<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us first clarify who Craig Frost isn\u2019t.\u00a0 He is not related to Jack Frost.\u00a0 He also wasn\u2019t a member of the Michigan band The Frost or the Swiss metal band from Zurich called Celtic Frost.\u00a0 At one juncture of his career, Craig Frost was a journeyman keyboard player on the Flint, Michigan bar band circuit.\u00a0 Though Flint was seen as the poorer musical cousin to Motown, it did produce its share of great musicians, just not the number of nationally known bands as Detroit.\u00a0 If one counts the Tri-City area that includes Bay City and Saginaw, the three most recognized names from the Thumb area of the lower Michigan Mitten are ? and the Mysterians, Terry Knight and the Pack, and Grand Funk Railroad.\u00a0 Frost was a member of two out of these three bands and may have ended up making the biggest mistake of his life when he quit one of them.\u00a0 Just for the record, Craig also was part of a band called Flint, but we will get back to that in a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Craig Frost was born in Flint on April 20, 1948.\u00a0 His career as a musician began in 1960 and the lack of name recognition made him a perfect candidate for <\/span>Rolling Stone <\/span><\/i>senior writer Andy Green.\u00a0 In his ongoing series <\/span>Unknown Legends, <\/span><\/i>Green talked to Frost for a May 2023 feature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In their discussion, Frost described how he began his early music career in Flint as a drummer, not a keyboard player.\u00a0 Growing up as a fan of surf-rock music, Craig told Green he was infatuated by groups like The Beach Boys, the Ventures, and Dick Dale and the Deltones.\u00a0 When he was in sixth grade, \u201cMy parents took me to see Johnny Cash.\u00a0 I was in awe watching something like that.\u00a0 I loved watching his band play.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a drummer in his high school band, The Outcasts, he got to meet other musicians from local bands.\u00a0 In 1968, the 17 year old Frost met a great singer who was playing bass at the time, Mark Farner.\u00a0 Fellow drummer Don Brewer was gigging with a band called The Jazzmasters. \u201cWe were all in the same area in different bands,\u201d Frost told <\/span>Rolling Stone, <\/span><\/i>\u201cbut we knew about each other.\u00a0 When you were a local musician, if you\u2019re any good at all, you\u2019d start meeting friends.\u201d\u00a0 Beyond Frost\u2019s experiences playing with local bands, he joined the thousands of fans who would make the pilgrimage south to Detroit\u2019s famous venues like The Grande Ballroom to see the big acts of the day.\u00a0 Acts like The Stooges, MC5, and the Bob Seger System were all major concert draws with Michigan roots.\u00a0 Segar, Frost said, \u2018He had that voice.\u00a0 You thought shrapnel was going to come out of it.\u00a0 I remember seeing him and just thinking, \u2018Holy crap, what a singer!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Craig\u2019s grandmother also played a part in his transition from drummer to keyboard player.\u00a0 \u00a0 When she bought a new spinet piano, she had her old upright delivered to Frost\u2019s home.\u00a0 About the same time, he had picked up a small M3 organ and was learning to play the keys using sheet music from Grinnell Brothers Music House.\u00a0 \u201cEverybody was a drummer back then,\u201d he says, \u201cNobody played keyboards.\u00a0 And so I got my pick of all the little bands playing in the Flint area.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I found this interesting because I got my first band audition because the Marquette area band Sweat Equity\u2019s drummer had \u2018lost his drums\u2019 (and no, I never found out why).\u00a0 He was their lead singer so he was going to continue as their new keyboard player, thus the search for a new drummer.\u00a0 I have shared previously that I did not get the gig but I did learn how to play the tom beat to <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> courtesy of guitar player \/ band leader Ron Phillips.\u00a0 If you are wondering why the guitar player and not the drummer showed me how to play this lick, join the club.\u00a0 I have been wondering the same thing for the last 57 years.\u00a0 My other take away was a renewed interest in playing keys.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had begun my musical lessons as a lazy piano player and abandoned that track completely when my hidden drum gene kicked in.\u00a0 Four years after getting my Ludwig drum kit,\u00a0 I was between bands entering college so I picked up a small organ and amp.