![]() In 1971, Grand Funk Railroad released the album Survival. True rock and roll fans know the real deal the second they hear it, and Grand Funk Railroad rocked their worlds. The records were just packed with ferocious rock and roll melodies, incredible playing and singing and just great songs that people went nuts over. None of the albums had a major top ten hit. The album contained the epic 10 minute closing piece of music, “I’m your Captain/ Closer to Home.” It would become one of Grand Funk Railroad’s most loved pieces of music.įrom 1969 to 1970 Grand Funk Railroad released three albums that all went quickly gold. Closer to the Home was the album that punched you in the face, stared you down and said wake up people! Grand Funk’s arrived. After releasing two great albums in 1969, the magnificent trio of Mark Farner, Mel Schacher and Don Brewer released the phenomenal album Closer to the Home in 1970. The album is often referred to as the red album because of its red cover. Grand Funk Railroad’s second album was also released in 1969 simply entitled Grand Funk. Rock and roll fans went nuts when they first heard this band. Mel Schacher played bass and the incredible Don Brewer was on the drums. Mark Farner played guitar piano and sang his heart out. The album featured just three musicians but they sounded like a rock and roll orchestra. The first single from the On Time album was a track entitled “Time Machine.” The album quickly went gold. The label of The Beatles and so many other great rock and roll bands knew how to market their groups. Grand Funk Railroad was signed to Capitol records. The band broke out into the music scene in 1969 with the album On Time. The band’s official name was Grand Funk Railroad but they were more commonly referred to as just Grand Funk. That band is Grand Funk Railroad and they rocked just as hard as anyone, if not more. It’s so sad that one of rock and roll’s greatest 1970’s bands is hardly ever mentioned anymore. When fans speak about classic rock music they always bring up bands like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull, The Doors etc. That was her goal in life.Photo: Premier Talent Associates-on page 44. My memory of her is of a very outgoing ‘Sweet’ girl that wanted to be famous. Reached for comment, Grand Funk Railroad drummer Don Brewer - who wrote "We're an American Band" - told UCR: "So sorry to hear of Connie’s death. No cause of cause of death was given for Hamzy, who reportedly went into hospice care on Thursday, Aug. She also appeared in an episode of the Dave Attell Comedy Central series Insomniac and the 2011 documentary Let's Spend The Night Together: Confessions of Rock's Greatest Groupies. In 1995, Hamzy released the book Rock Groupie: The Intimate Adventures of "Sweet Connie" from Little Rock. “Well, a plate of good potatoes,” she responded. When Stern asked Hamzy about being passed between rockers “like you’re a plate of potatoes,” the groupie shrugged it off. They put the plane on autopilot.” She also claimed to have bedded almost all of the members of Van Halen, describing drummer Alex Van Halen as a “very warm and affectionate” lover. Among them, a plane flight with the Eagles in which she performed oral sex on “ Don Henley and the pilot. In a 2010 interview with Howard Stern, Hamzy - who openly admitted she was always “determined to become a famous groupie” - detailed some of her most famous exploits. Listen to Cheap Trick's 'Standing on the Edge' The band was allegedly inspired by the groupie when writing the following lyric to their 1985 song “Standing on the Edge”: “Connie likes candy, every bite / All day sucker, Connie might / Swallow that thing 'cause she does it right.” Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss, the Who's Keith Moon, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, Huey Lewis, Frank Zappa, Rush's Geddy Lee, Peter Frampton, Eddie Money, Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond and all three members of ZZ Top were all among the rockers Sweet Connie claimed to have had relations with.Īlso on her list, Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick. Though Grand Funk Railroad may have given Hamzy her biggest spotlight, they were far from her most notable rock conquest. And you know that dark headed girl we see backstage a lot? Listen to the first few lyrics.” “It's the new release from Grand Funk Railroad. “Folks, you're not going to believe what we just got into the studio,” she recalled the announcer saying. “I was on the beach tanning and they were on floats swimming and I had my transistor radio on.”Īs the radio DJ began to speak, Hamzy’s ears perked up. “Right after I graduated high school, me and some gals were laying out by lake number one in North Little Rock in Lakewood,” Hamzy recalled. A few months later, she happened to hear the song on the radio. The band’s manager had reportedly alerted Hamzy of the line, but she initially didn’t believe it.
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