WCSX Classic Cuts
Bachman-Turner Overdrive: “Roll On Down the Highway”
The Hook: The band had the image of truckers, so they wrote a song to go with it.
Album: Not Fragile
Year: 1974
Writers: Rob Bachman and Fred Turner
Stats: Drove to number-14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Background: BTO guitarist Randy Bachman explains how the idea for “Roll On Down the Highway” came about.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Randy Bachman on “Roll On Down the Highway.” OC:…and stuff. :27
“‘Roll On Down the Highway’ was written by my brother Rob and Fred Turner and I helped them with a little bit of the format. But we always had the image, I guess because of the name Overdrive, which we got from a truckers’ magazine, of being truckers and blue collar workers and we were always big guys. And ‘Roll On Down the Highway’’s kind of our epitome of a song for a trucker rolling down the highway, getting in the truck and avoiding the police, who were out there trying to give you a speeding ticket and stuff.”