1970s Adams left school to play in a group called "Shock" and used the funds his parents had saved for his college education to buy an
Estey grand
piano to tinker with. At one point he sold
pet food and worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant, which paid the rent. His interest grew in
CCR and
Deep Purple; he attended concerts by
Led Zeppelin,
T. Rex,
Elton John, and
Tina Turner. He began working in the
Vancouver music scene with bands and as a studio session singer. At the age of 15, he became the vocalist for glam rock band
Sweeney Todd, replacing their original vocalist
Nick Gilder. With Adams the band re-recorded "Roxy Roller", the Canadian hit single from their
first album, which came in at No. 99 on the U.S. charts. The band then recorded their second album
If Wishes Were Horses (1977) with Adams billed as "Bryan Guy Adams" on vocals. Adams left the band at age 16. Vallance was the former drummer and principal songwriter for Vancouver-based rock band
Prism, and had recently quit that band to focus on a career as a studio musician and songwriter. They agreed to meet at Vallance's home studio a few days later. This became the beginning of a partnership which was prolific and continuous through the 1980s, together they co-wrote for Adams and a long list of recordings for other artists, including
Kiss,
Tina Turner,
Joe Cocker,
Johnny Hallyday,
Bonnie Raitt,
Rod Stewart,
Bonnie Tyler,
Loverboy,
Carly Simon and
Neil Diamond, and while discontinuous, , is still in existence. Later in 1978, Adams signed to A&M records for one dollar. A&M remixed one of Adams' demos as a disco song "
Let Me Take You Dancing", featuring Adams' vocals speeded up to meet the 122 BPM dance tempo. The song made the Canadian
RPM chart in March 1979 along with its B-side "Don't Turn Me Away". In 1979, he made an agreement with Canadian manager
Bruce Allen, who at that time also worked for
Bachman–Turner Overdrive and
Loverboy.
1980s Adams's
self-titled debut album, mostly co-written with Jim Vallance, was released in February 1980. With the exception of "Remember" and "Wastin' Time", most of the album was recorded in October and November 1979 at Manta Studios and co-produced by Adams and Vallance. The same song was reinterpreted by
Uriah Heep for the album
Head First, released in 1983. The most successful song off the album in Canada was "Fits Ya Good" which reached the top 30 on the RPM Top 40 Chart; it also reached number 15 on the U.S. Album Rock Tracks chart. From January to May 1982, Adams spent months traveling on his "You Want It You Got It Tour"; within a few months the album had been picked up across the United States and Adams was soon on tour opening for
the Kinks and
Foreigner.
Cuts Like a Knife, which was released in January 1983, was Adams's breakout album. "
Straight from the Heart" was the first single released from the album; it reached number 10 on the
Billboard Hot 100, number 20 on the Canadian RPM Top 40 chart, and number one on the Canadian Adult Contemporary Chart. In September 1983,
Bonnie Tyler released her version for the studio album
Faster Than the Speed of Night. The second single, "Cuts Like a Knife", rose to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, number six on the U.S. Album Rock Tracks Chart, and number 12 on the Canadian RPM Top 40 Chart. The third single, "
This Time", was also a top 30 hit in the U.S. and Canada. Overseas, the latter two singles were both Top 20 hits in New Zealand, but there was little success in any other countries, aside from "Straight From the Heart" and "This Time" reaching the top 50 in the UK. Three other tracks, "Take Me Back", "I'm Ready" and "The Only One", also received substantial airplay on North American rock radio stations, each making the U.S. Album Rock Tracks chart. The album peaked at number eight on both the
Billboard 200 album chart and in Canada, achieving three times platinum status in Canada, platinum status in the United States and gold status in Australia. In October, Adams joined
Jim Vallance at the Yamaha Music Festival in Japan. The
Music Express national popular opinion poll voted him Canada's best male singer for 1982. In 1983, Adams travelled to America, opening for
Journey and performing on over 100 dates in five months.
Reckless was released in late 1984, and peaked at number one on both the
Billboard 200 and the Canadian Album Chart, while reaching number two in Australia and number seven in the UK. The album featured six singles, all of which peaked in the Top 15 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, only the third album to achieve this: The album also did well in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, although "Summer of '69" did not do as well at first in the UK since it was not played often on the radio; however, it achieved success later on in the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium. "It's Only Love" was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group in 1986. In 1986, the song won an MTV award for
Best Stage Performance.
