Bachman-Turner Overdrive has just released its first new song in decades, “60 Years Ago,” a rocking tribute to founding singer/guitarist Randy Bachman’s hometown, Winnipeg, Canada, and the fertile music scene that emerged there during the 1960s.
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The track features BTO’s classic boogie-rock sound, with Bachman trading off lead vocals with the band’s original singer/bassist Fred Turner. Turner came out of retirement to record his powerhouse vocal parts for the tune. “60 Years Ago” also features a vocal line and a guitar solo from Bachman’s old friend Neil Young, who also played in bands in Winnipeg during the 1960s.
In a new interview with American Songwriter, Bachman explained that he wrote “60 Years Ago” a few years ago “just for fun.” Then, when Winnipeg officials announced that it was going to rename a bridge on the Disraeli Freeway after Bachman-Turner Overdrive, he thought it would be a great idea to record the song and present it to the city.
BTO is scheduled to play Winnipeg on April 19 as part of the band’s 2025 spring Canadian tour. The day before the show, according to Randy, the city will rechristen the bridge the Bachman-Turner Overpass.
“Wow!” Bachman declared about the honor. “And they said they’re gonna put one of those rubber hoses on the road that when you run over [it], it yells [BTO’s] ‘Roll On Down the Highway’ or ‘Takin’ Care of Business.’ … And I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty incredible. What can I do to thank them?’”
The Song Will Raise Money for Charity
Proceeds from sales of “60 Years Ago” will be donated to the Bridge to Nowhere charity ride. The event, which seeks to end chronic homelessness in the Winnipeg area, is produced in partnership with the Brothers of the Fork cyclist group and the Hockey Helps the Homeless charity. This year’s ride is scheduled for June 7.
The track is available now as a digital download and via streaming services.
On the Recording of “60 Years Ago”
Bachman said that when he and the band recorded “60 Years Ago,” he wanted it to sound like vintage BTO.
“[E]verybody said to me, ‘If you do new BTO, it’s got to sound like 1977,’” he noted. “OK, I got all the old gear, I still got my studio stuff that I did all that on. … So I made it sound very BTO.”
Randy relaunched Bachman-Turner Overdrive in 2023, but without Turner, who’d retired a few years earlier and had been struggling with health issues and depression. He explained that he wanted Turner’s voice on the new song, but convincing him to sing again wasn’t easy.
Fred lost his [wife] of many, many years … about two years ago, and he went into absolute depression mode,” Bachman noted. “He lost his voice, he lost his balance, he banged his head, he couldn’t stand up. So I sent him this song, saying, ‘Fred, how do you like this? … Can you sing over this? … Sing any line you want.’ … And he said, ‘I can’t sing. I lost my voice.’”
Thankfully, Turner eventually had a change of heart.
“I got an email from him three or four months ago, saying, ‘You know, I’ve been listening to what you’re doing and I’m gonna do it with you,’” Bachman revealed. “He hadn’t done anything for three or four years. And he sent me back this track, and I go, ‘Wow! This is what I wanted.’ He was screaming. It’s like the old days. It’s like 1977. … [I said,] ‘This is amazing, Fred.’”
Bachman now is hoping that Turner will show up to the bridge renaming, and that he’ll maybe join BTO onstage at some shows.
More About the Inspiration Behind “60 Years Ago”
Bachman explained that “60 Years Ago” tells the story of what it was like playing in bands in Winnipeg during the early years of his music career.
The lyrics name-check Young, Turner, and Randy’s Guess Who bandmate Burton Cummings. They also touch on Bachman’s exit from The Guess Who and the formation of Bachman-Turner Overdrive in the early 1970s.
The song also pays tribute to the intersection in downtown Winnipeg, Portage Ave. and Main St., where several radio stations and clubs were located. In addition, the tune mentions major factor that inspired young people to join bands and play music during the winter, the bitter cold temperature in Winnipeg.
“So damn cold, and so much snow / We stayed inside, and rocked and rolled,” one line goes.
Lastly, the song celebrates that, 60 years on, Bachman, Turner, Cummings, and Young are all still around making music.
“[The story is] there, and it’s joyfully sung about,” Bachman says of the new BTO sing. “[N]ow we can celebrate it, because that whole thing we went through has brought me here now and brought Burton there and brought Neil Young there and brought Fred [there]. [It’s] like the four guys are back together in this dream, this dream called ‘60 Years Ago.’”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s 2025 Tour Plans
As previously reported, the current Bachman-Turner Overdrive lineup also features Randy’s son Tal on guitar and vocals, and Tal’s wife, KoKo, on drums. Rounding out the touring band are bassist Lance Lapointe and guitarist Brett Knudsen.
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BTO will kick off its 2025 Back in Overdrive tour with a spring Canadian leg. The trek runs from an April 1 concert in Victoria, British Columbia, through a May 8 show in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fellow veteran Canadian bands April Wine and Headpins will be the opening acts.
BTO also has a U.S. summer outing lined up that will feature The Marshall Tucker Band as co-headliner on many of the dates. The trek gets underway on July 18 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and is scheduled through an August 23 performance in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jefferson Starship will be a special guest at most of BTO’s U.S. shows through a July 26 concert in Huber Heights, Ohio.
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