Freddie Turner – known as C.F. in the press releases – is well-known as the “big voice” of BTO, formerly known as Bachman Turner Overdrive. He was asked to form a band called Bravebelt by Randy Bachman shortly after Bachman left The Guess Who. Bachman quit BTO in 1977 at around the height of their success leaving Turner and Bachman’s own brothers to go it alone – and they did.
But how did the band start? The word from Bachman’s brother, Robin is this: “Well, my brother Randy had quit The Guess Who. He told me no one else in Winnipeg would play with him. The Guess Who had blackballed him around town. He was producing an LP with Chad Allen, The Guess Who‘s first singer. He said he needed a drummer and asked if I’d would I like to join him. Well, of course I jumped at the chance to perform with my big brother so Brave Belt was started.”
Richard Evans, Turner’s lifelong friend and former bandmate, tells his story on how Turner joined BTO: “Randy came into a club where our band, Purple Haze, was playing and asked if I would join the band. I knew him from around Winnipeg but I was just married and was winding down Purple Haze. So I pulled a fast one on Freddie. I told him my throat was gone and he would have to sing my songs too. Freddie was mad as hell because his throat was very raw. So he gets up on stage, not knowing Randy is in the house, and belts out, I think, House of the Rising Sun. After the set Randy walked up and offered the job to Freddie. End of story.”
With Richard alongside I spent a day with Turner in July 2005. But Freddie never talked about Bachman, or said anything negative about anyone for that matter. I have read many accounts of the band’s relationship with Bachman but Richard told me beforehand that Freddie had put that all behind him. He is a pretty laid-back guy who joked that, despite his many gold records and musical achievements, his own kids think that the pinnacle of his career came when he appeared (in cartoon form) on a episode of The Simpsons.
Today Freddie lives on the river just off Portage Avenue where he lovingly restores Corvettes. The BTO days are now over but he still has a beautiful studio in his basement. And he wears a hat bearing the image of the icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent that my wife, Heather, gave him for Christmas a couple of years back.
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