Guess Who
While The Guess Who did have several hits in America, they were superstars in their home country of Canada during the 1960s and early '70s. The roots of The Guess Who can be traced back to the late 1950s, when singer, Allan Kowbell led the group as The Silvertones. The band played local gigs in and around the Winnipeg area and after a series of personnel changes, the band consisted of Kowbell, guitarist Randy Bachman, drummer Garry Peterson, bassist Jim Kale and keyboard player Bob Ashley. Heavily influenced by British records, the boys wanted to take on a more English sounding name. Emulating one of their favorites, The Shadows, they settled on The Reflections. Kowbell, as the front man and lead singer, also felt the need to change his name. As a long time fan of The Chad Mitchell Trio he stuck 'Chad' in front of his real first name, and the band became Chad Allan And The Reflections. Soon, they were the most popular Rock band in the city, covering Top 40 material at a variety of local events and got the attention of Herb Britton, music director of CKY radio. At Britton's urging, they traveled to Minneapolis to record their first demo and were signed to a modest contract on the Canadian-American label. The first single release from those early tapes was called "Tribute To Buddy Holly" with an instrumental called "Back & Forth" on the flip side. The record did well locally, rising to number 7 on CKY's listing in February, 1963, though actual sales were few. Having a record on the radio boosted the band's fortunes and they were signed to back-up vocalist Bobby Curtola on a short tour. Around this time, Quality Records showed some interest and invited the boys to record another single. Back in Minneapolis they cut four tunes, all of which were released on two 45s and again managed only regional interest.
At the dawn of the British Invasion in 1964, Winnipeg radio and TV stations jumped on the band wagon, promoting dances and teen events, and once again Chad Allen And The Reflections were the top draw. Taking advantage of having friends in the right places, the band approached Bob Burns, the host of a Saturday afternoon dance program on CJAY-TV, and asked him to manage them. Around the same time they returned to the studio to record another single for Quality, "Stop Teasin' Me" and "A Shot Of Rhythm and Blues". This time, the record did a little better, reaching out to other regions of Canada and charting briefly on Toronto's RPM list. They were close to success and they knew it. All they needed was the right song.
In December, 1964, lacking the funds to return to Minneapolis, the group entered the TV studios of CJAY-TV and recorded "Till We Kissed" for the 'A' side and a song that had been a part of their act for many years, a cover of the Johnny Kidd & the Pirates tune, "Shakin' All Over". The recording was credited to the band's new name, "Chad Allan And The Expressions". When George Struth of Quality Records heard both sides of the single, he was immediately impressed with "Shakin' All Over", a hard driving rocker with all the makings of a hit. Fearing that the effort would be dismissed in the wake of British records, Struth came up with a plan to garner some interest by radio program directors. A number of promotional copies were pressed with just a plain white label, the song title and the words 'Guess Who', implying that the disc may have been the product of someone more famous. His plan worked. Radio stations across Canada picked up on the mystery record and it soon began to chart in every major Canadian market. By January, 1965, it had reached the top spot on the country's most important record chart, RPM in Toronto. Chad Allan And the Expressions had done the impossible, a Canadian band had the number one Rock 'n' Roll song in the country. Offers for personal appearances came from coast to coast and the band toured across Canada. Back in Winnipeg, they were now celebrities wherever they went and autograph sessions followed every show. By June, the single had cracked the American market, selling a quarter of a million copies and reaching #22 on Billboard's chart. The band themselves though collected only $400 in royalties.
Quality Records now wanted the band to record an entire album, but in order to fall in line with the name on the single, asked them to change their name to The Guess Who. They reluctantly agreed to the name change and headed back to Minneapolis to complete the LP. The material they chose were covers and originals from the band's stage show, but none had the raw power of "Shakin' All Over". The album, with its jacket proclaiming "Guess Who? - Chad Allan And The Expressions", was released in late 1965 and met with limited success. A second single, "Tossin' and Turnin'" went to #3 on Canada's record charts.
