Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad) Interview

When we last spoke with Mark Farner, the world was still in the midst of a bizarre pseudo-lockdown state. It was ironic considering Farner was promoting his From Chile with Love DVD, that saw him playing his Grand Funk classics to throngs of adoring rock n’ rollers. Fast forward a few whirlwind years later and Farner is back to doing what he does best: Rocking the masses, and this time with new music to boot! We sat down with Farner to discuss his first original album in nearly two decades, Closer to My Home, as well as blowing out sound systems, taking on the man, and a continuing discussion on Grand Funk’s role in the evolution of heavy metal.

Greetings Mark and welcome back to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing this afternoon?

Mark Farner: Hey man! I’m good and I’m glad to be back with you. I feel the life in your voice, brother Joe *laughs*!

It’s for good reason! Here in Chicago, it’s gloomy and dark, but there’s a ray of light beaming in right now. You’re about to release a brand new album, Closer to My Home. We all know where home is for you, and that’s Flint, Michigan. After all, Grand Funk was the band who put the city on the map. I’m curious what is home for Mark Farner? What people or things in your life characterize this idea of “home”?

MF: Home is the love, the fellowship with people who are genuine. Not folks who do something to put on for the dog show. They don’t get all hussied up, but they’re ready to be themselves at any moment, real people. I’m talking to one right now. I just know because of your aura, because of your countenance, that you are really and you’re not shooting any BS my way *laughs*. That’s home, here on the planet, but my true home?

We’re all gonna leave these bone suits, so my true home is where I’m storing my treasures. The most valuable treasures I have are the love that I have for people, this true love that is an association with those who hold the same hope in their hearts that I do that this spirit, that inhabits this fleshy shell, continues on. We ain’t fools, buddy. We know this thing’s gonna fade away *laughs*. Hey, as long as it ain’t faded too bad, I’m gonna get what life I can out of it and I’m gonna sing my ass off! I am going to play my ass off! I am going to be up on the stage, in front of people that I love. That is my home. My true home is that stage here on this earth, and I thank God that I have a voice that is speaking the truth to my brothers and sisters out there.

Well man, I don’t think I can see you “fading away” anytime soon. I saw you just this past summer at the Rock ‘N Wheels festival in Addison, Illinois. I was right up front that evening when the sound system blew out!

MF: Yeah, right! That’s right! Oh my God *laughs*!

And you still killed it! You and your band are so tight and so electric. So much so that you brought the sound back before the end of the night!

MF: Yeah, man! *laughs* You know, they just happened to have a spare generator there. That’s love! Somebody was looking in advance. When something like that happens, usually, 90% of the time, they go, “Oh my God! It’s gonna be a couple hours!” We’ll go, “Oh man! You could’ve gone all day without saying that!” Here was the spare just sitting there, so that was a good day, buddy.

Absolutely. Now when we spoke a few years ago, you were toying with the idea of doing a new album, putting a handful of new cuts on your From Chile with Love DVD, including “The Prisoner”, which appears on here as well. At what point did it seem like an album coming together?

MF: When we did the Howard Stern Show, I say “we”. Howard called David Fishof who is the proprietor of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. We were doing a camp in New York City. David came to me and said, “Howard Stern wants you to come over and do “I’m Your Captain” on his show live.” I said, “You mean, with an acoustic or with a band? How does he want it?” He said, “Man, you take the Fantasy Band.” The Fantasy Band was Kip Winger on bass, Sandy Gennaro from Joan Jett’s band on drums, Teddy Zig Zag from Guns N’ Roses on the keyboards, Bruce Kulick on acoustic, Mark Slaughter on second guitar, me on first. We went over and did the Howard Stern Show.

When I was talking with Slaughter, even before we went into do it, we’re in the green room. I got my guitar and just start warming up. I start playing one of the songs that’s on this album, Closer to My Home. It’s called “Oh Darlin'”. He goes, “Farner, what is that song?!” I said, “It’s “Oh Darlin'”. It’s one I’m working on.” He says, “Man, I wanna work on that song with you.” That was providential, what he said. When we got done at Howard Stern’s show, I spoke to him and I told him. He and Kip Winger were doing background vocals, and Teddy too, but those two guys, they were hitting all the right parts, right on pitch. It was just the way you like it!