\u00a0 Like Frost had begun learning his way around via sheet music, my long lost keyboard chops emerged out of music books like <\/span>All Things Must Pass <\/span><\/i>(by George Harrison) and <\/span>The Best of the Guess Who<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I never actually played keyboards in a band, but it was always fun to see the look on a new band member’s face when the drummer (me) would hop up and show them a riff or chord progression to a song during rehearsals.\u00a0 I dabbled in keyboards and guitar, but drums remained my main mission.\u00a0 In fact, relearning piano music helped my guitar playing and vice-versa.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In his <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i> piece, Green mentioned the episode of <\/span>The Simpsons<\/span><\/i> where Homer schools his children about Grand Funk Railroad.\u00a0 When he tells the kids about the band after hearing <\/span>Shinin\u2019 On<\/span><\/i> on the car radio, he says., \u201cNobody knows the band Grand Funk?\u00a0 The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner?\u00a0 The bong rattling bass of Mel Schacher?\u00a0 The competent drum work of Don Brewer?\u201d\u00a0 Green points out that by the time GFR had recorded the album <\/span>Shinin\u2019 On<\/span><\/i>, Craig Frost was a full time member of the band.\u00a0 This is a forgivable omission for Homer\u00a0 because Grand Funk first came to the rock world\u2019s attention as a trio.\u00a0 Guitarist Farner was a more than competent keyboard player in his own right on songs like <\/span>Rock n Roll Soul <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Mean Mistreater.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 It turns out that when Frost joined the band, it wasn\u2019t his first go around with Farner and Don Brewer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1965, Farner and Brewer found themselves together in a band called Terry Knight and the Pack.\u00a0 Knight had been a DJ and decided to move over into the performing side of the biz.\u00a0 He scored only one hit with that unit (<\/span>I Who Have Nothing<\/span><\/i>) before striking out on his own to try and land work with The Beatles new Apple Records label.\u00a0 This left Farner in charge of the band who began playing out as The Fabulous Pack (with little help from their manager).\u00a0 Frost joined that Pack in 1968 and at the time, Farner was beginning to write some songs that would become Grand Funk tunes.\u00a0 Stranded in Cape Cod in a winter storm, the band became disillusioned and ended up straggling back to Michigan.\u00a0 Frost and the bass player left and the band dissolved.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Looking back, Craig remembers thinking, \u201cOh man, I wish I would\u2019ve stuck around,\u201d when Grand Funk started making some waves.\u00a0 Mark and Don had contacted Knight for advice and he told them to find a bass player (Mel Schacher from ? and the Mysterians entered the picture at this point) and turn up the volume.\u00a0 Power trios were the big thing then so they weren\u2019t really looking for a keyboard player then.\u00a0 He also told them to put some energy in their stage act and not to just stand there while playing.\u00a0 Once Knight got them on the bill for the massive 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival (where they played for free), Capitol Records noticed.\u00a0 The label signed them and a sort of GFR-mania broke out.\u00a0 Frost spent this period back in Flint playing in bar bands.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After their early success (fans loved them, some critics, like the hip guys at <\/span>Rolling Stone,<\/span><\/i> hated them), they had a falling out with Knight in 1972.\u00a0 Foolishly, GFR broke their contract with him.\u00a0 They won the ensuing lawsuit but it cost them dearly to get out of the contract.\u00a0 They basically had to start from scratch while Knight collected a massive payday.\u00a0 Had they waited a few months, the contract would have ended and they would have been free to do as they wished, but musicians are not lawyers.\u00a0 Farner admits they made a big mistake.\u00a0 Knight would retire from the music business but sadly, he was murdered in 2004 when his daughter\u2019s drug addled boyfriend stabbed Terry to death during an altercation about the boyfriend\u2019s drug use.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grand Funk went on to sell a lot of records, log a lot of radio airplay, and to sell out Shea Stadium in 72 hours – no online ticket sales – just sales from the stadium box office window. Asked if he was jealous of his former bandmates success, Craig told Greene, \u201cI was proud of them,\u00a0 I was also still in contact with Farner and Brewer.