March 4, 2024 • 34 mins
Originally recorded over Zoom in Nov 2023, my conversation with the legendary singer/guitarist and songwriter Mark Farner. Best known as a co-founder and main songwriter formerly from the band Grand Funk Railroad (later Grand Funk), Mark Farner's American Band is hitting the road in 2024 with more shows, plus they discuss the recent release of a new concert DVD/CD/LP from 1989. 'Rock & Roll Soul Live 1989', some upcoming musical projects to look forward to and more! http://markfarner.com
https://www.facebook.com/MarkFarnerAmericanBand/
http://moxiepublicity.com
https://www.facebook.com/MarkFarnerAmericanBand/
http://moxiepublicity.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Nobodies are somebodies, all right,kids, it's chad vice, It's Nobody's
are Somebody's podcast. And I'm superexcited because this is a pretty cool interview
if I do say so myself,and I think you will say so yourself
as well too, because this weekI'm chatting with the legendary singer guitarist,
(00:22):
founder of the band Grand Funk GrandFunk Railroad to be exact, now with
his current band of thirty five plusyears or more, Mark Farner's American band,
who are currently out on tour.He can check them out all through
the spring and summer across the US. Maybe are playing a show near you.
(00:42):
Go check out one of their shows. Go check out the band,
Go check out Mark. See whathe's up to. He's got a lot
of cool things coming in twenty twentyfour, which we discussed we get into
on this conversation, but we onlyhad about thirty minutes to talk, which
is okay. We had a good, nice, condensed conversation and a lot
of good things were revealed, andincluding some new projects he's got coming up,
(01:04):
working with another singer that I playa lot on the Paradise City Eighties
Rock and Talk show that I doeach and every week on syndication and on
mixed Cloud, so you can definitelyget a little taste of that. I
can't wait for you to hear whatMark has to say. We touched on
a little bit of grand funk aswell too, which is obviously a big
part of his past and currents becausehe plays a lot of songs that he
(01:26):
wrote or co wrote in the AmericanBand. But we're specifically talking about a
concert DVD that's just been released.At the time was the twentieth anniversary of
the Woodstock, of the original Woodstockperformance. This one came out in nineteen
eighty nine and it's called Rock andRoll Soul Live nineteen eighty nine. He
(01:46):
can check that out on DVD,CD, vinyl, which is, according
to the press release that's on hiswebsite, is the first official release of
Mark Farner's performance at the Woodstock twentyyears after reunion that was held in Carson
in Carlston, California. So it'sthe full fifteen track set list that was
performed that night, and so weget into a lot of details, a
(02:07):
lot of cool facts and history abouthow that performance came together, how he
was asked to be a part ofit for the time the twenty year anniversary
of that special show that was,you know, life changing, and unfortunately
I'm way too young to have beena part of while the Woodstock and the
nineteen eighty nine show, I definitelymissed that as I was only eight years
old. I could have been there, probably if my parents were cooler,
(02:30):
But that didn't happen. But whatdid happen is this great conversation we had
thirty minutes. My only regret isthat, for some reason, maybe in
all my excitement and my joy,this was a video interview that I did
with Mark, and it was cooland great conversation, but for some reason,
my video screen was off. Ididn't realize that. I was too
(02:50):
busy focusing on Mark and what Ihad, and then the conversation went from
there and it just kept going.It was great. It was easy to
talk to this man he was.But if I had a note, if
I hadn't noticed, if I lookeda little harder and been paying more attention,
more of a been more of aprofessional, I would have saw that
it was only showing my home screenbecause I can only see a small window
on my screen where my face is, which I'm not really into looking at
(03:13):
more focused on the guest would havenoticed that my video was off. Mark
didn't notice that, or he mighthave, but he didn't say anything.
Obviously it's not his job to saythat. But I messed up. Fortunately,
we will probably have a conversation againfingers crossed, eyes dotted, teas
crossed, and that will happen again. This time. The first thing I'll
do is video video video. Butin the meantime, you're safe from seeing
(03:37):
my face. You get a greatconversation with Mark Farner. I'm very happy
to have had this opportunity. Sothanks to Melissa Emoxie Publications and Promotions for
setting this all up and hope todo that again. A big, big
shout out to her for putting thisall together. I'm waiting for my food
delivery. You're waiting now to hearthe conversation with Mark Farner. So let's
(03:57):
make it happen right here, rightnow. Nobody's ournes podcast with me,
not on video Chadvice. Awesome,Mark, it's good to have your conversation.
Good to talk to you. Howare you good. It's good to
be here with you. Chad.Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to
this. With the time that wehave, I want to get down to
(04:18):
it. We're going to be talkingfor the most part about Rock and Roll
Soul Live from nineteen eighty nine.It's the DVD, CD, Blu ray
LP that was released. I guessNovember seventeenth as the time we're talking.
Now that's out there. My firstquestion, I guess to you is might
be an obvious one, but Iwant to find out about it. So
(04:40):
why is now in this year twentytwenty three the right time to release the
concert from nineteen eighty nine. Well, we were approached by Liberation Hall,
who is the label releasing this,about doing a release of this, and
it's a twenty years after Woodstock kindof thing, you know that they that
(05:00):
they put out. We even hadChipmunk was the announcer on this particular show,
and so I say, you know, my manager called me and told
me what was up. And Isaid, well, where the hell did
that come from? And he says, well, they founded it was like
(05:23):
lost and they found it and theylike it and they want to release it.
I said, well, have themsend me a copy of it so
I can review it, and I'llgive them my opinion on it, and
they did, and I thought,man, for being as old as it
is, they did quite a goodjob on the audio and the video because
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you know, a lot of timeson a live record, you don't get
enough audience. In fact, mostof the time, you know, you
just get the band. You know, they got the band all miked up
and everything. But on this particularrecording, you can hear the interaction.
And for my show, brother,I am up there to entertain people,
(06:11):
and I move and I get,you know, geeked up for the next
song from the energy that I'm receivingfrom the audience. And when you can
hear that in the grooves, soto speak, it makes it that much
better. And they really got itin there, so it's a good balance.
(06:31):
That's good to hear. That's goodto hear. I assume you already
knew at the time about in eightynine that the show is being recorded,
but this is the first time thatyou've heard it box since then. It
was never produced on TV, itwas never released anywhere else. This is
the first time anyone on a nationalbasis is going to hear it. That's
right, brother, that's good.That's good. What are your memories of
doing that show. Like you said, it was the twenty year at the
(06:54):
time anniversary of Woodstock, celebrating that. A lot of the bands that played
the original Woodstock were there. Ibelieve. What do you remember about doing
that show? I mean that wasyou in the American band as we know.
