In a new feature for Louder, Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter Randy Bachman (The Guess Who, Bachman–Turner Overdrive) tells his stories, including growing up with Neil Young, trying to get The Who to change their name, and seeing more of Tina Turner than most.
In regards to The Who, Bachman reveals: "When I was in The Guess Who, we found out about this English band called The Who and were determined to force them to change their name. So, we were in London and The Who were playing at The Marquee club. Down we went to confront them. They were being filmed for German TV at that show, so we had to wait around for about four hours.
Eventually, we get to meet them and say: “Look, we were here before you. So, change your name, it’s confusing people.” Pete Townshend looked at us and replied: “There’s The Yardbirds and The Byrds. Nobody’s confused by that. So bugger off.”
The two bands actually became great friends. And that phrase ‘bugger off’ was our in-joke. We’d check into a hotel and find out The Who were there, so we’d call up one of the guys at 3am and when they answered we would say: ‘Bugger off!’ then hang up. They’d do the same to us."
Elsewhere in the feature, Randy discusses Aerosmith, stating: "BTO were due to play a show in Boston and the local promoter asked if we’d mind having a young band called Aerosmith open for us. We checked them out, and they had a song on the radio called 'Dream On' at the time. It seemed quite good, very Zeppelin-esque, so we agreed.
Here we were in our dressing room before that gig, when in walked this clown. He was dressed in silk pyjamas, had huge shades on and was trying to high-five everyone. How he got past our security I do not know, but we told him to get straight out.
“Hey man, I’m…” he tried to explain. “GET OUT!” I shouted, “No, you don’t understand…” he tried again. “OUT!” I repeated, pushing him into the corridor. That was the first time I met Steven Tyler. Now whenever I see him, the first thing he says to me is: “OUT!”
Read more at Louder.
