After a Michigan tour stop at Interlochen, the iconic classic rock band featuring Randy Bachman plays the Chicago area tonight. The Local Spins interview.
No Stopping This Rock Legend’s Engine: Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. (Courtesy Photo)
Randy Bachman has seen it all and done virtually everything. Hit songs, long tours, even playing with one of his idols as part of Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band.
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So why is the 81-years-young guitar slinger still out on the road plying the rock ‘n’ roll trade amid a hectic summer tour with Bachman-Turner Overdrive? The question is probably best answered simply by looking at his business card: “Randy Bachman. Write Songs, Will Travel.”
That’s been his raison d’etre since his childhood days. “Here in Winnipeg me and Burton Cummings would try to write songs,” he says of his childhood pal and Guess Who bandmate.
Who inspired them? The Beatles, the Beach Boys and anyone else on the radio in the 60s. “We tried to copy everybody. We’d bring a couple 45s, try to write. How do you write a great song?” he asks rhetorically. “You write 100 songs.”
The partnership flourished as the band became a huge success. Between 1969 and 1970, the Guess Who sold more records than the rest of the Canadian music industry combined. Bachman and his songwriting partner Cummings became the most celebrated partnership in Canadian music to that point.
With Ringo & His All Starr Band: Bachman and friends. (Courtesy Photo)
He left the Guess Who on the heels of the band’s biggest success – his No. 1 hit, “American Woman.” The Guess Who became the band the first Canadian group to hit the top of the American charts. But he had tired of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, and journeyed out on his own.
First, he formed the country-rock group Brave Belt with Chad Allan, with whom he’d played prior to and at the beginning of the Guess Who. Bachman ‘s young brother Robbie was featured as the drummer. Allan left after two band’s second album, which had seen bassist Fred Turner join Brave Belt. Featuring Turner’s thundering bass and similarly rumbling voice, the band morphed into the altogether harder-rocking Bachman Turner Overdrive.
Bachman proved he still had the magic touch. BTO likewise had several hits, including another No. 1, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” and the wedding reception staple, “Takin’ Care of Business,” among others.
So how does he top that? Today, Bachman is unconcerned with hitting the charts, but he still challenges himself to write songs. Beyond that, he knows there is still an audience for the music he wrote and recorded all those years ago. “People hold onto the hits,” he says.
PLAYING THE HITS WITH A NEW BTO ALBUM ON TAP
Bachman’s music certainly has staying power. You can still hear the hits on classic rock radio. Other musicians still cover the music, such as Lenny Kravitz, whose version of “American Woman” topped the charts 29 years after the original. Bachman’s music has been used in television and movie soundtracks including “Seinfeld,” “The Simpsons,” “American Beauty” and “Austin Powers 2.” Bachman even appeared as himself on “The Simpsons.”
He says the sound of Bachman Turner Overdrive came from adding Fred Turner’s bass to his guitar, giving the country-esque Brave Belt a heavier sound. After Allan left, BTO became a quartet when Randy’s younger brother Tim joined on guitar.
Tal and Randy Bachman (Courtesy Photo)
Robbie and Tim died months apart in 2023, but Randy’s kept the family spirit of the band alive with his son, Tal Bachman, joining him and Turner in the band, along with Mick Dalla-Vee (bass, guitar and keyboards), Brent Howard (rhythm guitar) and Marc LaFrance (drums). His sound and that of the band remains true to its roots, and he couldn’t be happier.
“Same guitar, same amp, real drums. I run tape, use an old mic, hardly any foot pedals. Life is really good.”
Bachman says the band plays music from not only its early years but goes back even further to include music from his days with the Guess Who. He and Cummings have toured together over the years, though he won’t be joined by Cummings this time around.
Nor is Turner part of the touring BTO band these days, though Bachman says he many perform on some select dates as well as join him in the recording studio later this year or early next. “We’ll have a new BTO album next year,” he says.
Following a Michigan tour stop July 22 at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Bachman Turner Overdrive performs at 7:30 p.m. tonight (July 29) at The Village Green at The Charles Zettek Municipal Complex in Elk Grove, Ill. — about 190 miles southwest of Grand Rapids and 160 miles from Kalamazoo.
Get details and tickets online here.
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