He’s Canadian rock ’n’ roll royalty — and he’s coming to an intimate concert venue near you.
Bryan Adams, whose long string of radio-friendly hits — including Run to You, Summer of ’69, Cuts Like a Knife, Heaven, It’s Only Love and (Everything I Do) I Do it For You — make up the soundtrack of many people’s lives, is performing a soldout concert at Red Deer’s Memorial Centre on Sunday.
The Juno and Grammy Award winner, who’s also been nominated for Academy Awards for his film songwriting, and for several Golden Globes, has become in more known in recent years for his social activism and photography.
But earlier this year, the world watched Adams sing Bang the Drum, a duet he wrote and performed with Nelly Furtado, during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. The 50-year-old is also set to release a best-of album called ICON at the end of the month.
Adams was born in Kingston, Ont., but spent his youth travelling the world with his diplomat dad and his mom. The family lived in England, Israel, Portugal and Austria before settling in Vancouver and later Ottawa.
By high school, Adams was already showing a single-minded determination to make it in the music business, forgoing socializing for songwriting. He dropped out of school at age 15 to play in a variety of bands, including Shock and Sweeney Todd.
His talent for writing good ear-hookish tunes was evident by 1978 when the 18-year-old was signed by A&M Records in Toronto. Some of his first demos were covered by other artists before Adams could record them onto his self-titled debut album in 1980.
Adams put out a second album, You Want It You Got It, the following year, but it was his break-out third release, 1983’s Cuts Like a Knife, that catapulted him to international attention with the song Straight From the Heart.
This was followed by Adams’ landmark album, Reckless, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1984 and featured the singles Run To You, Summer of ’69, Heaven, One Night Love Affair, Somebody and It’s Only Love, a duet with Tina Turner. This release, considered by some to set the high watermark for melodic rock in the 1980s, was certified five-times platinum in the U.S. and led the singer on the first of many world concert tours with stops in Asia, Australia and Europe.
In 1985, the singer travelled to Ethiopia to aid with famine relief. He was also part of the altruistic Canadian Northern Lights ensemble that recorded Tears Are Not Enough for the African relief effort.
Although Adams released a series of well-received albums in the 1990s, including Waking Up the Neighbours (which featured his power ballad (Everything I Do) I Do It For You from the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), he also continued to be a social activist for Live Aid, Amnesty International, Farm Aid, victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, the 2005 Pakistani earthquake, the One Voice Movement to bring together Israel and Palestine, the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and PETA, as well as various U.K.-based hospitals and children’s charities.
His fashion-art photographs have been published in British Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire and Interview magazine, among others. Adams was even invited along with other prestigious photographers from the Commonwealth to photograph Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee.
Among the songs he’s written for movies are Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman (Don Juan DeMarco), You’ve Been a Friend to Me (Old Dogs), Never Let Go (The Guardian), Never Gonna Break My Faith (Bobby) and Here I Am (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron).
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com