Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: October 16, 2021 08:30PM
You don't come across a rock star Mormon every day.
I knew Randy Bachman was once Mormon but didn't realize he was a convert, not BIC. Randy was a member of The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive.
In 2014, Randy Bachman, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Canada (for the 2nd time):
https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/music/forever-rock-70-year-old-randy-bachman-may-have-a-hall-of-fame-spot-but-he-isnt-going-away"On Sunday night at the Juno Awards on his home turf in Winnipeg, Mr. Bachman will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame for the second time, with his band mates in Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the group he started after breaking up with Burton Cummings in The Guess Who.
"[He] released his first album with Burton Cummings in The Guess Who in 1966. Together, the two men wrote These Eyes, No Sugar Tonight, Laughing, Undun, No Time, and American Woman, with a riff Mr. Bachman concocted during a sound check at a hockey rink in Waterloo, Ont.. Publishing disputes and lifestyle choices broke up the band, all of which was exacerbated when Mr. Bachman adopted the Mormonism of his first wife Lorayne. About her, Mr. Bachman, a lapsed Lutheran, says two things: 1) For her, he wrote These Eyes; 2) She was Miss Regina Roughrider, 1965. “For me to join a religion that believed in God and taught kindness and abstinence of drugs and alcohol, was like joining AA,” Mr. Bachman says. “When the rest of the band was drinking, when I’d say I’m a Mormon they’d leave me alone.
"Like Paul McCartney before and Dave Grohl afterwards, Mr. Bachman would become that rare rock ‘n’ roll animal — a performer that makes it big with two separate bands.
"Thornton [BTO band member] never subscribed to Mr. Bachman’s strict Mormon rulebook — which eschewed premarital sex, as well as drugs and booze — but says the band gelled onstage."
Randy tells the story of losing his cherished guitar, a 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins model in western orange with black DeArmond pickups, and finding it again 45 years later.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/bachman-1957-gretsch-guitar-found-tokyo-1.6206128"The beloved guitar was lost while Bachman was putting together an album for Bachman–Turner Overdrive in Toronto. His road manager brought the guitar back to the hotel as they checked out. According to Bachman, the guitar was put in the hotel room with other luggage, and in the five minutes it took for the hotel bill to be paid, the instrument was swiped.
"It was just terrible," Bachman said. "I cried for literally all night.... I loved this guitar so much."
"For 45 years, Randy Bachman tried filling the void left behind by a guitar — the guitar — he strummed some of rock music's most iconic songs with.
"The guitar, which he used to pen the likes of No Sugar Tonight, Takin' Care of Business and American Woman, ... recently resurfaced in Tokyo. After a decades-long search and assistance from everyone from the RCMP to vintage instrument dealers across North America came up empty-handed, a fan's creative use of facial recognition software helped track it down in Japan."
When he can safely travel to Japan, Randy is going to trade a similar guitar with the person who bought his cherished guitar years ago in order to get it back again.
He expects he will be overcome with emotion when he reunites with the guitar.
"I will be beyond verklempt," Bachman said. "I'm pretty sure I'll be in tears."
Great news for Randy. I hope he can go and pick up his treasure soon. A reunion 45 years in the making.
It's interesting to read in the two articles how a convert managed to juggle being a rock musician with the demands and limitations of being Mormon.
He managed to continue with the rock and roll but couldn't include the sex and drugs parts of the equation, according to him. It must have made for some interesting conversations with his band mates.
I note Randy's comment about Mormonism "teaching kindness". Not that I've noticed, I'm sorry to say. Maybe it was different back then.
Randy eventually left Mormonism. If I remember correctly, it was through his son, Tal, who used to post here, who came to realize there are problems with Mormonism and shared the knowledge with his dad.
It seems as if Randy has been content since then, with a radio show in Canada and still making music, one of the big loves of his life.
The church hasn't done so well, losing dedicated members, with high profiles, and all that tithing.
It's sweet to think of Randy loving a guitar so much that he cried all night after it was stolen. I'm imagining he wasn't as sorry as that to give up on Mormonism.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2021 08:34PM by Nightingale.