Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Randy Bachman: Toronto Mike'd #1340

Episode Date: October 8, 2023

In this 1340th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Randy Bachman about BTO, The Simpsons, Vinyl Tap, Tears Are Not Enough, Winnipeg, Neil Young, reuniting with his lost guitar and writing American Woman in Kitchener. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Pumpkins After Dark, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

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Season 5 of Yes, We Are Open, an award-winning podcast from Moneris, hosted by FOTM Al Grego and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto Mike debut is Randy Backman. Welcome to Toronto Mike, Randy Backman. Hi, good to be here. For 40 years, I've been calling you Randy Bachman. I was recently educated. It's Backman, right? Where do you live, Toronto?

Toronto. Okay, it's Backman in Canada and it's Bachman in the States. Interesting. Okay, so I have been getting it wrong for 40 years. So my apologies. You're not wrong. You're totally right. Interesting. How is that so?

I need to get this right. So how is it Bachman here, Bachman in the States? Well, when I signed with the USA way back in the 70s with Mercury Records, the guy who signed us, his name was Charlie Fasch, F-A-C-H. He was German.

And when he put out the bio of Bachman Turnover Drive, he put in parentheses, how to say it, he put B-O-C-K-M-A-N Dash Turnover Drive. But there's a difference between Canadian and American language. There's Datsun and Datsun, Falcon and Falcon,

Garage, Garage, all that kind of stuff. So I'm used to both. I used to say in an interview to get it all out, Hi, I'm Randy Bachman of Bachman Turnover Drive. I'd say both. Cover all your bases, right? Yeah. Happy belated 80th birthday, by the way.

Yeah, I turned 64. How many times have you done that now? Just once. It's perpetual. Every birthday I turn 64. Man, what an honor it is to speak to you I've been a big fan for a long time and I'm going to have some annoying questions

and some questions I think you'll enjoy but what I think is very cool is that you're literally getting the band back together right you and Fred are going to reform Bachman Turner Overdrive well it's an evolution and it's in process right now and uh yeah we've already

done a couple of test gigs and looking forward to a big near year next year next year is um the 50th if you can believe it anniversary of not fragile being the number one album wow you ain't seen nothing yet being number one single in about 25 countries um i'm releasing what you just found bto live in budokan uh 1975 76 so we've got 18 songs there that are live so that's going to be coming out in the meantime i'm doing gigs with tal as bachman bachman because in the in the covid shutdown we had no gigs. We did a Friday night YouTube that we called the train wreck that we came with two guitars. I just goofed around like Wayne's World

and tried to stump each other playing songs. And basically, it was a train wreck, but fans loved it. They loved seeing professional guys making mistakes, playing in the wrong key, stopping in the middle of the song, saying, what's that chord, and all that stuff. And so we had a really great following. We've done a lot of gigs as that and um which which really is baffling to me and stunning and fun that we got called to do it again uh coming up in Muskoka at the resort and then another one

the next day in um in Niagara Falls so it's pretty cool it's amazing so your son uh who's a great musician uh and to himself he's now a part of Bachman Turner Overdrive is that right well it It's pretty cool. It's amazing. So your son, who's a great musician unto himself, he's now a part of Bachman Turner Overdrive. Is that right? Well, it was an evolutionary thing. A couple of years ago, I had an issue where I fell and hurt my left elbow. So if you ever fall and bang your left elbow,

your funny bone? Yeah. So I lived in Oakville. It was January. It freezes and then it melts. It freezes and it melts. And my front step was a little cement platform. And it had frozen and melted and then frozen.

So when I went out my front door, it was like whoop, slipped down, smashed my left elbow. And when you bang your funny bone like on a desk or something, that's one thing. When your whole body weight falls on it, you're numb. Your arm is numb. You figure, oh, my God, I can't feel my hand. I can't move my hand.

I had gigs a little while after that in Niagara Falls at the big casino there, Fallsview Casino. Right. And I called Tal and I said, I don't think I can play properly. My left hand is like not happening. Can you come and help me out? Just come be on stage. One night in every song, tell the story.

The next night's a rock and roll night with the same guys. Some of them sit down with storytelling. And he said, sure. So he came there and then I had a few more gigs and he stayed and then when the COVID started shut down we just hung out together and um started to do the YouTubes and it just evolved that he's part of the of the whole thing right now so yeah so he's he's part of the new bto setup and i see it evolving a lot like leonard skinner um or zz top the nucleus of the band keeps going although somebody has passed away or somebody can't do it anymore or somebody doesn't want to do it or somebody doesn't want to do it, or somebody hasn't done it for 40 years. Like with BTO, I kept playing and had many little, I don't know,

mini careers in between with solo albums and stuff. And Blair Thornton never played at all. So you've got a guy who hasn't played for 40 years. You try to get him back. It's very tough. But if you've got a guy that's playing golf every week or every day, he goes out and plays a game of golf with you, and he does pretty well. So it ends up being – and then the difference of living in Winnipeg,

where Fred Turner lives, and I live in Victoria, there's the difference of, gee, you can't get together and jam anymore. So we're dealing with all of these things. But the most important thing is every night is a tribute to bto my brother robbie who was the drummer we have full videos there when we're playing of him and the band in his glory days on stage playing behind us and we do the songs and uh what i was amazed at is the fans reaction it's like no time has ever gone by. We just did two Fridays ago the Big

