July 15, 2025 • 10 mins
Head's up, chiquitas: He's coming to our town. He'll help us party down.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vorgie.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That is the vocal and drumming stylings there of Don
Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad, who are coming back to
Omaha next month Friday, August twenty ninth. That's Steelhouse. If
you have yet to see this brand new entertainment venue
in Omaha, do check out Grand Funk Railroad at Steelhouse,
Omaha on August twenty ninth. Tickets at Steelhouse Omaha dot com.
(00:28):
Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad joins us now on
news rady E eleven to ten KFA be good morning, Don.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey, morning Scott. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's nice since you don't need a whole lot of money?
Are you donating your back your payment for doing the
show to uh?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh? I need no, I need a big fine car.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
But you just said you don't need a big fine car.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh well no, Don's lyon. I need a big fine car.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What's the biggest finest car you ever allowed yourself to get?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I had a bag wire one time, you know, and
and that was that was like that was like the
top for me. I was and then I paid dearly
because nobody nobody in Flint, Michigan. That's where We're from.
Nobody in Flint, Michigan knew how to work on it,
and so I had to take it to Detroit that
worked on you know, and every time I get the
oil change, it was like three hundred and fifty bucks.
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I love that you allowed yourself to do that, and
I love that you're not so pretentious that you referred
to it as a jag you.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Are, Yeah, it was, you know, it was one of those.
It was an Ex J six. I don't know if
you know that that model, but back then it was.
It was just I thought it was a beautiful car
Ford Sedan, and you know, I would drive it. I
used to drive it up and you know, around the
states and stuff, you know, and and I'd be out
in the country and it had two gas tanks on
(01:47):
the back, you know, there was one on each side,
and and you'd pull into a filling station and you'd
ask the guy to fill you up, and he'd look
at it and go, what the hell is that?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I don't know how to fill this thing up?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Where am I supposed to put the gas in this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And to answer your your query, no, I I don't
know about jaguars. You've done a lot of radio in
your day, have a lot of radio personalities that you've
talked with a lot of them, drive jags, no question.
If you have questions about old you know, Geo trackers
and Ford escorts, the radio personality, that's your guys.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Well my wife, my wife was a radio for twenty
five years.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh so you know, yeah, yeah, I know. It's just
radio station t shirts and maybe some concert tickets, that's
about it. You're gonna love this venue, Steelhouse here in Omaha.
I know, you played probably just about every venue in
our town over the decades, and it's great having you
on the program. But Steelhouse is going to be such
a great show.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Opened. We opened your arena there were we were the
first band to ever play that arena in Omaha.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
When are we going, like, what year are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh this was nineteen No, this is two thousand and
one something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
All right, So that was the old Quest Center now
CCHI Health Center Center sponsorships of course. But yeah, Steelhouse
is an awesome place. So when you're up there doing
the locomotion and and everything else, you're you're gonna be
just in heaven at the acoustics and everything about that venue.
I encourage people to go check out Grand Funk Railroad
(03:22):
at Steelhouse. It's Friday, August twenty ninth, to a great
Friday night, Steelhouse, Omaha dot com. Don Brewer with us
here on news radio eleven ten kfab. All right, let's
get this out of the way. Tell me about the
four young Chikitahs in Omaha.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Tell you, well, you know, this was way back in
the early seventies. We checked into a hotel. You know,
we were on the road, we were going, you know,
it was it was back when we were doing maybe
forty shows in forty nights, you know that, that kind
of a thing. So you just get off, you get
off the airplane and you go to the go to
the hotel. And we checked into this hotel in Omaha,
and there were four young kida's waiting for us in
(04:02):
the lobby there, and so and we decided to party down,
you know, and have a good have a good time
for the weekend. That was it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, my my cohort here on the radio, Lucy Chapman
is her name. She says that one of these young
women memorialized by the song We're an American band, used
to work here at the radio station she worked downstairs.
But I don't remember who it was. I'm guessing, Don.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And I don't and I don't remember who it was either.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
All right, well, we want to tell him that if
we ever. No, and I've got I'm not getting a
text message from another coworker, and that was Anne blonde
named Anne, who worked here, who says that she was
one of these women, and knowing her, I perhaps believe it,
but Don, I'm sure that. I mean, we're talking about
(04:53):
four women in Omaha who were memorialized in the song
We're an American band, and you don't remember anything. No, No,
you've you've probably you've probably had three thousand women in
your day come up and go, I'm one of those
Chikidas from Omaha.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
No, not really, you know, not really. I mean, it's
but it is. It is interesting. I was when I
was writing that song, I was just kind of doing
little snippets of things going on on the road, you know,
up all night playing poker with Freddie King, you know.
