Keith Richards and Charlie Watts: Come and get it…?
Hanging out with 70-year-old Keith Richards and the only remaining member of the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts, Thursday afternoon before their joint San Diego concert, Bryan Adams said he owes the surviving band members a favor.
Over six decades, the Canadian singer-songwriter has picked up a few iconic nicknames from fellow musicians, like “Mr. Innocent,” but the two accompanying the band were early favorites.
“They are the cornerstone of the Stones. For god’s sake, you better come and get it,” Adams said, who had just finished rehearsing for his tour of California.
“Or you should play with me some time. You’ll be on top of your game with us,” he told them, laughing.
Another anti-aging tip he was going to give the trio? Stick around in the studio to get more input and crack out new songs.
“You get off to the third part in your 60s, and you’re too old to keep going,” he said.
When Rolling Stone Magazine declared him “a walking, talking lifelog,” Adams confessed he had “a short memory.”
When he heard the song “So Close” from the last Stones album “Blue & Lonesome,” with his daughter Ally in the band, he felt “guilty.”
“I thought, ‘Oh, my God. Is that really what this record sounds like?’ I am not a composer but I have some ideas of my own, and I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ This is stupid. I am really being judged and compared, which is never a good feeling. I knew I should check it out before I released it.”
He had a “six-month project” in mind, starting with five records.
“It was never going to work,” he said. “All I could think about was the ‘mystery album.’ It really brought me down. I didn’t get the feeling it was something I could put my soul into.”
That’s why he made “Up All Night,” a solemn-sounding album showcasing his son Connor — with a 12-inch single he will be performing with the band Saturday night in San Diego’s PETCO Park.
“It’s going to be standing room only,” he told them.
“I hope you still feel that way about that record,” Richards said, “when it gets old and went down the tubes, somebody just take it to the airport.”
“Yeah,” Adams answered, “off to the hospital.”
He hasn’t picked up an influential nickname quite like that yet — but we’re sure the next update will be right around the corner.