Randy Bachman marked the 50th anniversary of The Guess Who‘s “American Woman” reaching number-one (the last three weeks of May 1970) with a lengthy interview for Canada’s Global TV.

Linked from his Instagram feed, the interview begins with the accident that led to the creation of the classic guitar riff, and touches on other highlights for the first important Canadian rock band to catch on in the U.S.

“I break a string and Burton Cummings says, ‘We’re going to take a break while Randy changes his string.’ I had no roadie then, I had to change my own string. I didn’t have a [guitar] tuner. So I was on my knees, in front of Burton Cummings’ piano, tuning up in the dark, and I’m tuning [strums guitar]. Tuned my guitar to his piano [strums]. I’m tuning this way [strums]. And you go, ‘A nice ring on all your [strums]. Play that faster…

“‘American Woman’ and ‘No Sugar Tonight’ was listed as a double-A side, which is pretty rare. I mean, The Beatles had double-A sides; we had one with ‘Undun’ and ‘Laughing.’ But it wasn’t number-one. But to have ‘No Sugar Tonight’ and ‘American Woman,’ double-A side at number-one and the album at number-one was just like, it was mind blowing.”