I told him, “Man, I appreciate you so much. I knew you could scream-sing! I knew that, but what you were doing, that pure, wonderful, beautiful voice of yours, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.” He says, “I’m gonna send you some stuff. I want you to give it a listen.” I did, Joe. He emailed me some files. I listened to them and I’m going, “Oh my God!” In stereo, you’ve got half a pie. I could point to the guitar! I could point to the bass! When you can hear that much separation, and the drums! When he would go across the drums, it would go, “Do-do-do-do” *from one side to another*, woah! I love that!

It’s like being live! That’s what I have always wanted. I’ve always wanted what it sounds like when I’m live onstage. That’s what I like. Mark Slaughter produced this album, Closer to My Home, because I told him, “Dude, whoever produced that, they’re a wonderful producer.” He said, “Dude, it was me.” “Really?!” “Yeah, I wanna talk to you about this because I feel like I’m supposed to produce you.” I said, “Dude, that’s hitting me in the gut that you said that because I have this discernment, this spiritual discernment, that we’re gonna work together. I had it when we were singing together at the Howard Stern Show. When we were in the green room together and we spoke, we were speaking right to each other.”

I’m gonna tell you something. Mark Slaughter is as real as you and I are right now. That brother, there’s no BS there. He’s got God given talent. I got to experience it. I got to have it as a producer of my album, and even as much as to write with him. One of the songs was unfinished on there. It’s called “Anymore”. I’m recording the music to it, and we’re just gonna finish the vocals, the verses. He starts singing the lines. I’m going, “That’s it, dude! That’s it! Let’s just record it. Let’s do that right now. I’m gonna sing that right now!” *laughs*

It was just magic to work together, even though it took two years to finish it. That’s because Mark Slaughter is a touring musician. I am a touring musician. He’d go out for a couple weeks and come back. Then I’d have to leave for a couple weeks and come back. It was kind of like that. When we finally got together at his studio in Tennessee, we did our best work together. It’s instant. You’re feeding on each other. We’re doing the track “Oh Darlin'” and the UPS truck pulls up. Slaughter goes, “Oh, bummer man! That truck was on the microphone!” *laughs*

He stopped the session for a minute, walked over, slides back the door. The UPS driver hands him what looks like, to me, a guitar box. I’ve had a few of those *laughs*. He pulls out this electric 12 string that he immediately plugged in, tuned it to 432 hz, and played it on “Oh Darlin'”, just like that. Man, it showed up at the right time. He put this beautiful part on there that’s like magic. Playing in 432, as opposed to 440, which is the American tuning standard since 1953. Rockefeller set that standard. I don’t know if you know anything about banksters, but those banksters are some pretty lowlife folks on the planet. They hide. They’re back there. They’re the Wizards of Oz hiding behind a very expensive electronic curtain, but we know better.

There’s a few of us who know who’s really pulling the strings on these puppets we’re voting for out here. The thing is, Mark knows, I know, God knows, and God gave us the talent that we have. We can speak to people. They get it. We don’t have to come out and say what scum-suckin’ pigdogs they are, these people that are running the show *laughs*. We can just lay it between the lines. Man, I’m telling you, people get it. They’re getting it big time. There’s a big wakeup going on in the rock n’ roll spirit and I’m proud to be a part of it.

A couple things that immediately come to mind when listening to this record: Firstly, what’s interesting about someone like Mark is he comes from that ’80s era of rock and metal musicians who grew up listening to Grand Funk Railroad. Secondly, you talk about how you wanted this to sound as live as possible. That’s absolutely the vibe I picked up when listening to this album. It felt like you were in my room playing guitar in front of me, that old school Grand Funk production. When you think of an era like the ’80s, where it was all about gated drums and guitars on guitars, have you always gravitated towards that raw, soulful, organic production?

