Bryan Adams reveals he almost asked Nile Rodgers to produce his biggest album

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Bryan Adams is the guest on the latest episode of Chic guitarist and famed producer Nile Rogers‘ Apple Music 1 podcast Deep Hidden Meaning Radio, which premieres Saturday, October 29, at 11 a.m. ET.

During the interview, Adams reveals that he’d considered contacting Rodgers about producing what became his chart-topping 1984 album, Reckless, and says Nile’s music inspired one of the album’s big hits.

Bryan explains that Bob Clearmountain was lined up to produce Reckless, but then got very busy and it looked like he wouldn’t be available.

“There was a moment there where I was like, ‘Wow, who do I want to work with?’ And I thought of you,” he tells Rodgers. “And so I put together a song which I thought you would dig and it’s called ‘Somebody.’ You could have produced the album. So I had this riff … And I thought, ‘That’s Nile, that’s my interpretation of Nile.'”

As it turned out Clearmountain was available to work on the album. “Somebody” went on to reach #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Adams also tells Rodgers the story of how he was struggling to get the right sound while working on his hit “Summer of ’69.” He wound up using a young, unknown drummer named Pat Seward, who he saw playing in a bar and realized could deliver the energy that the track had been lacking.

“Pat came in, we cut the track and it was just, like, bang,” Bryan recalls.

Meanwhile, the two-CD deluxe version of Adams’ latest studio album, So Happy It Hurts, was released on Friday. The expanded collection includes a 12-track bonus disc featuring tracks that appeared on Adams’ 2022 Classic and Classic Pt. 2 digital albums, which boasted newly recorded versions of many of Bryan’s best-known tunes.

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