my latest, it is my baby because it’s got songs on there that are about my babies. “Tiny Fingers” is about my first son. A lot of people that have heard that song can relate because they’re parents and they have gone through some things as the evolution through television, and through movies, through the entertainment world that affects the way we live, the way we perceive life even.
It’s that evolvement and people are waking up to, wow, it wasn’t their fault. Maybe it was my fault. I let them go play that thing for hours. I let that thing be the babysitter. They’re kicking their self in the ass. But you can’t do that because that is not fruitful. You have to look at the lesson, keep it in front of you, and don’t do it again. That’s all. You don’t do that again. You let the love that you have for that child shine through. That’s what they need right now. I don’t care how old they are. They’re still our babies. I don’t care if they get as big as the side of the barn – they’re still our babies. That love connection is there in “Tiny Fingers”.
In my kids, I’ve got five sons, four are living. My youngest son died in 2018. He broke his neck in 2010, and he lived eight years and then he died. He was quadriplegic. He was on life support. We learned a lot because he had some revelations, spiritual revelations that he shared with us, and especially because his mother was in there so many hours a day, every day, that she told me things that he got in conversation with her. Just revelations, man, for a young kid, for a young guy like that. That’s helping us form new songs. That’s helping me. Whatever we’re going through, if we don’t get a hold of some forgiveness, initially forgiving ourselves for what we thought we screwed up, we can’t hold that against ourselves. We can’t hold anything against anybody because then we’re not going to get set free.
If we truly want to do what we’re here to do, what we were put in these bone suits to do, then we got to set ourselves free and set others free. That’s of this debt consciousness. But you see the whole thing, the money, and that’s what “Same Game” is talking about, the ownership of mainstream. Mainstream is sickening! The news is all lies. It’s complete lies. It’s manufactured. It’s Hollywood, man. It’s a big theater scene, and they keep writing the new lines every day. You got new lines coming in there. But it’s the same powers and principalities that rule the darkness of this world. They issue the various currencies to over 200 countries. There’s only five countries that don’t have central bank influence in this world. I think because of the sanctions that are put on those countries, they’re still under the control.
They’ve got but the songs that I assembled for this album, I was assisted by Mark Slaughter, and you know who Mark Slaughter is.
I’m curious how you got connected with him because obviously he’s remembered or known as more of a heavy metal guy from the ’80s.
Him and I were doing a Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. David Fischoff has this rock and roll fantasy camp that people come to. They pay to stay with the artist for three days in a teaching session, in a mentoring session, where if I was a counselor, I would counsel these people. I would assemble, I would pick the songs that we’re going to do because there’s going to be a battle of the bands kind of thing at the end of it. It’s really a showcase at either a house of blues or something on that level, a theater where there is a stage and you can put a dozen guitar players up there because sometimes there’s 10 people in the band. But then we were in New York City and David Fischoff came to me and he said, Howard Stern wants you to come over and do your song. “I’m Your Captain” on his show today. And it was like a spur of the moment thing. I said, well, how does he want it? Does he want me to just sing it with an acoustic guitar? He says, no, man, take the fantasy band. There was Kip Winger on bass, Sandy Gennaro from Joan Jett’s band on drums, Teddy Zigzag from Guns N’ Roses on keyboard, Mark Slaughter on second guitar. There was Bruce Kulick, who did play with the Faux Funk for a number of years, but he no longer plays with them. Anyway, we were all there in that little studio where Howard is sitting and he says, ‘Okay, take it boys’. And so we played “I’m Your Captain”. And that’s the first time I had been playing music with Mark. I had known Mark for years, number of years. I loved his conversation. I loved his character, his nature. He’s part Native American as well. So, we hit it off really good. He’s tribal. So, we’re playing and when it comes to the harmony parts, he was hitting them on and he’s two feet away from me, Kevin; he’s singing it right in my face and I’m going, ‘Damn, this is pretty good’. This guy can sing. And Kip Winger over there, man, that boy can sing and plays the parts, and it was rocking. In the green room at that session where we did Howard Stern, I was playing a little something that we ended up putting on this album. Now I’m talking about, that was probably 10 years ago, that rock fantasy camp.