E Festival in Springfield, Massachusetts. Which is five states have their big state fair there. It's called the Big E. It's the third largest fair in all of the USA. For once in my life, I could walk on stage and go,

hello, Springfield. it was like I was on this like I was on the Simpsons again I was really in Springfield Massachusetts we went there and we had the video and we did the thing and the crowd was incredible they knew every song there was 10 year old there 30 year old 40 year old 70 year old 80 years old they're all there sitting down at the end they all got up and clapped and danced they all knew the songs we had a couple requests for the odd guess who song which they knew that i had been in and written so we out of the middle of the stage show we stopped and did these eyes which it wasn't planning to do in that show but somebody had driven 300 miles to hear that song with their graduation and their wedding song and it's their annual anniversary song every year um it was just a amazing a lot of fun it was great so the the the rock keeps on rolling and the band will evolve

into being more of a family band i've got people in my family who are great musicians who sing and play and everything and if somebody my brother robbie's gone right so we need another drummer so as things evolve naturally we are i'm keeping the rock rolling well let me take this moment to offer my sincere condolences because you lost a couple of brothers this year robbie and tim yeah the year before that gary i'm so sorry man that that's awful yeah that's awful now not only so bTO, getting the band back together with your boy, that sounds amazing. I got to ask real quick here,

when can we find out about Toronto or GTA gigs? When do you think we can learn about that? It'll be on our website. We're doing this thing in Muskoka, which is just me and Tal doing our, or more or less our Friday night train wreck where we take requests, we talk to the audience. Tal does his hits, She's So High,

and people love that song. Yes. We're looking at the summer because after this Muskoka thing that's coming up, we're actually going to play, as me, three gigs next week in Alberta, which are leftover from, we were trying to play, as me, three gigs next week in Alberta, which are leftover from, we were trying to play leftover gigs that were canceled for the last two or three years,

but everybody is trying to play gigs that were delayed, and you can't all go to the same arena at once, 10 different bands or 20 bands, and play that night. So I'm fulfilling those and evolving that out of leaving that behind, the Randy Backman band, and being called and doing all and more BTO stuff. In the middle, we're still getting Backman Backman calls, which people like it because it's just the two of us sitting there with Coco on drums because she played a lot.

She did the filming for our YouTube, and then I said, why don't you play drums? She's a great drummer. So it would just be like the three of us doing that, kind of goofing around. And it's very intimate, and it's a very nice living room or backyard kind of thing where the BTO thing is the full tilt band and the big gear and the lights and everything. It's like it's the big rock production show.

So we're evolving to do more of that, and that will be happening pretty much in Toronto next year because this year we've got LA, St. Louis, uh, and the Alberta gigs. And is it true that you guys are going to write new material,

new BTO? Yeah. Wow. Good for you, man. I think next year we will have out the BTO Live at the Budokan, which will be double vinyl. That'll bring fans back to, wow, these guys were really,

they were really something in the mid-70s. They were really a great Canadian rock band. And emailing back and forth, Fred, sending him ideas for songs. He's sending me ideas for songs. And we're formulating it all. And the trick is, which is not that much of a trick for me, is to have it sound like the 70s. So it's not pitch corrected.

It's not click, click, click. The song breathes and slows down, speeds up. Like, listen to Brown Sugar or Let It Ride or Taking Care of Business. As we get excited it speeds up and slows down the new stones album they tried to make it sound like the 70s that's no problem for them it's no problem for me i still got all the gear i still got my head my brain my everything is 70 so we're trying to make a bto album that will satisfy the fans because that sound is not on the air it's missing i mean you don't hear you don't

hear a new sweet home alabama you don't hear a new taking care of business anymore the stuff you hear is all drum machines and samples and stuff and so it's time to get back to the real the real essence of rock and roll guys playing in a room on stage never mind the odd mistake everybody makes mistakes it's the feeling it's the dance it's the joy at that Everybody makes mistakes. It's the feeling, it's the dance, it's the joy, it's that moment of connecting. So that's what we're working on, a new album. Randy, I love it so much. But you mentioned the word Springfield a moment ago.

And I've always said to myself, if I ever get Randy Backman on a Zoom or a call, I got to ask him about your guest appearance on The Simpsons in 2000. So can you share with me how the heck did that happen i've watched that with my kids like it's like bto that's you you're you're on the simpsons who are those pleasant old men it's bto they're canada's answer to elp the big hit was tcb that's how we talked in the 70s we We didn't have a moment to spare. Hello, Springfield!

We're going to play all your old favorites. But first, we'd like to dip into our new CD. Taking care of business! Don't worry, sir. We'll get to that one. No talking! No new crap! Taking care of business, now! Get to the working overtime part! Unbelievable. Dumbass.

Working overtime. Wake up! I ain't seen nothing yet. We just did. Whatever. Be sure to stick around for the battle of the elementary school bands. Oh, I stand by my disappointed groan. Well,

I'm sitting in my office. I looked on salt spring Island. Then I'm sitting on my office i looked on salt spring island then i'm sitting on my office and out of my fax machine comes this request to use taking care of business and you ain't seen nothing yet on the simpsons and so i take the fact of wow i phone i phone sony who handled my publishing i said what is this like how do they want to use the songs is it in background music they said oh no they want you on the songs? Is it in background music? They said, oh, no, they want you on the show. And I said, what?

