Our guest today is one of those musicians whose career seems to intersect with just about every corner of American rock, soul and R&B.
Long before most of the world knew him as Max Carl, Max Gronenthal was part of the fertile Midwest music scene of the late '60s and early '70s—including a stint right here in Lawrence with the Fabulous Flippers.
Then came a connection especially important to this show. In the early 1970s, Max joined the remarkable Tommy Bolinin the band Energy, where he played keyboards and sang alongside a bass player our listeners may have heard of before—Stanley Sheldon. That put Max and Stan together at ground zero with one of the most gifted and adventurous guitarists of his generation.
But that was only the beginning.
Max went on to become one of rock's great blue-eyed soul voices, singing and playing on recordings with an extraordinary list of artists including Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Dusty Springfield, Bette Midler, Rod Stewart and Kenny Loggins. His songs have been recorded by artists ranging from Joe Cocker and Aaron Neville to Huey Lewis and Tower of Power.
He co-founded the acclaimed R&B band Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, and then joined .38 Special, where he co-wrote and sang one of the band's biggest hits—and certainly one of its most distinctive—"Second Chance."
And if all of that weren't enough, Max spent more than a quarter century fronting Grand Funk Railroad, carrying the music of one of America's quintessential rock bands to audiences around the country before retiring from touring earlier this year.
Somewhere along that remarkable road, Max even shared the stage with the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown—and that's a story we're definitely going to ask him about.
So today we've got Tommy Bolin, .38 Special, Grand Funk, James Brown, decades of great records—and, most importantly for us, a couple of old bandmates with plenty of history to talk about.
Max Carl, welcome to Stan and the Fan.
