As Bachman–Turner Overdrive prepare to go on tour this spring, the Canadian rock vets will be paying tribute to their hometown of Winnipeg. The new single, "60 Years Ago," is out later this month, and it features Neil Young.
UPDATE (3/28, 9:14 a.m. ET): "60 Years Ago" is out now. In a new interview with Billboard, Randy Bachman explained that it had initially been written alongside his son Tal during their lockdown-era YouTube show, Bachman & Bachman Friday Night Train Wreck, and is part of a father-son album that has yet to be release.
The Bachmans were inspired to revise the song when they found out a highway section in Winnipeg was going to be renamed the Bachman–Turner Overpass, with a dedication to take place on April 18 — the day before BTO plays there on their tour.
"I thought, 'I'll go and get "60 Years Ago," and I'll give it back to Winnipeg as a thank-you,'" Bachman told Billboard. "There was no great plan for this song, y'know. But maybe they'll play it on Winnipeg radio."
The new single will drop on March 28. "As a thank-you to Winnipeg, the city that shaped us, I wrote a song called '60 Years Ago,'" Randy Bachman said in a statement. "It features Tal Bachman, KoKo Bachman, and me, with Fred Turner on vocals, and features an incredible guitar solo from Neil Young."
Of the inspiration, he explained, "This song is our tribute to Winnipeg, the place where we grew up as teenagers in the '60s, a time when the city's music scene was exploding. It was the Liverpool of North America, a melting pot of incredible talents. Everyone I've talked to who spent time in Winnipeg and witnessed that musical explosion is excited to hear this song, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it."
Stay tuned for the single to drop in a couple weeks, and check out BTO's tour schedule here. They will play 22 shows across the country.