So you and Fred on the show, your BTO is playing Springfield. I said, you're kidding. They said, no. So then I followed up. They flew me into LA. They also flew Fred in separately. They wanted us separately. When I went into the mic, they said, you're not going to see anyone.

You're going to be alone on the mic because you're going to be in awe if you're in a room and you see the guy who does Haku's voice and the person who does Marge Simpson's voice. You're going to be in awe sitting with these people, and you're going to be gaga. We just want you there. So I go into a room alone, and they say, okay, here's your script. They come out, and you say, hello, Springfield. So I go, hello, Springfield. They go, no, okay, that's the one. They come out and you say, hello, Springfield. So I go, hello, Springfield.

They go, no, okay, that's the one person. Now do it for 20 people. I go, hello, Springfield. Okay, now do it for 200. Hello, now do it for 20,000. Hello, Springfield. You do the thing. That's it.

That's how they get you to act, right? They get that moment where you're suddenly, you're doing what they're telling you to do and it's more instinctive and you're yelling like, just hits your foot you're screaming out you're screaming you're screaming you know fire fire there's a fire and so I did all that then I left then they flew Fred and he did his part then they flew me in later for the putting it together and to hear the show then I saw I met everybody at the round table. They're all reading the script live and you see how it interacts

and if they don't laugh at each other's jokes or the script, Matt Groening is there, his partner, they strike it out and they try to write a funnier line. It's like any I guess comedy show. It's like Seinfeld or something. The table read. Yeah. And so

we did that. It was pretty amazing. And the whole show was about Homer saying to his kids, back in the 70s, we were so hip, we used ELO and CSNN and CTA and VTO. We used the initial REO Speedwagon. Everybody had initials if you're really cool. And so that came out, and suddenly we were in a group of elite rockers who had been immortalized on the Simpsons.

And to this day, and what's weird is at the time, the Simpsons were so real. Everybody was so into it. They fell in with Marge and Homer because they were kind of like all in the family, like Archie Bunker and Edith, right? And the little girl Lisa and all that kind of stuff. When I was coming home from L.A., the stewardess said to me, what were you doing in L.A.? I said, I was on The Simpsons.

And she said, what is their house like? I said, what? It's a cartoon. And she went, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, sorry, sorry. Because you always see the house, then you see the inside. What is their house really like? And I said, it was a drawing i didn't you know i understand so creator matt graining who you mentioned his dad was from winnipeg and uh i think that was a big reason you were a top of

mind with these guys is that matt was a huge bto fan and randy backman fan i didn't even know that but i knew matt graining went to ever, which was a college outside of Seattle. And when he was there studying, BTO was breaking real big, 72, 73, in the Seattle area. Our opening act was heart. We toured everywhere and played all these kind of gigs there. And Matt Groening was like a fan of BTO at that time. We were all over the radio in 73, 4, 5, 6.

Amazing. Listen, since we're talking about the west here let me uh read something that came in when i said you were coming on toronto mike sammy cone he's the drummer for the watchman another great winnipeg band yeah he writes me uh what are randy's memories of playing american woman with the watchman at the Kumbaya Festival in 1995. Do you remember that, Randy? I do. I started it in the wrong key. It's very hard to do in the key of E.

Most bands do it in D, which is much easier. It's very hard to go, and hit that high note all the time. And I'm so used to playing it in E that I rehearse with them and then i'm going to start the thing with the with the watchman and i started in e that uh and i'll do it everybody it looks at me with this fright on their face right and i read oh and so after the after the beginning in in e i switched to d and they came in and we finished the song

amazing i love those guys but there's an extra note here because you're a Winnipeg guy. And it's, please, this is from The Watchman. Please extend our respect and admiration for an incredible body of work in helping to put Winnipeg on the rock and roll map. That's for you. Well, Winnipeg is on the rock and roll map. I remember touring Germany in the 70s and again in the 90s. And then you would get to a town,

and the record stores were usually underground, because in England and Germany, there's a lot of stores that are down. What used to be the main floor is now the basement, because there was so much rubble during the war, they couldn't take it away, so they just made a street, and you had to go downstairs to get to the first floor. It's now the basement because there's so much rubble during the war. They couldn't take it away, so they just made a street, and you had to go downstairs to get to the first level. So the bottom of the whole block of all the stores

and apartments above it, all apartments, and the first floor is retail, and then in the basement was a gigantic record store for a whole block. Like, remember the Hudson's Bay or Eaton's, the big department store? The whole main floor is all records. And as I went down there, there's a room that says Canada. And I walk in the room, and there's a Canadian map on the wall, right,

a big green map. And then on it is a dot in Saskatoon that says Joni Mitchell. Winnipeg, there's a dot that goes the Guess Who, BTO, Neil Young, Tom Cochran, the Watchmen, the crash test dummies, everybody that came out of Winnipeg, Colin James, everybody like Winnipeg was the gate, the keyhole to the rest of Canada and the world.

And Canada really was put on the map at that time. And looking back at the 60s, when we were teenagers in Winnipeg, was a very amazing time. There was over 100 bands playing all the time. I was very lucky. There were the top five bands, who was Chad Allen and the Expressions, who became the Guess Who, the Devrons with Burton Cummings, and when Burton joined the Guess Who,

the Devrons broke up. Fred Turner was in the Rockin' Devils, and Neil Young was in Neil Young and the Squires. Those four guys, Backman, Cummings, Turner, Young, are still playing and rocking in the free world. And we came out of that environment. But the environment was great because the drinking age was 21.

