Bryan Adams’ Aussie tour: Why Kiss songs may feature on setlist

Bryan Adams, who will be touring Australia in 2025, has opened up about thinking his work was rubbish – but dozens of artists, including Kiss and Australia’s Jon English and Shannon Noll, say otherwise.

Rock star Bryan Adams is weighing up a couple of shock additions to his setlist when he returns to Australia for his first tour in five years in February 2025.

The Canadian superstar has just launched his independent label Bad Records with new recordings of two Kiss songs he wrote when he was a starving young artist.

Rock ‘N’ Roll Hell and War Machine are the first official releases on his new imprint after taking full control of his recordings.

After more than four decades of making tens of millions of dollars for major labels and tech companies, the 64-year-old artist wanted to reclaim his legacy and give fans a one-stop shop for his enviable catalogue.

“A lot of my music (copyrights) has come back to me and I wanted it to have a home … not just amazon.com,” the rock icon said.

Adams kicks off his return with the So Happy It Hurts tour to Australia at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on February 6 and then performs at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on February 7, Perth’s RAC Arena on February 9, Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on February 12, and Brisbane Entertainment Centre on February 13.

Bryan Adams performs on stage during a concert at Arena Ciudad de Mexico earlier this year. Picture: Getty Images

He has returned to Australian stages regularly since his first tour 40 years ago, when he was an opening act for The Police’s Synchronicity shows at the Sydney and Melbourne Showgrounds in March 1984.

Back then, Adams had yet to conquer the world’s airwaves with his hit single Run To You, which was released in October, and the even bigger smash Summer of 69 in June 1985.

But with his longtime Canadian co-writer Jim Vallance, the future rock star was already a writer to the stars.

He was 21 when asked to submit songs for Kiss, who were working on their Creatures of the Night record, by a producer who had heard his 1980 self-titled debut record.

“I was literally skint, I was borrowing bus fare from Jim Vallance so I could get back and forth from the studio,” Adams said.

“I had nothing, so this was unbelievable; I’m so grateful to the fellas who asked me to do it back then because it really helps in some ways … that you’ve done something other than your own rubbish.”

Clearly his peers didn’t think his work was rubbish.

Dozens of artists have recorded songs he has written over the years. The late Australian singer and actor Jon English released his version of Straight From The Heart in 1981, two years before Adams’ version became his first US hit, making it to the top 10.

Sporty Spice Melanie Chisholm performs with Bryan Adams at the 77th Royal Variety Performance in 1998.

Tina Turner enjoyed huge success with their duet of Adams’ song It’s Only Love during his global comeback in the mid 1980s, and the Canadian superstar soared to the top of the charts here and in the UK when he enlisted Melanie C to sing on When You’re Gone, her first single outside of the Spice Girls.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year is Drive, the song Adams co-wrote and Shannon Noll recorded for his post Australian Idol album and hit top 5 on the Australian charts.

Shanon Noll and Bryan Adams at the 2005 MTV Australia Video Music awards in Sydney.

Adams, who has sold more than 65 million records and is a streaming king with more than five billion plays on Spotify alone, has also been one of the most successful film theme songwriters and singers of the past three decades, claiming pop culture ubiquity with hits including (Everything I Do) I Do It for You from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, All for Love from the Three Musketeers, and I Finally Found Someone with Barbra Streisand for The Mirror Has Two Faces.

Bryan Adams announces his first tour in five years

He continues to challenge himself with collaborations, including he and Vallance writing for Pretty Woman – The Musical which he hopes will be staged in Australia after its runs in the UK, US and Europe.

“It was really hard work, that was what that was, but I would do it again. I actually went after that because I knew that it hasn’t been a musical and I contacted Disney, who owned half the rights to it.

“Nothing happened at the time but, some years later, a friend of mine – Rob Ross who was the director of Beauty and the Beast – said ‘You should really do a musical’ and I told him what happened with Pretty Woman.

“It turns out they were making it and he connected me with the producer.”

Bryan Adams on The Tonight Show in 2023. Picture: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images

Those who have followed Adams’ career closely are well aware his talents also extend to photography.

He has produced iconic and intimate images of Elle Macpherson, Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse, Mick Jagger and the late Queen Elizabeth II ahead of her Golden Jubilee in 2012.

Adams, who spends much of his time between bases in Vancouver and London, was tapped at the last minute to photograph the late British monarch, in a series of shoots conducted by representatives of the Commonwealth.

Each was allocated only five minutes to get the shot. Adams was granted extra time because the Queen and her husband Prince Philip were impressed by his gear. And his positioning of her no-nonsense Wellingtons as props near her seat.

Bryan Adams attends at the opening of his exhibition "Exposed" on March 14, 2022 in Hagen, Germany. Picture: Getty.

RIP Queen Elizabeth II pic.twitter.com/CfVB1olMOa

— Bryan Adams (@bryanadams) September 8, 2022

“In those days I was still working with a big 8 x 10 camera, which is one of those cameras you put the hood over and you put the slide in the back of it.

“I’d set it up when she came in and said ‘Oh look, Philip, we haven’t seen one of these in a while.

“It kind of broke the ice and she became very curious because most people were just in and out. I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing in that camera for a five-minute shoot.

“But, in saying that, it became a much longer session because she liked that I was such an idiot.”

Frontier Member pre-sale opens on September 2 with all timings and ticket details via frontiertouring.com/bryanadams and the general tickets sale opens on September 4 with all information via the same link

Originally published as Bryan Adams’ Aussie tour: Why Kiss songs may feature on setlist