Mark Farner

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

American musician (born 1948)

title: "Mark Farner" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1948-births", "living-people", "american-tenors", "american-people-of-cherokee-descent", "american-performers-of-christian-music", "american-rock-guitarists", "american-male-guitarists", "american-rock-singers", "american-male-singer-songwriters", "american-rock-songwriters", "grand-funk-railroad-members", "american-lead-guitarists", "musicians-from-flint,-michigan", "singer-songwriters-from-michigan", "guitarists-from-michigan", "20th-century-american-guitarists", "terry-knight-and-the-pack-members", "20th-century-american-male-musicians", "ringo-starr-&-his-all-starr-band-members"] description: "American musician (born 1948)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Farner" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American musician (born 1948) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
name	Mark Farner
image	Mark Farner (2009).jpg
caption	Farner performing in 2009
birth_name	Mark Fredrick Farner
birth_date
birth_place	Flint, Michigan, U.S.
instrument
genre
occupation	Musician
years_active	1965–present
current_member_of	Mark Farner's American Band
past_member_of
website
::

Mark Fredrick Farner (born September 29, 1948) is an American musician. He was the original singer and guitarist of the rock band Grand Funk Railroad, which he co-founded in 1969, and later as a contemporary Christian musician.

Early life and career

Farner began his career in music by playing in Terry Knight and The Pack (1965–1966), The Bossmen (1966–1967), Craig Frost (keyboards) joined the band in 1972. Farner is of Cherokee descent on his maternal side.

With Grand Funk Railroad

Main article: Grand Funk Railroad

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Mark_Farner_1971.jpg" caption="Farner in 1971"] ::

Farner was the guitarist and lead singer for Grand Funk Railroad as well as the songwriter for most of their material. His best-known composition is the 1970 epic "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)". He also wrote the 1975 hit "Bad Time", the last of the band's four singles to make the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.{{cite book | first= Joel | last= Whitburn | year= 2003 | title= Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 | page= 288 | publisher= Record Research, Inc | location= Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin | isbn= 0-89820-155-1 | url-access= registration | url= https://archive.org/details/joelwhitburnstop00whitbur/page/288

Post-Grand Funk Railroad

After Grand Funk initially disbanded in 1976, Farner released his self-titled debut solo album in 1977, and his second, No Frills, in 1978 (both Atlantic Records). In 1981, Farner and Don Brewer launched a new Grand Funk line-up with bassist Dennis Bellinger and recorded two albums, Grand Funk Lives and What's Funk? Farner went solo again with 1988's Just Another Injustice on Frontline Records. His third Frontline release was 1991's Some Kind of Wonderful, which featured a revamped Jesus version of the Grand Funk classic of the same name. Farner became a born again Christian in the late 1980s and enjoyed success with the John Beland composition "Isn't it Amazing", which earned him a Dove Award nomination and reached No. 2 on the Contemporary Christian music charts.

In the 1990s, Farner formed Lismark Communications with former Freedom Reader editor Steve Lisuk. Soon after, Farner began reissuing his solo albums on his own record label, LisMark Records.

From 1994 to 1995, Farner toured with Ringo Starr's Allstars, which also featured Randy Bachman, John Entwistle, Felix Cavaliere, Billy Preston, and Starr's son, Zak Starkey.

In the late 1990s, Farner reunited with Grand Funk, but left after three years after disagreements with Brewer and resumed his solo career. He currently tours with his band, Mark Farner's American Band, which plays a mixture of Grand Funk songs and Farner's solo offerings.

Farner had a pacemaker installed October 22, 2012, having struggled with heart troubles for the previous eight years.

Farner was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2015. He had previously been inducted as a member of both Grand Funk Railroad and Terry Knight & The Pack.

Other interests

Farner was honored with the Lakota Sioux Elders Honor Mark in 1999. During the concert in Hankinson, North Dakota, a special presentation was held honoring Mark's Native ancestry and his contributions. Members of the Lakota Nation presented him with a hand-made ceremonial quilt. He has also been honored with the Cherokee Medal of Honor by the Cherokee Honor Society.

An authorized biography of Farner, entitled From Grand Funk to Grace, was published in 2001.

In popular culture

Mark Farner is mentioned by Homer Simpson in The Simpsons episode, "Homerpalooza", in season 7, episode 24 of the series. As Homer drives his children and their friends to school, Grand Funk is on the car radio. The children do not like it and ask him to change the station when he responds, "you kids don't know Grand Funk? The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner. The bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher. The competent drum work of Don Brewer?"

Mark Farner was mentioned in episode 9 of season 8 of the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm in September 2011.

Discography

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Mark_farner.JPG" caption="Farner performing in 2011"] ::

Studio albums

Mark Farner, 1977
No Frills, 1978
Just Another Injustice, 1988
Wake Up..., 1989
Some Kind of Wonderful, 1991
For the People, 2006
Closer to My Home, 2024

with Grand Funk Railroad

Main article: Grand Funk Railroad discography

On Time (1969)
Grand Funk (1969)
Closer to Home (1970)
Live Album (1970)
Survival (1971)
E Pluribus Funk (1971)
Phoenix (1972)
We're an American Band (1973)
Shinin' On (1974)
All the Girls in the World Beware!!! (1974)
Caught in the Act (1975)
Born to Die (1976)
Good Singin', Good Playin' (1976)
Grand Funk Lives (1981)
What's Funk? (1983)
Bosnia (1997)

Other releases

Closer to Home, 1992 (best-of)
Heirlooms: The Complete Atlantic Sessions, 2000 (re-release of Farner's two first studio albums)
Red White and Blue Forever, 2002 (mini-album)
Live!! N'rG, 2003
Mark Farner the Rock Patriot, March 9, 2003, Live Extended Versions

References

Johnson, Gary. (June 4, 2015). "Mark Farner – Michigan Rock and Roll Legends".
Jeff Piechowski. (2024-01-07). "Flint native Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad is still bringing the funk". Flintside.
Smith, Noel Lyn. "Grand Funk's frontman to rock Jackson arena". navajotimes.com.
(March 7, 1999). "Grand Funk Railroad". [[VH1]] [[Behind the Music]].
(1977). "Mark Farner – Mark Farner".
"Mark Farner Band – No Frills (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs".
(1988). "Mark Farner – Just Another Injustice".
(2003). "Mark Farner – Mark Farner's N'rG Band Live!".
(June 14, 2013). "'Funk' frontman headlines special concert". Branson Tri-Lakes News.
"Oldies Music News".
Johnson, Gary. "Michigan Rock and Roll Legends – MARK FARNER".
(August 28, 1999). "Lakota Sioux Elders Honor Mark, Ceremonial Quilt Presented". Mark Farners Official Website.
Engelhardt, Kristofer. (2001). "From Grand Funk to Grace: Authorized Biography of Mark Farner". Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc..
"The Simpsons 3F21 Episode Script – SS". Springfield! Springfield!.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm s08e09 Episode Script – SS". Springfield! Springfield!.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::