Why BTO dropped its famous neon stage sign in the desert

In the 1970s, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s business practice included performing under a large steel replica of the band’s gear-shaped logo, complete with flashing lights—a visual gimmick as striking as the opening chords of “Not Fragile” or “Four Wheel Drive.”

The quartet used the prop throughout its heyday, when it had three albums in the top 50 of the Billboard 200 charts (BTO II, Not fragile, all wheel drive) and “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” went to No. 1. “That thing weighed tons,” Randy Bachman tells UCR. It was a ton. It was built on one-inch plywood that was all screwed together, and it had real sockets and wires and real lightbulbs and real neon tubes. It was made of Army Navy surplus; you get a big round piece of wood or a big overdrive gar from a sawmill in British Columbia where they cut logs to make lumber. You take what you’ve got, right?”

By 1976, however, it was becoming increasingly difficult to transport equipment around the world, so the last gig of the tour was the last gig for BTO’s signature stage equipment.

Read more: How Yes inspired a BTO album title

“Someone had invented better lights that were lighter and stuff,” Bachman recalls. “So when we finished our last show (of the tour), we were driving through Texas, kind of Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner territory, and there were these cacti out there. We backed up to one, took the BTO thing, threw it over a cactus, left it there in the middle of the desert and drove off.”

“So the equipment is somewhere. We replicate it on stage now, but everything is so much lighter and faster and easier.” Still, Bachman says it would be incredible to get the original equipment back. “I would pay to get it back in a heartbeat.”

Why Bachman Turner Overdrive is on tour again

Bachman is touring again under the name BTO, playing the band’s hits as well as some favorites from his time with the Guess Who and “She’s So High,” a hit by his son Tal Bachman, who is part of the band. The shows also form a medley around BTO’s “Hey You,” which includes a number of other rock hits by AC/DC, Free, the Steve Miller Band, the Rolling Stones, Frankie Valli and others.

“I played as the Randy Bachman Band for a good 12 years, but due to my brothers’ deaths (in 2023) and other things, I got the rights back to BTO,” Bachman explains. “So why call the band the Randy Bachman Band when I’m doing the same songs? There’s something ka-ching about the name (BTO) that people recognize. It’s really rewarding to go out and play 15 or 20 hits that everyone is just sitting there and craving and consuming and breathing and standing up and screaming and dancing.”

Watch BTO live performance

Bachman and his band have the blessing of their former bandmates CF “Fred” Turner and Blair Thornton, who he says “maybe” will guest at occasional BTO shows. “They’ve both had health issues and Fred lost his wife in the last six months, so he’s recovering from that,” says Bachman, who recently underwent successful cancer treatment himself. “Hopefully they’ll make it, but when we’re on stage, we show old BTO movies and Blair Thornton is there, Fred Turner is there, my brother Robbie is there, on drums. We party, just like when you go to see Queen, Freddie (Mercury) comes (on the screen) and everyone sings ‘BoRap’ (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) with him. Lynyrd Skynyrd does the same thing.”