Randy Bachman is the latest rock legend to be profiled in a documentary.
The Guess Who and BTO co-founder, who helped write such classic songs as "Takin' Care of Business," "These Eyes" and "American Woman," tells Billboard that Bachman made its debut earlier this year at Toronto's Hot Docs festival.
Along with guest stars such as Neil Young, Paul Shaffer, Peter Frampton and Alex Lifeson, there's archival footage, some of which hasn't been seen for decades.
Randy says seeing his life story told 75 minutes is, "pretty strange. It's like your dad doing a surprise and inviting out all your friends and showing all your old family home movies of going on vacation and the clothes you wore, and then have all your friends complaining about what a poor playmate you were or what a brat you were."
Bachman, now 74, is working on a book and DVD about his extensive guitar collection, which totals close to 400 instruments, but will soon be broken up. He's selling some to the Gretsch company for its new museum in Savannah, Georgia; others will be donated to Canada's National Music Center. Randy adds, "Every guitar has a story: I got it from so and so who got it from Stevie Ray Vaughan or something like that." He expects the most noteworthy instruments to become a traveling exhibit across Canada.
Bachman is also working on a stage musical based on Prairie Town, a song he recorded with Neil Young a dozen years ago. It's a tribute to the musicians of his native Winnipeg.
Randy Bachman says his name is one of many words that Americans and Canadians pronounce differently:
,quality(10),blur(50))