Randy Bachman (26 page)

And I said, “Wow. What's your name, and I'll look for you.”

“Jann Arden.”

Well, soon afterwards she achieved what she had predicted.

She's a great singer/songwriter, with nineteen Juno nominations and eight awards, including Songwriter of the Year, which even I couldn't do. Jann Arden wasn't kidding when she said she was going to be big. She's won multiple awards and accolades for songs such as “Insensitive,” “Good Mother,” and “Could I Be Your Girl.” Yet she possesses a quick wit and a self-deprecating humour that has endeared her to fans and earned her a number of radio and television hosting roles. I've seen her live, and her shows are always wonderful and hilarious. She's so funny and entertaining.

9/11 AND CARNIE WILSON

The reunited Guess Who found ourselves in New York when the twin towers of the World Trade Center were hit. Touring plans had to be changed as travel was restricted. It would prove to be a life-altering event for me.

I was staying on the thirty-second floor of the Marriott Hotel overlooking Times Square in Manhattan the morning the World Trade Center was hit by those planes. The hotel looked right down the street to the World Trade Center. We were supposed to play New York, New Jersey, and Boston and then go home for a few days because we'd been together out on the road all summer. Our road manager, Marty Kramer, called me in my room early that morning and told me to turn on my television and look out my window. I could see the towers smoking and of course the story was all over the TV. It felt like the end of the world. I remember feeling numb and then terrified. My first thought was for my family and to phone home, but I couldn't get through to them because all the lines were either jammed or down. One of my kids got through on my cell phone and asked if I was okay. Finally my wife, Denise, got hold of me on the phone.

There were rumours flying around about bombs and other plots. It felt like a war zone.

Our manager, Lorne Saifer, called a contact in L.A. who had a brother in New Jersey who ran the shuttle service for Hertz Rent-a-Car. Arrangements were made for him to pick us up at the hotel the next day and take us to New Jersey where our driver, Rick Neufeld, was waiting with our tour bus.

There was no food and no service at the hotel. No trucks were getting in and the staff had either gone home or couldn't get in. So we had to hike through Times Square to find an open restaurant. Security was tight at the hotel, and I even had trouble getting back in again.

It was weird because we were walking along in the evening looking for an open restaurant and there was nothing on the street, not a car or a person. Broadway was empty; New York seemed deserted. Every restaurant said “Closed,” so we just kept walking until we found an open deli with a big lineup out front full of celebrities who lived in downtown Manhattan. We had a three-hour wait in line, but we stayed and finally ate.

The next day the Hertz shuttle bus showed up to take us to New Jersey. We came down to the front doors of the Marriott with our guitars and suitcases. There were dozens of people standing there with their luggage. They had arrived but the hotel had closed and no one was able to get out to the airport, so these people were stranded there outside. Businessmen were desperate to get out. They're peeling off hundred-dollar bills asking, “Can you take me?” It was like a weird movie scene leaving New York. All these old trucks coming in to remove the debris from Ground Zero.

We just wanted to get back home to Canada, but couldn't. We couldn't get out of the U.S. We were stuck there on tour with Joe Cocker, so we just figured if the world's ending then let's just go out rocking. There was nothing else to do but embrace the music and each other and be glad we're alive and carry on. That was our attitude. Everyone thought in those early days after 9/11 that the attacks were going to continue and that America was going to go to war. It was like that movie
Independence Day
. It was a very surreal experience.

The New Jersey show was cancelled, so we headed up to Boston where we were scheduled to play a sold-out concert at the Tweeter Center. But only half the people showed up because they felt uneasy gathering in a large public place. People were still worried about more terrorist attacks. Security had to check everyone and every car before the show could start, which meant a two-hour delay. As a result, Joe Cocker did a half-hour and we did about forty minutes.

We weren't sure about playing “American Woman” that night because it has anti-American sentiments in it and we thought it might be inappropriate. We considered changing the lyrics. Some fans had emailed us telling us to change the lyrics to “Arab woman, stay away from me,” but in the end we did it as is. As we played it I looked out over the audience and saw people standing on their seats, tears streaming down their faces. It was unbelievable.

