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Bryan Adams, who plays here Saturday and Sunday, is huge star in the United States, Canada and Britain.
Even if the “South Park” jokes cut like a knife, Bryan Adams has all those No. 1 records and Grammy nominations to run to.
The British-Canadian artist has sold more than 50 million records over the past quarter-century, with three multiplatinum albums and a number of No. 1 hits. A couple of years ago, Adams celebrated 25 years as a recording artist with the release of his “Anthology,” 36 songs from his beginnings in 1980.
Even as a 48-year-old — weirdly enough, he shares a birthday (Nov. 5) with Ryan Adams, the alt-country singer-songwriter from Jacksonville, N.C. — with a two-disc best-of, Adams hasn’t settled into semiretirement: A new album, “I Thought I’d Seen Everything,” is due out in March; the first song, “11,” debuted online Jan. 25. Adams’ shows Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 16-17, in the South Shore Room at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe are the last two stops on his U.S. tour before heading to Canada on Feb. 28, then Europe in May and June.
“Everyone wants a backstage pass,” Adams said on his Web site. “They think they are missing out on some kind of party. But the party is about to happen … on stage.”
On his Web site, Adams still explains his career with the following quote: “I’m just a singer in a band.” That might have sufficed in the early ’80s, when Adams was recording demos and working as a studio musician to pay the rent before he made his self-titled album. He followed that up in 1981 with a record he called “Bryan Adams Hasn’t Heard of You Either,” a name his record label, A&M, rejected.
Nonetheless, the album, repackaged as “You Want It, You Got It,” got Adams’ foot in the door in the U.S., where he opened for the Kinks and Foreigner.
Adams’ third and fourth albums, “Cuts Like a Knife” and “Reckless,” earned him his first Grammy nominations and cemented his place on the top-40 charts during the 1980s, spawning the singles “Straight from the Heart,” “Run to You,” “Summer of ’69,” and “It’s Only Love,” his duet with Tina Turner.
“Reckless” reached No. 1 in the U.S., and Adams toured the nation in support of it, opening the U.S. side of the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985.
Next, in 1987, Adams released the single “Heat of the Night” in advance of the album “Into the Fire,” which also produced top-40 hits in “Hearts on Fire” and “Victim of Love.”
Adams focused much of the next few years on Europe, touring the continent with ZZ Top in 1991, when he released the single “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” which spent seven weeks atop the U.S. charts. It was even more popular in Britain — where Adams’ parents are from — where it stayed on top for 16 weeks.
That single propelled Adams’ “Waking Up the Neighbours” up the chart, where it would earn Adams nominations for a Grammy and an Academy Award. His first greatest-hits collection, “So Far So Good,” included a new track he put together with legendary British producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, “Please Forgive Me,” and he joined forces with two musical musketeers, Sting and Rod Stewart for the soundtrack hit “All for Love.”
While Adams continued to tour and race up the charts in Europe, soundtracks figured prominently in his success in the States: “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” from his album “18 ‘’Til I Die” graced the soundtrack to the Johnny Depp-Marlon Brando movie “Don Juan DeMarco” in 1996. In 2002, Adams joined forces with composer Hans Zimmer to score DreamWorks animated feature “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” Adams wrote and performed “Never Let Go” for the Coast Guard drama “The Guardian” and co-wrote “Never Gonna Break My Faith,” which Aretha Franklin performed in the movie “Bobby.”
Adams built a recording studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, but lives in England, where he dedicated the song “We’re Gonna Win” to his favorite football side, Chelsea. Adams is also a photographer whose work has appeared in British Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, and has featured musicians such as Robert Plant, Celine Dion, Amy Winehouse, Morrissey and the Who.
The British-Canadian artist has sold more than 50 million records over the past quarter-century, with three multiplatinum albums and a number of No. 1 hits. A couple of years ago, Adams celebrated 25 years as a recording artist with the release of his “Anthology,” 36 songs from his beginnings in 1980.
Even as a 48-year-old — weirdly enough, he shares a birthday (Nov. 5) with Ryan Adams, the alt-country singer-songwriter from Jacksonville, N.C. — with a two-disc best-of, Adams hasn’t settled into semiretirement: A new album, “I Thought I’d Seen Everything,” is due out in March; the first song, “11,” debuted online Jan. 25. Adams’ shows Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 16-17, in the South Shore Room at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe are the last two stops on his U.S. tour before heading to Canada on Feb. 28, then Europe in May and June.
“Everyone wants a backstage pass,” Adams said on his Web site. “They think they are missing out on some kind of party. But the party is about to happen … on stage.”
On his Web site, Adams still explains his career with the following quote: “I’m just a singer in a band.” That might have sufficed in the early ’80s, when Adams was recording demos and working as a studio musician to pay the rent before he made his self-titled album. He followed that up in 1981 with a record he called “Bryan Adams Hasn’t Heard of You Either,” a name his record label, A&M, rejected.
Nonetheless, the album, repackaged as “You Want It, You Got It,” got Adams’ foot in the door in the U.S., where he opened for the Kinks and Foreigner.
Adams’ third and fourth albums, “Cuts Like a Knife” and “Reckless,” earned him his first Grammy nominations and cemented his place on the top-40 charts during the 1980s, spawning the singles “Straight from the Heart,” “Run to You,” “Summer of ’69,” and “It’s Only Love,” his duet with Tina Turner.
“Reckless” reached No. 1 in the U.S., and Adams toured the nation in support of it, opening the U.S. side of the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985.
Next, in 1987, Adams released the single “Heat of the Night” in advance of the album “Into the Fire,” which also produced top-40 hits in “Hearts on Fire” and “Victim of Love.”
Adams focused much of the next few years on Europe, touring the continent with ZZ Top in 1991, when he released the single “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,” which spent seven weeks atop the U.S. charts. It was even more popular in Britain — where Adams’ parents are from — where it stayed on top for 16 weeks.
That single propelled Adams’ “Waking Up the Neighbours” up the chart, where it would earn Adams nominations for a Grammy and an Academy Award. His first greatest-hits collection, “So Far So Good,” included a new track he put together with legendary British producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, “Please Forgive Me,” and he joined forces with two musical musketeers, Sting and Rod Stewart for the soundtrack hit “All for Love.”
While Adams continued to tour and race up the charts in Europe, soundtracks figured prominently in his success in the States: “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” from his album “18 ‘’Til I Die” graced the soundtrack to the Johnny Depp-Marlon Brando movie “Don Juan DeMarco” in 1996. In 2002, Adams joined forces with composer Hans Zimmer to score DreamWorks animated feature “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” Adams wrote and performed “Never Let Go” for the Coast Guard drama “The Guardian” and co-wrote “Never Gonna Break My Faith,” which Aretha Franklin performed in the movie “Bobby.”
Adams built a recording studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, but lives in England, where he dedicated the song “We’re Gonna Win” to his favorite football side, Chelsea. Adams is also a photographer whose work has appeared in British Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire, and has featured musicians such as Robert Plant, Celine Dion, Amy Winehouse, Morrissey and the Who.
If You Go
<b>Bryan Adams</b>
<b>Where:</b> Harrah’s Lake Tahoe South Shore Room <b>When:</b> Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 16-17 <b>Tickets:</b> $85/$95 |