MF: That’s exactly what I was hearing from Slaughter when he sent me some of the tracks that he had done and he had worked on. When I said, “Who was it that produced it?” And he said, “Me.”, I said, “Oh my God! You mean to tell me this guy who plays and sings and has this big heart is a producer too?!” *laughs* He came with tools in his quiver, man! He is responsible, of course, for the sound, the output. When you’re telling me this, brother Joe, it just confirms my choice that I made, based on what I was hearing. I love it that you hear it too. That’s just confirmation for me. Thank you buddy.

Absolutely! Having come from the era when bands, as my pal Carmine Appice has put it, “actually sold records”, did you have any reservations about releasing a full length album in this current digital age?

MS: I don’t like the fact that what it would take…for albums back in the day, if you sold 250 albums, what you would make from the record company per cut and percentage wise, as far as the whole sale of the LP was, it would take you 5,000 plays on Spotify, or any of the streaming organizations, to make that money. I think it sucks because somehow, we keep getting screwed *laughs*. It’s worse than the tax! There’s always the increase on the tax. Then you take into consideration, my dentist was telling me that he did the math on it. We’re only getting 19% of our money because the rest is going into all of these taxes.

When you go to a city, they got the hotel tax, this tax, that tax. Besides the income tax and the sales tax, you got the tax on every gallon of fuel you put in your tank. You got all these that you don’t really calculate because it’s overwhelming to think about it in the first place. To have that little tiny bit of income coming in from something that’s streamed, unless you have multi-million views and people buying that stream, you’re not gonna make any money to speak of. Not comparatively to the old days of the LPs and even the 8-tracks *laughs* and cassette records, the old media that we still love. I still have a great cassette recorder. I’ve got some cassettes. I just spin them just to hear that sound, man! It’s the true sonic value coming off that tape.

Another thing to take into consideration is we’ll hear about so and so artist receiving 100 million streams, which I guess is impressive on paper. What’s more impressive, to me, is you look back at say Grand Funk’s self titled. You think, “Wow, a million people bought this album the year it came out.”, meaning they had to actually leave the house, go to the store, buy the record, and go home to spin it!

MF: Yeah! *laughs* That’s great! When we sold out Shea Stadium faster than The Beatles, every ticket went out of the box office at Shea Stadium. The fans camped out overnight at the stadium. This was long before there were any online ticket sales, so the fans camped out. They had their sleeping bags. They had tents. There were thousands of them. Out of the 55,000 tickets that were sold, all of them came through that box office. And, it was $3, $4, $5 *laughs*!

Oh, don’t even get me started on that!

MF: Yeah, I feel you buddy, seriously.

Speaking of that era, there’s also a collaboration on here with a hometown hero of mine, Jim Peterik, on the song “Friends Forever”. Do you remember when you first crossed paths with Jim? I imagine The Ides of March and Grand Gunk had to have shared a bill at one point in time.

MF: Not back in the day! The first I met and talked and felt like I’m talking to a real person, a real human being, we were on The Moody Blues Cruise. The Ides were on the cruise and I saw Peterik at the cafeteria with a tray in his hand, picking food out *laughs*. We met. He said, “Mark, I would like to have you come and play the World Stage show with me some time.” I said, “Brother Jim, it would be my honor to play anything with you.” He’s just a humble guy. He really is. He’s a for real dude. He’s shooting from the hip.

To have this opportunity for “Friends Forever”, he played lead guitar on it and he played keyboards on it. His son (Colin) played drums on it. I played bass on this. It’s just something that is very soothing. That’s where he was coming from with it. I hope that people listen to it. All they have to do is listen to it and allow it to speak to them. There’s a lot of love in this song, and a lot of appreciation for our fans and those who love music, and those who have family and love to get together for a family reunion. Who doesn’t love a family reunion? That is so healing, just when I’m saying it to you. A “family reunion” *laughs*.

When you think about it, a Mark Farner show is like a family reunion. You’re surrounded by all your brothers and sisters, people of all ages who come from all walks of life, but we’re united by the love of the music. We ask each other our favorite songs and favorite albums, trade stories, and so forth. It really goes back to how we started this interview, touching on this idea of “home”.

MF: Yeah, man! Absolutely. I get that 100%. It’s lighting me up, right in here *points to heart* *laughs*.