\u00a0 But I was very happy for them.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t one of these, \u2018I don\u2019t like you guys anymore, you guys made it.\u2019\u00a0 I was proud of them.\u00a0 Brewer came into a club that I was playing with a band,\u00a0 He was sitting there watching me.\u00a0 At the end of the night, he goes, \u2018Craig, why don\u2019t you come and practice with us and just see what happens?\u201d\u00a0 And so I did.“<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frost considered this an audition even though he knew all the other guys.\u00a0 After he joined as a permanent member, his first gig with them was in Seattle:\u00a0 \u201cI remember my right hand cramped up.\u00a0 I think two fingers were working so I pretty much sucked that night.\u00a0 It got better later, but my hands would cramp up in the first few shows because I went from playing in a club to playing in front of 15,000 people.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a jump.\u201d\u00a0 Not only did Frost get a second chance with the band, he was also given credit for fleshing out their sound.\u00a0 He used his organ and clavinet much the same way a rhythm guitarist would fill out the sound and even the critics noticed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During his time with GRF, Frost said he had the opportunity to work with a couple of what he called \u2018little geniuses\u2019.\u00a0 The first was Todd Rundgren who produced the <\/span>American Band<\/span><\/i> album in 1973.\u00a0 Brewer wrote the lyrics (and yes, Craig says he knows all the characters name checked in the song are real people because he met them all on tour) but Frost credits Rundgren for getting the right sounds out of the instruments to make it a hit:\u00a0 \u201cWe knew it was good, the intro, everything.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of energy in that song.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know it was going to be as big a hit as it was, but I knew it had something.\u201d\u00a0 The Little Eva song <\/span>Locomotion<\/span><\/i> ended up on the record because Farner came in singing it one day.\u00a0 They started jamming to it, Rundgen started twisting dials on Frost\u2019s Mini-Moog synth and suddenly, they had another hit record to release.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were a couple of things Grand Funk did to help them stay on top for a long time.\u00a0 They avoided hard drugs (preferring to smoke a little weed), but they never performed high.\u00a0 When asked how often they played high, Frost replied, \u201cAbsolutely never!\u00a0 It took 100 percent to play.\u00a0 It took all your concentration to do what you were doing on stage.\u201d They also practiced like the band was a job.\u00a0 The <\/span>American Band<\/span><\/i> album only took three days to record because they had already rehearsed the arrangements and had them down before entering the studio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second \u2018genius\u2019 Craig cited was Frank Zappa.\u00a0 Frost doesn\u2019t remember exactly why an eclectic musician like Zappa wanted to work with GFR, but he does recall he had a great sense of humor and was easy to work with.\u00a0 After <\/span>Good Siingin\u2019, Good Playin\u2019 <\/span><\/i>came out in 1976, the band broke up.\u00a0 Farner claims Brewer quit but Craig paints a different picture:\u00a0 \u201cMost of us wanted to keep playing but Mark wanted to go out on his own.\u00a0 He had political things he wanted to say.\u00a0 It really wasn\u2019t the Grand Funk thing to be political.\u00a0 That was the end of the band.\u201d\u00a0 Zappa had invited Brewer and Frost to tour with his band in Europe but they declined.\u00a0 Craig said they were glad to have been asked, but Zappa\u2019s band was always populated by such top notch musicians, he could not see how he would fit in.\u00a0 Instead, the three of them (including Mel) returned to Flint and continued to jam.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Their project without Farner produced one album, <\/span>Flint<\/span><\/i> in 1978 that included tracks featuring guitar contributions by Frank Zappa and Todd Rundgren and sax by Wet Willie\u2019s Jimmy Hall.\u00a0 The album didn\u2019t sell enough copies. CBS was in a financial crunch and had to reduce their output by 30 percent.\u00a0 This left the second Flint album (1979\u2019s <\/span>Layin\u2019 It On the Line<\/span><\/i>) unreleased.