Rock Legend Randy Bachman Has Control of BTO And They’re Headed For Mahnomen

Spent Time In Minnesota and North Dakota In His Youth

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — He holds the Order of Manitoba and the Order of Canada and he’ll soon have a bridge named in his honor in his hometown of Winnipeg.

He is rock legend Randy Bachman, a founding member of two world famous bands: The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive.

It’s BTO he’ll be leading when he stops in Mahnomen on Friday night.

“We’re people crazy enough to go in -40 weather. The Midwest! We’re getting our hoodies ready,” joked Bachman when we chatted with him over Zoom.

Bachman revived Bachman-Turner Overdrive and kicked off a new tour last year and it continues this year with a stop in Mahnomen.

It comes after tremendous loss post-COVID.

“I lost three brothers in COVID and I’m the oldest of the four and through family disputes we had all our lives, if you got any brothers you know the things if you got a baseball mitt and I got a yo-yo that kind of thing at Christmas or he got a bike and i got a yo-yo. Um, those things stay with you. Um, I then got full rights to Bachman-Turner-Overdrive to the BTO name. I was touring anyways, playing the songs suddenly that allowed me to call what I was to be called. Fred and I got together about five years ago and we were prevented from using the name because of my brother which is a silly thing because we were Bachman-Turner anyway just to put Overdrive there.”

The fans were ready and Bachman says they’ll drive from hundreds of miles away to see the legends in concert.

“I think this happened because of COVID. Everybody is now of a more spiderweb coming together a web of people that you don’t need to wait for the evening paper, you don’t need to read Rolling Stone anymore, it’s a piece of crap with the political thing anyway it’s not a music magazine. So everybody’s communication is on the internet and the fans are sending ‘We will drive 600 miles to your show if you will play Little Gandy Dancer from BTO I, we’ve never heard it on stage’ well we never played it on stage you know what I mean?”

As for fans of Bachman’s other legendary band, The Guess Who, you will not be left out!

“A lot of people have said ‘We know you were in The Guess Who, you wrote all their hit songs are we going to be blessed with some Guess Who material?’ and I said well of course. So literally my publishing company is called 12 Hit Wonder, I’ve had 12 hits: 6 with BTO, 6 with The Guess Who. So literally I play all 12 hit songs and a couple of new ones and my son Tal is with us he plays She’s So High, a big hit he had oh 8 or 7 years ago, and that’s all on classic rock radio.”

His son Tal’s song, “She’s So High”, became a top 20 hit in 1999 in the U.S.

Randy Bachman got his start in high school in his hometown of Winnipeg with fellow artists who also became rock and roll legends.

“So it had Burton Cummings and The Deverons, Chad Allan and The Reflections which turned into The Guess Who, Neil Young & The Squires, Fred Turner and The Rocking Devils, Fred joined me later into BTO so these four guys: Bachman, Cummings, Peterson, Kale are still making music and on the road so I tell that story and how I’m intertwined with these guys and lucky enough to see and play gigs with Fred Turner, Neil Young, Burton Cummings every once in awhile we get a call, ‘Bachman and Cummings’ sure we’ll do that, we can’t be called The Guess Who now we’re suing these guys to get the name back, we might get it then we can be called The Guess Who.”

He’s headed back home this summer when the Disraeli Bridge is renamed the Bachman-Turner-Overpass.

“Fred still lives there and so we will go there and do a BTO gig, Fred will come out and we’ll sing “Roll On Down the Highway” and “Let it Ride” and dedicate the bridge, so that’s why I go to Winnipeg when it’s an occasion.”

But first: it’s time to rock out in Mahnomen.

“The crowd is going to have a musical ride through 50, and if they’re Fargoans, is that what you call you guys, Fargoans?

TJ Nelson responded, “Sure, yeah well you’re going to get a lot of Canadians because it’s pretty close.”

“So if you’re Fargoans you’re familiar with this music and all the stories of Neil Young and The Deverons, we all played down in Fargo and Grand Forks that was a big deal we’re going to the states, Fargo and Grand Forks. I remember every place we went, Richard’s Rare Guitars and Zinkies buffet we used to go with my family down to Detroit Lakes and stuff camping so I love that whole area it’s going to be great to get there,” said Bachman.

Taking the people on a music ride and memories and we will be there in the now!”

It makes no sense that neither BTO or The Guess Who are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but Bachman is in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Juno Hall of Fame.

There seems to be a bit of politics involved in that too.

You can see BTO Friday night at Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen.

Tickets are still available but very limited.