I want to talk a little bit about the opening song, “Anymore”. Besides that classic early ’70s rock sound, what really struck me was its lyrics, which seem to touch upon your spirituality, as well as the split from Grand Funk. At this point at your life and career, would it be safe to describe a song like “Anymore” as personally liberating?

MF: Absolutely! I’m glad, I am so glad that I didn’t say that, that you said that, Joe. You get it! You get it, and I hope that the listeners, that the fans who give it a chance, will pick up on that spirituality. We have to set ourselves free. Nobody’s coming with a magic wand. Nobody’s gonna slap us on the forehead, knock us down, and tell us we’re free. We have to set ourselves free. We have to love ourselves enough to set ourselves free, to cut the chains that bind us. There’s anchors hanging all over us, but they have been accumulative in nature, one after the other. This debt consciousness, it slowed us down. As a nation, it has slowed us down.

The major contributors to that debt, as far as the finances, of course, are the families that own the Federal Reserve, the European central banks, and the Bank of England. They manifest the currency we spend out of thin air. There’s nothing to back it up. It used to be you could take it and trade it in, redeemable by the bearer, on demand, for silver or gold, something that’s real, something’s that valuable. We’re not the only countries that these demonic people, and I say that with my heart. I’m not name calling. I’m describing to you what has happened to this country and 189 other countries that these same families issue the currency too because it’s BS. It’s all BS!

They hit the button and it spits out paper. We trade that paper for cars and houses, all kinds of stuff, but the main thing that they have seized control of is our media. All the mainstream is owned by the enemy. Those who are hiding behind the curtain, the Wizards of Oz, those who are back there pulling the strings, don’t have anything good in store for this nation. In order for us to redeem what we did have, and to establish a heart to go forward with, we have to realize what has happened to us, because of that debt consciousness. Every dollar bill, every federal reserve note, is debt. It’s issued off of nothing! This is the biggest scam. You can’t even imagine the enormous size of this scam that’s going on.

Because they issue the currency in all these various countries, they also control the media, which is completely BS, in all of these various countries. People were saying to me, “Mark, man. Who the hell did this COVID thing go worldwide like that?” I went, “Bingo! Hello! You’re starting to wake up. Just keep looking in that same direction because we have to uncover this in the name of love.” It’s in the name of the love that we have for family, for each other. It’s what you’re talking about and what I’m talking about, that family reunion.

The song “Anymore” was on the fly. I had the first verse. I had the music. I had the choruses. Slaughter started singing that second verse, and I’m going, “Oh yeah, man!” I could feel it. I had to hear it to be released from it. That was indebtedness. I was setting myself free when I was singing that song, brother Joe. If we love ourselves enough, we can set ourselves free. That’s what that song is all about. The description, and what you’re feeling as a listener, without knowing the background, you still got it. You were hearing something there. That’s because there is something there.

It’s not something that Slaughter or I were the authors of. We are the embracers of this love. This is God. This is God! God is love, and love is defined as forgiveness. In that song, for me to sing that with Slaughter, we share that song. We are 50/50 co-writers of that song. I am proud to death of that song because I’m not going to allow hatred or retaliation or anything like this to live in my mind. My mind is freed from that shit!

Expanding upon that last question, a few years ago, I asked when was the last time you spoke with Mel Schacher and Don Brewer. You said it was in a courtroom regarding their lawsuit against your “American Band” branding. In the three years that have passed since, have you had any contact with them, and have there been any brazen promoters out there attempting to “get the band back together”?

MF: There has been some conversation, but I’m sorry to say it’s in the same arena. The only way I’m able to talk to those guys is through attorneys and through what’s going on. You mention promoters. There are promoters. I played the Jeep Fest down in Toledo, Ohio. A great brother promoter who’s putting up an amphitheater 10 miles south of Toledo came and said to me, “If you can put those other two guys on the stage with you, I would pay you…” He spit out a big number. A big number! He said, “I have friends who are promoters who would spit that same number at you to have the real, genuine Grand Funk. You guys should come together while you’re still sucking air, the real deal.”