Reckless also earned Adams a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Performance. Adams won
Juno Awards for Best Male Vocalist in each year from 1983 to 1987.
Reckless eventually went Diamond in sales in Canada, the first album by a Canadian artist to do so, while reaching 5× and 3× Platinum in the U.S. and UK.
Reckless has sold over 12 million copies worldwide, and won the
Juno Award for Album of the Year in 1985. In February 1985, Adams recorded the charity single "
Tears Are Not Enough" as a member of The Northern Lights, an improvised supergroup that also included
Anne Murray,
Gordon Lightfoot,
Burton Cummings,
Joni Mitchell and
Neil Young, and other Canadian musical artists. Adams wrote the lyrics and the album; the mission was to raise funds to help the
1983-85 famine in Ethiopia. The song was issued as a single by
Columbia Records in March of that year, and reached number one on the Canadian
Top 40 chart. It also finished number one on the year-end Canadian charts for 1985. The song's video also received extensive airplay on
MuchMusic. The single went triple platinum, although independently recorded by the USA for Africa project, it was included in the full-length
We Are the World album. In July 1985, Adams performed the song at the
Live Aid concert, at the
JFK Stadium in
Philadelphia, in front of over 100,000 people. In September 1985, Adams co-wrote two tracks for
Roger Daltrey's sixth solo album
Under a Raging Moon: "
Let Me Down Easy", originally written for
Stevie Nicks, and "Rebel". The album was a tribute to
The Who's drummer
Keith Moon, who died in 1978. The track "Let Me Down Easy" was a Top 15 Hit on
Billboard's
Mainstream Rock Tracks. Nearly 30 years later, Adams released his own version of "Let Me Down Easy" on a 30-year anniversary version of
Reckless. In January 1986, Adams provided the ending background vocals to the song "
Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" by Canadian rock band
Glass Tiger for their debut album
The Thin Red Line. It reached number one in Canada and number two in the United States. His follow-up album to
Reckless was
Into the Fire (1987), dealing with more serious subjects following "
Tears Are Not Enough". This album contained the hit songs "
Heat of the Night", which went to the top ten in both Canada and the U.S., and "
Hearts on Fire". In December 1987, Adams contributed the song "
Run Rudolph Run" to the compilation album
A Very Special Christmas, a charity album to benefit the
Special Olympics. The album received an
RIAA certification of 4× platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies in the United States. It is ranked 19th on the
list of best-selling Christmas albums in the United States. In 25 years, it generated $109 million in royalties for the Special Olympics. In May 1988,
Tommy Mandel joined the Adams band as new
keyboardist. In the summer of 1989, Adams joined artists to provide backing vocals on a re-recording of the
Deep Purple hit "
Smoke On The Water" in aid of victims of the
1988 Armenian earthquake. In August 1989, he recorded the backup vocals for the
Belinda Carlisle song "Whatever It Takes" from the
Runaway Horses album. Also during that time, Adams contributed to
Mötley Crüe's work on the album
Dr. Feelgood, doing the backing vocals of "Sticky Sweet" and
Charlie Sexton doing the backing vocals of "Don't Look Back" from the
Charlie Sexton album. Adams performed at "A Night for the Environment" to raise funds for environmental organizations. In November 1989, Adams attended Tina Turner's 50th birthday party at the
Reform Club in London. On
New Year's Eve 1990, Adams performed at the
Tokyo Dome. In December 1989,
Live! Live! Live!, his first live album, was released. It was recorded live at the
Rock Werchter festival on July 3, 1988, in
Werchter, Belgium.
