Bachman-Turner Overdrive is takin’ care of business again with “60 Years Ago,” the Canadian stalwart’s first new material in more than 25 years. And there’s more where that came from.
The sentimental single, releasing formally on Friday, March 28, was first written by Randy Bachman and his son Tal during their pandemic YouTube show Bachman & Bachman Friday Night Train Wreck and is part of a father-son album that has not yet been released. But after hearing that a highway section in Randy Bachman’s native Winnipeg was to be renamed the Bachman-Turner Overpass – with the dedication on April 18, the day before BTO plays there – inspired the Bachmans to revise the song and make the song public.
“I thought, ‘I’ll go and get “60 Years Ago,” and I’ll give it back to Winnipeg as a thank-you,’” Randy Bachman tells Billboard via Zoom from his current home in Victoria, B.C.. “There was no great plan for this song, y’know. But maybe they’ll play it on Winnipeg radio, and if you live in Winnipeg maybe you’ll want to download it and drive around singing ’60 years ago, so damn cold, so much snow’ and that kind of stuff. And I have a million BTO fans, followers on Instagram and my web site, so maybe some of them will download it.
“I have a lot of people asking me, always, ‘Is there anything new? Is there anything new?’ So now… yes, there is.”
With its remembrances of the Winnipeg music scene of the mid-’60s, Bachman further torqued up “60 Years Ago” with some appropriate guests – childhood friend and fellow Winnipegian Neil Young, whose guitar solo can be heard at the end, and BTO co-founder Fred Turner who, despite spates of bad health, contributed vocals to the song. Both men are name-checked in the lyrics, along with Bachman’s Guess Who partner Burton Cummings and, as Bachman notes, Winnipeg’s frigid climate.
“I sent it to Neil Young and said, ‘Here’s a song about us and Winnipeg,’” Bachman says. “And he said, ‘I love this. I’ll scream something and play my solo at the end of the track.’ So we did that.” Turner’s part took a bit more doing, however.
“Fred Turner has suffered a lot in the last three years, from Covid, from his own illness. He lost his wife, that was depressing. He lost his voice,” Bachman explains. “When I sent him [the song] I said, ‘Just put this on your computer… put on headphones and sing to it. I just want your voice, Fred.’ He said, ‘I haven’t sang in two and a half years, but I gave it a shot. But I lost my voice in the second verse.’ But because of digital (technology) now you can get a little, tiny sound and make it big, so we managed to get a great vocal on him throughout the song.
“This wasn’t planned to be a single targeting the charts or anything like that. If we have success with this, it’ll be stunning. But people who hear it are saying to me, ‘You’ve done a great thing here. It sounds like BTO in 1976,’ which is great. The new [Rolling] Stones album doesn’t sound like the Stones, right? But this sounds like BTO.”
“60 Years Ago” comes as BTO prepares to hit the road for an extensive Canadian tour that kicks off an extensive, 22-date tour of Canada, followed by summer dates in the U.S., both on its own and with the Marshall Tucker Band, Jefferson Starship and the Outlaws. Bachman is also preparing a BTO live album from 1976 shows at the Budokan in Tokyo for release, and he’s hoping that Takin’ Care of Business, a documentary about finding his stolen Gretsch 6120 guitar while in the midst of a serious cancer battle a couple of years back will see wider release after running on the film festival circuit.
Bachman says more new BTO songs may be in the offing as well, including one called “Rock ‘n’ Roll is the Only Way Out.”
“Rock ‘n’ roll is the only way out of rap and all this crazy pop stuff that’s going on,” Bachman says, “and all this weird country stuff…everybody’s trying to get on the country bandwagon because they still sell CDs.” He’s also collaborating with Turner on other new songs.
