Michigan woman whose name inspired band to become Greta Van Fleet dies at 95

FRANKENMUTH, Mich. (AP) — Gretna Van Fleet didn’t play music with Greta Van Fleet. But maybe she got the next best thing: The Grammy-winning rock band uses her name.

The 95-year-old Michigan woman died Monday at a senior living center in Frankenmuth, according to her obituary, the same community where the band was formed in 2012 when Van Fleet was in her 80s.

“I think they checked out my background to make sure I wasn’t on the Ten Most Wanted list or something, and they went ahead with it,” Van Fleet jokingly told MLive.com in 2019, ahead of the band’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

“But later, when I met the boys, I said, ‘That’s OK.’ But, no, they did not approach me to begin with,” Van Fleet said.

Kyle Hauck, a drummer in the band’s early days, has told interviewers that a name was needed in time for a local performance. He said he heard his grandfather talk about helping a friend, Gretna Van Fleet. Something clicked. The band dropped the ‘n’ in Gretna and Greta Van Fleet was born.

The band won a Grammy in 2019 for best rock album, “From The Fires,” and had other nominations that year. Greta Van Fleet’s “Starcatcher” was nominated for best album in 2024.

Gretna Van Fleet’s obituary describes her, too, as being “musically talented,” playing a variety of instruments including saxophone, violin, tuba and piano.

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She said in the 2019 interview that her favorite song by the band was “Flower Power.”

“There’s a couple others that I like, but that’s not really my style,” Van Fleet said of the music. “It’s not my era that they’re making popular come back.”