The band received a call from Paul Cantor of Scepter records, inviting them to come to New York to meet their staff writers. The company teamed the group up with some young song writers and had them record a tune called "Hey Ho, What Ya Do To Me", which again couldn't match the enthusiasm of "Shakin' All Over" and failed to make the Billboard Top 100. It did however catch on in Canada and gave the group another hit, reaching #3 on the nation's top chart. Undeterred, Scepter still wanted to release an album to cash in on Shakin's success. A combination of new recordings and a couple of tracks salvaged from their first Canadian album made up the new LP. From this, the label released another single called "Hurting Each Other", which cracked the Canadian Top Twenty, but failed to chart in the States. The same song would be a #2 hit for The Carpenters in 1972. By December 1965, the rigors of touring and homesickness began to wear on the some of the band, and keyboard player Bob Ashley decided to leave the group. The remaining members would look no further for his replacement than 17-year-old Burton Cummings. Burton's high school group, The Deverons had become a major attraction on the teen club circuit and the strength of his voice was well known on the Winnipeg music scene. Giving his band two weeks notice, Cummings quickly accepted the invitation and by his 18th birthday, early in 1966, he was a member of The Guess Who.
"Hurting Each Other" was still on the charts when Cummings was brought on board and by February the band was back in the recording studio, working on an album called "It's Time" and a single entitled "Believe Me". Their efforts again reached the Top Ten in Canada but flopped stateside. Burton's first opportunity to sing lead on a recording would come on a tune called "Clock On The Wall" that climbed to #16 on Canadian record charts. It was just a taste of things to come. Now growing unhappy with the new harder edged sound the band was taking, Chad Allan was also growing tired of touring, driving, and hotel rooms. He had recently married and by May of 1966, he quit The Guess Who. He returned to school to complete his degree and played in local bands before hosting a TV show called Music Hop. He had been out of the band a full four months when the next Guess Who single, "And She's Mine" made it up to #32 in Canada.
When their contract expired in the Fall of '66, Scepter Records declined to re-sign them and the band would face the beginning of a long dry spell. The Guess Who decided to produce their next album themselves and chose a song called "His Girl" for their next single. As usual, the record did fairly well in their home country, but was ignored in the U.S. It was, however noticed in England and with some strings dubbed into it, reached #45 on the British charts, a feat unheard of by a Canadian band. Manager Bob Burns quickly arranged a tour of England, but when the band arrived on the other side of the Atlantic, the bookings had fallen through and they returned to Winnipeg broke and humiliated. The band and Burns had an angry falling out and parted company.
The Guess Who went back to what they knew best, playing one-nighters anywhere they could get work. Around this time, the band teamed up with Don Hunter, a businessman turned manager who was determined to turn their fortunes around. He secured a contract with Coca-Cola to record commercial jingles for radio air play. The results kept the band in the public eye over the next year with catchy commercials and in the Spring of 1968, the CBC offered them a spot on a weekly music show called Let's Go that was hosted by their old friend, Chad Allan. The gig paid $1100 a week, lasted for two seasons and helped the boys get back on their financial feet again. The show was also a perfect showcase for Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman to display their songwriting talents. Following an album that featured The Guess Who on one side and an Ottawa band called The Staccatos on the other, the record's producer, Jack Richardson offered Quality Records $1,000 for the Guess Who's contract. Anxious to rid themselves of the band, Quality took the offer and Richardson went about forming his own record company called Nimbus 9.
With no U.S. deal in place, the first release for Nimbus 9 called "When Friends Fall Out", failed, as did it's follow up, "Of A Dropping Pin", despite both being fine recordings. Mortgaging his own home, Jack Richardson decided to book some time in a more professional recording studio and took the band to New York's A&R Records with producer Phil Ramone. With nearly $10,000 invested in tapes, Richardson began shopping them around and eventually struck a deal with RCA. For a title of the new album, the band used the words of an unfavorable reviewer who described their music as "Wheatfield Soul." It was from this 1968 album that the face of Canadian music would change forever with the release of Bachman / Cummings composition, "These Eyes". The single was slow to get air play in Canada and by the time it did, it had already hit number one in the States and been certified Gold. Burton Cummings would later recall: "We fought RCA tooth and nail not to release that as a single because we wanted to be a Rock band." The album reached #6 in the U.S. and stayed on Billboard's Top 40 for eleven weeks.