Do you remember being approached by theorganizers? Did someone get in contact
with you? Did you want todid you approach them? How did that
come together? Well? They theyapproached me and we were in California gigging,
(07:20):
and you know, my manager said, hey, these guys want you
to do this twenty years after Woodstockgig, you know, for celebrating twenty
years, and what do you wantto do? Are you you know,
are you interested in doing I said, hell, yeah, we're here man,
Let's let's do this thing. Wewent out and on the stage and
(07:44):
the audience was very receptive. Ihad a completely different band, you know,
Mark Farner's American Band. We've hadseveral different people swap in and out.
We've had a couple of people who'vepassed away Adrest their souls, their
rock and souls UH and one ofthem, Michael Blair is is UH on
(08:07):
the keyboard on this particular incarnation ofthe band, and he was a hell
of a singer and a keyboardist.Miss him, Michael Uh. He was
from my state, from Michigan.He was down uh near the the Ohio
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border, and his mom and dadraised blueberries and they were always like bringing
us a big flat of blueberries outto the tour bus and we go through
those like my yeah, dude,well had like blue lips and blue tongs,
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you know, like you guys calledout here. No, I just
eating a bunch of blueberries before you. That's right. Sold in California this
year. Yeah, yeah, Igot yeah. Man had Mike Maple on
drums, Lawrence Buckner on bass,had the Arnieville Chez brother from California.
(09:09):
He's actually from Philadelphia, moved toCalifornia, you know, forty years ago,
but he still does some of myacoustic shows. And he's the only
one from this incarnation of the bandthat is still with me part time.
But it was a rock and bandand the people really loved it and they
(09:31):
showed us and egg design they keptthey kept spurring us on, you know,
and once you get in that stateof mind, brother, I'm telling
you Chad, You're like floating overthe stage about three feet over the decking
and us. It's a great feeling. There's only one place for me to
get my fix. That's on mystage. There you go, absolutely,
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did you have a special set listpicked out just for that show? It
was something you're already doing. Whatmade you decide on the songs that you
chose? Obviously there's the Grand FunkWorld songs in there, but there's also
your own stuff. What made youkind of balance that set list out?
Well, it was songs that wewere doing at the time. In the
set, I had some god rockout there on Full Moon Records, and
(10:18):
it was, you know, itwas the very well received stuff. I
was amazed that people really embraced mygod rock because it's not it you know,
didn't come off religious because I'm notreligious in the least bit. I
am a Christian, but I'm acustomed Christian and I don't believe in a
(10:41):
lot of the things that the churchesthat i've been in subscribe to. But
but I'm a free man. I'ma free agent for Jesus Man and any
Yeah, man, that's kind ofway I look at it. There you
go, as I know for themost part, nowadays, when you get
concerts, when you get festivals,they always want the big name or a
(11:05):
big hook to get people to cometo the show, especially not more than
ever. But back then, Iknow, at that point maybe I think
in the ten years ten years atthat point that GFR had broken up,
you were doing the All American Band. Did they ever ask you to say,
hey, can we get you know, the original three guys back?
Was that ever something that was askedto you or that just never came up
(11:26):
As far as around at that time, Chad has come up so many times
you wouldn't believe it. I knowsince then, probably about a thousand times.
But yeah, ten years on,I can assume that back then they
maybe wanted it too. Oh sure, that's you know, that's what people
would like. But and I'm notthe one who's keeping that from happening.
(11:46):
I did, however, when Ifirst learned that, after I signed my
individual ownership of the trademark into thecorporation at the behest of don Or the
drummer, he came to my roomone night after a gig and after a
party and said, hey, man, we need to sign our individual ownership
(12:07):
of the trademark into the corporation,where it'll have this protective umbrella, some
kind of nonsense. It turned outto be horsey poo poo, because once
I did that, I learned thatI was voted out of the corporation as
an officer. They were going outon the road. They were trying to
pressure me into going out, andthat under these circumstances, and after I
(12:33):
realized what had happened to me,because you know, because I was stupid,
because I had a few drinks andI think that alcohol affected my judgment
to the point of, you know, I just said, okay, yeah,
I'll do that, because under theinfluence, I thought that he was
looking out for the best interests ofthe band, and come to find out,
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he was looking out for the bestinterest or something else. And at
that time I told him, youknow, yeah, I'll go out with
you guys. You guys can splitthe half of the money. I'll take
the other half. Oh. Thatpissed them off, and so, you
know, that kind of put theend of them trying to come after me.
(13:18):
But then after I got my headabout me, I'm thinking, you
know, I'm a Beatles fan andI always wondered why they wouldn't go out.
Why wouldn't the four amigos go backout? Bury the hatchet, whatever
it was that was keeping them separate, Bury that hatchet and just do it
for the fans. Because I wantedto see the Beatles, Lie, dude,
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I really really wanted to see them. And so from a fans standpoint,
I thought, well, you knowwhat, I'll go back out if
those guys, you know, wantto go back out, I would definitely
do that for the fans. BecauseI saw a zz Top went back out.
Then then those guys were not eventalking to each other. They took
(14:03):
three separate buses, they got threedifferent dressing rooms, and they never saw
each other until they went to stageplayed their music, and the audience was
none the wiser. They just didtheir music and it rocked. It was
great, and I figured, youknow, we could do the same thing,
but it's not embraced. That ideais not embraced from the other side.
(14:26):
Brother, So but I've been tryinganyways, you know, that's all
you could pick it, you know, just even from the money aspect of
it, wouldn't there be more actualmore money with the original bandy, I
would think so. I would thinkso, especially with the original singer songwriter,
the original guy, I would thinkso too. You're talking about the
I guess most recent times. Didthis didn't happen in nineteen eighty nine?
(14:46):
Though? When did this happen thislast time you like you guys were together
for a bit, When did thatactually go down? I know you talked
about it before, but I don'tmake the whole thing about that, but
just for context, we started areunion and the year after I did the
Ringo tour, So it was ninetysix, okay, and we went through
(15:07):
ninety eight, and that was inninety eight was when I signed over my
ownership, my one third ownership withthe trademark into the corporation. And that's
when it all went down. Soso since then, which has been about
almost well a little over twenty yearsnow, that's been a long time that
you've been out of there, separatedfrom that, and you you just brought
(15:28):
it up. You have. Haveyou had any attempts in the last couple
of years, maybe after the pandemiccoming coming through and trying to get back
to talk to donner Mel or anybody, or is it just have you given
up at this point. Well,I tried, but and when you know,
when we have a corporate meeting,I would bring it up or you
know, and bring it up tothe to the attorney that runs the legal
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work for the corporation, and theyjust never embraced it. And I you
know, it's it's too bad becausethe fans are getting screwed. You know.
