BRYAN ADAMS | Exclusive OM interview

With the amazing “Plymouth Summer Sessions” just around the corner, starting in June it only seemed fitting we got an exclusive OM interview with headliner, Bryan Adams. We talk things tour, the UK crowd and his links to Plymstock.

Bryan Adams, among the global whirlwind of his 15th studio album, “So Happy It Hurts,” is hitting stages around the world. And nestled in his tour itinerary is one very notable stop: the Plymouth Summer Sessions on June 14th, where he’ll take centre stage on The Hoe. It only felt right to catch up with the man himself for an exclusive interview with OM.

Q: So, you’re coming here as part of your UK tour, So Happy It Hurts, Where does the tour start?

It started quite a while ago with the release of the album in 2022. Tours don’t really have a logical end until another album comes out, so in the meantime whilst So Happy It Hurts has been going on, I also released the live at The Royal Albert Hall boxset and I’m about to do another one in May this year. All this keeps going while the album is still ticking along.

Q: You mentioned The Royal Albert Hall, was that for the 40th anniversary of Cuts Like A Knife? What is it like to perform there?

That’s right and we’re going to do that same for the 40th anniversary for Reckless in May this year. It’s a really good venue, that’s why we keep going back. It’s a really good vibe and it’s unlike any other building in the world.

Q: When you’re doing your live performances, do you have a favourite song you look forward to the most?

Well, I’ve got 16 albums, so there’s a lot of songs I really like doing. I like the songs that everyone else likes really, I like to pepper it up with a couple of the new tracks and introduce So Happy It Hurts.

Q: In So Happy It Hurts, what did it mean to you to have your mum feature in the music video?

I really wanted her to be part of it, she’s 96 years old now and she can no longer travel with me on tour, so it’s nice to have her with me all the time in some way.

Q: What’s it like playing in England compared to anywhere else in the world for you?

England has always been a really good place for us, particularly after I toured with Tina Turner. Things just changed after that. One thing about the UK is that they always embrace the music as well, which has been amazing. There are songs that have been massive hits in the UK that never even got played in America, so I really love playing in the UK.

Q: Everything I Do was number 1 in the UK for 16 weeks and is still the longest unbroken run for any song to remain number 1 in the UK. Did you have any idea the impact that song would have?

It was basically number 1 everywhere in the world and after that song came out, we could play literally anywhere; Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, we played everywhere and it was incredible. I just thought it was a really pretty song, I had no idea what impact it would have.

Q: We found an interesting fact about you and your links to Plymstock, can you tell us a bit more about that?

Yes, so my grandparents lived in Plymstock and my mum is from Lyme Regis. My grandfather was from Gillingham and my grandmother was Maltese, but they came to Plymstock sometime after the Second World War where my grandfather built the house. It was a small little house and I remember we used to visit them there and it was one of the coldest houses I’d ever been in. I remember sitting in the front room around the coal fire to warm up. But yes, I would say there are some roots! I do have one recollection about the South West, it was always quite rainy!

Q: How did you get into the music industry?

I really owe it to my mum for letting me get out there and do it. She let me leave school when I was 15 to join a band and we started playing in clubs and got into gigs and studio work which kind of saved me really. The gigging wasn’t paying anything and it was quite audious as sometimes we’d do 3 to 4 sets a night. Whereas doing studio work, we’d go in for an hour and get some work and get paid. I dropped out of the club scene around 17 years old and just started writing songs and doing studio work, that’s where things kicked off really. There was no master plan, I just needed to pay my rent. All thanks to my dear old mum, we laugh about it because I honestly didn’t have two pennies to rub together. I was completely and utterly broke. When I met a musician called Jim Vallance, who I ended up writing a bunch of songs with, I had to borrow bus fare from him just so that I could get to him the next day and that’s what it was like.

Q: When you’re not performing, what do you like to do in your spare time?

Time is pretty full up with a combination of making records, I am now an independent artist, I don’t have a record label, I don’t have a manager and so a lot of time is spent working out what we’re going to do next. I have 40 people that I take on tour with me so I want to make sure our tours continue. We do about 100 shows a year around the world but in between that I spend time with my family and making new music.

Q: You’re also a portrait photographer and you’ve photographed people like Kate Moss and the Queen! How did you get into that?

I just started doing it because I liked it. I used to carry a camera with me on tour and document my sessions in the studio and all sorts. That then led to taking photographs of friends, some of them actors and models and some of my pictures got published in magazines, which led to further work.

Q: How did you get to photograph Queen Elizabeth?

I had an agent in London, they’re called Camera Press, I am still with them, and they asked me if I wanted to represent Canada for her Silver Jubilee. They had a different photographer from each member of the commonwealth and so I got the gig! It was wonderful, what can I say, I was really lucky to have had that experience.

Q: Plymouth has a great music scene, what advice would you give to up-and-coming musicians?

Get out and gig, get out and play, that’s the best thing you can do.

Catch Bryan Adams, on Friday 14th June 2024, headlining at Plymouth Summer Sessions, The Hoe. Tickets for the 4-day festival can be found on www.smmrsessions.com with other headlining acts such as Tom Jones, Madness and Sting.