Follow up singles such as "Laughing" (#10 in 1969), "Undun" (#22 in 1969) and "No Time" (#5 in 1970) provided a long string of further Billboard hits. The Guess Who would finally have a U.S. #1 single in March, 1970 with "American Woman". An album of the same title, also entered the U.S. Top 10 and is widely considered to be The Guess Who's finest achievement. Randy Bachman however was tiring of the group's lifestyle (a dissatisfaction fired by his Mormon beliefs) and left the group. Bachman invited his old friend Chad Allan to become lead vocalist in his new band Brave Belt. The band released two albums for Reprise, but their leanings toward a progressively heavier sound wasn't suited for Allan and he quit. After leaving Brave Belt, Allan pursued many musical endeavors including writing Gospel music, hosting a children's TV show in Winnipeg, and forming his own record label called Seabreeze Records from which he released several singles and an album that didn't fare well. Bachman eventually formed Bachman-Turner Overdrive, who enjoyed many years of success and hit records that included "Let It Ride" (#23 in 1974), "Takin' Care of Business" (#12 in 1974), "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" (#1 in 1974), "Roll On Down The Highway" (#14 in 1975), "Hey You" (#21 in 1975), and "Lookin' Out For Number One" (#3 in 1976).
The Guess Who replaced Bachman with two guitarists, Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw, and their combined talents brought the group further success with "Hand Me Down World" (#17 in 1970), "Share The Land" (#10 in 1970), "Albert Flasher" (#29 in 1971), and "Rain Dance" (#19 in 1971). By 1972 Leskiw and Jim Kale had also departed to be replaced by Don McDougall (guitar) and Bill Wallace (bass). McDougall's tenure lasted only until 1974 when Domenic Troiano (ex-James Gang and Mandella) was drafted as the group's sole guitarist as Kurt Winter also left. These extensive line-up shuffles seemed to undermine the group's progress, though they still managed put a hit record on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Star Baby" (#39 in 1974) as well as having success with "Glamour Boy", which missed the Hot 100 but reached #14 in Canada.
The band enjoyed one of the biggest hits of their career in 1974 with "Clap For The Wolfman". The song was forged by Bill Wallace and Kurt Winter as "Clap For Napoleon", in reference to a CB radio handle, which was all the rage at the time. The original lyrics included several references to trucker's CB slang. As the band had made several appearances on TV's The Midnight Special, hosted by famed American disc jockey
Wolfman Jack, Burton Cummings was inspired to write new words in a salute to him, such as "He's gonna rate your record high." In what surely must have been destiny, The Guess Who were recording new tunes for the "Road Food" album at Nimbus 9 studios near Toronto while The Wolfman was in town for a Hot Rod car show. The Guess Who's manager, Don Hunter, tracked him down and asked if he would consider doing some overdubs. Wolfman initially declined, but agreed to let Burton come to his hotel suite and play the song for him. As he listened to the unfinished tape, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, "When can we get into the studio?" Many of the lines were already laid out for Wolfman, but he ad-libbed "Cause I speak of the pompatous of love" in a vague reference to lyrics from Steve Miller's hit, "The Joker". With the signature clapping added by Burton and his friends Gary and Blair MacLean, giggles from a couple of the Wolfman's lady friends also made it to the final recording. Released in June of 1974, the record rose to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a staple of oldies radio for years to come.
One last Billboard Top 40 hit came late that same year with "Dancin' Fool", which peaked at #28. In a 2019 Facebook post, Burton Cummings would say, "By the time Troiano joined the band in 1974, it was already over... the last 18 months of the Guess Who was a cash grab, that made no sense anymore artistically... When I think back now on those days, I feel nothing but pain, confusion, chaos and deep regret... I can honestly say that I deeply regret those last 18 months of the Guess Who. It never should have gone on that long."
By the following year Cummings had left The Guess Who for a solo career. His initial anxiety about setting off on his own was laid to rest upon the release of his first album, "Burton Cummings", in 1976. It was an immediate success and yielded the singles "I'm Scared" and "Stand Tall" (#10 in 1976), both million sellers. His 1977 release of the album "My Own Way To Rock" produced a successful single release of the same name. Both of these albums eventually reached double-Platinum status, but the best was still to come.
1979's "Dream Of A Child" was an unprecedented smash. Based partly on the strength of the single "Break It To Them Gently", "Dream Of A Child" became the first Canadian album to ever achieve the triple-Platinum plateau, and earned Burton a Best Album Juno Award (Canada's Grammy) in the process. The next five years saw Cummings expanding his horizons. In addition to releasing three albums, "Woman Love" in 1980, "Sweet" in 1981 and 1984's "Heart", all of which went Gold, he starred in the 1980 film Melon and earned an ACTOR award as Best Male Variety Performer for his work in the CBC Special Portage and Main in 1982. One final Billboard Top 40 hit came in late 1981 when "You Saved My Soul" reached #37. In 1983 he reunited briefly with the original Guess Who line-up, which resulted in a double-live LP and a pay-TV concert special. After a recording hiatus of six years, Cummings returned with "Plus Signs" in 1990, his seventh solo album and his Capitol Records debut.