There's so many bands out there,brother that call it whatever the name
of the band wasn't it. Andsome of them don't even have the original
one of the original members. Theymight have yeah Foreigner, they might have
(16:17):
a distant relative of the original guitartech yeah exactly. Somebody's second cousin twice
removed or something like that might bethere. Someone with a namesake in there
too. You you never know who'sgoing to pop up on stage. As
long as hey, it's all aboutthe name. It's about the brand,
right. You own the name Foreigner, you own the name GFR, you
own a name. You can goup there and do it. It doesn't
(16:37):
matter. I mean a lot ofpeople don't care. That's the problem too.
The majority of people that see ashow, they want to hear the
songs. If they go, theyhear someone singing it, that's their happy
night. I don't agree, butthat's the majority. Unfortunately. Yeah,
I think you're right, brother.Let's swing it back to you a little
bit here. The Foreigner Chords,which I think is a recent instructional video
project that you've been doing. Ithink it's recent, and but you can
(17:00):
let me know, uh, talkto me about what that is and what
people if they're going to go on. Of course that's a Mark Farner dot
com, your website. But ifpeople go there and they want to see
that, what is that? TheForeigner Chords, which had it, is
for accomplished guitar players and keyboard playersthat want to know the chords that I
(17:21):
used when I wrote these songs.And it was brought about when somebody sent
me a link and they said,hey, Farner, is this really how
you play sins? A good Man'sBrother? And that was on Closer to
Home album and I watched the linkand the first three chords are absolutely wrong.
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I mean, you know, uh, there's a little is that how
you play it acoustic guitar thing beforeit comes into it, and those all
that was wrong. And so Icall my friend Jimmy from Downstate he's a
videographer and he was in a bandthat I was in a long time ago,
(18:08):
with Adrenaline. And in anyways,I said, Jimmy, I have
an idea because and I explained itto him. I said, because there's
some instructional videos out there. AndI watched a few different videos after I
discovered this one, and nobody,not one video was playing the chords that
(18:30):
I played. So I thought,man, you know what if I just
straighten it out. I'm thinking,if they're going to play my music,
why not give them the chords thatI used, and then there'll be no
doubt that it'll fix any mistake.And like I said, it has to
be an accomplished guitar guitarist or pianistin order to catch what I'm doing,
(18:56):
because you're not going to learn howto play guitar from watching these, but
if you're already a player, you'lldefinitely pick up on the chord in versions
that I made. And uh,there's a there's a camera on the right
hand and there's a camera on theleft hand, so you can, you
know, look both ways and seehow I'm picking it and how I'm courting
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it. And I told Jimmy,I said, man, I want to
give these away. I don't wantto how do they say, monetize these
things? Because my reward is ifsomebody's going to play my song that I
wrote, they're going to play itthe right way, and I'm rewarded by
that. You know, no matterif they're playing it in their living room
(19:41):
to their friends or their parents orwhoever, or if they're up on stage
playing it, they'll be playing itthe right way. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. I'm glad you madethat distinction too. You mentioned it's for
guitar players and keyboard players who whoare accomplished or have a background, because
my assumption when you when you putthese that was that it was for mostly
for fans or people trying to learnguitar. But you're saying that's not really.
(20:04):
I mean, they can try it, but it's not. It's a
little bit more complex than that,I guess. Yeah, you'd have to
have extrasensory perception. You never knowwhat's out there. But yeah, for
the most part, gon be someonearound the corner on YouTube who can play
play inside looking out better than youever could. You never know, yeah,
(20:26):
dude, Yeah, you never knowexactly and you did that. I
guess just recently in the last yearor so. When did those first drop
or for people to check out.Yeah, it's it's almost a year that
we released the first one. ButI've got uh four of them out there
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right now and uh there's two guitarsongs and two keyboard songs and uh.
And we've got great respect, greatfeedback from people who are just happy they
don't have to pay for it,you know, or subscribe to it or
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anything. And the fact that it'sjust laid back, it's kickback. I'm
in Jimmy's living room playing and we'reflashing to some live music that I did
in Santiago, Chile. It's offmy DVD from Chile with Love. And
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we have decided to give three dollarsfrom each DVD sale to Veterans Support Foundation,
and out of fourteen ninety nine atthree Bucks, it's really appreciated on
the side of the organization. Theyhave thanked us so much to help them
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stay row and keep helping our vetsthat come home and need a life and
they help them figure it out.M hmm. Absolutely. And anyone that
knows you, anyone that knows MarkFarner anyone knows about your legacy is not
how much you support and help thetroops, the veterans, And that's been
something since the beginning, from thebeginning of Grand Funk and everything that's been
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in your life all your life.Talking a bit about why that's so important,
besides the obvious reasons why it's importantto support the troops, but for
you personally, what does that meanfor me personally? My dad was this
World War Two veteran and he wasa tank driver in the seventh Armor Division.
He returned home from war with fourbronze medals, four bronze stars,
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which commemorate being in four major battles, and a lot of tank drivers didn't
get to see the second one.We were in Sherman tanks that were inferior
to the German tanks. But mymother was the first woman in the United
(23:07):
States to weld on Sherman tanks atFisher Body in Flint, Michigan. All
of my uncles, a lot ofthe other relatives were veterans, were you
know, blessed to make at home. Some didn't, but I always just
(23:27):
looked up to them for what theydid. And my family made a real
contribution to winning World War Two,and I want to do what I can
do for all of our veterans andour active troops to give them morale,
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to give them the love that ittakes for them to continue in the right
mindset, you know, knowing thatthey are appreciated, but but more than
that, when they come home,showing them that they are appreciated and giving
(24:11):
them more than the government is willingto give them, but we give it
from the heart. Yeah, no, absolutely, there's there's something in your
u In the press release I gotfor this as well too, about a
specific show that you did. I'mnot sure, I don't remember the date
or when it was, but youtalked about how you perform for troops.
