Robbie Bachman, founding drummer of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has died on the age of 69.
The information of Robbie’s dying was damaged by his brother and former bandmate, Randy Bachman.
“Another sad departure,” Randy wrote on social media on Thursday (January 12). “The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad and 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.”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive turned a musical phenomenon with extraordinary international success. At the top of their profession, the band’s distinctive model of stripped-down, blue collar, meat ‘n’ potatoes rock headlined a number of the greatest arenas on the earth — from New York’s Madison Square Garden and London’s Hammersmith Odeon, to Hamburg’s Congress Centrum and the Falkoner Centret in Copenhagen.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s 1974 lineup of Randy, Robbie, vocalist Fred Turner and guitarist Blair Thornton was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 2014.
The Bachman brothers grew up enjoying collectively of their Winnipeg, Canada house and have become pure collaborators. It was Randy who gave Robbie his first job, enlisting the drummer to hitch him and bassist Fred Turner within the band Brave Belt in 1971. A 3rd Bachman, guitarist Tim, joined Brave Belt a 12 months later.
After two unsuccessful albums, Brave Belt was dropped by their label. Undeterred, the band looked for a brand new house. At the suggestion of administration, they started calling themselves Bachman–Turner Overdrive.
The identical band however with a brand new identify, Bachman–Turner Overdrive launched its self-titled debut in 1973. Commercial success continued to elude, however later that 12 months the group launched its second LP, Bachman–Turner Overdrive II. That album featured BTO’s first Top 40 single, “Let It Ride,” which peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s second single would rocket the group to stardom: “Takin’ Care of Business.”
The hits stored on coming for BTO, as 1974’s Not Fragile reached No. 1 within the U.S. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” turned a large, chart-topping hit, whereas follow-up single “Roll On Down the Highway” continued the band’s run of success. The latter observe was co-written by Robbie, one in every of a handful of traditional tunes he helped pen.
“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 recalled, wanting again on the band’s success throughout a 2014 interview with the Toronto Star. “Just coming out of the ’70s with the Vietnam War and all the political things going on — in Canada with Trudeau, and Richard Nixon and stuff like that — we just basically had enough of that stuff.”
As the ‘70s wore on, BTO’s reputation regularly slowed. The band’s members started arguing about their musical path and, in 1977, Randy Bachman stop the group.
Bachman–Turner Overdrive continued with out its unique vocalist, recruiting Jim Clench to fill Randy’s sneakers. The band launched two albums with its new singer, 1978’s Street Action and 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Nights, neither of which moved the needle.
BTO disbanded in 1980, however reformed with Randy again as frontman in 1983. Robbie opted to not be a part of the reunion, citing disagreements over enterprise and trademark issues. As such, Bachman–Turner Overdrive, launched in 1984, can be the band’s solely studio album to not characteristic Robbie’s enjoying.
The drummer ultimately returned to Bachman–Turner Overdrive in 1988 and caught with the group till it disbanded as soon as extra in 2005. After a hiatus, Randy and Turner once more revived BTO in 2009, however as a consequence of ongoing authorized battles Robbie rejected the prospect to rejoin the group. He did, ultimately take the stage with the traditional lineup once more in 2014, when Bachman–Turner Overdrive was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.