You know this, Joe. There’s only three guys in the world that can play and make that sound that’s on those records. While we’re still sucking air, I have made it clear to them and to interviewers such as yourself who are doing podcasts and talking to the people, that I would do that. I have been trying to put it back together for 24 years to satisfy the fans and give them that original recipe *laughs*. That recipe cannot be duplicated. I don’t care who they put in there. They can put gunslinger guitar players in there who are great players, but they’re not me. They’re not gonna play like me. They’re not gonna get the sound. They’re not gonna sing like me! There’s only one person. I am the only one, brother Joe. I am the only one who is who my songs say I am.

Another thing to take into consideration, and perhaps I’m coming off as selfish here, but I’m 25 years old. There’s a whole generation of us who never got to see it.

MF: Yes! Exactly! Right on! That’s the truth. That is something that needs to be considered, and it’s just not being considered right now. I don’t know for what reason that they won’t accept me coming back and being me. They got some other person pretending to be me! As long as they can use the trademark, they’ll draw music fans in, but those fans, a lot of them don’t know I’m not in that rendition that they’re putting out there. I’ve talked to people who said, “Oh, I saw last year.” Blah blah blah. I said, “No, you didn’t see me.” “Oh yes, I did too! It was advertised as Grand Funk.” “That’s exactly why I can tell you it was not me.” *laughs* I’ve been thinking, I should probably put something so that people know that I am not in the lineup of that presentation that is going out. That incarnation of Grand Funk Railroad is minus the guy who wrote and sang over 90% of that music.

Closer to My Home is riddled with not only catchy songs and thought provoking lyricism, but some truly powerful riffage. Being a metalhead first and foremost, I’m immediately drawn to tracks like “Real” and “Same Game”. For you, Mark Farner, one of the all-time riff masters, what makes a killer guitar riff?

MF: Besides the tuning, because you know for years, I’ve been in 432. The American tuning standard is 440 hz. It was established by Rockefeller in 1953. For what reason? I don’t know. It’s never been publicized why it was switched, but it was switched from 432. Count backwards from 4, 432. It is a frequency, a range, if you’re tuning to 432. It’s only just a little bit lower, but it’s compatible with all things that are natural, like water. We are 90% water, our bodies, so very much compatible to human absorption, like a sponge. You could be a sponge.

440, those songs that we’ve listened to for years, and I’ve loved a lot of music over the years, but they were cut in 440, so they don’t have the same potential as something cut in 432. There are hit songs that have been cut in 432, recorded in 432. Let me just reference one of them, that I’m sure, brother Joe, that you would recognize: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “Ohio”. That was cut in 432. When people hear that song, when it comes on, wherever the source is, everyone’s head turns. Not only is the key, 432, the tuning standard, compatible, but there was a beautiful message to hit the hearts of all Americans about what happened to these innocent kids on Kent State University campus.

Even though nobody was ever held accountable for that, this should be speaking volumes to all Americans who love freedom and who don’t want to be intimidated by those who are imposters, that are posing as the leaders of this country. The leaders are those who are hiding behind the country. The puppets are posing and they are the imposters. A great riff, and in turn, a great song, is one that reaches into you. It pulls something emotional.

Many songs have been put to videos. Those videos, they portray a song like a movie. It’s locked in there. There it is. There’s your definition. A great song is one that doesn’t have a video, except for the one that plays in the imagination of the listeners. A friend of mine at WNEW, New York City, he said, “Farner, we took 100 definitions that people gave us of what “Bridge Over Troubled Water” from Simon & Garfunkel meant. We got 100 diversely different, not even any two that were similar, definitions.” That’s so beautiful! Dude, that’s our God given imagination.

I’m sure you’ve heard somebody that they’ve read this book and then they went to see the movie. They go, “That movie sucked, dude!” *laughs* Their imagination was so much more perceptive to the author’s intention, and they got it. They ran that video in here *point to head*. We need to get back to what’s in here and keep ourselves from that proselytization of what happens when we’re watching a video. If we buy into that, “Oh, that’s it?” That was cool.” Dude, you got it in your heart. You know what that music, that inspiration, what the emotional connection is between a good song.

You named some songs because you’re a metalhead. I love metalheads. Those are intentionally in the vein of metal because it’s where I come from! If you listen to early Funk stuff like E Pluribus Funk, there’s some heavy metal on that. I don’t mind being a grandfather of heavy metal, or the great grandfather of metal *laughs*! Just being associated with it makes me proud because that’s the truth.

