Bachman-Turner Overdrive drummer Robbie Bachman dead at 69

Article content

Robbie Bachman, the drummer for Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has died at the age of 69.

Article content

“Another sad departure,” his brother Randy wrote as he shared the sad news on Twitter. “The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad & brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock ‘n’ roll machine and we rocked the world together.”

Article content

Article content

Article content

Robbie’s cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Born in Winnipeg in 1953, Robbie was invited by Randy to drum for Brave Belt, before the band morphed into Bachman–Turner Overdrive in 1973.

The quartet — which also featured bassist Fred Turner, guitarist Tim Bachman, and lead guitarist Blair Thornton (who replaced Tim in 1974) — were one of Canada’s biggest bands of the ’70s achieving fame both here and abroad.

The group’s 1974 Not Fragile LP featured the smash hit You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet and charted at No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada.

In 2011, Randy said that he didn’t want to release the song, calling it “goofy” in an interview with the Canadian Press.

“There are so many things wrong with You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: it’s out of tune, the tempo speeds up and slows down, it’s a one-track vocal, I don’t even know what I’m saying, I’m making it up right on the spot, basically.”

Article content

Article content

Robbie co-wrote the band’s 1975 hit Roll On Down the Highway and played on BTO’s eight studio albums released between 1973 and 1979.

Following the release of 1979’s Rock n’ Roll Nights, which did not feature Randy, the group disbanded. Robbie returned to the fold in 1988 and played with the band until 2005.

Tensions mounted between the brothers after Randy tried to use the band name in 2009, which resulted in a lawsuit.

“I haven’t seen Robbie since my dad passed away, since my dad’s funeral. I haven’t seen Blair in a long time. And I see Fred all the time. So it’ll be exciting,” Randy told the Canadian Press on the eve of BTO’s induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

But in a separate interview with the same outlet, Randy revealed that the warring brothers had mended fences.

Article content

“It took decades, but we all grew up,” Randy said. “As in any family, as in any band, as on any team, as in any relationship, there are bound to be … differences. And some of the differences are irreconcilable and some of them are really tiny, stupid, little petty things and some of them are big things. But as time goes by and you grow up as an adult … you look back at it and go: ‘Wow, the guy was an absolute jerk and guess what? I was a jerk too in my own way.’

“All the little differences that cause a band to break up or one guy to leave … looking back at it, you go, oh yeah, he was a jerk, I was a jerk, he was a goof, he was always late, he was a maniac, he spent all his money, whatever.”

Randy said that BTO’s success was proof that they were able to become a band that other musicians would be envious of.

Article content

“We couldn’t afford clothes. We wore jeans and T-shirts and flannel shirts. We looked like the boys next door who would take your grandmother’s garbage out to the curb,” he said. “We weren’t pretty boys in silver leotards with eye makeup. We were the fat guys next door. We were like Seth Rogen when he started.

“We were average guys that would have worked at a gas station. We were blue-collar guys.”

But in the same interview, Robbie said he wasn’t surprised by BTO’s meteoric rise.

“We didn’t tell anybody they were wrong or anything was bad or don’t do this. It was basically, have a good time, fun music,” Robbie said in a separate phone interview. “Just coming out of the ’70s with the Vietnam War and all the political things going on — in Canada with (Pierre) Trudeau, and Richard Nixon and stuff like that — we just basically had enough of that stuff.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com