When the tour resumed, I with my obsessive nature convinced myself that if this was going to be the end of the world, I was going to eat myself into oblivion. We were travelling long stretches on the tour bus and I'd be fuelling up at every truck stop, $20 or $30 worth of junk food. But with the angst going through my mind at the time, that food would be gone in twenty minutes. I was getting heavier and heavier, pushing 350, 360, 370 pounds. I was getting huge and I didn't care. Who knew if the world was going to end, so I'd have my last bucket of KFC, my last Wendy's burger, my last Long John Silver's …

I desperately needed to lose weight. Once I hit 390 pounds I was like a refrigerator with a head, so I decided I had to do something. It was getting embarrassing going onstage being a huge guy in a rock 'n' roll band. It was a strange feeling trying to spread joy and rock the world when you're crying inside and you don't feel good about yourself. My weight was life-threatening.

I saw Carnie Wilson on shows like
Larry King Live
and
Oprah
talking about her gastric bypass surgery and how it had changed her life. Carnie is the eldest daughter of Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson, and with her sister Wendy and friend Chynna Phillips (daughter of the Mamas and Papas' John and Michelle Phillips) had scored a string of soft pop hits. Since then she'd become a spokesperson for weight loss, in particular gastric bypass surgery. Like me, Carnie had battled weight gain all her life and tried every diet on the market. None worked until she had the operation.

Like Carnie, I had a library full of every diet book there was, all of them working for about a month, after which I'd gain the weight back and more. It was that lifelong, up-and-down yo-yo weight syndrome and I suffered from it. I'd follow any new diet fad, and would call home saying things like, “Throw out all the food, I'm only going to eat pea pods and honey!” I once went for several months eating nothing but fruit. So I thought this operation might be the thing for me, too. I emailed Carnie Wilson and I got an answer back. To this day I've still never met her in
person. She knew who I was because I'd toured with her dad and uncles. She sent me her doctor's name in San Diego and the name of the clinic where she had her bypass.

I researched the whole procedure and the history of it. It's done laparoscopically with a couple of small holes instead of a two-foot opening in your chest. I decided that this was the answer for me. So I booked into the clinic. There's an interview before they'll agree to do the surgery. You also have to meet with a psychiatrist. They don't want to do the procedure if all you're looking to do is go out and pick up twenty-year-old chicks. I wanted to live a long, productive life, active and rocking, because that's who I am and this is what I do.

I wanted the operation but I was scared, so I kept changing my mind. Then the clinic emailed me to say they had an opening on the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, which is in late November. So I had to decide right then and there. A lot of people chicken out at the last minute because food has become their best friend. The guy who cancelled wanted to gorge himself over Thanksgiving and Christmas and then have the operation in the New Year. I had a day to make my decision.

I hadn't told Denise about any of this. Now I had to, and she was incredibly supportive. “I'll be there with you and help you through it.” It's a major operation, and there's a recovery period of several weeks. So I went down to San Diego and had the operation.

The operation bypasses your stomach and creates a new little stomach the size of a golf ball that will expand as years go on. It's not really a stomach; it's part of your intestine they've pulled up. There's no digestion there. You have to do that with your mouth. I'd be full after just a little bit of food. I remember swallowing a vitamin pill early on and it felt like a brick. Your new stomach is very sensitive.

But it's the best thing I've ever done—it absolutely changed my life. I lost over 150 pounds. But there are rules you have to
follow. You can't eat big portions and you have to chew your food well or you'll become violently ill. It's not a quick fix, though. There's a strict routine I have to adhere to, including regular exercise and dietary requirements. But I've gone from being Mr. Couch Potato to being the guy who can't wait to get up in the morning to go to the gym. And best of all I feel good, and good about myself again.

GILES MARTIN

Travelling the world and sleeping in different beds almost every night, sitting on airplanes and sometimes jammed into tiny cars, I maintain a network of chiropractors around the world. (I travel with my own pillow now, which saves my neck.) It's very important for me not to have my back seize up. I've played sometimes with dislocated disks in my back and it ain't a good thing to do.