We spoke about that last time. I’ve always said that Grand Funk was the mediator between Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. You three were heavier than Zeppelin, but not as doomy as Sabbath. You were that middle ground, right in between.

MF: Thank you!

Which is all the more reason why it’s so incredible to see you still kicking, as a “great grandfather” of metal. You know, someone like me is spoiled. We live in an age where there are hundreds of metal subgenres. You’ve got death metal, thrash metal, black metal, glam metal where Mark Slaughter is, and so forth. But what Grand Funk was doing, that was metal in a pre-metal world.

MF: Yeah man! That’s good. There’s a song, buddy! That’s a song, brother Joe!

As I hinted at earlier, many of the lyrics on this album examine the current state of our union, warts and all, to put it lightly. This has been a recurring theme of your work going back tot he Grand Funk days, especially on songs like “Sin’s a Good Man’s Brother” and “People, Let’s Stop the War”. Do you see any particular parallels between today’s age and that of the late ’60s/early ’70s Vietnam era?

MF: As far as the involvement in foreign wars, yes. A lot of our people, a lot of our brothers and sisters who risk their safety to defend ours. We sit here, you and I, are not being attacked. We’re not having to barricade the doors right now so we can make this conversation. The meaningful songs that were on the air, that actually got airplay because it was moms and pops, it was grandmas and grandpas, up until 1996 when the deregulation of the FCC occurred. That deregulation took the moral conscience out of music, out of television.

When it was the 7-7-7 rule, you could own 7 AM, 7 FM, and 7 television stations. The ownership was in the possession of those people: Our families, moms and pops, grandmas and grandpas, who had moral conscience over what our sons and daughters were hearing and seeing in the media. In ’96, when the deregulation was signed, that was under the Clinton administration. So was the North American Free Trade Agreement, the global agreement on tariffs and trades. Who was it who gave China “most favored nation” trade status, a red communist country, with the United States? The same people.

They defied who they served with those decisions. Even though that was a puppet spitting out the BS, that was the setup for what we’re living in now. I wrote a song in 1977. I had a premonition. The song, “Social Disaster”, goes…

“Something Red is on the way, coming closer day by day
Threatening the life of every man who reigns in freedom in our land
Is there anyone left with spirit here? If you’ve up and gone then I really fear a Social Disaster

Stop and think of years ago, our ancestors who didn’t know
That what they found in the Promise Land, might be taken away from future Americans
Is there anyone who feels the same, is there anyone here who can feel the pain of a Social Disaster.

There’ll come a day when the country is runnin’ Wild
There’ll come a day when Freedom stands on trial
They’ll try and take us over from the inside, but they’re forgettin’ ‘bout “The Peoples Home Pride”
Let our Freedom Ring

Can God help us? Yes He can cause God is living in every man who still believes in what we had
Won’t settle for the US of A gone bad
Vigilantes from the past, born again to STOP at last a Social Disaster.”

That was in 1977. I say “premonition” because you think about how many years ago that is. What is it right now, this red wave, this communism, this horsecrap, and those ushering it in? What’s come across our southern borders and what has changed us fundamentally as a nation? Man, I hope people get it and get out and vote. Overwhelm the polls and vote that crap out of here!

Capping off this album is a commemorative rerecording of the epic “Closer to Home”, which turns 55 next year. Can you talk a bit about the journey that song has led you on in the decades since and your most memorable moments surrounding it?

MF: The rerecord of “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)” that is on this album, Closer to My Home, that song, initially, I prayed for that song. I woke up in the middle of the night. I wrote it, but I wake up in the middle of the night a lot of nights and write things that are not songs. They’re just something coming out of here. Because I keep my mind fresh to what is in there, this is part of my routine. I don’t listen to the radio. I never turn the radio on in my automobile, my truck. The only time I hear it is when I go into pay for something at the gas station and they’re blasting something. Then dude, there it is. *laughs* It’s on that channel! I can’t reach up there and turn that damn thing off! It’s playing for days.