That was so I put that in the song, you know,
and running into the sweet Sweet Kannie and a little
rock you know, the famous groupie you know, and you know,
and of course, the four young hekisas. I was just
(05:31):
mentioning little things that were happening on that tour, you know,
and uh, you know, and it really, you know, I
thought it was. It worked out.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Great, It was a fan great it is and it's
a great road song. And you know, every long time
rock and roll bands got a road song, and we're
an American band is a fine example of one. What
was it like though, because you guys, unless I'm mistaken,
here didn't have a huge, huge hit song until this song.
(06:02):
So you go from playing a song like this to
rather small crowds to pretty soon we're talking about arenas
and stadiums at some point there that you played this song.
What has that journey been like for you and your
bandmates with Grand Funk?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's been pinched me? Is this real kind of you know?
I mean, here here, I am seventy seven years old
and I'm still playing the music that I you know,
I grew up with and I made, you know, way
back and when I was in my early twenties. You know,
it's a great it's a great career. I mean, I
actually started playing when I was thirteen years old. I
started my first band at thirteen. So I've been able
(06:39):
to do this for my whole life and I still
love doing it. I wouldn't I wouldn't want to do
anything else. So that's, you know, that's a true blessing.
It really is.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
When you started forming Grand Funk with Mark Farner and
other members of that.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Band, Mel Shocker, Yeah, Mel Schocker, Don Brewer.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yes, that's right. So you guys started forming this band,
did you bring them some of the songs you wrote
as a thirteen year old going hey, I've got a
great song here and they're listening to it. Did you
write this as a sixth grader?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Done? No? No, I did not. I did? I you know, so,
I mean it was on I wrote the song on
the road. You know. We were on tour for the
Phoenix album, which was the album before We're an American band,
and we were kind of struggling because we were fighting
with our former manager, Terry Knight, who had ripped us
off for three years of everything we made. We were broke,
(07:33):
we were dead broke. And radio, I don't know if
you remember. FM radio was underground radio back in the
sixty nine seventy seventy one, you know, so you the
jocks could play anything they wanted to. They could play
seven minute songs. They could play Frank Zappa one time,
and then they could play Frank Sinatra the next time.
You know. They could play anything they wanted. All of
a sudden, in nineteen seventy one seventy two, it all changed.
(07:56):
Corporate came in, you know, the consultants came in. They
told everybody what to do, and every and all the
songs had to be three minutes and fifty seconds long,
you know, or or that was it, you know, or
you wouldn't get it on the air. So we had
to start writing hit songs because we were broke. And
so here we are flying around from town to town
and I'm looking down at the ground. I'm going, We're
(08:18):
coming to your town. We'll help you party it down.
That's what That's the thought that came in my mind,
and I wrote the song around that, you know. So
that's where the song came from.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, Well, it was a good idea for bands to release,
you know, eight nine minute songs because that's what the
DJs would play when they needed to use the restroom or.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Go right and they wanted to go to the bathroom,
they wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
To the bathroom, or I had a song I could
play from Alice in Chains that was about nine minutes long.
I could run down and get a sandwich from a
local restaurant and get back before the song was over.
That's why you'd hear something like that and every DJ shift.
But you know we're on AM radio with the news
talk shows that we do here, Don, we're the last
ones who can do that. We can do anything we
(08:58):
want here. We play anything we want, and it's great
to have you on the program. It'll be so much
fun to have you back here in Omaha to perform
at Steelhouse on Friday, August twenty ninth, Steelhouse, Omaha dot com.
Don we ask all of our favorite guests on this
program to say a line for us that we feel
is the best thing to hear first thing in the morning. Now,
(09:19):
the line is good morning, honey, I made you pancakes
for breakfast. But because you're Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad,
I'm hoping that you would say, good morning, Chikitas, I
made you pancakes for breakfast.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, let me write it down here. Let me write
it down here, I made you pancakes for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Good morning, Good morning, chikitas. I made you pancakes for breakfast.
Yes please, Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Hey guys, good morning, chikitas. I made you pancakes for breakfast.
