Tim Bachman Dies: Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Co-Founding Guitarist Was 71

Tim Bachman, the co-founding guitarist and vocalist for Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, died Friday from complications with cancer. He was 71. His death was announced by his son Ryder.

“Grateful I got to spend some time with him at the end. Grab yer loved ones and hug em close, ya never know how long you have,” his son wrote.

Born on August 1, 1951, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Bachman was 19 when his brother Randy left The Guess Who in 1970 and he formed a short-lived group called Brave Belt, with his Tim on guitar and their 18-year-old brother Robbie on drums.

Brave Belt, also featuring bassist-singer Fred Turner, would soon change its name, along with a musical style that grew from country-style rock to what would come to be defined as classic rock, to Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

BTO’s 1973 self-titled album included the song “Blue Collar” that would receive some FM radio airplay, but it was 1974’s Bachman-Turner Overdrive II that would explode with such hits as “Let It Ride” and “Takin’ Care of Business.” Tim Bachman left the group shortly after the album’s release, replaced by Blair Thornton, and went on to score its biggest LP with 1974’s Not Fragile, which spawned the band’s lone No. 1 single, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” along with “Roll On Down The Highway.”

Robbie Bachman died in January at 69.