The past few years have seen a reinterpretation of Bryan Adam's biggest song, "Summer of '69." The 1985 hit is a karaoke favorite with heavy nostalgia for lost youth, but lately a theory has floated around that the number in the title refers not to a year but to a sexual position. Sadly, Bryan Adams has refused to set that record straight.
"I'd give it all back to have him here with us."
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Instead, the man who has sold 100 million albums and graced a postage stamp in his native Canada prefers to discuss the present, specifically his new album, Get Up!, which he describes as "a cool collection of songs written over about two years. It could be my most rocking album yet," he says. "I was working with Jim Vallance writing songs when I was reintroduced to Jeff Lynne by a mutual friend in L.A. We hit it off, and he was instrumental in there even being an album, because he was able to make our crappy demos into shiny, bright records with great sounds."
That producer, Lynne, has been in the studio with nearly every Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, from Paul McCartney to Tom Petty, and Adams couldn't say enough nice things about working with him. "It was the easiest record I made, since my second album in 1981," he says. "Jeff got on with it, beavered away, and made it fun. Every time we got together, we finished something. And at the end of it, I asked him how much he wanted for his studio time, and he laughed at me and said, 'I don't charge my mates.'"
Adams also has kind words for a departed collaborator, Michael Kamen, who brought Adams in to do all of his chart-smashing movie soundtrack work in the '90s, from Robin Hood's "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" to Don Juan DeMarco's "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman."
"He'd call me up late at night and say, 'Hey, B, can you come over and help me with a song for this film I'm doing?' We were nominated twice for Academy Awards and all kinds of other shit, but I'd give it all back to have him here with us. Precious, hugely talented guy."
Adams is taking all of those old favorites and some new ones on the road on a tour that stops at the Fillmore this Saturday. Just get your mind out of the gutter when you're singing along.
Bryan Adams 7 p.m. Saturday, February 20, at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7300; fillmoremb.com. Tickets cost $65 to $100 plus fees via livenation.com.
