"[25] He left school to play in a group called "Shock" and used the funds his parents had saved for his college education to buy an Estey grand piano to tinker with.

[27] He grew an interest in bands such as CCR and Deep Purple, and attended concerts by Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Elton John, and Tina Turner.

[65] In February 1985, Adams recorded the charity single "Tears Are Not Enough" as a member of The Northern Lights, an improvised supergroup that also included Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, and other Canadian musical artists.

[69][70] In September 1985, Adams co-wrote two tracks for Roger Daltrey's sixth solo album Under a Raging Moon: "Let Me Down Easy", originally written for Stevie Nicks, and "Rebel".

[75] In January 1986, Adams provided the ending background vocals to the song "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" by Canadian rock band Glass Tiger for their debut album The Thin Red Line.

In the summer of 1989, Adams joined artists to provide backing vocals on a re-recording of the Deep Purple hit "Smoke On The Water" in aid of victims of the 1988 Armenian earthquake.

Co-produced by Adams and Robert John "Mutt" Lange, it topped the charts around the world, including in the UK, Canada,[97] Australia and Germany and reached number six on the Billboard 200.

[101] In July 1992, Adams performed at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 fans, the largest audience on his tour, with Little Angels and Extreme serving as opening acts.

[130] In November 1997, Adams penned new lyrics to the Jean-Jacques Goldman song "Puisque tu pars" also written that month, remade as Let's Talk About Love recorded by Celine Dion.

[142] On November 27, 2000, Adams performed at The Who & Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a benefit concert organized by The Who, singing a song by the English band, Behind Blue Eyes and See Me, Feel Me with Eddie Vedder.

On February 12, 2010, at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony at BC Place Stadium, Adams performed "Bang the Drum", a duet with Nelly Furtado co-written with Jim Vallance for the event.

Originally, the visit was meant to be Adams's plea to the Prime Minister to change copyright laws;[171] instead, Harper turned it into an informal jam session.

[172][173] In November 2010, Adams released the acoustic album Bare Bones, a live project consisting of twenty songs, to celebrate thirty years of career.

He worked with producer Paula Wagner and director Jerry Mitchell, spending the next two years writing the music and lyrics, completing the songs in March 2018.

In 1978, after meeting with the drummer and main songwriter Jim Vallance for Canadian rock band Prism under the pseudonym "Rodney Higgs",[235] the initial course was quite difficult.

In collaboration with Gene Simmons, the track "War Machine" and a rewrite "Rock 'n Roll Hell" were recorded by Kiss for the album Creatures of the Night.

Other influential and favourite artists were Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, Bob Marley, Bob Seger, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Jackie Wilson, Joe Cocker, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, The Beatles, The Who, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.

[252] He is known for his powerful rock songs and romantic ballads, and his music has appeared in dozens of films both as a singer and as a songwriter and co-writer since the early 1980s, including Class, A Night in Heaven, Real Genius, Renegades, Pink Cadillac, An Innocent Man, Problem Child 2, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Cutting Edge, The Three Musketeers, Don Juan DeMarco, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Jack, Red Corner, Hope Floats, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, House of Fools, Devil's Gate, Racing Stripes, Color Me Kubrick, The Guardian, Bobby,[253][254] Cashback, Bridge to Terabithia, Old Dogs, Jock the Hero Dog and Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return.

[267] In July 1989, Adams committed to work on another charity record: the remake of the Deep Purple classic "Smoke on the Water" for Rock Aid Armenia to obtain funds for the 1988 Armenian earthquake.

[271] On December 10, 1997, Adams took part in a concert called "A Gift of Song", in celebration of the US Committee for UNICEF 50th Anniversary, held at the Z-100 Jingle Ball Madison Square Garden in New York City.

On February 28, 2008, he appeared in One Night Live at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto with Josh Groban, Sarah McLachlan, Jann Arden, and RyanDan in aid of the Sunnybrook Hospital Women and Babies Program.

[288][289] On January 13, 2011, he participated in the Concert for Killing Cancer at the Hammersmith Apollo in London together with the historic rock band The Who, Jeff Beck, Debbie Harry, and Richard Ashcroft.

From July 1, the state implemented the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act, whereby religious groups and private companies can refuse to provide their services to same-sex couples; after the example of Bruce Springsteen, who canceled his show in Greensboro, North Carolina in protest against the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act requiring transgender people to use public restrooms reflecting the sex listed on their birth certificate, Adams also followed "the Boss".

[299][300] In November 2020, Adams participated with other artists in the song "Stop Crying Your Heart Out", proposed in a cover performed for the charitable cause of Children in Need under the supervision of BBC Radio 2.

[307][308] In May 2020, Adams was criticized for a profane social media post blaming the COVID-19 pandemic on "fucking bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards".

[310] Adams later apologized for the comments stating, "To any and all that took offence...No excuse, I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet-markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism.

Adams has been published in British Vogue, L'uomo Vogue, American Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, British GQ, Esquire, Interview magazine and i-D,[17] and shot advertising and PR campaigns for Hugo Boss, Guess Jeans, Sand, Converse, Montblanc, John Richmond, Fred Perry, Escada, Gaastra, Zeiss, Joop, Zeiss AG, Schwarzkopf, Ermenegildo Zegna, AGL shoes, Windsor, Jaguar and OPEL cars.

He photographed Iggy Pop, Rita Ora, Cher, Grimes, Normani, Kali Uchis, Jennifer Hudson, Saweetie, St. Vincent and Bohan Phoenix.

Other album covers featuring work by Adams include those for: Other notable people that Adams has photographed include Hillary Clinton, Ben Kingsley, Katie Couric, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Lindsay Lohan, L'Wren Scott, Julianne Moore, Jerry Hall, Heather Graham, Sean Penn, Wim Wenders, Danny Trejo, Christie Brinkley, Sarah Jessica Parker, Neve Campbell, Renée Zellweger, Monica Bellucci, Eva Riccobono, Elisabetta Canalis, Caterina Murino, Elle Macpherson, Eartha Kitt, Ray Liotta, Cindy Crawford, Tereza Maxová, Alice Sebold, Amber Valletta, Katie Holmes, Kate Moss, Eve Ensler, Helena Bonham Carter, Daphne Guinness, Aline Weber, Lucy Liu, Laetitia Casta, Tilda Swinton, Lauren Hutton, Muhammad Ali, Dustin Hoffman, Lukas Podolski, Natalia Vodianova, Naomi Campbell, Louise Bourgeois, Nadja Auermann, Michael J.

[403] On July 20, 2023, Adams was announced as co-founder of Scottish based music start up SongBox, a web application that allows musicians and other audio content creators to securely store and share their files with anyone they choose.