That’s why I try to keep myself to those things. When I wrote that song, I didn’t know it was a song. Like I said, it was just words. It was strange because in the state of being that I was focused on, during the writing of that song, I wasn’t awake. I was not all the way 100% awake knowing and totally cognizant of what was going down on that paper. My consciousness was somewhere between heaven and earth. I loved it dude! I’m telling you, I didn’t even think about what I prayed for. This was just waking up, sitting up on the bed and grabbing my notepad.

I learned to put a pad there because a lot of times, I’d be dreaming of stuff and songs and I’d go, “I’ll remember that in the morning.” Not even one, dude. Not even one time did I ever remember anything *laughs*! So I got that pad, and I still got it there just in case. I’m writing this and I knew better than to go back to the top of the first verse. I didn’t know it was a song at the time, but I knew better than to go back to the top and reread, because for some instinctive notion that I had, if I would’ve done that, or even glanced up there for a moment, I would’ve lost touch with where the words are coming from, where the message is coming from.

The message went down the way I got it. I believe it was the answer to my prayer because I said, “God, will you please give me a song that will reach and touch the hearts of those you want to get to? Those that love wants to get to?”, because God is love. There was no video, so all of these…it’s like the guy at WNEW telling me about “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. I’m getting all of these people telling me about what they think it is! They’re asking me, “Is that about this or such and such?” I never say one way or another. I go, “That’s interesting. That’s great! Thank you for sharing that.”

I don’t want to blow that. I don’t know what it is. That came from God to me! I’m not the interpreter. This record, to rerelease it in 432, has meant so much to Vietnam veterans. That was their #1 song. Guys told me, coming home on the boats, “We played that song over and over and over and over again. There was no other song. We were getting closer to OUR home. We cried when we stepped off the boat.” I’ve had the veterans speaking to me, who love me because I was the messenger of that song, but I always give the glory to God. Love is gonna inherit those of us who give ourselves to love, and who will not serve another master. We inherit that. I am confident of that.

I’ve already been out of this body. I died twice. I know what it’s like on the other side. The second time I died, I had the reason for the purpose of the years here on this planet. I knew what the purpose of these years was on this other side. I didn’t bring it back into this bone suit with me *laughs*. He’s still waiting over there on me! What a beautiful thing, for the veterans, especially Vietnam veterans my age. I spoke to them in this song without knowing. This is a message from God. For them to be saying, and for anybody else who has came and said, “That song meant this to me.”, and they’d say that to me, it means the world.

It didn’t even have to be a veteran, just somebody who picked up on the spirituality of that song and the freedom to say it to me. I want people to tell me. All that does is reiterate and give me a deeper confidence in my purpose here, what I gotta do before I leave. I still got some years ahead of me and I’ve got some new music on this album. I wanna be able to do it and share that love because I serve love. I will not serve another master. I know there’s other masters who would like to have peoples attention and like to be stroked and patted on the back. How successful they are at betraying and leading people astray from the truth: That is so selfish. That is the opposite of love.

I’m exposing those kinds of people as much as I can because I’m in a business with a bunch of those people *laughs*. God bless ’em. A lot of them have been led astray. The words of other people, they bought into it. They believed it. If Jesus would’ve bought into it when his brother was saying, “The kingdoms of this world are mine to give you.”, Jesus said, “Nah, you can go piss up a rope. I’m gonna stay where I’m at.” *laughs*

Looking forward, what can the fans expect from Mark Farner in 2025? I imagine there are many hard rocking shows on the horizon.

MF: Yes sir! My booking agency, TKO, and my manager, Avi Steinman, they are working together feverishly on putting together some shows. We do have some shows that the portable Vietnam monument, the wall, the portable wall, will accompany us. People that haven’t been able to go to D.C. will be able to see it and check it out at some of these shows. I’m very, very proud to be able to present that, along with my rockin’ band, Mark Farner’s American Band. I’ve got some seriously devoted, loving, badass musicians with me, that all sing. We are chomping at the bit. It’s busting out of chute #4 on dynamo! *laughs*

The new Mark Farner album, Closer to My Home, is available now. For more information on Mark Farner, visit www.markfarner.com.