But, I was playing the chords to “Darlin”’ and Slaughter came up to me and he says, ‘What is that you’re playing?’ I said, Oh, it’s a song I’m writing. it’s called “Darlin’”. He says, ‘I want to work on that with you’. And so here, years later, we end up doing that song and it was just, it’s almost like, man, it was stretched out and it was supposed to be. And because of his encouraging words, and that’s just his nature – he wants to help people. He’s a giver and I’m a giver. So, we felt like even if no one ever actually physically purchased a copy of this, if they heard, then we’re giving them something that’s truth. We’re not giving them make-believe bubblegum bullshit. We are going to give them something that’s coming from our heart. And with his help, he helped me write a couple of songs. He’s got writing credit on a couple of songs in there. But his production skills and his, kind of coaching me to, ‘Hey, cuddle up to that; and can you breathe into, take a deep breath and make it yours, own this. And I followed his instructions and working with him was great. It was good for my future because everything I learn, of course, I carry forward with me. I’ve had a lot of good comments on my album. It’s not going to be embraced by mainstream, so it’s not going to be in anybody’s church. It’s going to be in people’s hearts, and that’s the better place.
I imagine you write from a different angle than you did 50 years ago. What do you normally draw from? Is it all personal experiences or any kind of news or outside influences?
I draw on what’s happening in our rock community. I always keep in mind that we have a community. Rockers have a community. And even outside of the ‘lamestream’, I call it, influence on it, they can’t break us. They’ve displaced us some, they’ve broken off parts of our body, but they cannot take our heart. And look at the people who attend rock concerts, man, avid fans, because we still believe. And love is driving us. It’s the need to be together. It’s peace and love. It’s without the beads, without the peace sign, without all of the hippie stuff, we’re still the hippie mindset. We still have that in our minds, and that’s what we want, leading our world, man. We want to be in a world where love shines forth. And this love for money, the money is created out thin air. There’s nothing to back the money. And I don’t care what country you’re in; the currencies are issued by the same banksters. And it’s the Federal Reserve, the European Central Banks, and the Bank of England for the majority, and then there’s the Superbank. But those people, they run the governments of the world, because money has control. It has taken control. And everything’s for this money, man.
I think that being free, the rockers that still hold the love for rock and roll and are still part of this community, it’s not about the money. It’s about the love, and it’s about our solid community that’s still held together by solid songs. So that’s what drives me to write the next song, is, man, I have a community that’s waiting to hear my next song, Brother Kevin. So I’m excited about still being alive.
When you go out and play, do you include a number of the new songs, or just a couple? I ask because there’s a lot of bands I go see, they have a new album out, and they play one song from it, or they don’t play anything. I like seeing bands, if they got a new album out, play a lot from it.
Yeah. Two or three. Because I’m a new band, but I got old fans. I’ve got fans that are from back in 69, I have to play that music along with my new music. And I found a comfortable spot with it, because we polled the audience, we asked people to send in the top 10 songs they want to see in a live set. So, out of 2700 people, we put together a good set list, picking the top 10 and then adding to that. And I think we got a good set.
People have, they’ve really embraced, we put “I Can Feel Him in the Morning” in the set, which is from the Phoenix album that we recorded in Nashville, when we broke away from Terry Knight. Our first album is the Phoenix album, and “I Can Feel Him in the Morning” was written by myself and the drummer, Don Brewer from Grand Funk. And I have it in my set. I wrote the music; he wrote the words. That’s what every composition where it was a Farner Brewer song, it was always that arrangement. I never once coached him on any words, or had him change any words or suggested even, I just let what he wanted to say be what it was. So, it’s receiving a lot of adoration. People never expected to hear that song in a live set. And I think where we’re at today in the world, people really, they want to be encouraged spiritually, and not the bullshit of the modern day church. That’s just lethargic; I mean, what’s going on, in my humble opinion. But they want the real stuff. And we give them the real stuff. It’s real love. We don’t expect anything in return. We just give, man. And it’s such a great feeling to have guys in my band that are all, we’re cussing Christians, Kevin. But we love God, we love Jesus Christ. And we play our music, even from the days when I was not in line with Christ I still wrote music because when I was nine years old, and my dad died, I prayed with Billy Graham on the television set that my dad bought five days before he died. And that television set, that black and white TV, when I walked out of the dining room where my mother and all the relatives were crying and moaning and mourning, and I walked into the living room, Billy Graham was on that television set because he was doing a revival in Flint, Michigan, at Atwood Stadium, downtown Flint. And that was being televised. So, when I walked in there, I hear Billy Graham say, ‘Are you hurting?’ Because I’m crying. I just came out of a room full of my relatives that are crying. I’m crying. I had to get the hell out of there. I mean, it was just tearing me up to watch my mother. And when I walked in and Billy Graham says, ‘Are you hurting?’ I look over. He says, ‘Do you need a touch from God?’ I’m going, can he see me? This is my first experience with a television set. We didn’t, I mean, we never had one. We always listened to a big radio, wooden radio.
