Creating instantly memorable, adrenalin-surging rock 'n' roll isn't an easy task -- but if you're one of the few with the innate knack, you're not likely to lose it. Bryan Adams proves that on 18 TIL I DIE, his first all-new album in more than five years, a release that contains a number of potential hits that always populate Adams albums and have made him one of the most important, largest-selling artists of the past two decades.
This album is a lot simpler in its construction, because I was looking for something that was more raw, more back to basics, says Adams. I've always thought of myself as a second-generation white soul singer, influenced by Mick Jagger and Steve Marriott, and I think this album captures a lot of that.
While Adams has seen multi-platinum ballads like Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? (which is included on 18 TILL I DIE) and (Everything I Do) I Do It For You propel him to a new level of international stardom in the '90s, the stripped-down energy of his eighth and latest set lives up to Adams' rough characterization. From the good-natured swagger of The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You (which is accompanied by a Matthew Rolston-directed video), to the raucously defiant energy that imbues the punky We're Gonna Win, Adams has clearly taken the album's title to heart.
It's not so much that I'm writing literally about age as I am an attitude, says the singer. That attitude extends a lot further than rock 'n' roll. The imagery on the album is about feeling that no matter what's happening with your job or whatever, it's not gonna get you down."
Barely out of his teens when he signed his first contract with A&M Records in 1979, Adams spent the early part of the '80s in a nonstop whirlwind of touring, often spending upwards of 250 days on the road. Despite his chronic refusal to embrace rock-star trappings, his incendiary live shows soon became legendary across America.
CUTS LIKE A KNIFE (1983), which took just eight months to hit platinum, gave Adams his first stateside Top 10 smash -- the anthemic Straight From The Heart. Before long, the album's thumping title track and the compelling This Time likewise climbed to the chart's highest reaches. With RECKLESS (released in 1984, coincidentally, on Bryan's 25th birthday) he earned his first #1 album as well as a Grammy nomination -- appropriate recognition for an album that catapulted several tracks into the Top 10, including the #1 single Heaven, Run To You, and Summer of '69.
With yet another multi-platinum album to his credit -- 1987's INTO THE FIRE -- Adams ended the decade on a high note: in his native Canada, he was named Recording Artist of the Decade for an unprecedented string of successes, including a dozen Juno Awards and a Diamond Sales Award for RECKLESS, which went on to become the best-selling Canadian album of all time; he also accepted the Order of Canada for his work with causes both social (he contributed Tears Are Not Enough as his home country's contribution to LiveAid) and environmental. His ongoing work with Greenpeace played a major role in establishing a whale sanctuary in the Antarctic.
When Adams broke a three-year sabbatical, the results were nothing less than spectacular: His first foray into soundtrack music -- 1991's lush ballad (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, from the Robin Hood soundtrack (a song which monopolized #1 Billboard slot for seven straight weeks and which earned Adams a Grammy and an Academy Award nomination) became an international standard and placed Bryan's name in the Guiness Book of World Records for longest stay atop the singles charts in the U.K. Abetted by producer Robert John Mutt Lange (with whom he co-wrote the aforementioned song), he then recorded the ten-million selling WAKING UP THE NEIGHBOURS, his most fully-realized set to that point before undertaking a lengthy world tour.
Adams again soared to the #1 chart position in 1993 with All For Love (song with Sting and Rod Stewart) from the Three Musketeers soundtrack. That same year he released a greatest hist compilation SO FAR SO GOOD, which spawned the Top 10 hit Please forgive Me, and which sold in excess of 13 million worldwide. An 18-month world tour followed and included a concert in Vietnam in January, 1994, making Adams the first western artist to perform there since the war. A stop in Modena, Italy featured a performance with opera great Luciano Pavarotti. Adams performed a song with the maestro in Italian that was recorded for Pavarotti and Friends II.
Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? from the Don Juan DeMarco soundtrack (1995), earned Adams yet another #1 hit (a position he occupied for four consecutive weeks), as well as another Academy Award nomination. He closed that year with total record sales amounting 45 million worldwide.
And now, after more than a year of intensive, if low-key, recording, Bryan Adams returns with 18 TIL I DIE, an album he characterizes as his personal favorite -- if only for the enjoyment its creation has given him. I've definitely had more fun doing this record than I had at any time in the '80s, he says. This came together so easily, with so little stress. I'm really happy about that. As for the future? Well, as the title implies, don't expect Bryan Adams to stay in one place for too long. I'm still sort of moving around all the time. I'm interested in seeing as much as I can before I'm 40, he says. I have this curiosity, this adventurous spirit and I just want to do everything I can.
In March Bryan started his 2th European Tour within a year playing in Engeland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium. The tour will end in the UK where he's doing another 5 concerts. After that the long expected US tour will start with concerts in New Jersey and Michigan in August 1997. In the meantime he just released his 4th and also the title song of the album 18 til I die.
Biography Provided By Badfan (A Bryan Adams Webpage)