Bryan Adams reveals the story behind his “first real six-string” in hit song Summer of ’69 – and it actually wasn’t bought at a five and dime
Bryan Adams has shared the story behind the guitar that inspired one of his most iconic lyrics – and how he was unexpectedly reunited with the instrument decades after losing track of it.
Speaking with Squeeze frontman Chris Difford on a new episode of the I Never Thought It Would Happen podcast, Adams reveals that his “first real six string” — immortalised in the lyrics of Summer of ’69 — actually wasn’t bought at an American “five and dime”, but at a music store in Reading, England, in 1970 when he was just 12.
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The musician explains that his family moved frequently due to his father’s job with the Canadian embassy. After their time in Reading, they relocated to Israel, where he left the “imitation Stratocaster” with a neighbour. Years later, someone contacted him claiming they “had his first guitar” – and even though Adams replied, he never heard back from them.
Things took an unexpected turn over a decade later: While at a club in Berlin, a man walked up to Adams and said “I’ve got your first guitar”. The stranger explained that he was a friend of the person who had emailed Adams years earlier, who had sadly died in a plane crash. He inherited the guitar and wanted to fulfil his late friend’s wish of returning it to Adams – who had kept the instrument ever since.
Elsewhere in the episode, Adams also reflects on how the Covid lockdown turned out to be a “lifesaver,” even though he initially feared he’d never work again.
“It was the best time for us as a family because I couldn’t go anywhere. It was great…a lifesaver,” he says .”I had convinced myself I was not going to work again, that the pandemic has kiboshed things for all musicians…we’re done.”
“But then we did a show in Portugal, everyone was wearing masks. It was the strangest thing, because the sound [from the crowd] isn’t the same. It is muted.”
Adams’ latest single Make Up Your Mind is now out. Listen below.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
