A shift of styles in popular music in the mid-1970s had quickly caused old-fashioned guitar rock and roll to face near extinction on the Top 40 charts. Songs like Lovin' You by Minnie Riperton and The Morning After by Maureen McGovern were topping the pop charts with alarming regularity, leaving many rock and roll fans feeling like they were left out in the cold without a jacket.

Until BTO came along.

BTO stormed the "light on guitar" pop charts of the 70's with a string of hard-rocking tunes, including classics such as Takin' Care of Business, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Roll On Down The Highway, Hey You, and Let It Ride. At one point the band had four albums on the charts at the same time, proving to critics that there was still a desire by fans to hear simple, loud, riffy, good guitar rock and roll.

Over thirty years after the creation of BTO, the band is still pleasing audiences to this day with ball-breaking live shows. Original members Robin Bachman, C.F. Turner, and Blair Thornton are alive and well, playing as loudly and proudly as the days when their shoulder length hair adorned the stage. Bachman's smash-mouth style of drumming has anchored the band since day one, while C.F. Turner's straightforward lead vocals and bass playing have given the band it's unmistakable trademark sound. Guitarist Blair Thornton has provided countless signature riffs to millions of fans worldwide, and guitarist/vocalist Randy Murray has been in tow for over thirteen years as an integral part of BTO on all levels.

XMFan recently had a chance to speak with Rob Bachman, who resides in British Columbia, Canada. He was happy to discuss the music business and current projects, among other things. Rob seems to have a true love and appreciation for BTO fans, and seemed to enjoy our brief trip down memory lane.


XMFan: When did you first begin playing the drums?
Rob: Before I was in grade school we had a little family band - four brothers - guitar, accordion, and I had one of those little Sears Roebuck cardboard drum sets with the palm tree on the front of the bass drum, with a little cowbell kind of thing. We did banquets like legion halls and veterans parties, weddings, anniversary parties, church parties, all that stuff. Then when I started grade one my mom stop it so I could concentrate on schoolwork. When I was sixteen I got my first actual set of drums. I guess I officially started playing then.

XMFan: Do you play any instruments other than percussion?
Rob: I think I know five guitar chords, which I have used to write my tunes.

XMFan: I believe you were only twenty when the first BTO album was released.
Rob: Yeah, that was May of '73. Starting at twenty now is old man, way old. (Laughs)

XMFan: Progressive rock was gaining popularity in the early 1970's, with bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, and ELP achieving success on the music charts. BTO was seemingly created to carry the torch of straightforward, bone-crunching rock and roll…
Rob: Yes, kind of. We were basically fans of all kinds of music, but really liked the old kind of rock and roll - like listening to Elvis - and the funky kinds of bands like The Stones. We just had a great vocalist. To have Fred Turner sing any tune gives it this rock and roll "class", just from hearing his voice. Luckily for us, Creedence had just call it quits, and we came out with three and four-chord rock and roll with Fred Turner's gruff voice. So it was basically this working mans kind of rock and roll that a white guy could tap his foot to.

We had enough tunes that were radio time - the three and a half minute mark - to get played on radio. We were mostly played on FM, because at that time we were too heavy for AM. The lyrics were... (Pauses) If you sang them straightforward you got the meaning, but you know, there were other little underlying stories here and there for different songs and song titles. If you didn't happen to look past the lyrics you could follow along with the song and it would give you some kind of message with a great feel to it.

XMFan: I've heard over the years that Overdrive was part of the band name for two different reasons. One was in honor of the name of a trucker's magazine, the other because of the brand of rock and roll you play. Which is true?
Rob: Well, we picked Overdrive from the magazine title because that was the kind of music we were trying to play. The magazine is still around, new and revamped like all magazines have been over the past thirty years, but it's still there.

XMFan: Your 1974 album Not Fragile reached number one on the Billboard Album Chart, and remained on the chart for an amazing 50 weeks, even though some critics of the day accused the album of being too "basic." Did you get the last laugh over these critics?
Rob: I think we got the last laugh off of any critic. At that time we had three albums on the charts - BTO I, BTO II, and Not Fragile. They were on for about a good three and a half years. Then Four Wheel Drive came out and we had four albums on the charts. We're still playing those same songs today to as large a crowd, and as young a crowd, as we did when that album was number one. So I'm still laughing. Instead of laughing all the way to the bank, I say, "I'm laughing all the way to the stage."

XMFan: How does it feel to headline a sold-out stadium show with 30,000 fans in attendance?
Rob: It's gratifying in the sense that what we're doing is really us. We're not pretending to be anybody else, not dressing the part, not coming out with music or a concert show that is portraying some sort of different personalities. It gives you a real boost that something you've actually thought of personally, in your head - and sometimes even that night - people are appreciating. It's the truest form of instant gratification.

