Every hit is a surprise: Bryan Adams

He set passions blazing when he sang Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?? and imaginations soaring with I Wanna Be Your Underwear.
And music lovers across the globe headbanged to his Summer of ‘69. Now on his India tour, Bryan Adams, who needs no introduction after having created some of the biggest hits, admits that every song that he has written has surprised him when they made it to the top of the charts.“I was never sure of any of my songs. Even my biggest hits were a question mark to me,” he says, “If I liked it at the time of writing it, that was usually good enough and I’d record it.”
Having rocked charts for three decades, several of his numbers have become classics. Ask him how different the Bryan Adams of today is when compared to the Bryan Adams of the Summer of ‘69, and he replies nonchalantly, “He’s the same.” Considered one of the most successful singer-songwriters in the industry, he says that success has not come to him easily. The one thing he attributes his achievements to is “dogmatic perseverance.” “Sheer and utter work. Nothing is ever handed to you; you have to work for everything you have all the time,” says the rock legend.
Known for lyrics that range from intensely passionate to playful and even philosophically insightful, he says that his style of making a song is quite simple and starts small. “It starts usually with a guitar riff or a melody. There are times it starts with a song title or a lyric; each song is different,” he says, adding, “Some come quickly, some take forever to write.”
Adams might have kicked wishful thinking out the window with 18 till I Die, but the 51-year-old rocker recently released his fully acoustic album Bare Bones and he shows no signs of slowing down. “I love to sing and that will never change. As long as it moves me, that is enough,” he says.
Music aside, Adams is known as much for his works of philanthropy as he is for his photography. “I’m inspired by the idea of creating something. Creation and love — that’s what rules my world,” he says.
Chennai might not be on his itinerary but, as he sets out to woo his fans in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi, he says of India and the music, “India has the most enthusiastic audiences, I’m not sure why more bands
don’t tour the country. I love the music of India; it’s hard to not be inspired by Indian music.”
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