There are some artists you never tire of. You can listen to them time and again and yet never get bored. Bryan Adams immediately comes to mind. Can you ever stop singing along to Summer of '69 or getting mushy every time you listen to Everything I Do I Do It For You? Well, brace yourself for another great evening with the Canadian singer when he comes to Dubai as part of his world tour.
Adams continues to rock and doesn't show signs of slowing down. In a brief chat, the Canadian singer spoke about his music. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Many of your best-known songs were co-written with Jim Vallance. What did eachof you bring to the songwriting partnership?
I used to bring the tea, Jim made the sandwiches. When we started writing in 1978, I was so broke I had to borrow bus fare to get to his place. The cool thing was that slowly but surely we saw results from the songs we were writing. It was really exciting. Jim is a far better musician, and thankfully he didn't want to be a singer. Otherwise I'd still be packing boxes somewhere in Canada.
Early on, you and Jim co-wrote a couple of songs for Kiss. How did that come about?
We wrote songs for anyone who would give us the time, and why not? Like most musicians we were ambitious and naive. All we wanted was to pay the rent, eat at the local curry house and not have to do a day job.
Can you describe what it was like to do a duet with Tina Turner on It's Only Love?
Singing with Tina has been one of the most exciting things I've ever done on stage. I worked hard on getting the song to her and luckily one of my colleagues was producing her album Private Dancer. That connection helped, but I wouldn't have met him, had I not written songs for a smaller project. So you see one thing always leads to the other.
Could you reflect on the effect and influence of MTV on your music and career?
It was a great channel in the beginning and really supportive of new music ... they kept on playing Cuts Like A Knife. I still get guys coming up to me asking who the girl in the video was. Her name was Rachel by the way, and no I never dated her, but probably should have.
What advice would you give to an aspiring songwriter/musician?
Well, as long as you are OK with the fact that you'll probably never get paid for your work, thanks to internet and free downloading, then at least don't sign your songs away. Hang on to everything you can.
What are your plans - musical or otherwise - forthe near future?
I'm touring all the time and really looking forward to the Middle East dates. I go out fora week or so every month, and I've just released an album of acoustic live tracks called Bare Bones - Live.
This is mostly due to people wanting to hear the versions of the songs they just heard from my acoustic show.
Details
When December 17 at 7pm
Where Dubai World Trade Centre Arena
How Tickets cost Dh250 (general) or Dh500 (VIP) and are available at all Virgin Megastores outlets or log onto www.boxofficeme.com