I think for American and Canadian troopswere there too, and and just the
(24:34):
support and the outpourt of the waythey were seeing you on stage and your
songs made you It brought you totiers at one point. I don't know
these specific show, but I'm sureit's topping more than once. But it
shows like that that really make youfeel like you've done something as far as
the music you've written, and thenof course obviously the shows you perform for
them too. Which you've done alot over the years. That's right,
brother Chad. And the one showthat's outstanding. What that brought tears to
(25:00):
my eyes was when we were doingthe twenty fifth anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Wall in Washington. He's theone actually, Okay, now you're right,
that's the one I was mentioned.Yeah, yeah, they they asked
me to come and play my song. Would I just bring an acoustic guitar
(25:21):
and come and play my song?And I asked him, I said,
are you going to have a stageset up and the lights and a PA
system? And they said, ohyeah. And I told them that I
would bring my whole band because Italked to the guys and they said,
yeah, hell, yes, man, let's go do this. And you
(25:45):
know, it was thirty six degrees. It was just above freezing, but
my ers didn't know that. YourGlories again, they were blues. We
were warm and all right up onthe light bulbs in the dressing room,
so we were able to play.But when we got to the last song,
(26:08):
I'm Your Captain, there was nota dry eye out there in the
crowd, and not only our Americanbrothers and sisters, but the Canadian Vietnam
veterans, our brothers and sisters,our neighbors were there too, and it
was a reunion of love, man, a reunion of souls and a real
(26:32):
commemoration for some real brave souls.And that's what that's why I do it
right there, brother, I'm tellingyou just just to know that you're doing
something good for somebody who really deservesit. Man, What a better purpose
for life? What a better feelingyou could have? There isn't any exactly,
(26:53):
And it's nice to have that peoplecoming together when you know both countries
are so divided now over different things. It's nice to have everyone coming together
at least in that moment. Andwhat brought them together obviously you know music.
How it comes back to music,Right on, brother, exactly,
a couple more things I'll ask youbefore we run out of time. I
always ask musicians this. I knowit's kind of a cliche question, but
it's it's fascinating to me, especiallywith someone who has a career like yours
(27:17):
over fifty years growing up before youever started a professional band, before you
maybe picked up a guitar or sangwho we mentioned the Beatles obviously, but
who as far as guitar players orsingers really you know, impacted you and
made you think, Okay, I'mgoing to do this as a real as
my real job, as far asand I know that you sing, obviously,
(27:37):
did guitar playing come first and thenyou realize you could sing? Or
was it the other way around?How did where did this start? For
you? Was actually the other wayaround? Chad? I was singing in
the in the high school choir,and I well, this was junior high.
I had my mother got me guitarlessons for my birthday fifteenth birthday,
(28:02):
because I had injured myself in ascrimmage game with the high school students and
they kicked our asses and broke brokesome of our will and broke our bones.
And my doctor told my mother thatI wouldn't be playing ball and I
wouldn't be running track in the fall, and so she got me the guitar,
(28:25):
and I, like I said,I was already singing. And I
sang with these guys that were inthe high school band, and my sister
Diane hung out with him. She'dplayed some drums, and then you know,
I'd get up there and sing.And because I liked to sing and
they didn't, so it worked out. But guitar players, man, you
(28:48):
know that first Cream album, FreshCream. I loved that guitar tone that
clapped and got on that record andthen he never got it on another record
after that. But Fresh Cream,Man, that spoke to me and Jeff
Beck, the Yardbirds, you know, trained Keper rolling, Oh my god,
(29:10):
Jeff Beck was smoking, and RickDarringer another fantastic guitar player that influenced
me. And Steve Cropper of course. Yeah, from that up a lot,
yeah, yeah, a couple lotfor guitar players. These and these
people you're mentioning too, didn't startthat far before you got started professionally,
(29:33):
as far as nineteen sixty nine.We're talking that year, so I mean
that's not that long ago. Soit didn't take that long fore you to
say I'm doing this. It soundslike before you were like, I'm getting
the band together, and all thatcame together, which was which is the
story in itself. I'm sure wedon't have time for now, but that
would be a fun story how itall came together. Yeah, man,
there's always a future, brother Chad, Yeah, for sure. Absolutely For
(29:55):
those who want to check out whatyou're doing, of course, go to
Mark Farner dot com. But doyou have f only twenty four? What's
coming up for the American band?You have tour dates? Do you have
new a new records coming out?What's coming what's coming up for you?
Yeah, I've got an album thatwe're finishing up right now. Mark Slaughter
from the group Slaughter is producing myalbum. Ah really wow? Yeah,
man, and uh it's it's beengreat and we are playing planning on releasing
(30:22):
in the spring of this next year. So that's something that the fans can
keep their eyes peel for because itrocks. There's there's a lot of good
music on there. And two marksare better than one. You can't go
wrong. Yeah, that's right.That's an a good answer, brother,
(30:42):
that's amazing. That's really cool.Have you Uh I know Mark is also
Mark Slaughter is also a big supporterof the course of the troops and the
American uh the American people as welltoo. So it's good that you guys
came together. Do you have along history with with Mark Slaughter? Well,
we did uh rock and Roll FantasyCamp in New York City and Howard
Stern at that time wanted, hesold David Fishoff, who runs the camp
(31:07):
and owns Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, he wanted. He wanted me up
there on his program to do I'mYour Captain. And so all of these
guys, Kip Winger, Sandy Genniro, you know from Jon Jets, the
drummer for Jone Jet, and Teddyzig Zag from Guns and Rolls Keyboards,
(31:29):
and Bruce Cullick who now plays guitarfor my old band. But Mark Slaughter
was playing second electric and singing allthe second part harmonies with me. And
he's standing like three feet away fromme singing. You know. When we
got started, I took my headphonesoff because I just was out of touch
(31:52):
with the band. But once Itake my headphones off, I'm starting to
groove and I'm here and Slaughter singingthese parts act dude, and he was
nailing it, and uh, Ithought, Wow, this dude is really
in it. I mean, andand come to find out he's part Native
American, part Native of America.We we have that in common, and
(32:15):
we just hit it off so goodas brothers. Manuh, And we think
a lot of them alike, youknow, we salute the same Jesus,
we're cussing Christians. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the point I was getting
that you guys are on a similarpoth and have similar outlooks. So that's
uh, that comes together really nice. That people might not expect that,
but that's a that's a good team, the two of you together. That's
(32:37):
really interesting and that's pretty cool.I appreciate that, brother. So,
like I said, people can checkout the Rock and Roll Soul DVD lp
CD. I don't know if it'son cassette, but that could happen too.
You never know, because that's comingback. That's uh, that's a
possibility. That vinyl is a blackand red splattered, uh fine virgin vinyl
(33:00):
and it looks so cool, dude. Yeah, absolutely, I've seen pictures
of that too. I gotta getme one of those. That one only
has. I believe the GFR songson there though, that's all that would
fit. Am I correct about that? Yep? You're correct. Yeah.
But for the full experience, obviouslyyou can get you can see it.
It's online, of course, youcan get multiple versions. Support what Mark's
doing. Just buy them all.Yeah. Yeah, man, can't do
(33:21):
nothing wrong with that. That's right, brother, brother, I appreciate the
time. It's good to meeting youand talking to you, and hopefully we
can do this again. There's lotsmore to talk about with fifty years plus,
so you can only scratch the servicein thirty minutes. But looking forward
to another conversation again. Yeah yeah, brother, and Nobody's are Somebody's.
I like that. I really likethat, brother, Chadvice, and I
(33:43):
like being with you today, andlet's do it again. Absolutely too kind
Mark, you have a good restof your day and we'll talk soon.