We couldn't play any nightclub. But when we played a high school dance, everybody who was in their 20s came to the dance because that's where the good bands were. So when we played a high school dance, there was not 150 kids there. There was eight or 900 or or a thousand kids jammed in this auditorium all dancing and going that's we would do a three-hour rock dance and so it really supported the band and helped us to develop and you're all copying the hit parade and you're all sounding the same so what do you do you start to write your own stuff so you're different than the

other band or you try to find another band that you copy. We found Cliff Richard and the Shadows from England. We copied them because nobody could get their records. So that's why we were called Chad Allen and the Reflections. It was like Cliff Richard and the Shadows. And then we found the song Shaken All Over. We did that and boom, they changed our name to the Guess Who. So Winnipeg was a very fertile environment to come out of. There was clubs, teenage clubs everywhere that you had to be a teenager to get in. We couldn't play in the nightclubs.

They were 21 or over. Born and raised in a prairie town Just a kid full of dreams We didn't have much but an old radio Music came from places we'd never been Growing up in a prairie town but an old radio. Music came from places we'd never been. Growing up in a prairie town, learning to drive in the snow.

Not much to do, so you start a band. Soon you've gone as far as you can go. Winter nights are long, summer days are long. Portage and name, 50 below Springtime melts the snow, rivers overflow Partage your name, 50 below Partage your name, 50 below All the bands in a prairie town Tried to outdo the next in line Learning records out of Liverpool

Dreams of England on their minds On the other side of Winnipeg Neil and Squires played the zone But then he went to play For a while in Thunder Bay He never looked back And he's never coming home Winter nights are long

Summer days are gone Forties remain fifty below Springtime melts the snow Rivers overflow Forties remain fifty below Thank you. Randy Backman on Toronto Mike. Wow. This is only possible because of great Toronto Mike sponsors. Palma Pasta. Four locations in Mississauga and Oakville.

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with the Raymond James The Advantaged Investor podcast. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor or currently manage your own investment plans, The Advantaged Investor provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. FOTML Grego went east. The Maritimes, Newfoundland. He's been talking to small business owners and sharing their inspiring stories. It's season five of Yes, We Are Open, the award-winning podcast from Moneris. And last but not least, recyclemyelectronics.ca.

Go there and find out where you can drop off your old tech to be properly recycled. And shout out to Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of this community since 1921. Now let's get some Neil Young stories from Backman, shall we? We'll see you next time. Northern Helmet So long, Benatar Love it so much. And since you're mentioning Neil Young, I did get another question that came in from a gentleman named Steve. Steve, by the way, tells me he shared some

old newspaper clippings and magazine clippings about your your lost guitar that you were reunited in with i i almost kind of want that story but first let me just before we get there steve says randy is good friends with shaky young and i'm wondering if he could tell us about that friendship how it started and how it's endured all these years and if he has any interesting stories or anecdotes regarding his friendship with Neil Young. I have many.

Neil's a very long-time, cool guy to know and to be a friend with. Way back when we started in Winnipeg, you got a guitar, because that's all you could afford, and it was electric, and you didn't realize or you were so stupid you didn't get an amplifier or you couldn't afford an amplifier jim kale who was the bass player in the guess who had bought a fender concert amp so at a fender concert amp there's two channels and these channelers two inputs so you plug the microphone in which the guy sang into you plug the piano in which you had a little into. You plug the piano in, which you had a little pickup on.

You plugged in the bass and you plugged in the guitar. And you use your own volume on your instrument to balance what came out of that concert amp. And then a set of drums with no mics at all. So we would go and play a gig because we had a concert amp. And I remember Neil Young calling, saying, I have a gig next friday are you guys playing and jim would say no he said can i borrow the amp so we would take the amp to a gig

watch neil and the squires play all plugged into the fender concert amp the same concert app by the way we all plugged into to record shake all over that was our mixing board when the drums were too loud we moved we had one mic in the room when we recorded shake all over we heard the first playback the vocal wasn't loud enough we had chad move closer to the mic we moved the drum set more away from the mic we adjusted the balance in the amplifier that was our mixing board and recorded it again and when it came back we had forgot to unplug something it had a slap back echo we heard that we went wow that's like elvis let's leave it that became shake on over that was the hit but anyway this amplifier brought us and Neil Young together over and over then I got a big orange Gretsch that came into town because I wanted to be like Dwayne Eddy and Eddie Cochran

who played the big orange Gretsch and Shedak and Neil got the other orange Gretsch and I had that orange Gretsch I learned to play on it I wrote and played These Eyes Laughing Undone, No Time American Woman, Taking Care of Business, You Ain't Seen Nothing. Every song I wrote and played was on that guitar. This was my guitar and it was stolen in 1976 from the hotel room in Toronto. We were recording at Phase One Studios.

