Bachman, Turner Reunite For New Music, Tour
The Bachman-Turner Overdrive principals Randy Bachman and Fred Turner have reunited to record the title track of Bachman’s next album, “Rock ‘n’ Roll is the Only Way Out,” which the guitarist describes to Billboard.com as “really rootsy, really AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, really fun, eager, hungry rock ‘n’ roll. It sounds like we’re in our 20s again.” Bachman and Turner plan to announce details of the album’s release, which is expected next fall, as well as tour plans at a press conference Dec. 8 in Winnipeg, where both men reside.
They won’t be joined by the rest of their bandmates, however; drummer Rob Bachman (Bachman’s younger brother) and guitarist Blair Thornton have filed suit to prevent the duo from using the BTO name. But Bachman said that won’t prevent he and Turner — who are reportedly considering monikers such as Bachman-Turner or Bachman-Turner United — from working together.
“We’ve been getting offers for the last five or six years,” says Bachman, who served three separate tenures in BTO. “It started in 2000, with the reunion of the Guess Who. I went to see the Eagles, and the first thing Don Henley and Joe Walsh said was, ‘How’s Turner? Any chance you guys will do anything?’ ‘Why are you interested?’ ‘You’re the last band of the ’70s that hasn’t gotten back together or put something out, that’s why!’ Mick Jagger said the same thing when we played the SARS show in Toronto (in 2003). So we’ll see what happens when my CD comes out; the first cut people are gonna hear is this cut with me and Fred singing.”
Bachman says he and Turner had been in contact for awhile before he presented the “Rock ‘n’ Roll is the Only Way Out” track to him. “I said, ‘Fred, pick whatever vocal line you want and scream your head off, just like the old days…The guys recording it called me and said, ‘We can’t believe this. This is the greatest thing ever.’ When I got the track and played it, i was like, ‘Holy cow, no one has heard anything like this since the ’70s. It’s amazing.”
Bachman — whose album also includes appearances by Neil Young and the late Jeff Healey — adds that since then Turner has given the guitarist a few of his songs to possibly work on as well.
During its run BTO sold an estimated 20 million albums worldwide, topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974 with “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” and also scored Top 40 hits such as “Takin’ Care of Business,” “Roll On Down the Highway,” “Hey You” and “Let It Ride.”
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