And the TV was going on in our imaginations, all of, from Flash Gordon and Lone Ranger and, you know, all of this stuff that we listened to back in the radio shows. But now here’s a TV and this guy is saying, are you hurting? Do you need a touch from God? And I said, I just looked at him. I said, Yes. He said, ‘Come over here and put your hand on a TV’. And I walked over, I put my hand on that TV and I prayed with him and I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Verbally, I didn’t know what I was doing, mentally nine years old, but that was my commitment and my first taste outside of going to church with my great-grandmother who went to Free Methodist Church. And it was a church that functioned under a 501c3 tax exemption and they passed the plate and they took up a collection. I’m not into that. I am so against somebody passing a plate in front of me. It’s against what the Bible says about it. If somebody is compelling you to give, don’t give, period. If they’re compelling you, don’t give. You got to give from a cheerful heart because God loves a cheerful giver. And the only way that’s going to happen is when you do it for your own satisfaction to give somebody something, like I gave Don Brewer when he asked me if he could take 100% writing credit on “We’re an American Band”, the song. He asked after we were done recording at Criteria in Miami, Florida, we were recording. Rundgren wanted to record at sea level. He wanted to record our vocals at sea level. So, we took the tracks that we did in Michigan to Florida. He ran the tracks and we sang. And then when we did “American Band”, Brewer came to me and he says, ‘Farner, I’ve never had 100% right credit on any song. Do you mind if I take it on this song?’ I said, ‘No, go ahead’. It made me happy, to give him that song. And I won’t let any other scenario enter in. People have said to me over the years, ‘Man, you really screwed up’. But it doesn’t matter. The thing is, when I gave, it made me happy. And my happiness at that point came from God. And God is love. And that love that touches your heart when you do something for the right reason, when you give something out of the right heart, you don’t trace it. You don’t put a trail on it. You don’t follow them to see what they do with the gift you gave. You gave it. There is your satisfaction. Stay with that. So that’s what I have avoided all of the hateful stuff that people have said to me over the years. It gives me an opportunity to share, like I just did with you, how I gave it and how I am able to abstain from trying to retaliate against anything that has been done to me. I have to forgive with the same measure that I expect to be forgiven with.
It’s interesting because if I listen to the early Grand Funk stuff, there’s not, before you moved into specifically writing about that stuff when you went solo, there’s still a lot of spiritual messages and, things like that amongst the songs, like “I’m Your Captain”, for example, obviously, it’s not just about somebody sailing a ship. There’s more to it, right?
Right on, brother. Yes, sir.