His former colleagues attempted several unsuccessful reunions in his absence, and in 1987 Cummings and Bachman toured together as The Guess Who for the first time in years. However, when Kale and Peterson enlisted a few helping hands to record "Lonely One" in 1995, as the first new Guess Who album in fifteen years, the critical reaction was negative, with one magazine describing the contents as 'pathetic and desperate'. The Guess Who continued to tour however, and over the years the popularity of the group increased tremendously due to the strength of Classic Rock radio and the highly regarded reputation of their live show. Performing nearly 200 shows a year, The Guess Who became a popular draw once again on the American music scene. Burton Cummings continued to tour with his one man show called Up Close And Alone, in support of the outstanding album by the same name.
At the urging of Manitoba's Premier, Cummings joined original band members, Randy Bachman, Gary Peterson and Jim Kale for a concert at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg in the summer of 1999. The four song appearance made the quartet a reported $50,000 each. Things went so well that after months of negotiations The Guess Who re-united once again. However, original bassist Jim Kale was asked to leave the group early in May, 2000. Family problems led to his increasing absence and his efforts at rehearsal were said to be unacceptable. Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Gary Peterson, Don McDougall and Bill Wallace started in St. John's Nfld. and began to tour across Canada. By the end of Summer 2000 the band had grossed approximately $6 million in what was easily the most lucrative Canadian Rock tour of the year. The band set out on a forty-one city tour for 2001 on a bill shared with Joe Cocker ahead of a newly released CD called "This Time, Long Ago". The album was a collection of cover songs from the group's early days as a garage band combo that includeed their British recording sessions plus performances from TV appearances. 2001 also saw The Guess Who awarded doctorates from the University Of Brandon (Manitoba) and being inducted into Canada's Walk Of Fame in Toronto.
On November 23rd, 2004, Burton Cummings' new single, the Bob Dylan written "With God On Our Side" debuted at 21st spot on a Canadian music internet music chart. In February, 2005, Cummings and Randy Bachman were inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Unfortunately, all was not well with the rest of the band. Bachman and Cummings started taking action to reclaim the rights to the band's name, owned by bass player Jim Kale. The pair continued to work on new music as well as playing occasional shows as The Bachman-Cummings Band. Cummings also made appearances at various Canadian casinos as a solo performer. March, 2006 brought Cummings and Bachman together again for a TV special called First Time Around, where the the veteran singer-songwriters performed some of each other's songs for the first time on stage. The concert contained tunes featured on a new compilation disc called "The Bachman - Cummings Songbook", a combo platter of hits from three stages in the duo's musical careers: Guess Who songs from the '60s, Cummings' solo projects and Bachman's work with his post-Guess Who band, Bachman - Turner Overdrive.
In February, 2007 the duo announced the release of a new album called "Jukebox", which hit stores that June. Burton Cummings explained: "We each picked a bunch of the stuff we loved when we were little... records we loved when we were coming up and stuff we had a real affinity for." The final track list includes Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie", Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", Sam Cooke's "Good Times" and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O Soul". "We didn't have the time to sit down and write new songs," said Cummings. "And honestly, we weren't interested. Because we've seen what happens to artists from our era. We saw The Bee Gees put out a brilliant record that went nowhere. We saw ELO come out with a new record that went nowhere. We didn't want to fall into that trap. Let's face it, we're not going to compete with Britney and Beyonce and DMX and Jay-Z. This is a different world." Fortunately, Cummings' attitude toward new material changed after Bachman suffered a shoulder injury that sidelined him from touring in November, 2007. With plenty of time on his hands, Burton undertook a new solo album, on which for the first time in his career he would write all of the material on his own. The result was a nineteen track opus called "Above The Ground", his first studio album of new material since 1990's "Plus Signs". Released on November 4th, 2008, the new effort showcased lyrics that give longtime fans a sense of his rocky relationship with stardom. "I think what happened is, five or six years ago I got to a point in my life where I started being more appreciative of what I did have and started worrying less and less, if at all, about what I didn't have," said Cummings. "Once I got to that point, life got a little bit less complicated mentally for me and I think that's where I am now and probably where I'll stay." As an over-view of his career, Burton admitted, "I've been knocked down a few times career-wise and I've had unbelievably heart-breaking failures, things that I put out that I thought were going to just take the world by storm and they did exactly the opposite."
