Ryan Adams went on a streak last year of performing gnarly cover tunes. Danzig's "Mother" and Alice in Chains' "Nutshell" made the cut in 2014 along with "Run to You" by often-mistaken-counterpart Bryan Adams. Earlier this week during a show at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, Adams returned to the Canadian rocker's songbook to treat fans to his massive hit "Summer of '69" more than decade after an audience member requested the tune.
As Consequence of Sound points out, a fan requested the 1985 classic when Adams was performing solo at the Ryman in the early 2000s. That didn't sit well with the singer, who had the fan ejected from the venue. On Tuesday, April 28, about 12 years after the incident, Adams made good on the request.
The singer, who has been known to joke around, performed a reverent, acoustic cover of the song. The crowd went wild as Adams attacked the tune with a few gentle strums, making it immediately more heartbreaking than the original. Check out the performance below.
Adams ended 2014 in style, hitting the road to support his 16th studio album following the self-titled LP's release in September. The effort peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 behind "Gimme Something Good" and "Stay With Me."
"For his first LP since 2011—a stretch for a guy who generally releases a record or more a year—Adams rewires heartland rock, with major-chord, Reagan-era guitars, muscle-shirt drums and a thousand-yard stare," Rolling Stone wrote about the album.
Unfortunately, the singer didn't start off 2015 too great in his personal life. In January, Adams and his wife of five years, Mandy Moore, filed for divorce.