So, how much connected were you with things aside from just the rock and roll lifestyle and…
Well, I was farming. I always wanted a farm, since I worked on my Uncle Jack’s farm in Marlette, Michigan. He was a dairy farmer, and every summer I’d go out and spend a few weeks on the farm with Uncle Jack and Marlene and Darlene, who were his twin daughters. Marlene was six, three, I think, and Darlene was six, one. They were strapping farm girls, and they could whip any man’s ass in the county. I’m telling you. But they made me feel very welcome to be there with them, and eating Aunt Verna’s homemade bread, and that homemade butter, home churned butter, and eating all this good food, and having the life… I’d drive the cattle down the road to the next pasture, to move them around. It was something that…It made me blossom, in my mind, as a young man. So the first thing I wanted to do when I started making money was to buy a farm. And I did! I bought 110 acres on one side of the road, and eventually 80 acres across the road from me, so I was hemmed in there pretty good. I had a place that I could call my own. And we farmed it. The guys that worked on the road with me, actually. The head roadie, John White, and we called him Ralph, I have no idea why we called him Ralph (lol). But Ralph, his dad was a dairy farmer, and Bobby Talbot, another worker from the road – another farmhand. And we loved being around each other, loved taking care of the animals. I had international grand champion horses; I had a few head of cattle. We were selling grain. And I would lease ground down there, where I was living, and sell grain. So, that was my lifestyle, and it really bled in to my songs, Kevin. Even on my solo stuff, when I did my Atlantic Records albums in 77, 78, there’s a song called “Easy Breezes” (sings) “Oh I recall a while back when I was younger …”, I’m talking about Uncle Jack’s farm. So, that helped influence all my music, being able to be relaxed enough. And I would be driving around the fields, like if I was running the mower, the engine is at either G-sharp or B-flat, or whatever, but it’s running at a tone, and I would start humming to that tone, start singing to that tone, harmonizing to that tone, and I would write songs going around in circles, on that tractor. So, I think that really helped me the most, being in a place where I could still think about everything I love, keep my mind on love, and even despite of my first divorce I went through I’ve kept my mind on love. And thankfully so, because I’ve seen so many people that have been married and divorced. And younger people that get married and they don’t even make a year – and they’re divorced. It’s like ‘are you kidding?’ What happened to love!? I’ve been married 48 years to my wife, so I know what love is, and it’s defined with one word – Forgiveness.
When we talk about the album covers and that, how much input did you guys have into that sort of stuff?
I didn’t have any input. All I did was okay them and say ‘Yeah that’ll look good’. Lynn Goldsmith did all of the 70s from beyond Terry Knight – from Phoenix on up to the last one, Born To Die. Yeah Glenn Goldsmith did all of them.
Now in that height of the early 70s What were some of the, other than obviously the Shea Stadium show, but some of the major shows you guys did and some of the bands you shared bills…
Yeah, as it worked out the band was headlining. I mean we headlined, so we had opening acts – like Jethro Tull was an opening act for us. Bloodrock was the opening act for us; Freddie King was an opening act for us. Only until we would play like a festival where there was a bunch of different acts would there be an opportunity to hang with somebody or to meet somebody. I think Janice and I, our relationship, we were friends we were not boyfriend-girlfriend friends, but we had a very tight relationship; we loved each other as friends. We hung out together as friends, and we shared the same mindset about the business. She was definitely what you’ see is what you get’. And what I loved about her – there was nothing ‘put on’ about he. We both felt the same about when they termed they came up with this thing called the ‘British Invasion’ ; we would laugh about it. She would say to me ‘Mark when you went and played Hyde Park when you when you guys played 65,000 people at Hyde Park. Did you sing in the King’s English?’ I said ‘No, I didn’t sing in the King’s English’. I said, ‘And none of those English bands sing in the King’s English’. They sing in the free people’s English, which is American English, you know all the rock and roll. I don’t care where – if they come from Australia, if they come from England or wherever they come from if they’re singing rock and roll they’re singing in American rock and roll English. It has to be American English in order to express because there’s no other people that are free, at least in our minds. Now we are realizing the captures took the place back over two days before Christmas in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act. We gave ourself right back to the same powers. We declared ourself independent in 1776. But people want to be free; people need, we need to be free. We don’t want these people who are elevated high-minded people in their own They want to rule the world. In itself, just that thought is complete insanity, that would be defined as insanity. The Ruling class!? Well, how are they ruling? ‘Well, they’ve got more money than we do!’. So what! I didn’t vote for them. Are they smarter than you? Can they farm better than you? Can they raise better food? Do you know what’s good? Here we are living in the… I liken it to that movie where the ship goes down – The Titanic, and they’re playing cello and violins on the upper deck, but below the deck they’re playing music, they’re dancing. They’re having a good time; they’ve got the guitars, banjos, they’re dancing, they’re having a great time… That’s kinda how I view the world. Those people that are pulling this wool over everybody’s eyes, they are that phony upper-deck class! As phony as phony can possibly be. And then there’s the rest of us, the rockers in the lower deck music That’s our music that belongs to us So that’s our truth and the people that we love, that have been singing to us for years have been talking to us have been giving us good messages for years. I’, talking about the 60s and 70s Rock and Roll has stayed in there and It’s the desire of the will of the people to keep it alive because we don’t want love to die. If we gave ourselves to this notion of a one-world government then where’s the love in that? There will be no chance for love. So, we got a kick against it with all we’re worth um In that time.
