Performing live never gets old for Grand Funk Railroad playing Rivers Casino Saturday
He’s played it a million times, but Grand Funk Railroad’s Don Brewer never tires of performing “We’re an American Band.”
The rowdy former No. 1 hit always draws a reaction.
“I get a charge when I see the audience get up on their feet and they’re all having a good time and everybody’s singing along with the song. Same thing with ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ and ‘(The) Loco-Motion.’ I love that,” the singing drummer said.
“A lot of artists get sick of their hits. I have never done that. I thank God that we’ve got these hits. It just gives me a tingle every time I see people react to them.”
Fans of the now five-piece rock band out of Flint, Michigan, have one more chance to hear Grand Funk’s classics on “The American Band Tour,” culminating Saturday, Nov. 15, at Rivers Casino Des Plaines.
“We focus on all of the Grand Funk hits,” said Brewer, 77, who lives in Florida and has been with his wife, Sunny, for 40 years, and has two daughters and five grandchildren.
“Foot-stomping music, rock ’n’ roll soul — ‘I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home),’ ‘Inside Looking Out,’ ‘Some Kind of Wonderful,’ ‘The Loco-Motion,’ of course, ‘We’re an American Band.’ ‘Heartbreaker’ is another Grand Funk staple, ‘Shinin’ On,’ ‘Walk Like a Man.’
“We know that that’s what people come to hear and that’s what we love to play. That’s what we do,” said Brewer, who was friendly and easy to laugh in a recent phone interview.
Singer/guitarist Mark Farner long ago fell off from the founding trio that includes bassist Mel Schacher, who has been with Grand Funk steadily since a 1996-98 comeback tour following a 14-year layoff.
It was that trio — which Brewer termed “outsiders” from the Detroit-area scene that produced the MC5, the Stooges, Bob Seger and Ted Nugent, who attended St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights before returning home — that crafted 10 platinum and 13 gold records and landed “We’re an American Band” (1973) and “The Loco-Motion” (1974) at No. 1 among nine top-40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
Farner went solo after the 1996-98 tour, with Brewer and Schacher forging on with Grand Funk Railroad, a takeoff on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad cars they’d watched rolling by as boys in Michigan.
Touring consistently since about 2000, with Grand Funk’s “Still Shining On Tour” already scheduled to start in January, Brewer and Schacher have amassed a strong group of players featuring lead singer Max Carl (.38 Special, Jack Mack and the Heart Attack), keyboard player Tim Cashion (Bob Seger, Robert Palmer) and guitarist Mark Chatfield (The Godz, Bob Seger).
Brewer produced The Godz’s first album and also played with Seger on tour in the 1980s and 2000s, hence the connection with his band mates.
It’s always nice for a veteran outfit to have its rhythm section intact.
“It is,” Brewer said of the playing relationship he has with Schacher. “We are the foundation. It’s a wonderful brotherhood that we have that we’ve been able to bond this long with this band. It’s pretty amazing.”
To a layman, it’s amazing not only for a drummer to do his polyrhythmic thing, but to add singing duties on top of it. Brewer said he shares the vocal load about 50% with Carl, and Brewer and Cashion sing backing vocals.
It’s second nature for Brewer, though, starting in his teens with one of his first bands, the Jazzmasters. That group morphed into Terry Knight & the Pack (Knight became Grand Funk’s manager and producer), which turned into Grand Funk Railroad.
“I was always one of the singers. I wasn’t the singer, but I was always one of the singers,” Brewer said.
“It wasn’t that I learned how to play drums and sit behind the kit and I played drums for a number of years and then somebody asked me to sing — I was always a singing drummer. I never had to think about it.”
Like other members of legacy acts, Brewer enjoys the appeal of Grand Funk’s music to a multigenerational audience, from young listeners having recently heard the hits to senior veterans who sang along with “Closer to Home” on the boat home from Vietnam.
“It’s just all over the place. It’s great,” Brewer said.
He added that live performance always was Grand Funk Railroad’s “first love” over studio work. Either way, Brewer considers himself lucky to have been able to build a lifelong career out of playing great rock ’n’ roll songs such as “We’re an American Band.”
“I think about it probably daily, that I’m really fortunate,” Brewer said.
“I’ve been able to do what I started in my basement in Swartz Creek, Michigan. I’ve been able to do that my whole life. That’s pretty amazing. Not many people can say that, that they started out with their dream as a kid and here they are in old age and they’re still doing it.”
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“The American Band Tour 2025”
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15; doors open at 7 p.m.
Where: The Event Center at Rivers Casino Des Plaines, 3000 S. River Road, Des Plaines
Tickets: $52.50-$112.50 at etix.com/ or grandfunkrailroad.com