Mark Farner eager to Play Flint

By Marc Jacobson
FLINT (WJRT) -- (08/14/09) -- Flint native Mark Farner is back where it all began. Saturday night, he'll play his first hometown concert since the mid 1990's.
"We're going to rock this place. This is going to be the best concert of my life, I'm telling you right now," Farner predicted.
That's a pretty bold statement for a guy who's played for a single crowd of 185,000 with Grand Funk Railroad. But to Farner, that can't compare to playing Atwood Stadium on Saturday for the first time.
"This is a dream come true. I've always wanted to play Atwood Stadium, and I told the guys back in the day we need to go back to Flint and Grand Funk needs to play Atwood Stadium, but it just never happened."
Grand Funk did play at the old IMA Sports Arena back in 1981. It was a show that will live on in infamy. "I was doing this....and didn't see the monitor and fell right on my ass, but I popped back up and made like it was part of the show."
Farner grew up only a few blocks away from Atwood, and still has family in Flint. Just taking a stroll through the neighborhood gives him chills. "My sister, Diane, and I used to go down to the armory here in Flint and dance, and we won a few contests. This is bringing back memories to me."
Over the last couple of days, he's had a chance to take in Back to the Bricks and catch up with fans both old and new.
"They say 'my mom and dad turned me on to you guys,' and they're really into my music. I think that's part of going full circle and coming back to my roots, just like Back to the Bricks," Farner said.
Saturday's concert is part of a ten-band music festival -- the first-ever Flint Revival Celebration.
"I'd like to see it succeed, and I'd like to see this as a yearly thing. I'd like to have it as something that I do every year," Farner told ABC12's Marc Jacobson.
Farner says this Saturday's concert will feature a collection of Grand Funk classics picked by Farmer's fans on his Web site. "We're doing "Some kind of Wonderful," "Locomotion," and all of the hits. But we're also doing some of the stuff they gotta hear."


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http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=6965281