In that early period when you guys were so big in America, Three Dog Night was big, Steppenwolf, a few other bands, and for a lot of you guys that success didn’t really transpire so much to the UK in that you had bands that were huge over here, but so much over there and then you had vice versa… know what I mean?
I think because of the ownership of the media in this country. It started it was wide open in ‘96 when Clinton deregulated the FCC, but they had their foot in the door long before 1996 They were taken over bit by bit by bit and that’s why there’s so much pedophilia in Hollywood. That’s the nature of those folks and why there’s so much, scuttlebutt on the release of the Epstein files and what all has been redacted in the files and all. It’s just the game. And the reason that the you know they are not released Is because there’s a lot of damning evidence on a lot of world leaders. So here we are today. I look back and we had 65,000 people, it was a free concert in the first place, but there was 65,000 people, enough people in 1971 Interested in Grand Funk Railroad to come and see us. And Humble Pie opened that show for us They opened a show for us at Shea Stadium. We brought them to the United States because when I told Terry Knight, who was my former manager, I said ‘Dude, these guys are rockers We need to have these guys. We need to bring them to the United States Open for us there. They’re really good’. He said ‘I’ll talk to their managers’. So, they ended up coming, to be our opening act. And look at what happened to Humble Pie – I mean, Frampton, that whole thing. If I went to Europe, I am absolutely sure people would come out of the woodwork to come see me. The thing is I’m with agencies that are mainstream and I think that influence that we’re talking about -that controls what we look at on the television; they control what we see in live music They control the music business. They don’t want me rising up in the music business because what I am saying, what I’m what I’m exposing in my songs. I believe that the rock community is alive and part of it is untouched by the Bullshit that these guys who are running the show, the Financial – the funny money show. Because you know, it seems like money makes people funny. They got enough money. That they go crazy with this want to rule everything, want to control us And we just want to be left alone so we can rock and we can encourage one another to live life joyfully and friendly. That’s how it was back in the 60s and 70s, that whole Hippie culture and the love. And that’s still alive in the music, in my music it is. Some of the newer people that have the younger bands, they don’t know what that is They know what they liked when they listen to the 70s music. I’ve talked to some younger bands, they go ‘Man you guys great. You were tearing it up!’ They don’t realize what’s happening, and I think when they do get a grip on it there’s some bands that are getting it. My son sent me some songs, and I don’t even know the name of the bands, but he sent me some songs and what they’re talking about with what’s going on in the world now. And I’m going ‘Alright man! Come on kids, pull up them straps, pull up them boots. Let’s wade through this shit and get on with life!’
I want to ask up when you guys added Craig Frost on keyboards What was kind of the catalytic for that as far as adding him and then kind of going further away from that kind of, more earthy sound of those first few albums with The three-piece?