1990s He returned to London and recorded the backing vocals for "Feels Like Forever", a song written by Adams for
Eric Carmen. In 1990, he received the
Order Of British Columbia. Adams added vocal tracks on the melody of
David Foster's "River Of Love" in his home studio in
Vancouver. On July 21, 1990, Adams performed the Pink Floyd tracks "Young Lust" and "Empty Spaces" at
Roger Waters's concert production of
The Wall – Live In Berlin, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months earlier. In 1990, in a 45-minute songwriting session, Adams,
Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and
Michael Kamen wrote "
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" for the
Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves soundtrack. Kamen sent his score to a number of different artists before Adams, including
Kate Bush who turned the score down. "Everything I Do" was released internationally on June 12, days after the premiere of the film, with the initial shipment of 385,000 copies being the largest single shipment in the history of
A&M Records. It spent a record 16 consecutive weeks at Number One on the
UK Singles Chart and seven weeks on top of the
Billboard Hot 100. The song also gave Adams his first
Golden Globe Award nomination for
Best Song from a Motion Picture. Adams and Vallance wrote "Nature Of The Beast", originally intended for
Tina Turner, but recorded by
The Law, featuring Adams on vocals and guitar tracks, in 1991. In May 1991, the
music video for the song was created in
Sheffield, directed by
Julien Temple. In June 1991, a video was shot for the first single, "
Can't Stop This Thing We Started", directed by
Kevin Godley at
Pinewood Studios in London. On September 24, 1991, the album
Waking Up the Neighbours was released. Co-produced by Adams and
Robert John "Mutt" Lange, it topped the charts around the world, including in the UK, Canada, Australia and Germany and reached number six on the
Billboard 200. It became Adams's second album to be certified Diamond in sales in Canada while being certified 5× platinum in the U.S. It went on to sell 16 million copies worldwide. Following Adams' complaints, in September of that year, the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that the
Canadian content rules would be expanded. The regulation at that time considered collaborative writing between Canadians and non-Canadians to be "Canadian" only where the lyricist and musical composer worked separately and at least one was Canadian. In protest, Adams briefly threatened to boycott Canada's annual
Juno Awards, where his album was eventually almost completely ignored by the awards committee. In 1992, he won the
Juno International Achievement Award,
Canadian Entertainer of the Year (voted on by the public) and
Producer of the Year Award. In September 1991, the regulation was amended to recognize collaborations in which two (or more) contributors each contributed to both lyrics and music, as was the case with Adams and Lange. In addition to "
(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", the album included "
Can't Stop This Thing We Started" (number two in the U.S. and number one in Canada), the ballad "
Do I Have to Say the Words?" (number 11 in the U.S. and in the UK and number one in Canada), "
Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven" (number 8 in the U.S.), and "
There Will Never Be Another Tonight" (number 2 in Canada). The album won many awards including the
Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media in 1992. In July 1992, Adams performed at
Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 fans, the largest audience on his tour, with
Little Angels and
Extreme serving as opening acts. In 1993, Adams collaborated with
Rod Stewart and
Sting for the single "
All for Love" co-written by Adams for the soundtrack of the film
The Three Musketeers. The single topped the charts worldwide. In June 1993, Adams attended a tribute to
Sam Cooke in which he played "
Bring It On Home to Me" in a duet with
Smokey Robinson. In November 1993, Adams released
So Far So Good, a
compilation album that was certified 6× Platinum in the U.S., 3× Platinum in the UK, 6× Platinum in Canada, and 11× Platinum in Australia. It included a new song called "
Please Forgive Me", which peaked at number two in the UK, number 7 in the U.S. In 1994, Adams became the first Western artist to perform in
Vietnam since
James Brown played there in 1971 at the end of the
Vietnam War. In October 1994, Adams sang one of his favorite songs, "
Hound Dog", at the
Elvis Presley tribute concert in Memphis. In September 1994, at the
benefit concert Pavarotti & Friends, Adams sang "
Please Forgive Me", and a version of "
All for Love" featuring
Luciano Pavarotti,
Andrea Bocelli,
Nancy Gustafson, and
Giorgia Todrani. In 1995, Adams released "
Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?". It was a number one in the U.S., Canada and Australia, as well as a top five hit in the UK and Germany. The single was nominated for the
Oscar,
Grammy and
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In June 1996, the album
18 til I Die was released. It contained the songs: "
The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You" (number 1 in Canada), "
Let's Make a Night to Remember" (number 1 in Canada), "
Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" (number 1 in Canada), and "
Star", which is included in the soundtrack of the film
Jack. The album reached number 1 on the UK charts while also reaching number two in Australia and number four in Canada. The album was less successful in the U.S. only reaching number 31 on the
Billboard 200, but was certified platinum in the United States by the
RIAA. In November 1997, Adams penned new lyrics to the
Jean-Jacques Goldman song "
Puisque tu pars" also written that month, remade as ''
Let's Talk About Love'' recorded by
Celine Dion. In 1999, a demo version of Adams' translation appeared on the single CD "
Cloud Number Nine" in 1999. In December 1997, Adams released
MTV Unplugged with three new tracks: "
Back to You", "A Little Love" and "When You Love Someone". "
Back to You" was the first single, followed by "
I'm Ready", an acoustic version of the song from the album
Cuts Like A Knife. The album was a top ten success in Germany while both singles reached the top 20 in the UK.