Okay, sounds good, buddy,Take care man. Bye for now.
You've been listening to the Nobody's orSomebody's podcast with me Chadvice, and this
podcast has been voted the number onepodcast by people that don't vote
Nobodies are somebodies, all right,kids, it's chad vice, It's Nobody's
are Somebody's podcast. And I'm superexcited because this is a pretty cool interview
if I do say so myself,and I think you will say so yourself
as well too, because this weekI'm chatting with the legendary singer guitarist,
(00:22):
founder of the band Grand Funk GrandFunk Railroad to be exact, now with
his current band of thirty five plusyears or more, Mark Farner's American band,
who are currently out on tour.He can check them out all through
the spring and summer across the US. Maybe are playing a show near you.
(00:42):
Go check out one of their shows. Go check out the band,
Go check out Mark. See whathe's up to. He's got a lot
of cool things coming in twenty twentyfour, which we discussed we get into
on this conversation, but we onlyhad about thirty minutes to talk, which
is okay. We had a good, nice, condensed conversation and a lot
of good things were revealed, andincluding some new projects he's got coming up,
(01:04):
working with another singer that I playa lot on the Paradise City Eighties
Rock and Talk show that I doeach and every week on syndication and on
mixed Cloud, so you can definitelyget a little taste of that. I
can't wait for you to hear whatMark has to say. We touched on
a little bit of grand funk aswell too, which is obviously a big
part of his past and currents becausehe plays a lot of songs that he
(01:26):
wrote or co wrote in the AmericanBand. But we're specifically talking about a
concert DVD that's just been released.At the time was the twentieth anniversary of
the Woodstock, of the original Woodstockperformance. This one came out in nineteen
eighty nine and it's called Rock andRoll Soul Live nineteen eighty nine. He
(01:46):
can check that out on DVD,CD, vinyl, which is, according
to the press release that's on hiswebsite, is the first official release of
Mark Farner's performance at the Woodstock twentyyears after reunion that was held in Carson
in Carlston, California. So it'sthe full fifteen track set list that was
performed that night, and so weget into a lot of details, a
(02:07):
lot of cool facts and history abouthow that performance came together, how he
was asked to be a part ofit for the time the twenty year anniversary
of that special show that was,you know, life changing, and unfortunately
I'm way too young to have beena part of while the Woodstock and the
nineteen eighty nine show, I definitelymissed that as I was only eight years
old. I could have been there, probably if my parents were cooler,
(02:30):
But that didn't happen. But whatdid happen is this great conversation we had
thirty minutes. My only regret isthat, for some reason, maybe in
all my excitement and my joy,this was a video interview that I did
with Mark, and it was cooland great conversation, but for some reason,
my video screen was off. Ididn't realize that. I was too
(02:50):
busy focusing on Mark and what Ihad, and then the conversation went from
there and it just kept going.It was great. It was easy to
talk to this man he was.But if I had a note, if
I hadn't noticed, if I lookeda little harder and been paying more attention,
more of a been more of aprofessional, I would have saw that
it was only showing my home screenbecause I can only see a small window
on my screen where my face is, which I'm not really into looking at
(03:13):
more focused on the guest would havenoticed that my video was off. Mark
didn't notice that, or he mighthave, but he didn't say anything.
Obviously it's not his job to saythat. But I messed up. Fortunately,
we will probably have a conversation againfingers crossed, eyes dotted, teas
crossed, and that will happen again. This time. The first thing I'll
do is video video video. Butin the meantime, you're safe from seeing
(03:37):
my face. You get a greatconversation with Mark Farner. I'm very happy
to have had this opportunity. Sothanks to Melissa Emoxie Publications and Promotions for
setting this all up and hope todo that again. A big, big
shout out to her for putting thisall together. I'm waiting for my food
delivery. You're waiting now to hearthe conversation with Mark Farner. So let's
(03:57):
make it happen right here, rightnow. Nobody's ournes podcast with me,
not on video Chadvice. Awesome,Mark, it's good to have your conversation.
Good to talk to you. Howare you good. It's good to
be here with you. Chad.Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to
this. With the time that wehave, I want to get down to
(04:18):
it. We're going to be talkingfor the most part about Rock and Roll
Soul Live from nineteen eighty nine.It's the DVD, CD, Blu ray
LP that was released. I guessNovember seventeenth as the time we're talking.
Now that's out there. My firstquestion, I guess to you is might
be an obvious one, but Iwant to find out about it. So
(04:40):
why is now in this year twentytwenty three the right time to release the
concert from nineteen eighty nine. Well, we were approached by Liberation Hall,
who is the label releasing this,about doing a release of this, and
it's a twenty years after Woodstock kindof thing, you know that they that
(05:00):
they put out. We even hadChipmunk was the announcer on this particular show,
and so I say, you know, my manager called me and told
me what was up. And Isaid, well, where the hell did
that come from? And he says, well, they founded it was like
(05:23):
lost and they found it and theylike it and they want to release it.
I said, well, have themsend me a copy of it so
I can review it, and I'llgive them my opinion on it, and
they did, and I thought,man, for being as old as it
is, they did quite a goodjob on the audio and the video because
(05:47):
you know, a lot of timeson a live record, you don't get
enough audience. In fact, mostof the time, you know, you
just get the band. You know, they got the band all miked up
and everything. But on this particularrecording, you can hear the interaction.
And for my show, brother,I am up there to entertain people,
(06:11):
and I move and I get,you know, geeked up for the next
song from the energy that I'm receivingfrom the audience. And when you can
hear that in the grooves, soto speak, it makes it that much
better. And they really got itin there, so it's a good balance.
(06:31):
That's good to hear. That's goodto hear. I assume you already
knew at the time about in eightynine that the show is being recorded,
but this is the first time thatyou've heard it box since then. It
was never produced on TV, itwas never released anywhere else. This is
the first time anyone on a nationalbasis is going to hear it. That's
right, brother, that's good.That's good. What are your memories of
doing that show. Like you said, it was the twenty year at the
(06:54):
time anniversary of Woodstock, celebrating that. A lot of the bands that played
the original Woodstock were there. Ibelieve. What do you remember about doing
that show? I mean that wasyou in the American band as we know.
Do you remember being approached by theorganizers? Did someone get in contact
with you? Did you want todid you approach them? How did that
come together? Well? They theyapproached me and we were in California gigging,
(07:20):
and you know, my manager said, hey, these guys want you
to do this twenty years after Woodstockgig, you know, for celebrating twenty
years, and what do you wantto do? Are you you know,
are you interested in doing I said, hell, yeah, we're here man,
Let's let's do this thing. Wewent out and on the stage and
(07:44):
the audience was very receptive. Ihad a completely different band, you know,
Mark Farner's American Band. We've hadseveral different people swap in and out.