We had done an album. The guitar was stolen from my room. I never got it back back i was on a quest to get it back there was no internet then i had to fax people i had to phone everybody i mean there was grun guitars in nashville norman's rare guitars in uh la and manny's in new york city i would call them every every week is my guitar and here's the syrian limberton orange gresh blah blah nothing nothing nothing nothing i started collecting gretches because everybody i'd call would phone me up a week later say oh somebody traded in a gretch it's a white one it's a green one do you want it i go

yeah what the heck and i would get it it was never like mine mine was a beautiful orange one that had a certain sound and timber to it um so all the time goes by 20 20, 30, 40 years go by. I end up buying Gretsch's because they got offered to me for nothing. But nobody wanted Gretsch's. They were $200 or $300. People traded them in to buy Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls. So I have all these Gretsch's. And then one day I got a phone call from Fred Gretsch. He says, you have a big Gretsch collection. I said, yeah, I have over 300. He goes, are you nuts? And I go, no, I have over 300.

He said, can I come and see them? I said, are you kidding? Where are you? He said, I'm in Savannah, Georgia. I said, I'm in White Rock, BC, outside of Vancouver. He said, can I come next Tuesday? I said, okay, sure. So he comes the next week.

He brings the head of his production. His name is Duke Kramer. He brings Pete from Pete's Rare Guitars in Minneapolis to look at my collection. Then I have a basement room where there's a ceiling about 10 feet high. There's over 100 guitars on the wall and maybe another 50 on stands around in the room. You go into the room and it's like a big music store. And he sits there and he says, I got the name Gretsch back so I can make Gretsch guitars again. I got lost in a divorce on a corporate buyout and I can make guitars again.

But the factory burned down. I don't have the templates. Can I borrow your Gretsches one or two at a time or four or five at a time and copy them so we can remake them? And I said, sure. So I did that deal with him. I sent him five or six at a time. They would keep them for a month calibrate them measure them and

weigh them and everything and then make a prototype and then make the guitars so every Gretsch you see now in the world made from the 90s on is a copy of one that I had in my collection that's unbelievable Randy that's wild and then about three years later he called me and he said there's a fender museum a gibson museum a martin museum a rickenbacker museum you have my museum can i buy all your guitars i said yeah i've got so many i never see them anymore they're all in a case in my garage i want to buy a flat in london a coven garden i'll sell them so i could buy my flat in coven garden so i sold them the entire Gretsch collection. It's now in Savannah, Georgia, in the Gretsch Museum.

And when Tal and I were doing the YouTubes, when you're live on YouTube, down the side of the screen is a little black band, and people can say, oh, bad hair day, nice pants, buddy, you know, that kind of thing. And up comes a thing that says,

I found your Gretsch guitar. I found the lost Gretsch guitar. So so i say to tell when we're all done the broadcast contact this guy so the guy's name is william long he lives in white rock where we used to live we are now in victoria and um he says i think i found the guitar through facial recognition we go what he says yeah i found the look it up for number one by bto it's on youtube you're playing the orange gresh i said yeah you know i got i captured a picture of that put on my computer then i went on the internet and i googled every orange gresh sold on the internet in the last 20 15 20 years and i found this and he shows me a thing of a guy named takishi or as they say in Japan Takashi

he's 33 years old, he's the Japanese Brian Setzer, he sings everything phonetically he doesn't speak any English and I think this is your Gretsch and the guy's singing Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree at a Japanese nightclub two years ago and I look at it and I go OMG, that is my Gretsch

Tal is married to Coco who's Japanese, who immigrated here when she was a student. She contacts Takeshi's email, all in Japanese, and sets up a Zoom. So Fred Gretsch is on the Zoom in Savannah, Georgia, because he's very interested in the guitar. I've been trying to find it for 40 years.

And Takeshi's on it, and I'm on it, and I'm in tears. And he brings out my guitar, and he shows it to me. And he says, I'm an honorable man. I did not steal his guitar. I said, I know you weren't even born when it was stolen, okay? And he says, I will give it back to you. And I go, wow. I'll find one to trade you.

So I find one in Loveland, Ohio, from a friend of mine named Gary, who had Gary's vintage guitars, same year, same color, no mods, no repairs, nothing, a perfect shape, two digits off of mine, so when I find this, just in one phone call, we then zoom Takeshi back, and I say, I found the sister guitar, I found a puppy from the same litter, your dog got run over by a truck,

I've got your dog's brother, that puppy from the same litter. Your dog got run over by a truck. I've got your dog's brother that's from the same litter, okay? It's a little old, but it's the closest you can get to getting your puppy back. And we show it to him, and he goes, that's fantastic. I said, I'll send you this, Gretch. You send me mine. He said, I'm not putting it on a plane. You can't even come here now. Everything was frozen because we couldn't leave the country. And then when we do another YouTube, another thing comes up on the side that goes, I am Ian McKay. I'm the Canadian ambassador to Tokyo. I'm in Tokyo right now.

I've been the ambassador for a year and a half. I can't do any ambassadoring because it's shut down. I was given the appointment here. I'm supposed to be a goodwill guy in Tokyo. I can't do any ambassadoring because it's shut down. I was given the appointment here. I'm supposed to be a goodwill guy in Tokyo. I can't do any goodwilling, but we're opening on Canada Day. Do you want to come? And we'll arrange. We have the Oscar Peterson Theater here that we built for Oscar Peterson.

It holds 300 people. Beautiful theater. Do your exchange with Takashi on stage. We'll film it for television, for a YouTube kind of thing. And we look at each other, and he said, and we can get you in on a diplomatic passport, because there was no work permits issued then, right? Right.