On a Day Like Today was released in 1998 and the release coincided with his contract being sold to
Interscope Records.
On a Day Like Today enjoyed success internationally, entering the top five in Germany and Canada and was certified platinum in the UK. It generated two British top ten singles: "Cloud Number Nine" and "When You're Gone", which featured
Melanie C of the
Spice Girls and peaked at number 3. The song has sold 830,000 combined equivalent-sales in the UK as of May 2019. To commemorate the millennium, Adams released
The Best of Me, his most comprehensive collection of songs at that time, which included two new songs, the title track "The Best of Me" and "
Don't Give Up" (number 1 in the UK). The album reached the top ten in Germany and was certified three times platinum in Canada and Platinum in the UK. The single from the album, "The Best of Me" was a successful hit with the exception of the U.S., where neither the single or the album were released by
Interscope Records, the single peaked at 10 on the
Canadian Singles Chart on January 24, 2000. Adams sang on the title track and the song "Without You" for
Tina Turner's album
Twenty Four Seven, released in October 1999. Adams attended Turner's 60th birthday party in London, at which they performed "
It's Only Love". It was released on DVD. On
New Year's Eve, December 31, 2000, Adams performed with
Celine Dion at the
Bell Center in Montreal.
2000s In October 2000, Adams sang "
Sad Songs (Say So Much)" with
Elton John at
Madison Square Garden for the live album
Elton John One Night Only – The Greatest Hits. On August 26, 2000, he performed at the
Slane Festival in front of over 70,000 people, with special appearances by
Melanie C,
Chicane and
Davy Spillane. The concert was also released on CD/DVD as
Live at Slane Castle, Ireland. On November 27, 2000, Adams performed at
The Who & Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a benefit concert organized by
The Who, singing a song by the English band,
Behind Blue Eyes and
See Me, Feel Me with
Eddie Vedder. The concert was also released on CD as
Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Adams co-wrote and performed the songs for the DreamWorks animated film
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron in 2002. The songs were included on the
film's soundtrack. The most successful single from the soundtrack was "
Here I Am", a British top five and German Top 20 hit. Adams received his fourth
Golden Globe Award nomination for
Best Song from a Motion Picture from the song. In 2004, Adams was ranked 13th on the ARC Weekly chart of top pop artists of the last 25 years, with four number-one singles, ten top five hits and 17 Top-10 hits.
Room Service was released in September 2004. It topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland and peaked at number four in the UK, selling 440,000 copies in its first week in Europe and thus debuted at number one on
Billboard's European album chart. The single, "
Open Road", was the most successful single from the album and peaked at number one in Canada and number twenty-one in the UK. In May 2008, the album was also released in the U.S., charting at number 134 on the
Billboard 200. From June to August 2005, Adams co-headlined a concert tour with
Def Leppard that took place at
minor league baseball stadiums. In July 2005, Adams performed at
Live 8 in
Barrie. In 2006, Adams co-wrote and performed the
theme music "Never Let Go" which was featured in the closing credits of the film
The Guardian. In April 2006, he was inducted into the
Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Also in 2006, Adams co-wrote the
Grammy Award-winning gospel song "
Never Gonna Break My Faith" for
Aretha Franklin. It was featured in the film
Bobby as a duet by
Aretha Franklin and
Mary J. Blige with the
Boys Choir of Harlem and earned him a
Golden Globe Nomination in 2007. On July 31, 2006, together with
Billy Joel, he performed in a free concert with an estimated crowd of over 500,000 people in
Rome at
Via dei Fori Imperiali, with the
Colosseum as a background. In May 2007, on the occasion of his 25th concert at the
Wembley Arena, he received the "Wembley Square Of Fame", a bronze plaque engraved with his name and handprints at
Wembley Park. Also in 2007, Adams co-wrote two songs "A Place for Us" and "Another Layer" for the Disney film
Bridge to Terabithia. Adams released his eleventh album,
11, internationally on March 17, 2008. The album was released in the U.S. exclusively at
Wal-Mart and
Sam's Club retail stores on May 13, 2008. The first single released from the album was "
I Thought I'd Seen Everything". In March 2008, Adams played an 11-day, 11-country European acoustic tour to promote the album. The album debuted at number one in Canada, making it his first album to reach that position since
Waking Up the Neighbours in 1991, and reached number two in Germany. In the United States, the album charted at number 80. In June and July 2008, he toured the U.S., playing some shows with
Foreigner and on others with
Rod Stewart. Adams was one of four musicians who were pictured on the second series of the Canadian Recording Artist Series to be issued by
Canada Post stamps on July 2, 2009, with estimated one and one-half million Adams stamps printed. On June 26, 2009, he performed some of his hits on an episode of
CMT Crossroads with
Jason Aldean. In November 2009, he co-wrote, produced, and performed the song "
You've Been a Friend to Me" for the film
Old Dogs.
