All of the songs had to be three minutes long and they had to have commercial value and they had to have a hook and so forth and so on. It was sink or swim time.Īt the same time radio was changing from being FM underground to now a new hit format.
Don BrewerĭON BREWER: We were going through a major lawsuit with our former manager, Terry Knight, and he was suing every town we were playing in, disputing the fact that we owned the name Grand Funk Railroad. The real story from the source, Don Brewer, is here, in his own words. Then, with great intensity, he declared, “ We’re an American band!” And went off and wrote the song. Don Brewer stood up, as the story goes, and started yelling out the names of the great American rock stars, such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Fats Domino. After a show, the bands were drinking in a bar when an argument grew heated about which was best, American or British rock & roll. According to one oft-repeated account, the song emerged when Grand Funk and the British band Humble Pie were on tour together in 1973. The story behind the song has been the subject of some dispute, which we’re happy to straighten out. Rocking, anthemic and rooted in American pride, it’s become a rock standard, recorded and performed by a remarkably vast range of artists, including Rob Zombie, Garth Brooks, Poison, Phish, Kid Rock, Village People, Rascal Flatts and many more. Produced by Todd Rundgren, it was the band’s first number one single. Written and sung by Don Brewer, drummer of Grand Funk Railroad, it came out in 1973 on the album of the same name.
It’s one of the most iconic songs in rock & roll history. Songwriter-Drummer Don Brewer on the Origins of a Rock Anthem
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