How Janis Joplin Took Revenge On The Rolling Stones

Mark Farner, a co-founder of Grand Funk Railroad, expressed his distaste for the British Invasion of the 1960s and said that Janis Joplin shared his sentiments to the point that she took action.

In a recent interview with Rock History Music, Farner stated that his primary complaint with transatlantic bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones was that all of their songs were sung in American English. His late buddy Joplin concurred with him.

He said, “We spoke of this, and she was smearing chocolate all over the seats of a helicopter that the Rolling Stones were going to use next. We would sit and have this conversation. [She’d say,] ‘British invasion, my ass. Those guys sing in American English because we are the only ones free. Those guys are born subject to the crown; those guys are born assholes!’ And I’m going, ‘Yeah, baby, talk to me!’”

Farner remembered her smearing, “chocolate all over these plush seats on this helicopter that’s been done up like a motorhome inside. And that’s back when Mick [Jagger] wore those white satin pants! And it was Florida – hotter than the sheriff’s pistol … That melted chocolate, there’s no way they could have avoided sitting in it. Unless they put something down and sat on that.”

He claimed that the British factions that puzzled him were proof that, “when you imitate someone that is the sincerest form of flattery.” But he argued that flattery could become a form of self-deceit. “Not from the one who’s flattering you – certainly that’s not their intention, It’s when you buy it, that’s when it becomes deceitful. … You’re adding … to your own stature. You gotta stay away from that … keep with who you know you are … have the attitude of gratitude.”