I think the reason, and it was two against one. Don and Mel wanted to add a keyboard player, and I said ‘What is wrong with the 3-piece? We’re doing good out here; look at how many shows we’ve sold out!? It’s because, in my humble opinion Don Brewer wanted to write more songs and I only gave him just a few songs that I had written the music to And in every case where it was a co-write between Brewer and myself. I wrote the music, and he wrote the lyrics Well, he was wanting to get more songs, because the more songs on an album the more money you get as a writer That was his motivation. And I believe that’s why Inevitably, that’s why Craig was added. Even though I love Craig, even to this day we’re brothers man. I love the guy, he loves me. We’re seriously serious true friends. And when he came on, he was a great keyboard player. He started as a drummer He stood up and played the drums he I said, ‘Why do you stand up and play the drums? He said ‘Because I want people to see me; how they going to see me sitting back behind that kit!? I said, ‘That’s a good idea man, that’s a that’s a really good answer So that’s part of his, and every musician that’s a professional musician out there, it is their dream and their fulfillment of all their childhood dreams to stand up and be on a stage where people recognize them; be up in front of people where they are adored by people and they’re loved by people. There’s a lot of envy too, but I think you know when I was a football player I loved to hear my name called on the loudspeaker ‘That was Farner number 66 in on the tackle’. I’d be prancing across that field brother Kevin. And that’s part of what being on stage is about, it’s that attention and what that does for you as a person. I looked at the Beatles. I looked up to the Beatles, watch the Beatles as they climbed in popularity, and then I heard the music and I heard, you know, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club”. It was a change in the lyrics and the topics that they were singing about I said to myself at that time, before I was a professional musician I said ‘Boy, with these songs that I’m writing now I have to be careful with it. I don’t want to lead people astray. Because I’m looking at the Beatles. I’m seeing the influence the Beatles had on the world and although I love the Beatles music, some of the stuff that they got into and I think it was Lennon who said that they were ‘bigger than God’ or ‘more popular than God’. And I said ‘Woah, what kind of ego bullshit is that?’ That comes from the pits, that don’t come from the heart. Anyways, the people that opened for Grand Funk went on to have their own stardom, have their own fame, have their own albums and what have you. It was great to get to know those people, but that was the only ones that we really got to know… outside of Jimi Hendrix. I had a relationship with Jimi, we were friends. We talked, we didn’t talk music when we got together, we talked about country stuff, you know fishing, and just life. We were we were good friends He wanted me to sing on his next album. He told so. And the same with Zappa. Frank Zappa said ‘Man, I want you to sing on my next album’. I said ‘I’d be happy to sing with you Frank. You’re a good person and I would love to sing on your stuff’. He sent me a demo of a song – “Bamboozled By Love”, that he wanted me to sing.(haha). But as far as some of the other bands that we toured with It was kind of people were kind of to themselves. I remember we played in upstate New York, Capitol Theater up there. We were on just before The Kinks. I really enjoyed the song “You Really Got Me”. And I think there wasn’t any rocker alive that didn’t like that song man, that was a great song. It’s like Algo Nova “Fantasy”.
Oh, he’s great!
That song rocks! So anyways, we get offstage, I’m sweating like a pig, and The Kinks are going on next. So, as we are passing on the stairway from the dressing rooms, the lead singer from The Kinks – Ray Davies, he reached out grabbed a hold of my sweaty body, and I’m going ‘What the Hell are you doing man!?’ He grabbed a hold of me, and I don’t know what that was about, but that didn’t feel very good at all! I’m seating my balls off and this guy leaps over and on to me, and he’s wanting…
The energy?
