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Before 1965, there had never been a Canadian band quite like The Guess Who. When everyone else was doing the "folky" thing, The Guess Who - led by Burton Cummings - brought the rock. 'American Woman' was the first Canadian song to hit number one on Billboard and was the biggest-selling single of 1970.
Not bad for a kid from Winnipeg who studied piano and started his first band at 14. Burton fronted The Guess Who for 10 years, then went solo. Over the next 15 years he released seven albums, won a bunch of Junos and his influence on culture never went away. In the '90s, 'American Woman' was covered by Lenny Kravitz, the original was on an 'Austin Powers' soundtrack and Philip Seymour Hoffman - playing rock critic Lester Bangs - wore a Guess Who T-shirt in Almost Famous.
In 2006, Burton reunited with his Guess Who pal Randy Bachman to release the 'Bachman Cummings Songbook' and followed it up with a sold-out tour. Since then, he's released the solo record 'Above The Ground', was named to the Order of Canada and keeps a 'lively' blog on his website. Check it out - it's not your average rock-star stuff.
Now, Burton is busy writing. But what he's writing? You might be surprised.
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