The lead vocalist for the first Brave Belt album was Chad Allan, Randy Bachman's former bandmate from The Guess Who. While shopping around the tapes to record companies and eventually getting interest from Reprise Records, Randy was required to list the band members for contracts. Although he had played both lead guitar and bass on the recording, Randy listed Turner as the bassist. Turner's photo was put on the "Brave Belt" back cover, but he was not involved in the recordings. Turner did join Brave Belt for live performances to support the first album, and soon stepped in as a full-time lead vocalist and bassist, which led to the departure of Allen. Fred contributed five song compositions to the follow-up "Brave Belt II" album (1972), and he sang lead vocal on nine of the album's eleven songs. While shopping around a proposed "Brave Belt III" album, the band changed its name to Bachman–Turner Overdrive (BTO). Although Randy Bachman was the more widely known name because of his years with The Guess Who, Robbie Bachman stated in numerous interviews that there could have been no "BTO sound" without Turner's contributions: "The first Brave Belt album was very country-rock. Everything changed when Fred joined the band. We had Fred Turner's heavy, rough voice. We evolved because of Mr. Turner."