This is Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
That's perfect. Don a pleasure. Thank you so much. Save
travels to Omaha. Good luck on the road, and thanks
for a lifetime of entertainment.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
My friend Hie Scott, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven, Our News Radio eleven
ten KFAB
Scott Vorgie.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
That is the vocal and drumming stylings there of Don
Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad, who are coming back to
Omaha next month Friday, August twenty ninth. That's Steelhouse. If
you have yet to see this brand new entertainment venue
in Omaha, do check out Grand Funk Railroad at Steelhouse,
Omaha on August twenty ninth. Tickets at Steelhouse Omaha dot com.
(00:28):
Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad joins us now on
news rady E eleven to ten KFA be good morning, Don.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey, morning Scott. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's nice since you don't need a whole lot of money?
Are you donating your back your payment for doing the
show to uh?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Oh? I need no, I need a big fine car.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
But you just said you don't need a big fine car.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh well no, Don's lyon. I need a big fine car.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What's the biggest finest car you ever allowed yourself to get?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I had a bag wire one time, you know, and
and that was that was like that was like the
top for me. I was and then I paid dearly
because nobody nobody in Flint, Michigan. That's where We're from.
Nobody in Flint, Michigan knew how to work on it,
and so I had to take it to Detroit that
worked on you know, and every time I get the
oil change, it was like three hundred and fifty bucks.
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I love that you allowed yourself to do that, and
I love that you're not so pretentious that you referred
to it as a jag you.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Are, Yeah, it was, you know, it was one of those.
It was an Ex J six. I don't know if
you know that that model, but back then it was.
It was just I thought it was a beautiful car
Ford Sedan, and you know, I would drive it. I
used to drive it up and you know, around the
states and stuff, you know, and and I'd be out
in the country and it had two gas tanks on
(01:47):
the back, you know, there was one on each side,
and and you'd pull into a filling station and you'd
ask the guy to fill you up, and he'd look
at it and go, what the hell is that?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I don't know how to fill this thing up?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Where am I supposed to put the gas in this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
And to answer your your query, no, I I don't
know about jaguars. You've done a lot of radio in
your day, have a lot of radio personalities that you've
talked with a lot of them, drive jags, no question.
If you have questions about old you know, Geo trackers
and Ford escorts, the radio personality, that's your guys.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Well my wife, my wife was a radio for twenty
five years.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Oh so you know, yeah, yeah, I know. It's just
radio station t shirts and maybe some concert tickets, that's
about it. You're gonna love this venue, Steelhouse here in Omaha.
I know, you played probably just about every venue in
our town over the decades, and it's great having you
on the program. But Steelhouse is going to be such
a great show.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Opened. We opened your arena there were we were the
first band to ever play that arena in Omaha.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
When are we going, like, what year are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Oh this was nineteen No, this is two thousand and
one something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
All right, So that was the old Quest Center now
CCHI Health Center Center sponsorships of course. But yeah, Steelhouse
is an awesome place. So when you're up there doing
the locomotion and and everything else, you're you're gonna be
just in heaven at the acoustics and everything about that venue.
I encourage people to go check out Grand Funk Railroad
(03:22):
at Steelhouse. It's Friday, August twenty ninth, to a great
Friday night, Steelhouse, Omaha dot com. Don Brewer with us
here on news radio eleven ten kfab. All right, let's
get this out of the way. Tell me about the
four young Chikitahs in Omaha.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Tell you, well, you know, this was way back in
the early seventies. We checked into a hotel. You know,
we were on the road, we were going, you know,
it was it was back when we were doing maybe
forty shows in forty nights, you know that, that kind
of a thing. So you just get off, you get
off the airplane and you go to the go to
the hotel. And we checked into this hotel in Omaha,
and there were four young kida's waiting for us in
(04:02):
the lobby there, and so and we decided to party down,
you know, and have a good have a good time
for the weekend. That was it.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well, my my cohort here on the radio, Lucy Chapman
is her name. She says that one of these young
women memorialized by the song We're an American band, used
to work here at the radio station she worked downstairs.
But I don't remember who it was. I'm guessing, Don.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And I don't and I don't remember who it was either.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
All right, well, we want to tell him that if
we ever. No, and I've got I'm not getting a
text message from another coworker, and that was Anne blonde
named Anne, who worked here, who says that she was
one of these women, and knowing her, I perhaps believe it,
but Don, I'm sure that. I mean, we're talking about
(04:53):
four women in Omaha who were memorialized in the song
We're an American band, and you don't remember anything. No, No,
you've you've probably you've probably had three thousand women in
your day come up and go, I'm one of those
Chikidas from Omaha.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
No, not really, you know, not really. I mean, it's
but it is. It is interesting. I was when I
was writing that song, I was just kind of doing
little snippets of things going on on the road, you know,
up all night playing poker with Freddie King, you know.