XMFan: Along with C.F. Turner, you co-wrote one of BTO's most popular songs, Roll On Down The Highway. Would you tell us what inspired you to write the song?
Rob: I think it was in March of '74, in either Kansas or Oklahoma. I was sitting outside the hotel room in one of those places where the hallway outside the room is air. I went back inside the room and pulled back the curtains, sat in the chair, and looked back outside and said, "Wow, here we are. We've got semis with our names on them." You know, we rented the truck, which wound up being the first line. I kept thinking of stuff that had happened to us on the road - we're looking at the map, we're in the wrong place. "Four fifty-four coming over the hill", Fred Turner put that in, referring to the old state trooper pursuit cars with the big Chevy 454 (engine) coming over the hill, man on the run going to give you a bill. You get your speeding tickets trying to get from one city to the other. I was sort of my opening to, "Hey, here we are. The band is becoming huge and we've got semis and our own caravan on the road going from city to city playing concerts." These are the stories that happened to us while we were driving down the highway, things that happen just about every day.

XMFan: Do you still live in Canada?
Rob: When I'm not touring, yes. I'm up here right now, getting ready to go mountain biking.

XMFan: You've always included a little maple leaf in the BTO logo…
Rob: It's funny, some people from Canada don't know we're from Canada. That maple leaf is gone now.

XMFan: I believe BTO is probably one of the most successful bands from Canada.
Rob: We're lucky; we're still getting royalties from far-away places we've never played. People come back from vacations and say, "Man, I was in Cambodia and I heard your song. Shit, that's BTO." It's strange to people (tourists), because the songs are so familiar and they feel more at home. We've heard stories like that off-and-on throughout the years. As far as living in Canada, we have been lucky to have good connections to be able to leave the country and go places - do concerts.

XMFan: So what does Rob Bachman do for fun?
Rob: I'm a video kook. I like shooting videos. In fact, I videotape just about every tour day we do, mostly the back-state stuff. Right now I'm going through my old 70's Super-8 movies, which I shot on the road all through the 70's. I'm trying to transfer some of that to video and DVDs, and might see if the public is interested in buying some old BTO footage.

XMFan: You gave us a small taste of that footage on your website, with a video of the State Trooper pulling you over. (www.btorocks.com)
Rob: Yeah, there you go. Rollin' down the highway, man on the run gonna give you a ticket. (Laughs) There it is right there. I've got footage of us and Alvin Lee, REO Speedwagon, Aerosmith, Brownsville Station, Bob Seeger, Meatloaf; everybody hanging out backstage or traveling on the plane. All kinds of stuff like that. Tours of Japan, Europe. I'm trying to get it all together - and put little bits of it here and there on the site - and see if anyone would be interested.

XMFan: Does the band have any releases or projects in the works?
Rob: We start a tour this June. The dates should be on the site soon if they aren't already. There are a few concert DVDs we're working on right now. We do have new material - nine tunes - and I guess we'll see what we can do to take them on the road.

XMFan: Would you mind telling our percussion fans the type of kit you use on tour?
Rob: I have a Pearl set, their top road model. I've got a 12x14 Rack Tom on the Bass Drum, which I put on a Snare stand because I get more mobility that way. 22x22 Bass Drums, 14x14 Floor Tom and a 16x14 Floor Tom. I've got Sabian Cymbals, and a 15-inch Hi-Hat medium. A lot of guys don't realize when you're getting a 15-inch Hi-Hat you can spread your kit out more, because you've got an extra two inches over the standard 13. You can spread your legs out more and still have the Hi-Hat close to you. When I sit the same way and someone gives me a 12 or 13-inch, I have to either pull a Hi-Hat in or crowd up my drum riser, or reach way over and end up getting a pulled neck muscle! Then I've got two 18-inch Medium Sabian Crashes and a 20-inch Sabian Ride. Sometimes I'll use a 16-inch Medium Crash on my right side.

XMFan: Would you have imagined thirty years ago that your songs would still be this popular in 2004, showing up in movies, TV commercials, and even political campaigns?
Rob: When Bush was running the first time, both parties were each using one of our songs. Either they weren't controlling what was being played, or no one really researched the songs were from the same band. I was thinking, "Well hey, that's great! Whoever wins may want us to play the party!" But no, I never thought the songs would be remembered a year ahead of time, much less thirty years from then. I was thinking more about the next tour.

After I (temporarily) retired back in 1979, I thought it would be a great time to do the things I wasn't able to do since high school. You know, hang out with the guys, go to movies, camping, hiking, stuff like that. Then "classic rock" radio came in and wound up being a viable way of marketing and advertising things - a whole new form of entertainment. The music was actually more popular than it was in the 70's, more accepted by the public, by radio, by TV, by commercials, by movies. It was a real marketing tool. There are a lot of tunes that people of all ages and walks of life can still relate to. You may have gone to grade nine with five guys whose life stories are all different. You can still listen to those same tunes you all did in grade nine and relate to it; one may be a doctor, one may be a plumber, the other guy could be working in a circus for crying out loud, and you have nothing else in common. But when those five guys hear the music they all have the same memories.

Popular music of that time didn't have the growth and strength that it has accumulated over the past twenty years. It is amazing - it is a phenomenon - and I don't know what the young guys today are thinking. I don't know what Eminem or Britney Spears are thinking - do they see a band like us and say, "Wow, am I going to be doing that in thirty years?" We are proving now that it's possible. Guys like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett were still rockin' and rollin' into their seventies. If people want us to play, we're going to be there playing.


BTO can be heard on Top Tracks, Deep Tracks, and 70's on 7.