TORONTO – Bachman-Turner Overdrive will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this weekend, more than a decade after the group’s infighting prevented their inclusion.
Back then, the hitmakers behind such meat-and-potatoes cottage classics as “Takin’ Care of Business” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” were still embroiled in conflicts over who had the rightful claim to the group’s name. They couldn’t agree on which lineup of the band should be inducted.
They’ve made peace to the extent that the lineup behind BTO’s 1974 smash “Not Fragile” — Randy Bachman, Fred Turner, Blair Thornton and Robin (Robbie) Bachman — will be ushered in during this weekend’s festivities in Winnipeg.
But to what degree have old conflicts been forgotten? Randy Bachman talked to The Canadian Press about that issue and reflected on Junos’ past in a recent interview.
CP: In your new book “Tales From Beyond the Tap,” you write that you and your brother Robbie have never reconciled and that he has “grandiose delusions about himself.” How will it feel to be ushered in alongside him?
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Bachman: I’m not sure what that’ll be like. I’m just getting ready for it. …
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.
CP: According to the official tally, you’ve won 11 Junos. Have you kept track of them all?
Bachman: There are quite a few, because I produced Trooper and (I won) quite a bit for BTO, because I was the producer and the singer/songwriter. So I got double gold and platinum records for all that stuff as well. I have a nice collection of blue ribbons or gold records or platinum records or Junos.
They’re all in Ottawa at the archives now. I don’t have any at home. I don’t have a gold record in the house. I’m worried about the next gold record.
I had so many in my house, they were all in a room locked and I couldn’t let anybody in there. I was away on tour a lot and you could see by reading an itinerary — and then come in and break into my house. It was like saying, “look at all the diamonds, look at all the money I leave lying around my house.” You’re gone, they break in. So I gave them all to Ottawa.
CP: Does any one Juno stand out to you as being more meaningful than they others?
Bachman: No, they’re all pretty meaningful. In the old days, they were called the RPM Awards and they were a nice walnut monolith … with a Maple Leaf and an RPM on it. That meant a lot in its day. Then that turned into the Junos and it still has a really good meaning.
It’s an accolade from someone. Somebody somewhere has voted to acknowledge this band or this guy’s work. “Let’s give him this little award — and then we never have to play the record again.”
Answers have been edited and condensed.
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