We've had a couple of people who'vepassed away Adrest their souls, their
rock and souls UH and one ofthem, Michael Blair is is UH on
(08:07):
the keyboard on this particular incarnation ofthe band, and he was a hell
of a singer and a keyboardist.Miss him, Michael Uh. He was
from my state, from Michigan.He was down uh near the the Ohio
(08:28):
border, and his mom and dadraised blueberries and they were always like bringing
us a big flat of blueberries outto the tour bus and we go through
those like my yeah, dude,well had like blue lips and blue tongs,
(08:48):
you know, like you guys calledout here. No, I just
eating a bunch of blueberries before you. That's right. Sold in California this
year. Yeah, yeah, Igot yeah. Man had Mike Maple on
drums, Lawrence Buckner on bass,had the Arnieville Chez brother from California.
(09:09):
He's actually from Philadelphia, moved toCalifornia, you know, forty years ago,
but he still does some of myacoustic shows. And he's the only
one from this incarnation of the bandthat is still with me part time.
But it was a rock and bandand the people really loved it and they
(09:31):
showed us and egg design they keptthey kept spurring us on, you know,
and once you get in that stateof mind, brother, I'm telling
you Chad, You're like floating overthe stage about three feet over the decking
and us. It's a great feeling. There's only one place for me to
get my fix. That's on mystage. There you go, absolutely,
(09:54):
did you have a special set listpicked out just for that show? It
was something you're already doing. Whatmade you decide on the songs that you
chose? Obviously there's the Grand FunkWorld songs in there, but there's also
your own stuff. What made youkind of balance that set list out?
Well, it was songs that wewere doing at the time. In the
set, I had some god rockout there on Full Moon Records, and
(10:18):
it was, you know, itwas the very well received stuff. I
was amazed that people really embraced mygod rock because it's not it you know,
didn't come off religious because I'm notreligious in the least bit. I
am a Christian, but I'm acustomed Christian and I don't believe in a
(10:41):
lot of the things that the churchesthat i've been in subscribe to. But
but I'm a free man. I'ma free agent for Jesus Man and any
Yeah, man, that's kind ofway I look at it. There you
go, as I know for themost part, nowadays, when you get
concerts, when you get festivals,they always want the big name or a
(11:05):
big hook to get people to cometo the show, especially not more than
ever. But back then, Iknow, at that point maybe I think
in the ten years ten years atthat point that GFR had broken up,
you were doing the All American Band. Did they ever ask you to say,
hey, can we get you know, the original three guys back?
Was that ever something that was askedto you or that just never came up
(11:26):
As far as around at that time, Chad has come up so many times
you wouldn't believe it. I knowsince then, probably about a thousand times.
But yeah, ten years on,I can assume that back then they
maybe wanted it too. Oh sure, that's you know, that's what people
would like. But and I'm notthe one who's keeping that from happening.
(11:46):
I did, however, when Ifirst learned that, after I signed my
individual ownership of the trademark into thecorporation at the behest of don Or the
drummer, he came to my roomone night after a gig and after a
party and said, hey, man, we need to sign our individual ownership
(12:07):
of the trademark into the corporation,where it'll have this protective umbrella, some
kind of nonsense. It turned outto be horsey poo poo, because once
I did that, I learned thatI was voted out of the corporation as
an officer. They were going outon the road. They were trying to
pressure me into going out, andthat under these circumstances, and after I
(12:33):
realized what had happened to me,because you know, because I was stupid,
because I had a few drinks andI think that alcohol affected my judgment
to the point of, you know, I just said, okay, yeah,
I'll do that, because under theinfluence, I thought that he was
looking out for the best interests ofthe band, and come to find out,
(12:56):
he was looking out for the bestinterest or something else. And at
that time I told him, youknow, yeah, I'll go out with
you guys. You guys can splitthe half of the money. I'll take
the other half. Oh. Thatpissed them off, and so, you
know, that kind of put theend of them trying to come after me.
(13:18):
But then after I got my headabout me, I'm thinking, you
know, I'm a Beatles fan andI always wondered why they wouldn't go out.
Why wouldn't the four amigos go backout? Bury the hatchet, whatever
it was that was keeping them separate, Bury that hatchet and just do it
for the fans. Because I wantedto see the Beatles, Lie, dude,
(13:41):
I really really wanted to see them. And so from a fans standpoint,
I thought, well, you knowwhat, I'll go back out if
those guys, you know, wantto go back out, I would definitely
do that for the fans. BecauseI saw a zz Top went back out.
Then then those guys were not eventalking to each other. They took
(14:03):
three separate buses, they got threedifferent dressing rooms, and they never saw
each other until they went to stageplayed their music, and the audience was
none the wiser. They just didtheir music and it rocked. It was
great, and I figured, youknow, we could do the same thing,
but it's not embraced. That ideais not embraced from the other side.
(14:26):
Brother, So but I've been tryinganyways, you know, that's all
you could pick it, you know, just even from the money aspect of
it, wouldn't there be more actualmore money with the original bandy, I
would think so. I would thinkso, especially with the original singer songwriter,
the original guy, I would thinkso too. You're talking about the
I guess most recent times. Didthis didn't happen in nineteen eighty nine?
(14:46):
Though? When did this happen thislast time you like you guys were together
for a bit, When did thatactually go down? I know you talked
about it before, but I don'tmake the whole thing about that, but
just for context, we started areunion and the year after I did the
Ringo tour, So it was ninetysix, okay, and we went through
(15:07):
ninety eight, and that was inninety eight was when I signed over my
ownership, my one third ownership withthe trademark into the corporation. And that's
when it all went down. Soso since then, which has been about
almost well a little over twenty yearsnow, that's been a long time that
you've been out of there, separatedfrom that, and you you just brought
(15:28):
it up. You have. Haveyou had any attempts in the last couple
of years, maybe after the pandemiccoming coming through and trying to get back
to talk to donner Mel or anybody, or is it just have you given
up at this point. Well,I tried, but and when you know,
when we have a corporate meeting,I would bring it up or you
know, and bring it up tothe to the attorney that runs the legal
(15:52):
work for the corporation, and theyjust never embraced it. And I you
know, it's it's too bad becausethe fans are getting screwed. You know.
There's so many bands out there,brother that call it whatever the name
of the band wasn't it. Andsome of them don't even have the original
one of the original members. Theymight have yeah Foreigner, they might have
(16:17):
a distant relative of the original guitartech yeah exactly. Somebody's second cousin twice
removed or something like that might bethere. Someone with a namesake in there
too. You you never know who'sgoing to pop up on stage. As
long as hey, it's all aboutthe name. It's about the brand,
right. You own the name Foreigner, you own the name GFR, you
own a name. You can goup there and do it. It doesn't
(16:37):
matter. I mean a lot ofpeople don't care. That's the problem too.