2010s In February 2010, Adams released "
One World, One Flame". On February 12, 2010, at the
2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony at
BC Place Stadium, Adams performed "
Bang the Drum", a duet with
Nelly Furtado co-written with
Jim Vallance for the event. In May 2010, Adams was one of several Canadian musicians to visit Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper at his official residence. Originally, the visit was meant to be Adams's plea to the Prime Minister to change copyright laws; instead, Harper turned it into an informal
jam session. In November 2010, Adams released the acoustic album
Bare Bones, a live project consisting of twenty songs, to celebrate thirty years of career.
Gary Breit accompanies on piano. Adams then embarked on "The Bare Bones Tour", an acoustic tour, and integrated acoustic concerts into other tours. Adams performed at the opening ceremony of the
2011 Cricket World Cup on February 17, 2011, in
Dhaka, Bangladesh. On February 19, 2011, Adams and his band played in
Kathmandu, which was organized by ODC Network and made him the first international artist to perform in Nepal. during a concert in 2012 In August 2013,
Live at Sydney Opera House was released on CD / DVD set or separately as a CD, DVD or
Blu-ray; it was recorded during one of the 3 nights at
Sydney Opera House, in August 2011, during "The Bare Bones Tour". In April 2013, Adams and
Michael Bublé released "After All", a duet co-written by Adams with
Alan Chang, Steven Sater, and
Jim Vallance. In 2014, Adams signed a
recording contract with
Verve Records and in September, he released
Tracks of My Years, an album of
cover versions celebrating the 30th Anniversary of
Reckless. The album reached number one on the Canadian album chart. The album contains cover songs and one original song co-written with Jim Vallance. In July 2014, Adams filmed
Bryan Adams in Concert for
Great Performances on
PBS. It was recorded at the
Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto and first aired on March 2, 2015. Adams released his first album of all new material in seven years on October 16, 2015. The album, titled
Get Up, was co-written with Jim Vallance and produced by
Jeff Lynne. Adams performed at the
2015 AFL Grand Final, along with
Ellie Goulding and
Chris Isaak. On December 31, 2015, he performed at the
Central Hall Westminster in
London for the
BBC's New Year's Eve, which was broadcast live on
BBC One. On October 14, 2016, Adams released the Wembley 1996 DVD, the recording of his concert, as part of the 18 Til I die tour, held on July 27, 1996, at London's
Wembley Stadium, in front of over 70,000 spectators. The DVD immediately ranked to the top of the British
music video charts. In November 2017,
Ultimate, a compilation album with two new songs "Please Stay" and the anti-war themed "Ultimate Love", was released. In 2018, Bryan Adams performed "the Ultimate tour", touring Australia, New Zealand, UK, Europe, India, the U.S., and Canada. Adams first approached
Disney in 2009 to discuss writing the music for a possible
Broadway theatre adaptation of
Pretty Woman. In 2016, when he found out that it was in production, he interviewed for the songwriter position with Jim Vallance and got the job. He worked with producer
Paula Wagner and director
Jerry Mitchell, spending the next two years writing the music and lyrics, completing the songs in March 2018.
