Commuters, Bryan Adams feels your pain.
The Canadian rock superstar was stopped in downtown Toronto traffic yesterday while shooting a video for his new single, Open Road.
The Toronto Sun got an exclusive peek and interview.
On a small street dressed to look like New York City, the Vancouver singer sat stalled in a classic silver Mustang. Acting bored, he mouthed along to the song’s lyrics about breaking out and hitting the open road.
Unlike folks gridlocked in real life, Adams gets to walk away.
Beforehand in his trailer, Adams told the Sun: “The concept is that the traffic is stopped and I can’t go anywhere. I get out of my car and go into a building, past all the people who are controlling it. I get into this boardroom and start opening up a winch, which opens up the road.”
He says the clip is not so much about traffic as “power, authority, holding everyone back. It’s an anti-establishment statement.”
Open Road is the lead single from the upcoming Bryan Adams album, Room Service, which hits stores Sept. 21. You can hear it for yourself today, when the song is delivered to radio stations.
This rock track is instantly recognizable as Adams, sounding a lot like his smash 1984 hit Run To You crossed with that other classic Canadian road trip song, Tom Cochrane’s Life is a Highway.
Truckers, it’s time for a new mixed tape.
Adams’ music always does big business, in Canada and around the world. To date, he has sold more than 65 million records. Besides Celine Dion, few Canadians can match his global recognition and South Park spoof-ability factor.
Adams, 45, not only sounds the same as ever, he looks forever teen. For the video clip, he sported a leather jacket and jeans, his hair slightly shorter now but still slightly spiked.
Maybe it’s the fame that keeps him young, or perhaps keeping a motorcycle. (He says he stills rides even after having been shot in the back with an air rifle in the streets of London, England, last year.)
Or maybe it’s the travel. Adams still routinely tours the world, living out of suitcases. This is where he recorded Room Service.
“I had a big studio which used to travel with me, but you couldn’t move it from place to place.
“I would need to rent a house for six months and work. This time, I got rid of that system and got it into two suitcases. It’s the marvel of digital technology.”
Bryan Adams says Room Service is his most global record.
The song Open Road, for example, was completed over two continents while he toured.
“The basic track was recorded in Vancouver, at the Warehouse studio,” he said.
“The vocal was done in Paris, and my guitarist Keith (Scott) did his part backstage in Lethbridge, Alberta.”
No word on whether Adams penned anything new sitting in the car between takes.
The video for Open Road should be ready for telecast in about two weeks.
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