All the while, Gary Peterson and Jim Kale carried on as The Guess Who with Carl Dixon (ex-Coney Hatch) as the group's lead singer through 2008. Sadly, he was injured in an automobile accident which left him unable to perform with the group.
On December 30, 2009, Cummings was named an officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General Michaelle Jean. The Order of Canada is one of the country's highest civilian honors and was established in 1967 to mark a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to community, and service to the nation. In 2010 Randy Bachman once again teamed up with his old friend, Fred Turner, although they were not allowed to appear as B.T.O. or Bachman-Turner Overdrive, as those names had been signed over to Robin Bachman and Blair Thornton of the original band. He was also a national radio personality on CBC Radio One, hosting a weekly music show called Vinyl Tap. Burton Cummings kicked off a new round of tours in July, 2011 and received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame on October 1st of that year. His 2012 projects included a book of poetry, a "Live at Massey Hall" recording and a Summer solo tour.
When asked about another reunion with Randy Bachman, Cummings said that it was doubtful that the pair would work together again as Randy had made commitments with Fred Turner. Saying that he respected his old friend, Cummings wished Bachman and Turner all the best. As for reuniting with former Guess Who band mates Gary Peterson and Jim Cale, Cummings made his feelings about them perfectly clear, saying the only way he would speak to them would be "in a court room." He went on to say he thought that what the duo had done to the Guess Who name "is a disgrace." Slated to sing the national anthem at the 2012 Grey Cup in Toronto, Cummings was looking forward to issuing a new album in 2013, saying "I'll be recording 'til the day I die." Unfortunately, as of 2017, that album failed to appear.
As of 2014, The Guess Who continued to perform live dates across North America on a regular basis. The line-up consisted of Derek Sharp (vocals, guitars), Will Evankovich (guitars, backing vocals), Leonard Shaw (keyboards), Jim Kale (bass) and Garry Peterson (drums). For 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 the band was still performing across North America, while Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman each had their own separate tours. On April 3rd, 2016, Burton Cummings was inducted into The Canadian Music Hall Of Fame as a solo artist during a ceremony at the 2016 Juno Awards in Calgary. The entire band had previously been enshrined in 1987.
In May, 2018 Burton Cummings was involved in a serious auto crash in Los Angeles after another driver ran a red light. Arm, leg and back injuries rendered him unable to fly to Winnipeg to sing the national anthems at a Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights game for the Western Conference final. On a Facebook posting he wrote that he was in "lot of physical pain" and needed some "serious healing time." He also added that he was
trying to focus on just how lucky he was not to have been killed or crippled. "I know I'm going to have to get some help getting over the shock. That's the worst part right now trying to keep telling myself that I'm okay." Soon after the accident, Burton was back on the road with his band, singing and playing his way across North America.
As for The Guess Who, they were scheduled to release an new album called "The Future Is What It Used To Be" on September 14th, 2018 on CD, Vinyl, and Digital formats. To support this latest effort, they were heavily booked across the United States for the remainder of 2018 and into 2019.
On November, 19th, 2018 CTV News broadcast a story about how several boxes containing about a hundred Guess Who tapes were saved from a Winnipeg garage. Dated between 1971 and 1996, the contents included studio masters, videotapes of shows, and live recordings of tour performances. At one time they belonged to an employee of the band who ended up needing to store them in the garage of his sister and brother-in-law for a few months. Months turned into more than ten years and the relatives were about to throw them into the trash, but instead called Tom Kowalsky, a longtime veteran of Winnipeg's music scene who donated them to the St. Vital Museum, which has a collection of Winnipeg rock memorabilia. The story stoked speculation that there might be unfinished songs from the legendary Canadian rock band that have never been heard before.
