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"This has certainly been the greatest year I've had, personally and musically, in the last 12 or 14 years," says the legendary member of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the newly reunited Guess Who. "I've had a fantastic time, and I can honestly say that this is the most amazing ... the greatest tour I've ever done. Really."
Seated in an executive meeting room at the Delta Hotel, Bachman is simply dressed in black jeans, golf shirt and a black denim shirt with the sleeves cut off. The only "rock star" accoutrement he sports is pair of aviator sunglasses. But he's wearing shades because photo flashes bother him, not because there's anything to hide.
In fact, Bachman is downright revealing when it comes time to chat.
He's in town to promote his autobiography -- Randy Bachman: Takin' Care of Business (McArthur & Co., $34.95) -- penned with local rock historian John Einarson, and the enthusiasm he exudes is that of a man half his age.
"There's no point in having a book that's just all fluff," he says. "You have to tell the truth and not worry about hurting feelings or stepping on toes. I hurt my own feelings, reading it back and realizing some of the things I'd said about myself."
The book was two years in the making and documents the guitarist's life from birth to this year's Guess Who concert at Canwest Global Park on Canada Day weekend.
"(The book) was supposed to be something I did with my wife (Denise)," Bachman says. "But then John contacted me ... Denise had read a couple of his other books, American Woman: The Story of The Guess Who and Neil Young: Don't Be Denied, and she agreed he was the guy. He has all the Winnipeg history in his head."
Winnipeg fans of The Guess Who and BTO will be familiar with much of Bachman's story, but what they may not be aware of is how Randy acted and felt at the crucial moments of his multi-faceted career.
Bachman says now that reading the original manuscript for Takin' Care of Business led him to reassess the emotions and the events of the 1970 Guess Who split, when he and the band parted ways after a concert at the Fillmore East in New York City while American Woman was No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart.
"I was in a very fragile state at the time," Bachman recalls. "I had gallbladder attacks every night on the road and I was really, really hurting physically and emotionally. And there were other things that led up to that night at the Fillmore when they fired me.
"That was so painful to me it was gone from my memory. I always felt I quit. To read American Woman and see what they were thinking and feeling was a whole revelation to me. To read what people said in my book ... I was shocked and in disbelief. I contacted over a dozen people and said 'I'm really sorry if I hurt you way back then. I had no idea you were feeling that way, but this is what I was feeling in my heart and soul and in my body.'
"That was six or seven months ago, and I got a lot of very positive replies. I got a lot of tears and hugs and handshakes when I met certain people after that."
The book also reveals that Burton Cummings did indeed walk out of rehearsals for this summer's Guess Who reunion tour.
"Yes, we did have a moment there," Bachman says. "But you've got to understand the kind of pressure we were all feeling at the time, wanting and hoping for this thing to work and feeling as though we would be a flop if it wasn't perfect. Burton is the singer, he's the guy with the focus on him, he's in the spotlight, and it has to look and sound right. We made him the musical director for the tour and he told us right at the beginning, it has to be better than perfect.
"At one point in rehearsals he turned and said to us 'You know, I'm scared.' And that got to us, like kids in a dark room all sharing the same fears -- we were all feeling the pressure. Then we got sick. I had a sore throat and a nasal thing, and I gave it to Donnie (Guess Who guitarist McDougall), and we just weren't quite performing at full capacity.
"So, yeah, it was a moment. But Burton sat us all down and told us what was wrong, and I have to be honest and say that everything he said was right. When he left, the rest of us looked at each other and we just knew we had to work harder. So, we did, and it's easy to look back now and say that every single moment we rehearsed was worth it."
Cummings, of course, returned to the fold after a couple of days and the new Guess Who has not looked back since.
Just last week, the group played American Woman at the MuchMusic Video Awards with Lenny Kravitz, who made the song a No. 1 hit once again in 1999.
"That was a lot of fun," Bachman says. "We'd heard he had a big ego and a chip on his shoulder, and I guess he'd heard something similar about us, but that was just managers and record companies talking.
"When the actual musicians got together it was great. Lenny was very flattering and he was asking me how I got the guitar sound on the original version of the song."
Asked if he would like to reunite with Fred Turner and do a BTO tour similar to the current Guess Who jaunt, Bachman just grins.
"Well, I've learned from this past year that you never say 'never' ... We'll see what happens."
Indeed we will. As Bachman himself says about his biography:
"This isn't the last word. I'm still living the book, you know?"