After a 23-year absence, The Guess Who will tour Canada to celebrate end of legal battle over name
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In celebration of “a hard fought battle to reclaim their name,” The Guess Who — led by singer and keyboardist Burton Cummings and founding guitarist Randy Bachman for the first time in 23 years — will tour Canada next year.
“With their unmatched songwriting catalog and deep influence on rock music, this moment marks a rare and meaningful full-circle return,” the band’s website reads. “One that longtime fans have been waiting for, and one that underscores just how enduring their legacy continues to be.”
The legendary Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, known for hits like American Woman, These Eyes and a dozen other tracks that cracked the U.S. Top-40 between 1965 and 1975, will kick off their 12-city Takin’ It Back tour in New Brunswick, playing the Avenir Centre in Moncton on May 26.
Joined by opener Dan Felder, originally of The Eagles, The Guess Who will play nine more shows over the next 15 days in Halifax (May 27), Laval (May 29), Toronto (May 30), Hamilton (June 1), London (June 2), Winnipeg (June 5), Saskatoon (June 6), Calgary (June 8) and Edmonton (June 10). Some pre-sale tickets for these shows started selling as of 10 a.m. local time Tuesday.
The band is also scheduled to play in the Ottawa Blues Fest on July 18 and Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition Fair on Aug. 23. (Before the Canadian tour begins in earnest in May, The Guess Who will have completed two already sold out shows — one at a Niagara Falls casino on Jan. 31 and the Rock Legends Cruise XIII sailing from Florida to Jamaica in late February.)
“Randy and I are thrilled that our songs have never gone away. That people still want to hear us perform them live,” Cummings said in a release issued Monday. “We are going to go out and honour the music,”
“Together we created decades of incredible songs and memories that still stand strong today,” added Bachman. “Can’t wait to sing them with you all soon!”
The tour’s announcement comes a little over a year after Bachman and Cummings settled a trademark lawsuit with two former founding bandmates, bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson, a beef that goes back almost four decades.
Recognizing that nobody in the band or its management had thought to trademark the name during their heyday, Kale did so in 1978, according to Bachman and Cummings.
Using various other musicians and often joined by Peterson, who became a co-owner of the name, Kale went on to tour and record new music in the U.S. as The Guess Who over the following two-plus decades. During this time, Bachman and Cummings, who wrote and performed most of the band’s biggest hits, could not use the name in the U.S.
Bitterness ensued over the years, with Cummings and Bachman calling the new incarnation a “cover band” in a 2023 suit alleging that the new band was promoting itself as if the original singer and guitarist were performing.
“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 bull— shows,” Rolling Stone quoted Cummings, who also terminated the performance license on songs he wrote or co-wrote so that nobody — himself included — could earn money from their performances.
Bachman and Cummings were also seeking up to $20 million in damages, but details of the settlement reached last September were not publicly disclosed.
“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,” the now 77-year-old Cummings told Rolling Stone after.
It’s not immediately clear if previous members of the band will join Bachman, currently 82, and Cummings on stage.
The last time the classic foursome performed together was at the closing ceremonies of the Pan Am Games in 1999 in Winnipeg. Another lineup missing only Kale, meanwhile, toured from 2000 to 2003, during which time they played a Grey Cup halftime show (2000) and the Molson Canadian Rocks Toronto benefit concert after the 2023 SARS outbreak.
How many of you remember the last show The Guess Who did on July 30, 2003, at the SARSfest in Toronto? It was the final performance wrapping up our 2000-2003 North American tour. Randy and I were talking, and we think 23 years is long enough... who's with us? pic.twitter.com/G3298mukwA
— Burton Cummings (@burtoncummings) November 8, 2025
Bachman and Cummings, meanwhile, have continued to perform separately over the years while sporadically collaborating for performances and short tours under the name Bachman-Cummings and performing songs from the original band, Cummings’ solo work and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, a band the guitarist started with his brothers Fred and Robbie and their friend Fred Turner.
Ticket prices are not immediately available in the pre-sale period without a passcode. Prices for two VIP packages vary from venue to venue, but range from roughly $500 to $1,000, with the higher-priced option earning a backstage meet and greet with the band.
General admission ticket sales begin Friday morning at 10 a.m.
— With files from the Canadian Press.
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