Nobody could go to Japan unless you stayed in a little beach house for two weeks and ate rice and sushi until you were proven COVID-free. So we get in on a diplomatic kind of thing, and we did the exchange on Canada Day two years ago. And it was amazing. Tokyo was very much into this because they're very honorable people. You can leave your wallet in your car or at a table in a hotel and go to the bathroom. Nobody will steal your wallet there.

They have no need. At night, nobody locks up their bicycle. They leave them out in the yard like when I was growing up in Winnipeg, you never had a bike lock or you couldn't afford one. So Japan is very much into this thing. And that night on the exchange, there were so many people in the world following this because when I went on CTV and told the story,

they put it and it went national. We then got a call from BBC London TV, Good Morning America, PBS. They all wanted this story because then you would wake up, and it would be, how many people got shot today? Who got massacred today? How many schools were shut down? People got to wear masks.

People are thrown off. People are fighting on airplanes. People are fighting in restaurants. The world was crazy. And the good story of the day was some good person did a deed of kind, a random act of kindness, not of violence, but a random act of kindness, and found me my guitar. And then I bought the twin and then the guy in Japan traded it to me.

So this was so viral on Canada Day. We broke the Internet in 80 countries. Over 200 countries are following this story. It's been translated in like 12 languages. So it's in Italian, French, all South America's into this thing, all of Mexico's into it. So now

the documentary's done. We call it a rockumentary. It'll be shown at Sundance next spring, and the world's going to see the story of this guitar and how it came back to me. And when I got to Japan, I said, I want to see my guitar and meet Takeshi.

They said, you can't. What do you mean? We went a week early to get accustomed to the time zone, travel and everything, right? You have to wait until the exchange date. Why? Because it's got to be like a wedding. You can't see the bride until she walks down the aisle with her father.

Are you kidding? They said, no no we want your reaction on tv when you see your guitar for the first time in 46 years and this guy Takeshi who's your now your brother your guitar brother who you can't even talk to because all he knows is hello and all you know is Kanishi wow right like oh my god and um so they captured that when we went on stage he was playing taking care of business i walked out with my gretch looked at him shoulder traded the guitars finished playing the song boom it was absolutely amazing and i they still won't let me see that they won't let me see my reaction my whole body language and face and everything when i got my guitar back but when i got it back it's like wow this is my first bicycle i can ride around the block again hands in the air you know ride with no hands kind of thing and it was amazing so i have the guitar

here now and it's it's fantastic the guitar in this Bachman-Turner Overdrive song was the first one Randy Bachman ever bought. A 1957 Gretsch 6120, the Chet Atkins model in Western Orange. Bachman says he and Neil Young spent hours drooling over it in the window of a Winnipeg music store while he worked to save up for it. I babysat, I had a paper wrote, getting up early in the morning, throwing papers in guys' yards, washed cars.

Bachman performed some big hits on that guitar, but in 1976, it was stolen from a Holiday Inn hotel room in Toronto. I cried for, literally at night I cried. I love this guitar so much. Bachman spent years and a fortune searching for that guitar, buying up hundreds of them.

And then just recently, someone identified it in this video, shot in a Tokyo restaurant Christmas Eve 2019. It was like being hit in the face with a shovel it's like bam oh man my guitar I was I was in tears. His soon-to-be daughter-in-law Coco reached out to the musician Takeshi who was born the year the guitar was stolen. He offered to make an exchange the original guitar for another one built in 1957. There are fewer than 40, but Bachman found one in perfect condition. And they were made basically in the same day or the same week on the same bench and put together at the same time.

In a statement, Takeshi said, I'm so honoured and proud to be the one who can finally return this stolen guitar to its owner, the rock star Mr. Bachman, who was searching for it for nearly half a century. And I feel very grateful for this miracle happening in both our lives. Bachman is now planning a trip to Tokyo to take care of some business, make the exchange with Takeshi, and then perform together. Karen Pauls, CBC News, Winnipeg. What a story. My goodness, that's a movie

waiting to happen. You've got to license that. That should be a film. Maybe we'll get Spielberg to direct that one. Well, it'll be a film. It'll be a rockumentary out next year. Okay, I can't wait to see it. Now, for the listeners, normally, you know, when I get a Randy Backman who will talk to me, it's like I go 90 minutes, but can't wait to see it. Now, for the listeners, normally, you know, when I get a Randy Backman who will talk to me, it's like I go 90 minutes,

but I did pledge to keep this to 30 minutes. So I'm going to do a couple of quick hits because I don't know if I'll ever get to talk to you again, but if I don't say this at the end,

thank you, Randy, for this conversation. A living legend. Long may you run, as Neil would say. Cam Gordon, great question here. We talk a lot about the 1985 charity single.

Uh, tears are not enough. And we talk about who was there and who was not there. Were you invited to participate in the tears are not enough recording? No, I was not. Color me shocked. I, uh,

don't understand why you weren't invited to participate. Did that upset you at the time? I'm curious. Well, I didn't know what was happening at the time. You don't know these things are happening. I had left BTO. Bruce Allen kept managing them. I wasn't on Bruce's favorite guy list.

And I never got asked. It was personal. I believe it was. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Okay, so that was my big question I've been holding on to for 40 years. Were you invited? Because you're noticing, there were a few people, I'm like, where are they? It's like, where's Leonard Cohen?