Pretty Woman: The Musical made its debut on Broadway in August 2018 and opened in London's
West End theatre in February 2020. In August 2018, Adams performed a duet version of "Summer of '69" with
Taylor Swift during her
Reputation Tour in Toronto, Canada. Adams released his fourteenth album
Shine a Light on March 1, 2019. The album features collaborations with
Ed Sheeran and
Jennifer Lopez. The album debuted at number one on the
Canadian Albums Chart, in the first week of its release, with 44,000 copies sold; its previous number one in Canada going back to the
Tracks of My Years album released in October 2014. This was his 11th album in the top ten and the fifth album at the top of the Canadian charts. and it was his tenth album to enter the UK Top-10 albums chart. second position in
Austria; second position in the
New Zealand charts; and the third position in
Germany.
Shine a Light was certified gold in Canada, and it won the
Juno Award for "Best Adult Contemporary Album" in 2020. On June 19, 2020, on the 155th anniversary of the end of
Slavery in the United States, the unreleased solo version of "
Never Gonna Break My Faith" by
Aretha Franklin was released with the participation of
RCA Records,
RCA Inspiration and
Legacy Recordings, featuring a music video that contained contemporary topics, including films about
George Floyd and the
Black Lives Matter movement. Adams, while writing this song, did not think it would be performed by Aretha. He conceived something like a hymn and "so that it can express a sense of faith, and that even if you have lost something, there will always be an inner light to guide you." However, then Adams said:"When the song was ready, I told the producers that Aretha was going to sing it – and she did. This solo version had been on my computer for years (about 15 years), and when I heard that the creative director of Sony Music, longtime producer and friend of Aretha's Clive Davis, was making a movie about his life, I sent him this version. The world hadn't heard her full performance yet and it really needed to be heard. I'm so glad it's being released, the world needs this right now." Adams told the
Times that he had asked Universal for access to the master tapes for
Reckless in 2013 while working on a remastered edition of the album, but had been told that the tapes could not be found. At the end of November 2019, the album
The Christmas Present by the British singer-songwriter
Robbie Williams is released, Adams participates in the duet with Williams in the song
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).
2020s On November 13, 2020, Adams was featured on "
Stop Crying Your Heart Out" as part of the BBC Radio 2's Allstars'
Children in Need charity single. The single debuted at number seven on the Official UK Singles Chart and number one on both the Official UK Singles Sales Chart and the Official UK Singles Download Chart. On December 7, 2020, Adams announced a series of UK concerts following the long hiatus of the "Shine a Light Tour" caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of a sold out 17-date tour with
Bon Jovi in U.S. arenas. In July 2021, Adams signed a deal with Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) to release his next album. On October 11, 2021, Adams released the title track of his 15th studio album,
So Happy It Hurts. The album was released in March 2022. Adams also announced dates for a worldwide tour starting in February 2022. The single So Happy It Hurts from this album was nominated in the Best Rock Performance category of the 2023 Grammy Awards. Shows in late 2021 were cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, via
YouTube, Adams released new versions of the 16 songs of
Pretty Woman: The Musical sung by Adams himself. The songs were co-written by Adams and
Jim Vallance for the musical in October 2018. On April 1, 2022, Adams released
Classic, an album of reworked and reimagined hits. This was followed on July 29, 2022, with
Classic Pt II. In December 2023, Adams split with his manager of 44 years,
Bruce Allen, instead choosing to self-manage his career. In August 2024, Adams launched his own record label, called Bad Records and released a double A-side single "War Machine"/"Rock and Roll Hell". In November 2024, Canadian media conglomerate
Bell Media announced several partnerships with Adams, including an internet radio channel, a syndicated radio show that will premiere in January 2025, as well as a
CTV concert special featuring a performance of the
Reckless album (marking its 40th anniversary) from a three-night residency at the
Royal Albert Hall in May 2024. Following the release of the
Roll with the Punches album in August 2025, Adams launched the "Roll with the Punches" tour in the fall with performances throughout North America. The tour continued into 2026.
Artistry Voice and timbre Adams' voice has been described as a "sandpaper
tenor that's a cross between Joe Cocker and Bruce Springsteen".