That was so I put that in the song, you know,
and running into the sweet Sweet Kannie and a little
rock you know, the famous groupie you know, and you know,
and of course, the four young hekisas. I was just
(05:31):
mentioning little things that were happening on that tour, you know,
and uh, you know, and it really, you know, I
thought it was. It worked out.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Great, It was a fan great it is and it's
a great road song. And you know, every long time
rock and roll bands got a road song, and we're
an American band is a fine example of one. What
was it like though, because you guys, unless I'm mistaken,
here didn't have a huge, huge hit song until this song.
(06:02):
So you go from playing a song like this to
rather small crowds to pretty soon we're talking about arenas
and stadiums at some point there that you played this song.
What has that journey been like for you and your
bandmates with Grand Funk?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's been pinched me? Is this real kind of you know?
I mean, here here, I am seventy seven years old
and I'm still playing the music that I you know,
I grew up with and I made, you know, way
back and when I was in my early twenties. You know,
it's a great it's a great career. I mean, I
actually started playing when I was thirteen years old. I
started my first band at thirteen. So I've been able
(06:39):
to do this for my whole life and I still
love doing it. I wouldn't I wouldn't want to do
anything else. So that's, you know, that's a true blessing.
It really is.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
When you started forming Grand Funk with Mark Farner and
other members of that.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Band, Mel Shocker, Yeah, Mel Schocker, Don Brewer.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yes, that's right. So you guys started forming this band,
did you bring them some of the songs you wrote
as a thirteen year old going hey, I've got a
great song here and they're listening to it. Did you
write this as a sixth grader?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Done? No? No, I did not. I did? I you know, so,
I mean it was on I wrote the song on
the road. You know. We were on tour for the
Phoenix album, which was the album before We're an American band,
and we were kind of struggling because we were fighting
with our former manager, Terry Knight, who had ripped us
off for three years of everything we made. We were broke,
(07:33):
we were dead broke. And radio, I don't know if
you remember. FM radio was underground radio back in the
sixty nine seventy seventy one, you know, so you the
jocks could play anything they wanted to. They could play
seven minute songs. They could play Frank Zappa one time,
and then they could play Frank Sinatra the next time.
You know. They could play anything they wanted. All of
a sudden, in nineteen seventy one seventy two, it all changed.
(07:56):
Corporate came in, you know, the consultants came in. They
told everybody what to do, and every and all the
songs had to be three minutes and fifty seconds long,
you know, or or that was it, you know, or
you wouldn't get it on the air. So we had
to start writing hit songs because we were broke. And
so here we are flying around from town to town
and I'm looking down at the ground. I'm going, We're
(08:18):
coming to your town. We'll help you party it down.
That's what That's the thought that came in my mind,
and I wrote the song around that, you know. So
that's where the song came from.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, Well, it was a good idea for bands to release,
you know, eight nine minute songs because that's what the
DJs would play when they needed to use the restroom or.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Go right and they wanted to go to the bathroom,
they wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
To the bathroom, or I had a song I could
play from Alice in Chains that was about nine minutes long.
I could run down and get a sandwich from a
local restaurant and get back before the song was over.
That's why you'd hear something like that and every DJ shift.
But you know we're on AM radio with the news
talk shows that we do here, Don, we're the last
ones who can do that. We can do anything we
(08:58):
want here. We play anything we want, and it's great
to have you on the program. It'll be so much
fun to have you back here in Omaha to perform
at Steelhouse on Friday, August twenty ninth, Steelhouse, Omaha dot com.
Don we ask all of our favorite guests on this
program to say a line for us that we feel
is the best thing to hear first thing in the morning. Now,
(09:19):
the line is good morning, honey, I made you pancakes
for breakfast. But because you're Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad,
I'm hoping that you would say, good morning, Chikitas, I
made you pancakes for breakfast.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, let me write it down here. Let me write
it down here, I made you pancakes for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Good morning, Good morning, chikitas. I made you pancakes for breakfast.
Yes please, Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Hey guys, good morning, chikitas. I made you pancakes for breakfast.
This is Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
That's perfect. Don a pleasure. Thank you so much. Save
travels to Omaha. Good luck on the road, and thanks
for a lifetime of entertainment.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
My friend Hie Scott, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Scott Voices mornings nine to eleven, Our News Radio eleven
ten KFAB
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