\u00a0 Reviews of their live shows were promising but the lack of label support doomed the band before it could build a following of its own (and of course, there were the inevitable comparisons to GFR).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the wake of Flint, Frost kicked around for a couple of years until Bob Seger\u2019s office called about an audition.\u00a0 Craig was the first one they had in and to his horror, he discovered all of the arrangements he learned were in a different key than they were played at the audition. Seger told his manager to get the other keyboard players the right keys, but that didn\u2019t help Frost much.\u00a0 He recalled, \u201cI played the best I could.\u00a0 I thought I gelled pretty well with them and they wanted me to come back.\u00a0 They had me play the organ this time (the first audition was done on piano) and in the end he goes, \u2018Craig, you\u2019ve got the job.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first Seger album Frost worked on was <\/span>The Distance<\/span><\/i> produced by Jimmy Iovine.\u00a0 Iovine clearly preferred to use session guys on the recordings and Craig wasn\u2019t sure the producer wanted \u2018the keyboard player from Bob\u2019s band\u2019.\u00a0 Greene noted that Frost had played the organ part on <\/span>Roll Me Away<\/span><\/i> and that Roy Bittan played piano on the track.\u00a0 Frost told <\/span>Rolling Stone, <\/span><\/i>\u201cOh, what a monster [Bittan] is.\u00a0 I worked with some really good keyboard players [on Seger\u2019s albums] and Roy Bittan is just\u2026oh my God, what a great player he is.\u00a0 And I worked with Billy Payne, too.\u00a0 What fantastic players these guys are, just amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bob Seger was a bit of a perfectionist and he was not afraid to tell his players exactly what he wanted:\u00a0 \u201cI see what you are trying to do Craig, but don\u2019t do that.\u201d\u00a0 Frost laughed at the thought and said, \u201cI would say, \u2018Okay Bob, what do you want to hear?\u2019\u00a0 He always knew what he wanted when he went into the studio.\u201d\u00a0 Seger was also particular about who he took on tour. \u00a0 Guitarist Drew Abbott and drummer Dave Teegarden were there when Craig started with the band:\u00a0 \u201cThese were good guys.\u00a0 But in 1983, we went out with other people.\u00a0 It was up to Bob.\u00a0 When it came down to it, it was like, \u2018Bob’s the boss.\u00a0 This is what Bob wants.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the <\/span>Like a Rock <\/span><\/i>tour, Seger stepped back from the road for ten years.\u00a0 When he came back with <\/span>It\u2019s a Mystery <\/span><\/i>in 1995, Frost was having a bout with anxiety and a thyroid problem.\u00a0 When Grand Funk had a short-lived reunion, Craig told Seger, \u201cI am in your band as long as you want me.\u201d\u00a0 True to his word, he was there performing with The Silver Bullet Band when Seger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.\u00a0 When Seger wanted to replace Teegarden in 1983, Frost recommended Don Brewer and he did indeed do a couple of tours with Bob.\u00a0 Craig has also guested with Grand Funk when their paths cross.\u00a0 Nobody in Frost\u2019s world burns their bridges.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Greene wrapped up his interview by asking Frost if he still played keyboards for fun:\u00a0 \u201cOh yeah, I mean, I am lucky I am not a bass player or something.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a grand piano in my living room that I torture the cats with, but I haven\u2019t turned on all my electronic stuff in my music room.\u00a0 That\u00a0 was for Seger stuff, or if Grand Funk were to call.\u201d\u00a0 Frost says Seger seems to be \u2018pretty retired\u2019 and there is a \u2018serious wedge\u2019 between Brewer and Farner which will probably prevent any reunion of the classic GFR lineup.\u00a0 At least Craig can keep playing for his cats.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 The full band intros from Seger’s last tour – and as he said, Craig Frost was still there . . .<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us first clarify who Craig Frost isn\u2019t.\u00a0 He is not related to Jack Frost.\u00a0 He also wasn\u2019t a member of the Michigan band The Frost or the Swiss metal band from Zurich called Celtic Frost.\u00a0 At one juncture of his career, Craig Frost was a journeyman keyboard player on the Flint, Michigan bar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3254,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3250\/revisions\/3254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}