Musical style Adams has played various styles of rock, from
hard rock and
arena rock to
pop rock and
soft rock. His early songs were about kids and about the lives of young people, and he is known for his romantic
ballads. During the first few years of his career, Adams fronted
Canadian glam rock band
Sweeney Todd; the band played
hard rock as well as
glam rock. was a
disco song. The melody, a piano riff inspired by
Robbie King, was composed by Jim Vallance on his parents' piano during the Christmas holidays in 1977; Adams helped turn the riff into a song. In 1982, Vallance and Adams received a call from producer Michael James Jackson to contribute some songs for the next
Kiss album. Although Vallance and Adams were not fans of
heavy metal, it was a golden opportunity for exposure for their songs by a world-class rock group. In collaboration with
Gene Simmons, the track "War Machine" and a rewrite "Rock 'n Roll Hell" were recorded by Kiss for the album
Creatures of the Night. Adams' first solo albums,
Bryan Adams and
You Want It You Got It, two clear-cut
rock and
hard rock albums, included the styles for which Adams would become famous. In 1983, with the release of
Cuts Like a Knife,
Reckless and
Into the Fire, Adams' music was characterised as hard rock with melodic overtones and powerful ballads (known as power ballads). In the 1990s, with the release of
Waking Up the Neighbours in 1991, produced by
Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Adams left the hard rock sound and released an album closer to classic rock and roll, taking inspiration from the sounds of bands like
Def Leppard and
Foreigner. In 1996, with his album
18 til I Die, Adams adopted a pop rock sound more in line with the style of the time. Many ballads were included, although it also contained some rock songs such as "
18 til I Die" and "
The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You". In the album
Room Service (2000), Adams again opted for a rock-orientated sound. In 2008, with
11, Adams utilised a softer sound and included songs from the
soft rock,
pop rock and melodic rock genres. In 2019, with
Shine a Light, he combined
rock with
pop rock and
R&B.
Influences and favourite musicians Among his youthful influences, Adams has often mentioned
Elvis Presley and
Bob Dylan as well as all the pop and rock he heard as a boy on the radio. His main sources of inspiration also include guitarists, besides Blackmore, he was influenced by guitarists such as
Jimmy Page,
Eric Clapton,
Mick Ronson,
Jeff Beck,
Peter Frampton and
Eddie Van Halen. Other influential and favourite artists were
Alice Cooper,
Black Sabbath,
Humble Pie,
Bob Marley,
Bob Seger,
Chuck Berry,
David Bowie,
Jackie Wilson,
Joe Cocker,
John Lennon,
Led Zeppelin,
Leonard Cohen,
Ray Charles,
Sam Cooke,
The Beatles,
The Who,
The Beach Boys,
The Rolling Stones and
Van Morrison.
Impact and legacy With the mainstream success of
Reckless in the 1980s, five times multi-platinum "Album of the Year" and in the top 20 in "The Best AOR Albums Of All Time" according to
Kerrang! Magazine, the true masterpiece of the Canadian rocker according to the Italian magazine
Panorama, and
Waking Up The Neighbours in the 1990s, having gained worldwide circulation, Adams' impact still persists today. Being one of the most popular rock artists of the '80s and '90s, the merit of having maintained a pure rock at that time as the world went into
Hip hop music and
Electronic music. He is known for his powerful rock songs and romantic ballads, and his music has appeared in dozens of films both as a singer and as a songwriter and co-writer since the early 1980s, including
Class,
A Night in Heaven,
Real Genius,
Renegades,
Pink Cadillac,
An Innocent Man,
Problem Child 2,
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,
The Cutting Edge,
The Three Musketeers,
Don Juan DeMarco,
The Mirror Has Two Faces,
Jack,
Red Corner,
Hope Floats,
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,
House of Fools, ''
Devil's Gate, Racing Stripes, Color Me Kubrick, The Guardian, Bobby, Cashback, Bridge to Terabithia, Old Dogs, Jock the Hero Dog and Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return''.
Success in India Adams and his music are popular in India, where he is a household name for three generations of people, and many people say the first few English phrases mastered by many young Indians are "It was the summer of '69" and "Everything I do, I do it for you." Many music industry executives have said Adams is the most-known foreign music artist in India. He was one of the first foreigners to stage a large-scale concert in India in the early 1990s, and he has returned to tour India several times. It is also reported that "Summer of '69" has been so popular in India for so long that it is "almost a Hindi song now", often the only "western" song that might be allowed to be played at a traditional Indian wedding. == Activism and humanitarian work ==