Bryan Adams brings his Bare Bones Tour to Purchase

Chris Serico • The Journal News • April 24, 2010 • Photo: Metropolitan Talent Presents

Bryan Adams might not have bought his first real six-string in the summer of ‘69 — he was just 9 at the time — but he was only 15 when he dropped out of school, strapped on a guitar and fronted his first band for the bar circuit in the mid-’70s.

“I kind of fancied myself like the lead singer of Deep Purple or something,” he says, via e-mail. “Because I was underage, I had to be led to the stage by one of the club bouncers, and when the set finished, he had to make sure I got to the dressing room and didn’t hang out in the main bar.”

He’s certainly come of age since then, selling more than 65 million records off the success of hits like “Summer of ‘69,” “Heaven” and “Cuts Like A Knife.” Now 50, Adams will leave his digs in England for the Bare Bones Tour, which Sunday makes a stop at the Performing Arts Center of Purchase College.

There, he’ll jam with just an acoustic guitar and occasional piano accompaniment from Gary Breit to reconnect with the songs as they were originally written.

“This show is so different to anything I’ve ever presented to the public,” he says. “Basically it’s the songs you know and love and a few odd ones, too. … It’s a chance to show how simple the songs are, because they were all essentially written on acoustic guitar in a room somewhere. It’s very raw.”

The venue’s a 40-minute drive from Madison Square Garden, where he performed to “amazing” crowds on consecutive nights in the ’90s. He says playing there, hearing his songs on the radio for the first time and returning to America on a world tour were some of the greatest moments of his three-decade career.

“I’d say the moment we came back to the USA in 1985 from Europe and did our first arena tour as a headliner — that was as defining as it gets,” says Adams, who’s been a chart-topper in more than 40 countries. “We’d been touring as a band for years in the U.S., and I walked over to Keith (Scott), my guitarist, on stage as the crowd was going nuts and yelled: ‘What are we doing different?’ He shrugged his shoulders; he probably didn’t hear what I said. It was just our time.”

His most successful year in America was 1991, when his hit, “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” from the movie “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” topped Billboard’s charts for seven weeks, won a Grammy and represented the first of his three Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe nods.

His longevity keeps him working steadily; he’s recorded 11 albums, including his most recent, named “11” for that reason.

“I was talking to someone about albums the other day and I was saying in some respects, ‘11’ may be my last ‘album,’ ” says Adams, who’ll perform songs from “11” — and his greatest hits — in Purchase. “I don’t see the point in albums when you can put out music all the time. It’s the Wild West out there now — the Internet has changed everything for songwriters.”

But one thing has remained a constant since he broke big: He’s a hero in his native Canada.

Named an Officer in the Order of Canada, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He and Nelly Furtado performed his new song, “Bang the Drum,” during the opening ceremony of Vancouver’s Winter Olympics. And to add to his collection of 18 Juno Awards — Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys — he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at the ceremony Sunday.

“I’m really proud to receive it,” says Adams, who created the Bryan Adams Foundation in 2006. “Like most of my musical colleagues, we’ve all been asked to help others and give back. And quite rightly, too. This is the kind of thing that happens when you put yourself forward.”

Educational causes are among those most dear to him. His foundation recently held fund-raisers to benefit schools in the United Kingdom and Africa.

“We’ve also supported awareness on AIDS and disease and also funded programs to rehabilitate people coming out of prison into society,” he says. “All of this is ironic, considering I dropped out of school at 15 to go on the road.”

More than 30 years later, he’s still on the road, squeezing about 10 gigs into one week of every month for about 120 per year.

“I love to sing,” he says, “and there aren’t many places you can do that besides at a concert or the shower.”