All About Bryan Adams
Step right up, folks. It's time to see the sole Canadian musician capable of writing a tear-jerking chart-topper, flirting with royalty and saving the whales -- all while sweatily thrashing around a stage like it's the summer of '69. Call him a man of many talents -- we'll just call him Bryan Adams. Juggling a multitude of roles is all in a day's work for the 46-year-old Vancouver-bred CanRock songster you've known and loved for decades. Want him to sing? He can sing. Want him to rock? He can rock. Want him to photograph the Queen for a postage stamp? He can do that, too. We know it's true -- everything Adams does, he does for you. And because he's a ...
HOPELESS ROMANTIC A Bryan Adams song without the words "love" and "baby" is almost as rare as a wedding reception void of his mushy ballads. And like a gentleman, Adams keeps his love life out of tabloids, with the exception of an alleged royal fling in 2003 (see Sugar Daddy). Until then, the balladeer serenaded long-term supermodel girlfriend/Bond girl Cecilie Thomsen, who also starred in videos for Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? and Let's Make a Night to Remember .
TELLING LYRIC: You know it's true, everything I do -- I do it for you.
ROCK 'N' ROLLER Lovey-dovey crap aside, Adams can rock. Not in that bat-decapitating Ozzy Osbourne way, but in that wholesome dude-next-door way. Superstar producer Robert John (Mutt) Lange (Def Leppard, Shania Twain) gave him a mid-career lesson in Stardom 101 and had a hand in the 1991 smash Waking Up the Neighbours. Party-hearty anthems like Summer of '69 and 18 Til I Die reveal Adams' rockin' side -- if the guitar permanently attached to his hip weren't enough.
TELLING LYRIC: I got my first real six string / Bought it at the five and dime / Played it 'till my fingers bled / It was the summer of '69.
HUMANITARIAN Adams passes on the Canadian bacon, but don't bug him for being unpatriotic. He's vegan -- and voted one of PETA's sexiest at that. Elephants and whales also top his list of animals to save. Adams co-wrote 1985 charity tune Tears Are Not Enough for Ethiopian famine relief, played at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert and at last July's Live 8 gig in Barrie, Ont. Since losing a close friend to breast cancer, the strummer's supported research for the disease with profits from his photography books, Made in Canada and American Women.
TELLING LYRIC: On a day like today the whole world could change / The sun's gonna shine shine through the rain.
MAN'S MAN Transportation of choice: motorcycle. Outfit of choice: Well-worn jeans, T-shirt and sneakers. No. of bike accidents: One known. No. of gunshot wounds: One, from an air rifle, received while riding a bike through London. 'Nuff said.
TELLING LYRIC: Yeah, we can get some beer / Yeah, let's get outta here.
SUGAR DADDY Adams sometimes crosses the line between romantic and erotic in his lyrics, and supposedly elsewhere. That is, if we are to believe rumours that he turned a boyish crush on Princess Diana into a full-blown affair shortly after her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996. And if we buy more rumours of a thing with Pamela Anderson and a drunken fling with Kate Moss. While Adams is a pro at keeping mum about his endeavors, he'll admit to having pictures of Cindy Crawford, Christie Brinkley and Scarlett Johansson -- but only because he took their photos for Made in America.
TELLING LYRIC: From your feet up to your hair, more than anything I swear / I wanna be your underwear.
POP SCENESTER Between the Hollywood soundtracks and radio-friendly tunes, Adams is a regular Britney Spears. OK, maybe that's pushing it. However, his first single was a'79 disco track called, Let Me Take You Dancing (which he has since denied exists). There's his nine No. 1 singles and trademark gushy flick hits. And the fact that he went to high school with Michael J. Fox and sang bubblegummy collaborations with Rod Stewart, Sting and Spice Girl Mel C. give him enough pop potential to host MTV's TRL
TELLING LYRIC: Baby when you're gone (when you're gone) / I realize I'm in love (so in love) / Days go on and on / And the nights just seem so long
