Bryan Adams (#20) - Evan’s 111 Artists

“I got my first real six string” when I was 13.

We jammed in a friend’s basement one time, just two electric guitars and some vocals, then moved to Matt’s basement with his brother on drums. Next, we added Brian on bass and Carl on vocals and sometimes keyboards.

We were all best buds, loved the same music, and could ride our bikes to each other’s houses. We decided to call ourselves Quest. It wasn’t much of a discussion. Maybe Matt did the ‘logo’ backdrop on a big white sheet with spray paint, it was cool.

Quest EBHS Battle of The Bands late 80’s? Matt and me.

Not sure who booked our first paid gig later that year, but I do know we practiced a ton to get a proper 90-minute set together. We took it seriously, I think it was in a gymnasium in a nearby town. We snuck in some liquor and ended our set with a water fight onstage.

This was our Bryan Adams period.

The Cuts Like A Knife video was our introduction to this Canadian dude wearing a white tee, biker leather, and plenty of denim. They were playing simple but powerful pop rock, great songs with excellent production, more relatable than most of what was going on at the time. Until today, I never caught the not-so-subtle nod to the Fast Times pool scene with Phoebe Cates in the music video.

I listened to Cuts Like A Knife regularly, both sides of the tape. I’d plug into my amp and play along to the songs that were easy enough to figure out ‘by ear’. My mom and brother never complained, we lived in a small ranch house, but as I shared previously, Er played trumpet!

Later in 1983 Bryan Adams opened for Journey at Brendan Byrne Arena, this was a big one for us at 13 years old.

While we loved Journey, Bryan Adams drew us in so much deeper. Pretty funny booking if you think about it, they were humble Canadians and Journey was tight tights, big-hair ’80s arena rock. His shows were all about the music, and like the greats I’ve already listed, they were a tight rock band that changed up tempos and arrangements live. It was raw, but a fat sound. The songs were even better live.

A few years later, we were invited to try out for the EBHS Battle of The Bands even though we were still in middle school. That was a massive event for us, in our hometown High School Auditorium with a huge stage, lights, hired sound crew and several hundred seats. We were VERY well rehearsed, ready, nervous and excited for tryouts with another dozen or so bands.

“Getting in” might have felt like life’s greatest accomplishment at that point. We were SO EXCITED.

Socially, all of this mattered a lot. Seemingly every weekend there was an amazing party, at 13 it started with the Bar/Bat Mitzvah which I had to miss, and then house parties. We didn’t use the term FOMO then, but the feeling was real, and in my case, it was self-induced.

I loved playing hockey so much, I pleaded with my Dad to find me a good ice hockey team I could try out for. It was a big ask, but it was also strategic when my parents divorced.

Hockey was quality time together with my Dad, I would sleep on the couch at his sad divorced-dad apartment and he would drive me all over the Delaware Valley for games on weekends, sometimes the alarm would be set for 3am.

My team practiced two nights weekly at The Peddie School in Hightstown NJ, a 30-minute drive each way for my mom along the windy, foggy farm roads.

Heading into hockey practice at Peddie. Hockey hair before the mullet..

Practice and the games were really intense, and oftentimes pretty intimidating for me.

Most of the kids played organized hockey starting as 5-year-olds and likely went on to play in college. While I started young in the basement, on the street and on our frozen ponds, I had a lot of catching up to do.

I held my own, but I was definitely a bottom performer on a super-competitive team, which only motivated me to train harder.

Music and our band was the answer for that horrible feeling of missing most of the weekend social gatherings.

Quest was truly a band of brothers. Matt and Mike (aka: Juice) were brothers, Carl was my buddy since grade school a few blocks away, and Shapiro took up bass just to have a role in the band. We were friends who wanted to play music together. Most of our other friends and so many kids at school rallied around us. Also, we noticed pretty immediately that those in other bands were supportive. I don’t think I understood the concept of community around shared interests yet, but it was happening.

Carl and me in my bedroom, see the Springsteen and Hooters posters?? Friends since grade school, bandmates a few years later.

After Cuts Like A Knife, a year later Bryan Adams became a massive pop star with his follow-up record, Reckless.

“Somebody” was our band’s (Quest) first song in the Battle of the Bands. We were inspired especially by the amazing live versions.

I practiced my parts endlessly, even more than most songs because Matt and I traded leads, and I was not a lead guitar player, but it worked. Later in the show we brought out Dana Hecht to sing a track on that record called “It’s Only Love” with Tina Turner, a huge hit right around this time when we were 15. Dana was a star in musical theater at our school, and a good friend of mine and just so much fun to play with.

Playing on that stage in front of a huge room of friends and high schoolers was epic. This kind of shaped our ‘identities’. None of us belonged to the ‘jock’ club, and we weren’t Ginkers. **our towns term hit urban dictionary years later, though I don’t think “low life” was always accurate

I’ll never forget after we played our set a member of the band who played first, all Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden covers, came up to me and said, “that was awesome, I loved the Bryan Adams song.” I think his name was Ozzy. We grew up in a real cool town.

I saw Bryan Adams live 10 times in the ’80s, between opening slots, his own shows, and his amazing performance at Amnesty International (‘86) at Giants Stadium. Check out this live performance of Summer of 69 from Wembley 10 years later, these anthems did not age AT ALL.

A few decades later at iHeartRadio Theater in Tribeca.

Full circle came when I was the President of Digital at Clear Channel Radio. We created the music app, brand and music service that eventually became the name of the company itself, iHeartRadio. My division was on the same floor with all of our radio stations in Tribeca. We built a beautiful private 200-capacity performance space downstairs where all of the current artists came to play shows for us and lucky contest winners—you’ll see some of those photos in the stories ahead.

Artists also popped up to see us and go on-air on our NYC radio stations (Z100, Q104, Power, etc.). So many artists came through, it was just another day. Nayantara, my assistant, would interrupt me mid-meeting, “Sorry Ev, Marky Ramone wants to say hi.”

One day I was washing my hands next to Bryan Adams, we were both looking in the mirror and he said, “Holy shit, you look just like my brother.”

We talked in the hallway for a few minutes (staying in the bathroom would have been weird) exchanging stories, he was as cool as I would have expected.

Three generations of Harrison’s (me, my Dad, Rex) at Baker Rink for a Princeton Hockey game.

If you liked this story you may also like John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen.
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my inspiration… “Dad, you always say this song is a F*CKING MASTERPIECE… make a list.”

Bryan Adams masterpieces‍ listed below, and more on my 1k+ song Spotify Playlist — Evan’s 111 Artists

This Time, Run To You, Cuts Like A Knife, It’s Only Love, Summer Of 69, Diana, Kids Wanna Rock, Heaven, Straight From The Heart, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You