“When we were doing [’60 Years Ago’] I said, ‘Have you got any songs, Fred? People are asking for new BTO,’” Bachman recalls. “And he says, ‘Yeah, here’s a couple of old songs. You want to do something new with ’em?’ All he’s got are little cassette tapes, but with AI I can lift off his vocal and get them reformatted and rewrite them and do this and that. I just get a BPM, tick-tick-tick and match his vocal to it. I play guitar. My son Tal plays guitar, drums, bass, flutes, everything. Then we’ll send it back to Fred and get him to sing once it’s a good demo and we’ve got the new groove and new feel. So I am working on new BTO stuff, which is amazing.”
Bachman is also looking forward to a return to the Guess Who now that he and Cummings have successfully wrested control of the trademarks and copyrights from former bandmates Jim Kale and Gary Peterson, who operated the band with other musicians – which Bachman calls “the clones” – until last July. The guitarist says he and Cummings – who have toured together since Bachman’s 1970 departure, including under the Guess Who moniker during the early 2000s – plan to be on the road together during 2026 playing the band’s material along with BTO and Cummings’ solo hits.
“We’re gonna really have an incredible show, about two hours,” Bachman says. “It’ll be a celebration of the Guess Who. The fans have been wanting it. We’ve already got offers for gigs – really big gigs, really good money. We’re just dealing with them all and working out who’s gonna be in the band – but definitely me and Burton. It’s like Joe Perry and Steven Tyler; you get a rhythm section, and as long as you have those two, you still get Aerosmith. With me and Burton, it’s still the Guess Who.”
BTO’s upcoming tour dates include:
Canada 2025 Tour Dates
April 1 – Save On Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria, BC
April 3 – Abbotsford Centre, Abbotsford, BC
April 4 – South Okanagan Event Centre, Penticton, BC
April 6 – Western Financial Place, Cranbrook, BC
April 8 – CN Centre, Prince George, BC
April 9 – Bonnetts Energy Centre, Grand Prairie, AB
April 11 – Event Centre at Grey Eagle Casino, Calgary, AB
April 12 – Event Centre at Grey Eagle Casino, Calgary, AB
April 13 – VisitLethbridge.com Arena, Lethbridge, AB
April 15 – Brandt Centre, Regina, SK
April 17 – Westoba Place at Keystone Centre, Brandon, MB
April 19 – Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg, MB
April 24 – The Aud (Kitchener Memorial Auditorium), Kitchener, ON
April 26 – Great Canadian Resort Toronto, Toronto, ON
April 28 – Meridian Centre, St. Catharines, ON
April 29 – Peterborough Memorial Centre, Peterborough, ON
May 1 – Canada Life Place, London, ON
May 2 – The Arena at TD Place, Ottawa, ON
May 4 – Sudbury Arena, Sudbury, ON
May 5 – Place Bell, Laval, QC
May 7 – TD Station, Saint John, NB
May 8 – Scotiabank Centre, Halifax, NS
US Tour Dates with The Marshall Tucker Band and Jefferson Starship
July 18 – Harrah’s Stir Cove, Council Bluffs, IA
July 19 – Treasure Island Casino, Welch, MN
July 20 – Scheels Arena, Fargo, ND
July 22 – Kresge Auditorium, Interlochen, MI
July 24 – Neuroscience Group Field, Appleton, WI
July 25 – The Mill Terre Haute, Terre Haute, IN
July 26 – Rose Music Center, Huber Heights, OH
Aug. 1 – Lucky Star Casino, El Reno, OK#
# Outlaws replacing Jefferson Starship as special guest
US Tour Dates – BTO only
July 28 – Bloomington Center For The Performing Art, Bloomington, IL
July 29 – The Village Green at the Charles Zettek Municipal Complex, Elk Grove Village, IL
July 31 – MU Health Care Capital Region Amphitheater, Jefferson City, MO
Aug. 15 – Peppermill Casino, Wendover, NV
Aug. 16 – Vilar PAC, Beaver Creek, CO
Aug. 18 – Western Idaho Fair, Boise, ID
Aug. 21 – Pala Casino, Pala, CA
Aug. 22 – We-Ko-Pa Casino, Ft. McDowell, AZ
