(Dan Harper photo) Randy Bachman (left) and Fred Turner have reunited to record a new album, due out in September, and a world tour, stopping at the Riverside Casino's outdoor stage Saturday night. They'll be joined by Bachman's band, but not the Overdrive musicians of BTO's heyday.

By Diana Nollen

When Randy Bachman and Fred Turner step onto the outdoor stage at the Riverside Casino on Saturday night, June 26, 2010, they’ll sound the same, but they won’t look the same as they did in their ’70s heyday.

“We were half a ton of rock ’n’ roll,” Bachman says in a phone interview from Winnipeg last month. He and his former Bachman-Turner Overdrive partner went back to their hometown to rehearse for their world tour, launched earlier this month in Sweden.

Both have parted company with the Overdrive band, so they’re traveling with Bachman’s band, instead.

“Our nickname was Bachman Turner Overweight and Men Without Necks,” Bachman says. “We rolled with it. We were big, jolly guys.”

With an easy laugh, he still sounds jolly, but he’s lost 150 pounds and Turner has dropped 100 pounds.

“I got really overweight when 9/11 happened,” says Bachman, who was in New York at the time. “We thought it was the end of the world.”

He was touring with his first band, The Guess Who, and Joe Cocker.

“We were supposed to play in New Jersey on Sept. 12. We couldn’t cross the (U.S.-Canadian) border and go home. We were in our tour bus for weeks and weeks — trapped in a bus with nowhere to go. We had a month break with no gigs, so we sat in our tour bus in the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia. We said, ‘Let’s shop and eat.’”

He ate his way to 390 pounds.

“I couldn’t move and couldn’t breathe,” he says, so he sought weight-reduction surgery.

“It saved my life,” he says. “I get up every day and work out, I eat properly. I participated in a miracle,” which he’s determined to honor. He says Turner dropped from 260 to 175 through diet and exercise.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Bachman says. “Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, the Eagles — most of us are in our mid-60s and most of us are on treadmills. Now, ‘Let’s party’ means ‘Let’s have a French fry.’

“Luckily, Fred and I never smoked. I don’t smoke cigarettes, I’m dope-free and alcohol-free. … That gave me a head-start on still being able to do that teenage dream of being in a rock ’n’ roll band.”
Although Bachman and Turner went their separate ways in the ’80s, Bachman says the magic was still there when they recently reunited to cut a new album and go on tour.

“Fred stepped into my band and when I started ‘Let it Ride,’ the tears were streaming down our faces,” Bachman says. “Rock is my life.”

The Overdrive days were over and he thought Turner had retired. Bachman, however, was still out there, recording a couple of jazz albums and running his “Vinyl Tap” radio show with his wife, singer/songwriter Denise McCann. She helps with research for the interactive show heard coast to coast on Canadian public radio.

It was time to go back to that ’70s sound that so many fans embraced, he says.

Two years in the making, the solo album became a group effort that has succeeded in Bachman’s back-to-the-future mission. The first radio cut, “Rollin’ Along,” is available on iTunes and has that raw, raucous sound that propelled BTO to the top of the charts.

 “The road crew guys never thought they’d hear music created like this from the ground up, created by the creators,” Bachman says with obvious pride. For me to get Fred Turner again, to get that funk and bass player,” made all the difference. “Certain parts of the formula you can do without, but certain parts you need.”

The rest of the band adds versatility. “It’s the best band that could be representing this music,” Bachman says.

The new album will come out in September in a double-vinyl set, CD and computer downloads.

But when Bachmand & Turner are on the road, they’ll be taking care of business, giving the fans what they crave.

“When I go see Neil Young or the Eagles, I don’t want to hear 10 new songs. I’m paying for the memories and what I was feeling,” Bachman says. “We’re doing our own songs and getting the set lists from our fans.”

FAST TAKE

What: Bachman & Turner outdoor concert

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, June 26, 2010; gates open at 7 p.m.

Where: Riverside Casino and Golf Resort, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside; in the parking lot on the east side of the building, beside the Event Center

Tickets: $35 and $65 at the casino gift shop and www.riversidecasinoandresort.com

Rain: The show goes on rain or shine, unless storms bring unsafe conditions. Local media will be notified if the show is canceled. Refunds will be issued to ticketholders at point of purchase.

Extras: Open to all ages; bring lawn chair; no outside coolers allowed

Information: www.riversidecasinoandresort.com/events/event-center.php

Artists’ website: www.bachmanandturner.com