Photo: Redferns
Robbie Bachman, the founding drummer for Bachman-Turner Overdrive, died this week at age 69.
Robbie's death was confirmed by his brother and longtime bandmate, BTO frontman Randy Bachman.
"Another sad departure," Randy wrote via Twitter. "The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother has joined Mum, Dad and brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock 'n' roll machine and we rocked the world together."
Originally from Winnipeg, Canada, the Bachman brothers grew up playing music together after being inspired early in their childhood by The Beatles.
Randy, 10 years older than Robbie, gave Robbie his first gig as a drummer in 1971 in the band Brave Belt, which later included their middle brother Tim Bachman on guitar.
Brave Belt was dropped by its record label after a few years and renamed itself Bachman-Turner Overdrive. With a new name, the band took another crack at a debut album in 1973.
Though the reception to the band was initially lukewarm, BTO kept at it, releasing a sophomore album later that same year, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, which featured the band's first Top 40 hit, "Let It Ride," which peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album's second single, "Takin' Care of Business," solidified BTO's career and paved the way for several more hits in the '70s, including "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" and "Roll On Down the Highway," one of several early tunes which Robbie co-wrote.
BTO disbanded in 1980 and while the band reformed in 1983, Robbie did not rejoin until 1988 and remained in the band through 2005.
He last performed with BTO at its Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction in 2014.