The majority of people that see ashow, they want to hear the
songs. If they go, theyhear someone singing it, that's their happy
night. I don't agree, butthat's the majority. Unfortunately. Yeah,
I think you're right, brother.Let's swing it back to you a little
bit here. The Foreigner Chords,which I think is a recent instructional video
project that you've been doing. Ithink it's recent, and but you can
(17:00):
let me know, uh, talkto me about what that is and what
people if they're going to go on. Of course that's a Mark Farner dot
com, your website. But ifpeople go there and they want to see
that, what is that? TheForeigner Chords, which had it, is
for accomplished guitar players and keyboard playersthat want to know the chords that I
(17:21):
used when I wrote these songs.And it was brought about when somebody sent
me a link and they said,hey, Farner, is this really how
you play sins? A good Man'sBrother? And that was on Closer to
Home album and I watched the linkand the first three chords are absolutely wrong.
(17:45):
I mean, you know, uh, there's a little is that how
you play it acoustic guitar thing beforeit comes into it, and those all
that was wrong. And so Icall my friend Jimmy from Downstate he's a
videographer and he was in a bandthat I was in a long time ago,
(18:08):
with Adrenaline. And in anyways,I said, Jimmy, I have
an idea because and I explained itto him. I said, because there's
some instructional videos out there. AndI watched a few different videos after I
discovered this one, and nobody,not one video was playing the chords that
(18:30):
I played. So I thought,man, you know what if I just
straighten it out. I'm thinking,if they're going to play my music,
why not give them the chords thatI used, and then there'll be no
doubt that it'll fix any mistake.And like I said, it has to
be an accomplished guitar guitarist or pianistin order to catch what I'm doing,
(18:56):
because you're not going to learn howto play guitar from watching these, but
if you're already a player, you'lldefinitely pick up on the chord in versions
that I made. And uh,there's a there's a camera on the right
hand and there's a camera on theleft hand, so you can, you
know, look both ways and seehow I'm picking it and how I'm courting
(19:17):
it. And I told Jimmy,I said, man, I want to
give these away. I don't wantto how do they say, monetize these
things? Because my reward is ifsomebody's going to play my song that I
wrote, they're going to play itthe right way, and I'm rewarded by
that. You know, no matterif they're playing it in their living room
(19:41):
to their friends or their parents orwhoever, or if they're up on stage
playing it, they'll be playing itthe right way. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. I'm glad you madethat distinction too. You mentioned it's for
guitar players and keyboard players who whoare accomplished or have a background, because
my assumption when you when you putthese that was that it was for mostly
for fans or people trying to learnguitar. But you're saying that's not really.
(20:04):
I mean, they can try it, but it's not. It's a
little bit more complex than that,I guess. Yeah, you'd have to
have extrasensory perception. You never knowwhat's out there. But yeah, for
the most part, gon be someonearound the corner on YouTube who can play
play inside looking out better than youever could. You never know, yeah,
(20:26):
dude, Yeah, you never knowexactly and you did that. I
guess just recently in the last yearor so. When did those first drop
or for people to check out.Yeah, it's it's almost a year that
we released the first one. ButI've got uh four of them out there
(20:47):
right now and uh there's two guitarsongs and two keyboard songs and uh.
And we've got great respect, greatfeedback from people who are just happy they
don't have to pay for it,you know, or subscribe to it or
(21:11):
anything. And the fact that it'sjust laid back, it's kickback. I'm
in Jimmy's living room playing and we'reflashing to some live music that I did
in Santiago, Chile. It's offmy DVD from Chile with Love. And
(21:37):
we have decided to give three dollarsfrom each DVD sale to Veterans Support Foundation,
and out of fourteen ninety nine atthree Bucks, it's really appreciated on
the side of the organization. Theyhave thanked us so much to help them
(21:59):
stay row and keep helping our vetsthat come home and need a life and
they help them figure it out.M hmm. Absolutely. And anyone that
knows you, anyone that knows MarkFarner anyone knows about your legacy is not
how much you support and help thetroops, the veterans, And that's been
something since the beginning, from thebeginning of Grand Funk and everything that's been
(22:21):
in your life all your life.Talking a bit about why that's so important,
besides the obvious reasons why it's importantto support the troops, but for
you personally, what does that meanfor me personally? My dad was this
World War Two veteran and he wasa tank driver in the seventh Armor Division.
He returned home from war with fourbronze medals, four bronze stars,
(22:45):
which commemorate being in four major battles, and a lot of tank drivers didn't
get to see the second one.We were in Sherman tanks that were inferior
to the German tanks. But mymother was the first woman in the United
(23:07):
States to weld on Sherman tanks atFisher Body in Flint, Michigan. All
of my uncles, a lot ofthe other relatives were veterans, were you
know, blessed to make at home. Some didn't, but I always just
(23:27):
looked up to them for what theydid. And my family made a real
contribution to winning World War Two,and I want to do what I can
do for all of our veterans andour active troops to give them morale,
(23:48):
to give them the love that ittakes for them to continue in the right
mindset, you know, knowing thatthey are appreciated, but but more than
that, when they come home,showing them that they are appreciated and giving
(24:11):
them more than the government is willingto give them, but we give it
from the heart. Yeah, no, absolutely, there's there's something in your
u In the press release I gotfor this as well too, about a
specific show that you did. I'mnot sure, I don't remember the date
or when it was, but youtalked about how you perform for troops.
I think for American and Canadian troopswere there too, and and just the
(24:34):
support and the outpourt of the waythey were seeing you on stage and your
songs made you It brought you totiers at one point. I don't know
these specific show, but I'm sureit's topping more than once. But it
shows like that that really make youfeel like you've done something as far as
the music you've written, and thenof course obviously the shows you perform for
them too. Which you've done alot over the years. That's right,
brother Chad. And the one showthat's outstanding. What that brought tears to
(25:00):
my eyes was when we were doingthe twenty fifth anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial Wall in Washington. He's theone actually, Okay, now you're right,
that's the one I was mentioned.Yeah, yeah, they they asked
me to come and play my song. Would I just bring an acoustic guitar
(25:21):
and come and play my song?And I asked him, I said,
are you going to have a stageset up and the lights and a PA
system? And they said, ohyeah. And I told them that I
would bring my whole band because Italked to the guys and they said,
yeah, hell, yes, man, let's go do this. And you
(25:45):
know, it was thirty six degrees. It was just above freezing, but
my ers didn't know that. YourGlories again, they were blues. We
were warm and all right up onthe light bulbs in the dressing room,
so we were able to play.But when we got to the last song,
(26:08):
I'm Your Captain, there was nota dry eye out there in the
crowd, and not only our Americanbrothers and sisters, but the Canadian Vietnam
veterans, our brothers and sisters,our neighbors were there too, and it
was a reunion of love, man, a reunion of souls and a real
(26:32):
commemoration for some real brave souls.And that's what that's why I do it
right there, brother, I'm tellingyou just just to know that you're doing
something good for somebody who really deservesit. Man, What a better purpose
for life? What a better feelingyou could have? There isn't any exactly,
(26:53):
And it's nice to have that peoplecoming together when you know both countries
are so divided now over different things. It's nice to have everyone coming together
at least in that moment. Andwhat brought them together obviously you know music.
