Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Karl (Charlie) Bachman and Anne (Nancy) Dobrinsky, Bachman is of half-German and half-Ukrainian descent. At age three, he won a singing contest on CKY’s King of the Saddle program, and at age five he started studying the violin in the Royal Toronto Conservatory system.
Meet Karl Bachman, Anne Dobrinsky
His father, Karl “Charles/Charlie” Bachman, was of German (including Black Sea German) descent. Some sources state that his mother, Anna “Nancy” (Dobrinsky), was of Ukrainian descent, based on her own parents’ geographical origins.
However, her parents’ surnames indicate that she was of Polish descent. His brother was drummer Robbie Bachman, who was also in Bachman–Turner Overdrive.
Randy’s paternal grandfather was Emil Wilhelm Bachmann (the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Bachmann and Wilhelmine Dorothea Henriette Paul).
Friedrich was a German emigrant, from Biere (now part of Bördeland), Saxony-Anhalt, and was the son of Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor Bachmann and Catharine Dorothee Ziem. Wilhelmine was also a German emigrant, from Thale, Saxony-Anhalt, and was the daughter of Carl Paul and Konstantine Spönemann.