After They Were Stars- Who Am I?

Yeah...I know..it's usually BEFORE they were stars...But this works too!

This guy and his band were eaten alive by the critics...Nobody liked them except the record buying public and they sold albums by  the millions!  Our "After  They Were Stars" guy today played guitar and sang ...Who is he?

Well, does the "Now" picture help?

That's him in the middle holding the cigars..It's Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad.

Mark Farner was a member of the  back-up band for a Michigan Disc Jockey named Terry Knight. They had a minor hit called "I Who Have Nothing"

Wanna Hear it?

So...a few years later the back-up band becomes the star of the show and Terry Knight becomes their agent and producer..and the rest is...well, you know.

So Grand Funk ( they dropped the "Railroad" in 1973) goes on to have some fairly minor hits as far as the Charts are concerned. Their highest ranked record was "Closer to Home" which peaked at #22...Of course, their LPs sold in the millions.

Flash forward to 1973. They are now rid of Terry Knight as their producer and are free to team up with producer/singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/ Wizard/True Star/  Todd Rundgren and faster than you can mispronounce "Rundgren" they hit  #1 with "We're an American Band" followed by 4 other Top 10 hits including another #1 with a remake of Little Eva's "Loco-Motion".

Like most bands they eventually went their own ways. Shortly before the split, the band released an album called "Good Singin', Good PLayin'" produced by none other than Frank Zappa.

Farner is a solo artist and records a variety of music..mostly reflecting his very deep Christian beliefs.

Don Brewer and Mel Schacher still tour as Grand Funk. The split with Farner was NOT friendly..Seems they tried to reunited but old issues got in the way.

Terry Knight ? Well, on November 1, 2004 Terry Knight was murdered at the age of 61. Knight was stabbed multiple times in a fight with his daughter's boyfriend — against whom Knight was trying to protect — in their shared apartment in Temple, Texas. On November 26, 2005, his killer, Donald A. Fair, was sentenced to life in prison. Four years after his death, Terry Knight and The Pack were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame.