A chat with Randy Bachman
Bachman-Turner Overdrive is certainly back.
The band behind rock hits like “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” “Hey You” and “Takin’ Care of Business” is stopping at NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Friday, March 8, as part of their “Back in Overdrive” Tour.
Ahead of their performance in Westbury, Long Island Weekly had the chance to chat with lead guitarist and vocalist Randy Bachman, who shared his story about how he went from a kid inspired by an Elvis performance on television to a ‘70s rock legend.
From ages 5 to 14, Bachman, who was born in raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, had been taking classic violin lessons. After failing an audition for the Winnipeg Junior Symphony, he went home to his mother and told her that he was going to quit.
The following day, Bachman watched Elvis Presley perform on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show on CBS-TV in 1956.
“Elvis was wild,” Bachman said. “Suddenly, this was wild freedom for me and I jumped into it wholeheartedly.”
Bachman was an A+ student before music became his life in grade 10. He met local guitarist Lenny Breau, who was a year older and began hanging out with him while playing hooky from school every afternoon.
When his mother confronted him about his report card and absences, Bachman told her he no longer cared about school and wanted to be a guitar player for the rest of his life.
While Bachman had been playing high school dances with a band he formed with other young local musicians, he heard about another band across town, Al and the Silvertones, that was looking for a rhythm guitarist. As Bachman was auditioning, the lead guitarist broke a string, and Bachman finished the song and secured his spot as the new lead guitar player.
That band became The Guess Who, known for hits like “American Woman” and “These Eyes.”
“This was now the late 1960s, like ‘68 or ‘69, we were touring the U.S.A,” Bachman explained. “We were the only males between 18 or 35. Everyone else was drafted… These women were all over us, especially the lead singer, Burton Cummings, who was like three years younger than me.”
While playing a gig in Canada on a freezing February day, Bachman broke a string on his guitar. After changing his string, he began tuning his guitar with Cummings’ electric piano, which became the original rift of “American Woman.”
The crowd began nodding their heads to the song, so the band began playing the rift.
“And what [Burton] sings was ‘American woman, stay away from me.’ Because so many American women were bothering him,” Bachman explained.
That song went on to chart at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian RPM magazine single chart in May, 1970.
After “American Woman” was released, Bachman had to stay home in Winnipeg under a doctor’s care while waiting to get gallbladder surgery.
Once he healed, Bachman wanted to play in a band again, so he started a country rock band with his friend Neil Young, whose band Buffalo Springfield had just broken up.
“People didn’t expect that,” Bachman said. “They didn’t buy it.“
Bachman was given advice to use his name, which had been well known at this point, in the band and to get back to rock and roll.
With Fred Turner and Bachman’s brothers, Robbie Bachman and Tim Bachman, in a new band, they called themselves Bachman Turner. The “Overdrive” part came from a trucker’s magazine the band found at a truck stop in Detroit, Michigan.
“One thing I found out when I was trying country rock, nobody dances to it,” Bachman said. “So I started to do stuff with BTO that you could sing and that you could dance to… The minute you heard ‘Takin’ Care of Business’ when we get to the hook the next time, you’re singing ‘Takin’ Care of Business’ with us; when we get to ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,’ you’re singing ‘B-b-baby you ain’t seen nothing yet.” When we get to ‘Let It Ride,’ ‘you go ‘try, try, try to let it ride.’”
To this day, Bachman said, he sees the audience dancing and singing, reliving memories.
“BTO is back, rock and rolling,” Bachman said. “You look up and you look at a guy, he looks like a retired accountant or the principal of a high school who’s retired, and suddenly he’s standing on the seats, he’s ripped off his tie, he’s standing there with his hands in the air… And this lady who looks like a school mom or a hockey mom or soccer mom, she’s up there and she’s 19 again dancing with her girlfriend or her husband, and they’re all enjoying the moment of the music.”
For more information about Bachman-Turner Overdrive and their tour, visit
www.btoband.com.
