“The whole audience’s heads snap and look at the stage, and I go, ‘Oh my God, I can't forget this riff’”: Randy Bachman on how a broken string inspired his iconic American Woman guitar riff

Randy Bachman playing a Gibson les paul.

Some songs are inspired by dramatic events. Others come to their authors in a dream. But for Randy Bachman, a broken string was the inspiration behind The Guess Who‘s 1970 hit American Woman.

“I broke a string,” Bachman once told Professor of Rock. “I had my ‘59 Les Paul that had a Bigsby on it. So when you're trying to change a string, it's really tough. In the dark, no roadie, no tuner, no stool.