Randy Bachman, the legendary Canadian rocker and songwriter, joins the 80 club as he celebrates the milestone birthday today. Born in Winnipeg, Canada, the oldest, and last surviving, of four sons, he won a singing contest on radio station CKY's King of the Saddle program at three and started studying the violin in the Royal Toronto Conservatory system at five. He gave it up at 12 and by 15 had discovered and turned his attention to the guitar.
Bachman first achieved success in the '60s with The Guess Who and again in the '70s with Bachman-Turner Overdrive. He has been awarded over 120 platinum, gold and silver album/singles around the world. His songwriting has garnered the coveted number-one spot on radio playlists in over 20 countries, and his total record sales exceed 40 million albums and singles.
He's primarily been a solo artist since leaving BTO in 1979, but has worked on occasion with The Guess Who's Burton Cummings, and BTO's Fred Turner, as well as touring with Ringo Starr's All Starr Band.
He's currently paying tribute to BTO with a new tour that has the blessing of Fred Turner, who has retired. The past few years have had their highs and lows for Bachman. The biggest high came last year when he found his 1957 Gretsch guitar, which was stolen from a Toronto hotel in 1976. He also enjoys hosting his Vinyl Tap radio show and having his family work with him, including his son Tal Bachman, who is a member of his band.
The sorrows have been the deaths of his three brothers — Gary, the second oldest, passed in 2020; Robbie, the youngest and drummer in BTO, this past January; and Tim, guitarist in BTO, in May. And Randy says he came close to biting it last year.
"I got double vaxxed. It killed my immune system. I then got double COVID. I had a heck of a time. I was taking chemo for five months. I was given four weeks to live. I made it. I'm here," he said in an audio clip.
He also talked about his family working with him in another audio clip.
"It has evolved into a family business. I'm doing what Neil Young's doing -- gathering back all my masters, all my songs, all the archives that I've had taped and filmed. All that stuff we've got it [and] we're putting it on our website so people then can go to the website. Whether they're good or bad, they're wonderful because they don't exist anywhere, only in our archives. So all that's being put up by my grandson whose a computer wizard," he said.
Bachman also joked about how his name is one of many words that Americans and Canadians pronounce differently.
"I am Randy Bachman from Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive. It's the way we speak in Canada. We say falcon, you guys say falcon, Datsun-Datsun, Bachman-Bachman. Potato-potato -- long as you say my name and play my record call me anything you want," he said.
Happy 80th birthday to Randy Bachman.
[Source: Classic Hits Today]