How it comes back to music,Right on, brother, exactly,
a couple more things I'll ask youbefore we run out of time. I
always ask musicians this. I knowit's kind of a cliche question, but
it's it's fascinating to me, especiallywith someone who has a career like yours
(27:17):
over fifty years growing up before youever started a professional band, before you
maybe picked up a guitar or sangwho we mentioned the Beatles obviously, but
who as far as guitar players orsingers really you know, impacted you and
made you think, Okay, I'mgoing to do this as a real as
my real job, as far asand I know that you sing, obviously,
(27:37):
did guitar playing come first and thenyou realize you could sing? Or
was it the other way around?How did where did this start? For
you? Was actually the other wayaround? Chad? I was singing in
the in the high school choir,and I well, this was junior high.
I had my mother got me guitarlessons for my birthday fifteenth birthday,
(28:02):
because I had injured myself in ascrimmage game with the high school students and
they kicked our asses and broke brokesome of our will and broke our bones.
And my doctor told my mother thatI wouldn't be playing ball and I
wouldn't be running track in the fall, and so she got me the guitar,
(28:25):
and I, like I said,I was already singing. And I
sang with these guys that were inthe high school band, and my sister
Diane hung out with him. She'dplayed some drums, and then you know,
I'd get up there and sing.And because I liked to sing and
they didn't, so it worked out. But guitar players, man, you
(28:48):
know that first Cream album, FreshCream. I loved that guitar tone that
clapped and got on that record andthen he never got it on another record
after that. But Fresh Cream,Man, that spoke to me and Jeff
Beck, the Yardbirds, you know, trained Keper rolling, Oh my god,
(29:10):
Jeff Beck was smoking, and RickDarringer another fantastic guitar player that influenced
me. And Steve Cropper of course. Yeah, from that up a lot,
yeah, yeah, a couple lotfor guitar players. These and these
people you're mentioning too, didn't startthat far before you got started professionally,
(29:33):
as far as nineteen sixty nine.We're talking that year, so I mean
that's not that long ago. Soit didn't take that long fore you to
say I'm doing this. It soundslike before you were like, I'm getting
the band together, and all thatcame together, which was which is the
story in itself. I'm sure wedon't have time for now, but that
would be a fun story how itall came together. Yeah, man,
there's always a future, brother Chad, Yeah, for sure. Absolutely For
(29:55):
those who want to check out whatyou're doing, of course, go to
Mark Farner dot com. But doyou have f only twenty four? What's
coming up for the American band?You have tour dates? Do you have
new a new records coming out?What's coming what's coming up for you?
Yeah, I've got an album thatwe're finishing up right now. Mark Slaughter
from the group Slaughter is producing myalbum. Ah really wow? Yeah,
man, and uh it's it's beengreat and we are playing planning on releasing
(30:22):
in the spring of this next year. So that's something that the fans can
keep their eyes peel for because itrocks. There's there's a lot of good
music on there. And two marksare better than one. You can't go
wrong. Yeah, that's right.That's an a good answer, brother,
(30:42):
that's amazing. That's really cool.Have you Uh I know Mark is also
Mark Slaughter is also a big supporterof the course of the troops and the
American uh the American people as welltoo. So it's good that you guys
came together. Do you have along history with with Mark Slaughter? Well,
we did uh rock and Roll FantasyCamp in New York City and Howard
Stern at that time wanted, hesold David Fishoff, who runs the camp
(31:07):
and owns Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, he wanted. He wanted me up
there on his program to do I'mYour Captain. And so all of these
guys, Kip Winger, Sandy Genniro, you know from Jon Jets, the
drummer for Jone Jet, and Teddyzig Zag from Guns and Rolls Keyboards,
(31:29):
and Bruce Cullick who now plays guitarfor my old band. But Mark Slaughter
was playing second electric and singing allthe second part harmonies with me. And
he's standing like three feet away fromme singing. You know. When we
got started, I took my headphonesoff because I just was out of touch
(31:52):
with the band. But once Itake my headphones off, I'm starting to
groove and I'm here and Slaughter singingthese parts act dude, and he was
nailing it, and uh, Ithought, Wow, this dude is really
in it. I mean, andand come to find out he's part Native
American, part Native of America.We we have that in common, and
(32:15):
we just hit it off so goodas brothers. Manuh, And we think
a lot of them alike, youknow, we salute the same Jesus,
we're cussing Christians. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the point I was getting
that you guys are on a similarpoth and have similar outlooks. So that's
uh, that comes together really nice. That people might not expect that,
but that's a that's a good team, the two of you together. That's
(32:37):
really interesting and that's pretty cool.I appreciate that, brother. So,
like I said, people can checkout the Rock and Roll Soul DVD lp
CD. I don't know if it'son cassette, but that could happen too.
You never know, because that's comingback. That's uh, that's a
possibility. That vinyl is a blackand red splattered, uh fine virgin vinyl
(33:00):
and it looks so cool, dude. Yeah, absolutely, I've seen pictures
of that too. I gotta getme one of those. That one only
has. I believe the GFR songson there though, that's all that would
fit. Am I correct about that? Yep? You're correct. Yeah.
But for the full experience, obviouslyyou can get you can see it.
It's online, of course, youcan get multiple versions. Support what Mark's
doing. Just buy them all.Yeah. Yeah, man, can't do
(33:21):
nothing wrong with that. That's right, brother, brother, I appreciate the
time. It's good to meeting youand talking to you, and hopefully we
can do this again. There's lotsmore to talk about with fifty years plus,
so you can only scratch the servicein thirty minutes. But looking forward
to another conversation again. Yeah yeah, brother, and Nobody's are Somebody's.
I like that. I really likethat, brother, Chadvice, and I
(33:43):
like being with you today, andlet's do it again. Absolutely too kind
Mark, you have a good restof your day and we'll talk soon.
Okay, sounds good, buddy,Take care man. Bye for now.
You've been listening to the Nobody's orSomebody's podcast with me Chadvice, and this
podcast has been voted the number onepodcast by people that don't vote
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