Robbie Bachman, the drummer for the Canadian hard rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive “BTO”, known for 1970s hits like “Takin’ Care of Business” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” died at the age of 69.
Randy Bachman, his brother and band-mate, announced his death on social media on Thursday, without elaborating on the cause.
“BTO’s pounding beat has left us,” Randy Bachman wrote. “He was a vital cog in our rock ‘n’ roll machine, and together we rocked the world.”
The Bachman brothers were Winnipeg natives who had grown up playing music.
Robbie Bachman first collaborated with his older brother Randy, a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, in the band Brave Belt, which the elder Bachman helped found in the early 1970s after leaving the chart-topping Guess Who.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive was formed in 1973 by the two Bachman’s, brother Tim Bachman on guitar (later replaced by Blair Thornton), and Fred Turner on bass, and sold millions of records over the next three years with their blend of grinding guitar riffs and catchy melodies. “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” was the band’s biggest hit, and it was followed by “Takin’ Care of Business,” “Hey You,” and “Roll On Down the Highway.”
Stephen King, a well-known fan, adopted the pen name “Richard Bachman” as a partial homage to BTO.
Randy Bachman left the band in the mid-1970s, giving the remaining members permission to use the name BTO (But not Bachman-Turner Overdrive so as to distance himself from the band).
Robbie Bachman and the others continued to tour and record as BTO, but their popularity waned and they disbanded in 1980.
Over the next few decades, the band had sporadic reunions and legal squabbles as Randy Bachman and Robbie Bachman fought over royalties and the band’s name. After the early 1990s, the brothers rarely performed together, with Robbie Bachman telling The Associated Press that Randy had “belittled” the other band members and compared them to the fictional parody group Spinal Tap.
Robbie Bachman had been semi-retired in recent years. In 2014, Bachman-Turner Overdrive was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Death of Lisa Marie Presley
Bachman’s death comes a day after the death of Lisa Marie Presley. She died Thursday, hours after being hospitalized for a heart attack. She will be buried at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s famed home, which became a gathering place for fans distraught over her death a day earlier on Friday.
According to a representative for her daughter and actor Riley Keough, the singer-final songwriter’s resting place will be next to her son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020. Elvis and other Presley family members are also buried at Graceland.
Fans paid their respects at Graceland’s gates on Friday, writing messages on the stone wall, leaving flowers, and sharing memories of Elvis Presley’s only child, who was one of the last remaining touchstones to the icon whose influence and significance continue to resonate more than 45 years after his own unexpected death.
Lisa Marie, a singer-songwriter herself, did not live in Memphis, where she was born. She did, however, visit the city for her father’s birth anniversary and commemorations of his death, which stunned the world when he was discovered dead in his Graceland home on Aug. 16, 1977, at the age of 42. She was just in Memphis on what would have been her father’s 88th birthday.
Angela Ferraro was among those who visited Graceland on Thursday night, when the trees in the front lawn were lit up in green and red lights. On a chilly and windy evening, fans took photos and left flowers at the front gate.
Ferraro and her fiance drove from Olive Branch, Mississippi, 25 minutes to pay their respects. Ferraro said she liked Elvis’ music as well as Lisa Marie’s — the couple listened to Lisa Marie’s song “Lights Out” on the way to Graceland.
“Elvis died young, and she died young. “And her son’s death was also tragic,” said Ferraro, 32. “It’s difficult and devastating.”
Lisa Marie became the sole heir of the Elvis Presley Trust, which managed Graceland and other assets alongside Elvis Presley Enterprises until she sold her majority stake in 2005. She kept ownership of the mansion, the 13 acres surrounding it, and the c