Where's Buffy St. Marie? And where's Randy Backman? Like, these are the glaring omissions. But okay. What happened to your, listening to you talk for the last half an hour, it's, you can tell a story, and you've got stories to tell. What exactly happened with the CBC show, Vinyl Cafe,

which was fantastic? I was a regular listener. Like, why the abrupt end? Well, it was called Vinyl Tap. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I said that. Okay. That's okay, that's okay.

Everybody, you know, that's where I got the name. I can't believe I said that. That's okay. That's where I got the name. I did a couple of vinyl cafes with Stuart. McLean. And I said to him, hey, I have a chance to do a show. I want to make it like Spinal Tap, rock and roll story. Can I call it Vinyl Tap?

He said, sure, go ahead. So I called it Vinyl Tap. I did that show as a summer replacement for 10 weeks. I lost $600 because I had to go and buy vinyl again. But I wanted to prove to everybody because they said I couldn't do it, that how are you going to radio show and keep listeners engaged? I said, I'll tell my own story that nobody knows because I played with everybody in the world. I'm right from, you know, Miles Davis to Dizzy Gillespie to,

you know what I mean, to Buffalo Springfield and the Birds and everybody else. Okay, so I did that show. It went all summer long. And at the end of the summer, there was a CBC strike. So they called me up and they said, nobody can cross the picket line or they're a scab or they get beat up or something.

Can we play your show again, September and October, your 10-weeks 10 weeks show and I said am I going to get paid anymore and they said no we already own the shows but can we play them again I said sure I don't care so they played them again and um at the end of October I got a call saying we just did the fall book which is the ratings yours is the number one show do you want to keep doing it? I said, what do you mean? Do you mean a real J-O-B? My dad always kept saying to me, you have to have a real job, okay? You can't play a guitar all your life. You need a real J-O-B. I said, this is a real J-O-B. My dad would be very happy. And he said, yeah, it's a real J-O-B. So I started to do that. And it kept coming up in the ratings, the spring ratings, top show, fall ratings, top show.

coming up in the ratings, the spring ratings, top show, fall ratings, top show. Could we replay it on Sunday night? Sure. A lot of musicians were complaining they're going to hear their gig Saturday. They have to show and they have to set up and play their gig at 9 o'clock Saturday night and they don't hear the end of my show. Okay, you can play it Sunday. Can we play it Friday night for all the truckers and all the cops who are driving around the night show?

So it got played Friday and Saturday and Sunday. It was incredible. And then it got erased and Saturday and Sunday. It was incredible. And then it got erased, and then I started making money at it. After a while, and I don't know why this happens. It happens with every iPhone and every Mac computer. A new guy comes in, he invents something new, and they change your face page on YouTube or Google, and you can't figure it out.

You want the old one. And when something works, they stop making it, like a drum machine or a guitar tuner. And when a radio show works, they bring in a young guy who says, we want to modernize the CBC. And let's get rid of Hockey Night in Canada. Duh, are you kidding? Let's get rid of Stuart McLean.

Let's get rid of Randy Backman. Let's get a younger audience. And they brought a guy in who basically fired me. Now I'm angry. I'm angry, Randy. We had hundreds of thousands of emails from fans saying, what's going on?

I didn't know what was going on, but I do know this, and I said to them, the people at CBC, you're not going to euthanize. That's a double-meaning word there. You're not going to make CBC youth-oriented. Youth has their own network of Internet, Wi-Fi, EarPods, Spotify. Your main audience is basically, and I could tell by my mail, from 18 to 80. Everybody loved that show.

Young kids would email me saying, oh, we're in Halifax, we're in the school symphony. The teacher makes us listen to your show every weekend because your musical history of Canadian and world music, and you play everything from classical music to rock and roll showing how it all evolved years it's such an education listening to your show and I really love that and I was very very broken I think when they shut it down I got so used to doing it I fell so much in love with doing the show and having a theme every week and I did the show with my son Tal

he helped me with the research and stuff and typing it all up because we got a lot of mail we had an open 1-800 line people would call in requests they would send in ideas for the show they were all called tap heads whenever I'd play around the country

they'd all come to the show I would be walking in Halifax or in Ottawa or Tapas casing or something and a window would roll down a guy would yell hey man I love the cowbell show hey man I love that show I love your radio show I'd walk through airports people would come up people were coming up to me at airports saying we don't know who you are but we recognize your voice and I've never had anybody recognized my

voice before so that was a wonderful show I miss it I would go back if CBC called me and said, hey, we want to go back. We want another year or two of Vinyl Tap. I would do that. It would be great. But for now it's gone and I've moved on. But it did have a little bit of a rebirth with the Chorus Network, I know.

But that seems to have run its course as well. Yeah, I had an offer from Chorus. I did that. And the thing about CBC is you're paid for by tax dollars. It's government money. On Course, we couldn't get enough advertisers.

And I kept saying, hey, this is between 5 and 7 million people every Saturday night or every Sunday night, whenever it was on. You can reach that many people. How would you like two hours of presenting Randy's Vinothop where I would say this is presented by blah blah potato chips or blah blah motors or

blah blah computers nobody came to the party so although everybody liked the show, everybody likes the party, they don't want to bring the chips or the drink when they come to the party sorry to hear that again you've been amazing and tap your nose. I'm going to let you set you free

because I stole, I think, an extra 10 minutes out of you and I apologize. Not really. That's okay. I'll give you one more question. One more, okay. 63 Leafs wrote in. Here's the question that 63 Leafs

has probably been wondering since almost that long. Was the song American Woman written in Kitchener, Ontario? And if so, do you remember where and when you first performed that song publicly? Yeah, it was the Greenbrier's Curling Club. There was a curling tournament. We played in this curling arena. It was in February. It was freezing. There was a boss field the next day, so the ice was down. They put plywood on the floor. We were playing on stage freezing. Everyone was a bond spiel the next day, so the ice was down. They put plywood on the floor. We were playing on stage freezing. Everyone was wearing toques and parkas in this gig.

