Bryan Adams- Reckless 40th Anniversary

In November 1984 Bryan Adams’ fourth album, Reckless , had only just begun spinning off what eventually would be a total of six Top 15 hits, including “Run to You”,”One Night Love Affair”, “Somebody”, “Summer of ’69”, “It’s Only Love” with superstar Tina Turner, and the #1 single, “ Heaven”. At the time only Michael Jackson’s Thriller  was the equal of Reckless for sheer mass appeal sales. Ponder that for a moment.

By mid-August 1985, a month after I had witnessed him & his band from sidestage at Philadelphia’s massive JFK stadium performing to more than a billion people as part of the televised Live Aid charity concert, Reckless  was the #1-selling album in America.

Seated at Bryan’s kitchen table late on a Saturday night at his home in Vancouver, we talked about that remarkable year. Then in his basement studio overlooking the glassy water of the bay, he played early demo versions of “Run to You” with backing vocals  which undermined the taut urgency that the song eventually demanded. Finally, at about 3 a.m. on a clear starry September night, Bryan set up a telescope on a tripod in the middle of his suburban Vancouver  neighborhood street & showed me the rings around Saturn, seemingly as eager to share this natural wonder as he was displaying the vintage recording consoles in his basement.  –Redbeard ( Backstage in Dallas/Ft.Worth with Bryan Adams (c) and Sirius/XM’s Kurt Gilchrist (r) )