Whatever! He’s wanting that on him. When we played the Fillmore East we got off the stage to the dressing room, and our manager Terry Knight is leading the way and he never led the way any place, he always was bringing up the ass-end; bringing up the tail end of things But this time he was leading. He comes to my dressing room and he pushes the door open for me to go in and I look in – and there’s Hendrix standing there. I go Oh my God!’. I was so starstruck Kevin. And the only thing I could come up with to say was ‘You’re a great guitar player man!’ (lol) But we became friends and he knew that I was real. I knew that he was real. He was doing things, you know with the drugs, I could not do any of that. I played Randall’s Island with him one time where he we played, we had already did our set, I’m in the dressing room, I’m getting changed out, getting into some dry clothes, and Rabbit came over to our dressing room. Rabbit was Jimi’s right-hand man, and he says ‘Hey Jimi wants to see y’all over in his dressing room’. So, ‘Alright man, as soon as I get some dry clothes on I’ll come over’. I got dressed and walked over there, Jimi gives me a hug. ‘How you doing, brother?’ ‘It’s great, man you know a good audience man, you’re gonna tear him a new one’. I look over and Rabbit has got a hundred dollar bill rolled up and he’s handing me this hundred dollar bill, and I’m like ‘What’s that for?’ And I look down and they got these white lines and I said ‘No’. I handed him the thing back. I said ‘I can’t do that man’. I Don’t do that. I said ‘You guys knock yourself out, but I can’t do that’. But Jimi looks at me, he says ‘Brother Mark you know, I wouldn’t give you anything that would hurt you And I’m like oh my God, here’s my guitar here, and I’m 22 years old, maybe 21 (in there). I said ‘You know something, I’ve never done it before, I’m not going to do a lot, just give me a little taste, a pinhead or something. So Rabbit takes his knife out – hits the button and sticks the switchblade, the tip of it, in to one of those lines, and he says ‘Plug one nostril, I’ll hold the other, and you sniff it.’ And that’s what I did. And that was the first and last time! It felt like that stuff went through the top of my head, dude! And at that particular gig, I had already put packing blankets up on the cab of the equipment truck; it was a box truck with all of our equipment in the back. It was facing the stage and I put the packing blankets up there so I could go up there and sit and watch Jimi play. And it was stage level; I was right even with the stage at that height But those guys whipped that stuff up because the stage manager hollered ‘Hey Jimi you’re on!’ And he said ‘Okay’., …And Jimi walked out, but by the time he got to the stage and I was up on the cab of that truck Jimi was reaching for the neck of his guitar and he was missing it by a foot! Well, I’m telling you he was so messed up. He could not find that. He was looking at it. And then this kid – No shirt, No shoes and socks, just a pair of bell-bottom Jeans that he’d walked the excess length off of they were all freed out everything, long blonde hair… He gets up on the stage walks up behind Jimi, he grabs Jimi’s hand and the axe, and he makes the union and Jimi looks around at this long hair kid, a skinny kid, man I don’t know how the Hell he got up there, but he did and he put it together. Jimi looked at him like ‘Wow. Thanks, man!’ And Jimi tried to play, and I’m going to tell you – I was so embarrassed for him. He was playing something, but the guitar was out of tune, he was in the wrong key, the band was playing one tune and Jimi was playing another. He couldn’t find his ass with both hands. I’m telling you he was so messed up! And what happened was he went over and he stomped on his echo box button and tried to cover up for the fact that he was messed up, and he’s going to put everything into the echo box and it started going (Mark makes a dying engine sound). And while he’s doing that, this stuff that I snorted is getting to my mind. I got real sick to my stomach, and I fell of the truck, I passed out. And when I came to I saw all these faces looking at me going ‘Mark, are you all right?. Can you get up?’ And I was so sick, and I puked right there. Get me to the hotel! They threw me in the car, and away I went to the hotel. Like I said that was the first and last time. And I found out that what that stuff was, was cocaine and heroin – mixed. I have never done anything like that since. I guess I needed that lesson. It was the peer pressure of my guitar hero putting it on me , ‘Brother Mark, you know I wouldn’t give you anything that will hurt you…’ Well shit…. Lol
Tough lesson!
Yeah. I’m here talking to you about it today, thank you Lord!
I picked up a book, actually I contributed a bit to it – An American Band, by Billy James, many years ago Have you put down your own memoirs that you might release one day?
I’ve got people right now that are courting me on doing my own book. And I’m talking to them, because I need to put another book out before I pass. Some of the stories that I have within me would make a believer out of people. Not just in in the Lord Jesus Christ or not in the everlasting love of God, but in in miracles, in people, you know, who wondered about UFOs and such. I’ve had personal experience, so I want to – someday, do that do that book Richard Surratt, do you know who that is from Coast To Coast(?)
No, I don’t.
It’s the paranormal. Richard is a Canadian host for Coast To Coast. He’s just put out a great book I got to talk to him about some of the paranormal and he really brought it out of me and he’s had people on his program, on Coast To Coast, that people stay up all night to listen to this guy. He’s got a lot of listeners in the United States. Anyway, hopefully I’m going to get that book done.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/MarkFarnerAmericanBand
https://www.instagram.com/markfarners_americanband
*Check out my friend Peter Kerr’s interviews and features on Mark Farner – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7uu5RAIgA
Outsider Rock 