Grand Funk Railroad We're An American Band

At the time drummer Don Brewer wrote it, he thought it was "just another song". But as well as becoming a huge hit, the song also led to Grand Funk's disintegration.

- Andrew Daly

Grand Funk hadn't had much success heading into 1973. Well, that's not an entirely fair comment, because 1970's Closer To Home album sold well enough for the band to be playing - and packing out - venues like New York's Madison Square Garden and Shea Stadium.

So really, Grand Funk had experienced success, but it wasn’t the type of world-straddling success the Flint, Michigan, trio sought. Proof of that was that they were in debt, primarily because of their manager/producer Terry Knight. Singer/drummer Don Brewer shakes his head, telling Classic Rock: “We were being sued by Terry, and we knew that radio had changed.”

Grand Funk had logged a minor hit with Rock & Roll Soul, which peaked at No.29 on the Billboard Hot 100 – but it wasn’t enough. “We needed a hit,” Brewer says. “You couldn’t come in and make seven-minute songs, so we knew we needed to write a three-minute song that would get radio play.”

The initial ruminations on what would become 1973’s We’re An American Band, which stormed radio airwaves and turntables alike, were roadblocked by Terry Knight’s vendetta against Grand Funk. “He’d taken all our money, and we were broke,” Brewer says.

Grand Funk’s only option was to tour. And it was during those shows that Brewer came up with We’re An American Band’s iconic line: ‘We’re coming to your town, we’ll help you party it down.’ Looking back on it, Brewer says: “That was the thought I had in my mind. I put all these snippets of things going on from the road, all these stories, grabbed my guitar, and added the chord changes, which was the start.”