And I broke a string. And when I went to change my guitar string, the band had left the stage. I had no roadie, no spare guitar, no tuner. I put on the string and I was on my knees, tuning to Burton's piano. And as I start to tune, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, I start to play dun, dun, dun. I'm on my knees tuning to Burton's piano. And as I start to tune, I start to play.

I'm on my knees in the dark on the stage. And I start to play. And all the audience who are talking amongst themselves, their head turns to the stage and I go, oh my God, I can't forget this riff. And I stand up and I'm looking around and I see the drummer, Gary Peterson. I go like this. He comes on stage. Jim Cale comes on stage and we start to play this riff and I stand up and I'm looking around and I see the drummer Gary Peterson I go like this he comes on stage Jim Kale comes on stage and we start to play this riff and say play this riff over and over I don't want to forget this riff and Burton comes running on stage he was at the back of the hall then goes running on stage going what is this I just sing anything sing something to remember this riff by and he sings American Woman Stay Away From Me he sings it four or five times we solo he sings the same line again.

And then it was all done, and the audience sensed this creative surge coming from the angels of song, who after you try to write a song for years and years, says, let's give this poor guy a shot at writing a good song. So they sent this happening. And then the next day, Burton said, can I add some lyrics to that? Can I add, we don't want your war machine? Great, had been in the state then this is the late 60s they tried to draft us they were drafting everybody between 18 and 30 to go and fight the war in a jungle that

nobody knew and you either learn to kill or be killed there you'll never come home and if you do come home you're never the same it was a really stupid sense just like what's going on now america has been at war for over 200 years with somebody somewhere. They're always in a war. And the song was written there on stage. In fact, there's a sign that says American Woman is written on this spot. It's now True Value Hardware. And it's right there in the store.

It says American Woman was written on this spot in February of 1969 or something like that. In Kitchener, Ontario. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Amazing. And hearing your recollection of that day and this vivid memory, famously you've got that phonographic memory.

You can hear a song one time, right? And you can duplicate it or whatever. But I think you might have it for the facts and everything too. You just are blessed with an exceptional memory and you're a great storyteller and that makes you a fantastic FOTM, that's Friend of Toronto Mike. So thank you Randy Backman.

BTO is back baby. Can't wait for you guys to play GTA and again thank you for your time today. Thank you, we'll see you soon. And that brings us to the end of our 13,340th show. You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Randy's on Twitter at Randy's Vinyl Tap. And much love to those who made this all possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Raymond James Canada, Moneris, Recycle My Electronics, Pumpkins After Dark, and Ridley Funeral Home.

See you all tomorrow, and my special guest is Kevin Frankish. Well, I want to take a streetcar downtown Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything is kind of rosy and green Thank you. Cause everything is rosy and green American woman gonna mess your mind American woman she gonna mess your mind

American woman gonna mess your mind American woman gonna mess your mind Say A Say M Say E Say R Say I Say C

Say A Say M American woman Gonna miss your mind American woman gonna miss your mind American woman gonna miss your mind American Woman Stay away from me American woman, mama let me be Don't come a-hanging around my door

I don't wanna see your face no more I got more important things to do Than spend my time growing old with you Now woman, I said stay away American Woman American woman Get away from me American woman Mama let me be Come a-knockin' around my door

Don't wanna see your shadow no more Colored lights can hypnotize Sparkle someone else's eyes The woman said get away American woman Listen what I say guitar solo American Woman Said get away American Woman

Listen to what I say Look at me hanging around my door Don't wanna see your face no more I don't need your war machines I don't need your war machines I don't need your ghetto scenes Colored lights can hypnotize Sparkle someone else's eyes Now woman, get away from me

American woman, mama let me be Go, gotta get away, gotta get away. Now go, go, go. I'm gonna leave you, woman. Gonna leave you, woman. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. You're no good for me I'm no good for you Gonna look you right in the eye Tell you what I'm gonna do You know I'm gonna lose You know I'm gonna go You know I'm gonna lose

You know I'm gonna go I'm gonna come We rented a truck and a tram and a co Traveled down the long and hard-earned road Look on the map, I think we've been there before Let it go Down the highway Let it go Down the highway Whoa, whoa

Look at the sign We're in the wrong place We'll be right back. Time's still short, you know the business is on I'd like to have a chance, but it's not in the zone Drive back in the cab, cause I think I'm so lost We gotta keep moving, if we're gonna make it back Let it go Down the highway Let it go Down the highway Go Let it go Down the highway Go guitar solo Let it go

Let it go Let it go Let it go Let it go Let it go Let it go Down the highway Let it go Down the highway

Go, go, let it go Down the highway Let it roll Down my heart rate Let it roll Down my heart rate Go, go, go Let it roll Down my heart rate Let it roll Down the highway Let it roll Down the highway

Let it roll Let it roll