Last night in Little Rock put me in a haze. Sweet, Sweet Connie, doin’ her act.
When Grand Funk Railroad released the song “We’re an American Band” in July 1973, lead singer Don Brewer and his mates had no idea how much of an impact the song would make decades later. The band members also didn’t understand the fame they would bring to a young rock groupie from Little Rock named Connie Hamzy, aka Sweet, Sweet Connie. More than 40 years later, the song is still heard on movies and TV commercials, and Grand Funk is still touring. In fact, the band will stop in Little Rock on Oct. 16 to play the Arkansas State Fair, but members don’t expect a reunion with Hamzy.
“We haven’t seen her in many years,” says Brewer, an original member of the band.
Grand Funk Railroad formed in 1969 in Flint, Michigan, when Brewer and guitarist and vocalist Mark Farner were members of Terry Knight and the Pack. The trio welcomed bassist Mel Schacher from Question Mark & the Mysterians. The four members got their big break at the 1969 Atlanta International Pop Festival. Capitol Records signed Grand Funk, and in August 1969, the band’s first album, On Time, was released. The album achieved gold-record status in 1970.
“We were trying different things with this band and that band, but when we switched to Grand Funk Railroad, everything clicked,” Brewer says. “The hippie movement had taken over, and things just took off.”
By 1971, Grand Funk had three gold albums and sold out New York’s Shea Stadium in 72 hours, while it took the Beatles two weeks.
“We were in our early 20s, so it was mind-boggling,” Brewer says. “When we got into New York the week before, we rented the whole Times Square billboard. It is like an entire block. The Rolling Stones only used a corner of it. We had played all over New York, and then we were this huge band with three gold albums, and it really took off.
“In the 1980s, bands took years to produce records, but we signed a deal to produce two records and go on two tours every year. That is the reason [we were] making gold records and selling out shows so quickly, but that is also why we broke up in 1976.”
Grand Funk produced 13 studio albums, including 11 between 1969 and 1976.
Q: How did Grand Funk come up with the idea for “We’re an American Band”?
A: We were going through a separation from our former manager, and we were in the middle of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. We were broke, and we were having to fight through all of this stuff and keep going. At the same time, the FM radio underground format was changing. You could record a six- or seven-minute song, but now for radio, it was more like three minutes, so it was sink or swim. [Producer] Todd Rundgren helped to make a new sound with Craig Frost on keyboards. I was doing more singing and songwriting. We were flying around and traveling to Phoenix and recording in Nashville, [Tennessee], and this line just came to me:
We’re an American band. We’re comin’ to your town. We’ll help you party it down.
I picked up the guitar and played three or four chords, and came up with the lyrics and melodies. We had Sweet, Sweet Connie in Little Rock and the four chiquitas in Omaha. We had all of that going on and took the song to the band, and there it goes.
Q: What was the incident that prompted the line about Hamzy?
A: A producer introduced us to her and said she had a past with the governor and with Elvis. He said he was going to introduce us to this person named Connie, the infamous Connie from Little Rock. It was just a brief sort of encounter, “Oh, by the way, this is Connie.”
Q: So were there wild and crazy things going on while on the road?
A: All the stories about us are pretty mild. I have heard stories about KISS and Motley Crue doing you name it, and our stories are pretty tame compared to those. We never moved off to New York or LA and got in those scenes. We stayed in Michigan and had families. “We’re an American Band” isn’t necessarily about us, but we can relate. I wrote the song making it sound glamorous, but it really isn’t.
Q: You have to have at least one good story, though, right?
A: About the worst thing we did was, we were in LA at the Beverly Hills Hotel celebrating our gold record. Capitol [Records] brought in this huge cake, three or four tiers. We dove into the cake and had a massive food fight. Capitol said all of the damages were coming out of our royalties. We destroyed some of drapes and carpet. It was all in fun. We were willing to pay for it.
Q: How are your current tours different from the tours in the ’70s?
A: All of us would be dead if we were living the same way we did when we were 19 or 20, but we didn’t really live that party lifestyle when we were kids, and we certainly don’t do it now. We look back now and are glad we didn’t. We have a good time and get onstage and play for three or four generations. It is a great experience.
Q: How long do you plan to keep touring?
A: I told my wife and daughter to tell me if I start making a fool of myself, and I will stop. I haven’t done that yet, so I am going to keep going.