Grammy-winning Bryan Adams
jams for love of music
By ALAN K. STOUT
Pop singer Bryan Adams comes to the F.M. Kirby Center on Tuesday, and the Grammy-winning songwriter will be bringing with him nearly two decades worth of hits.
Numbers such as "Cuts Like a Knife," "Straight From The Heart," "This Time," "Somebody," "Run to You" and "Summer of '69" should all be in the set, as well as some new material. We recently had the chance to play "10 Questions" with Adams, via e-mail, and asked him to share some of his thoughts on what's been a very creditable career in music.
TL: It's unusual to see such an established artist out on tour without a new album in record stores. What inspired you to hit the road?
BA: It doesn't matter if there's a record out or not, I like to sing with my band and it's not always about promotion. It's just about being into music.
TL: You've been a regular on rock, Top-40 and now adult-contemporary radio for nearly 20 years. Why, in your opinion, do some of your oldest songs still get heavy airplay?
BA: Because they are brilliant songs and they have become part of the fabric of some people's lives. We identify with music so strongly, and it sends us to a place - sometimes past, sometimes present. Either way it reminds us and directs us, and most of all, makes us happy.
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서울 공연 사진 모음TL: Who were some of your early musical favorites and influences?
BA: I was inspired by the Beatles and the Stones and all things '60s and '70s. I was a total hard-rock fan as a teenager. Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin - that sort of thing. I really loved vocalists like Joe Cocker, Steve Marriot, Janis Joplin and later on all the hard-rock singers.
TL: When did you start writing your own songs, and why?
BA: I joined a band in 1976 and luckily they had a record contract, but no music. So I sat down one day and wrote some songs. I had no idea what I was doing, I was just going with it. I got completely ripped off for writing those songs - no wonder no one else wanted to do it - but I was only 15, so it didn't really matter.
TL: What inspires you to keep writing?
BA: I have all kinds of stuff that I want to say, I suppose. It's just a matter of picking up the guitar and giving it a strum ... something always comes about. It's not always completely recordable though.
TL: Can you name - out of your many hits - a few of your personal favorites, and tell us why they mean the most to you?
BA: I don't like to pinpoint one or two because I like them all. It's quite nice to have so many songs to choose from, and it looks like there are a whole slew more to come.
TL: You've recorded with everyone from Sting to Rod Stewart, to people like Barbara Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, Tina Turner and Smokey Robinson. What's it like to work with people you may have long admired?
BA: Amazing. After I sang with Smokey I thought I'd sung the best I had ever sung and I could die quite happily. Luckily I lived to tell the tale. ...
TL: You've always been a very fashion-free artist, both musically and in the way you carry yourself. Are your trademark jeans and T-shirts a statement of some kind?
BA: I don't know about that. I tend to wear things that are unpretentious and easy to throw around. It's a state of mind, you are what you wear - sort of. Plus in the old days, I didn't have any money, so I used get stuff I could wear on stage and on the street. It ended up being useful wearing white, because as an opening act we were never given much light so the people could always see the singer no matter how far away they were.
TL: The last time I saw you in concert, you actually asked members of the audience if they knew how to play any instruments, and then invited a few people up on stage to jam with your band and play your songs. That was pretty wild. Do you enjoy such close interaction with your fans, and - if so - why?
BA: Yes, there was a time when I used to do that. It was mostly because I liked to create a sort of anarchy with the hall managers and security boneheads, but I don't do it anymore. I create enough havoc within the band.
TL: What can those heading to the concert at the Kirby Center expect? What do you have in store for us?
BA: It will be a couple of hours of tunes, some you'll know well, some you'll be hearing for the first time. We are three musicians on stage, Keith Scott on guitar, Mickey Curry on drums and me on bass. ... We are fairly loud, but we make up for it being a pretty bubbly bunch of blokes.
- WHO: Bryan Adams
- WHERE: Kirby Center, Public Square, Wilkes-Barre
- WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday
- TICKETS: $45 and $35, available at the Kirby box office, Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster charge-by-phone at 693-4100 or www.ticketmaster.com
- INFO: 826-1100
ⓒ 2001 Wilkes-Barres Cranton
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