2019 brought news of a documentary that explores the life of Randy Bachman, from his childhood in Winnipeg, to his conversion to Mormonism, to his touring life at the age of 75. The movie was set for release on iTunes, Prime Video, Google Play and DVD on March 26th. During the year, Burton Cummings continued to tour, both with his band and as a solo act. He completed thirty-seven "Up Close And Alone" shows, which lasted from the end of September to early December, and posted on Facebook that he was planning a well deserved rest. He also hinted at the possibility of sharing the stage again with Randy Bachman in 2020. Burton also shot down the idea of ever reuniting with his former bandmates in The Guess Who, citing ongoing animosity on both sides. As for the current edition of The Guess Who, now made up of Will Evankovich, Rudy Sarzo, Leonard Shaw, Garry Peterson and a lead vocalist known simply as D#, they continued to appear across the United States in 2019 and into 2020.
In early March, 2020, Bachman and Cummings announced plans for a 24-date tour of the U.S. and Canada starting in June and wrapping up in August. Those plans were dashed just a couple of weeks later by the COVIV-19 outbreak. On June 8th, Burton posted on Facebook that his 1984 album, "Heart" would be re-released via streaming or download. The LP contains vocal contributions from Carl Wilson, Timothy B. Schmit, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. As the pandemic eased in the spring of 2022, Burton Cummings appeared in shows across Canada, both with his own band and with Randy Bachman in the Together Again series of concerts.
In early February, 2023, The Guess Who announced a new album called "Plein D'Amour". Drummer and founding member Garry Peterson said, "After recording this album, and living with it for a while, I believe this is the best album that I have played on." Peterson, along with Derek Sharp, Michael Staertow, Leonard Shaw and Michael Devin were set to kick off a tour of the United States in support of he first single to be released from the eight song LP called "The King".
Burton Cummings was slated to start a summer and fall tour in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on August 12th and wrap up in Milton, Ontario on November 1st. Following the death of his two brothers earlier in the year, Randy Bachman announced that he would once again appear as Bachman-Turner Overdrive for a few shows in America.
October 30th, 2023 brought the news that Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman had filed a lawsuit against Jim Kale and Garry Peterson, as well as the current edition of The Guess Who, accusing them of misleading fans into believing that they are the original Guess Who. The counts listed in the suit were false advertising, unfair competition, and violation of right of publicity. Cummings and Bachman sought as much as $20 million in damages. "They've taken mine and Randy's history, the history of The Guess Who, and stolen it to market their cheap ticket sales in their fake bullshit shows," Cummings told Rolling Stone. "It takes away everybody's legitimacy." In a 2012 article in the Winnipeg Free Press, Kale said that "Cummings signed off on the name in 1977, and he hasn't stopped his pissing and moaning ever since. What the hell do you think I was going to do, start a scrapbook? Here I was with a whopping grade 10 education and I don't have a trade and I'm too old for a paper route. I gotta make a living." The band's name was never trademarked during their heyday and Kale acquired the rights to it in 1986. Since that time, the band has released several albums, including 2023's "Plein D'Amour". Jim Kale retired from touring in 2016.
Fans of The Guess Who were saddened to learn of the passing of Chad Allen on November 21st, 2023 at the age of 80. Randy Bachman posted on his Facebook page, "I'm grateful to have known and worked with him. He was a quiet, gentle soul with a peaceful voice." Burton Cummings added, "Rest in peace, Chad you were an inspiration to all of us in bands in Winnipeg. I learned a lot from watching and listening to Chad. He was very talented and one of a kind. He will always be remembered."
The lawsuit that Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings filed against Jim Kale and Garry Peterson over false advertising claims was finally settled on September 4th, 2024. Exact details weren't released, but after a lengthy mediation process in Los Angeles, shared trademark rights were finally worked out. Cummings explained, "If there is a group out there calling themselves The Guess Who, it's going to have the lead singer who wrote the songs and the guitarist who made the riffs." When asked about touring again using that name, Cummings was unsure. "Randy has a lot of bookings and I've got solo gigs. What we do know is that Randy and I are happy because there isn't a fake Guess Who out there anymore." As for the band that was calling themselves The Guess Who, their Facebook page vanished and their X (Twitter) account disappeared. "I'm not concerned with the other band. Don't even know who they are. It doesn't matter to me," Bachman said.
On a happier note, Burton Cummings announced that his first new album in twelve years, "A Few Good Moments" would be available on November 15th, 2024. He continued to tour, both solo and with his traveling band, across both Canada and the United States in 2024 and into 2025. Randy Bachman, along with his son Tal, toured extensively across Canada in a trek that was extended into the Spring of 2025.
Be Sure To Read Gary James' interviews with
Randy Bachman and Garry Peterson
The Guess Who in early 1966