When I'm in London, England, I have a chiropractor there, Antoni Jakubowski, who's actually from British Columbia. I'm at his office in 2005 getting straightened out and he says to me, “There's a client of mine in the waiting room who's next to see me who's a fan of yours and would like to meet you. His name is Giles. He's a songwriter, too. He tried to hook up with you in Nashville a few years ago but was unable to.” So after I get my back straight, I go out to the waiting room and there's this tall, stately looking gentleman there. I shake hands with him. I recognize him as a songwriter, nothing else. He asks me what I'm doing in London and I tell him I'm there to do some songwriting and a couple of shows.

“What are you doing now?” I ask him naively. “Are you still writing songs?”

He replies, “No, not really. I'm just kind of working with my dad on a musical project.”

I still haven't caught on yet. “So what are you doing with your dad?”

He says, “It's kind of a love project.”

So, still in the dark, I say to him, “Oh, so what does your dad do?”

Then he says, “He's George Martin. I'm Giles Martin.”

Duh, what an idiot I am. His dad is Sir George Martin, the Beatles' record producer, Mr. Fifth Beatle. Giles invited me to the studio to hear some of the Beatles'
Love
album the two were working on for the big Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas production. For Beatles fans like me, who would have thought that in the new millennium we'd have a new Beatles album? I was choked up when I heard it. When I got the album, I sat there listening and crying. It's amazing.

Later, Giles invited me to Abbey Road Studios where he was transferring the Beatles' original tapes into the Pro Tools computer program for further work on their digital releases and iTunes. I sat there while he isolated each of the different Beatles voices and instruments for me, which all sounded quite eerie. But when he put all the tracks together it was this magical combination of individual genius that mesmerized the entire world and still does today. He then isolated each instrument in that famous opening chord to “A Hard Day's Night” for me. That blew me away.

My Picks

“AMERICAN WOMAN” by Lenny Kravitz

“BOYS” by the Beatles

“CLASSICAL GAS” by Mason Williams

“COULD I BE YOUR GIRL” by Jann Arden

“FAITH” by George Michael

“GOTTA KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE” by Union

“A HARD DAY'S NIGHT” by the Beatles

“I WANT CANDY” by the Strangeloves

“IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS” by Barenaked Ladies

“KEEP THE SUMMER ALIVE” by the Beach Boys

“LUCILLE” by Little Richard

“MY GENERATION” by the Who

“NIGHTS ON BROADWAY” by the Bee Gees

“PEACE TRAIN” by Cat Stevens

“PETER GUNN” by Henry Mancini

“PIECE OF MY HEART” by Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin)

“RAISE A LITTLE HELL” by Trooper

“SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY” by Donna Summer

“SLOW HAND” by the Pointer Sisters

“SPANISH FLY” by Van Halen

“TAKE IT LIKE A MAN” by BTO

“TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT” by Johnny Paycheck

“THE THRILL IS GONE” by B.B. King

“THE TWIST” by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters

“WE'RE HERE FOR A GOOD TIME” by Trooper

“WHO DO YOU LOVE” by Bo Diddley

“WORKING MAN” by Rita MacNeil

“YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET” by BTO

Conclusion

For as long as
Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap
has been on the air, people have been asking for transcriptions of the shows. Well, I don't really have a script each week, I only work off a song list we prepare for that particular theme, and there's no time to write down what I've said. It's pretty much all off the cuff, either from my own knowledge or personal experience from five decades in the music business, or it's based on Denise's research.

When Penguin Canada approached me to do a
Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories
book, I was excited. It would allow me to tell many of my most memorable stories from the show and the fans would be able to download the songs from iTunes and put together their own package. I can't remember everything I said over six years, so I asked my writer friend John Einarson to help me out. I've known John since the 60s music scene in Winnipeg and he's written many great books on music. John plowed through hundreds of shows to pull out the best stories, and we worked together to compile song lists and theme lists. Presenting the oral stories in written form is not an easy thing. He's done an excellent job of sifting through the stories and compiling them into a readable format. I'm extremely pleased with the results and I hope listeners and readers will be, too. It's an opportunity to relive the
Vinyl Tap
experience and enjoy
again the stories you liked best as well as the ones you might have missed.