UPDATE: Consignor notes that these Grand Funk Railroad autographs were obtained backstage at the Portland Coliseum in Oregon on June 22nd 1974 by an employee of Music Millennium, a local record store. It’s important to note that these signatures are from when the original band was still together and in their prime and not after they broke up and Mark Farner was no longer a band member.
Closer to Home album by Grand Funk Railroad, signed boldly with excellent autograph placement inside the inner gatefold in blue felt tip by Mark Farner, Don Brewer, and Mel Schacher. This signed album looks spectacular; one of the nicest Grand Funk Railroad items we have ever offered. In fine condition. The record is included. Accompanied by a full letter of authenticity from REAL.
People forget just how big these Flint, Michigan rockers were. On October 18, 1969, Grand Funk were booked as an opening act for Led Zeppelin at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium. The audience’s reaction to them was so intense that Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin’s manager, pulled the plug on the group in the middle of 'Inside Looking Out.' Grant, a burley 6’ 4” ex-wrestler, was in a furious rage and grabbed Terry Knight, Grand Funk’s manager, by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Grant roared 'You take your band off the stage immediately! A shaken Knight proceeded to go onstage and stop the band, exclaiming to the audience, 'Led Zeppelin are afraid to follow Grand Funk.' It was a first for Led Zeppelin, a band accustomed to upstaging the headliners and who weren’t too pleased by being upstaged by a then unknown American band.
On June 14, 1970, Grand Funk Railroad unveiled what was billed as 'The World’s Largest Billboard,' a block-long billboard in the heart of New York City in Times Square to promote their latest record Closer to Home—this offered signed album—at a cost of $100,000, an unheard price at the time.
By 1971 Grand Funk got to be so big, and demand for their concert tickets was so strong, that they were booked to perform with Humble Pie as their opening act at New York’s Shea Stadium on July 9, 1971. The only band to ever play the 55,000 seat Shea Stadium previously was The Beatles in 1965 and 1966. Tickets went on sale for the Grand Funk concerts on June 5th and were sold out within 72 hours, breaking the box office record held by The Beatles. Again, that’s how big grand Funk Railroad were.
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