She found limited success during the early 1980s, before gaining fame via her contributions to Tears for Fears' international chart-topping album The Seeds of Love (1989).

On the advice of her singing coach, Lee Farrell, Adams moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where she did a variety of local gigs.

The next night Stanley, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal had dinner at the club where Adams was again performing, and they collectively decided that they would approach her with an offer for her to work on their next album, The Seeds of Love.

Adams accepted the offer, and two years later Orzabal and Smith got in contact with her again to invite her to join the band as a singer and pianist.

[4] In 1989, the album was released and the single "Woman in Chains", sung as a duet by Adams and Orzabal and with Manu Katche & Phil Collins on drums, became her first hit.

Two years later, she released the Christian themed album Come Walk with Me, where she received a nomination for a Grammy Award for "Holy Is the Lamb" in 1997.

In 2004, Adams reunited with Tears for Fears once again as she made a surprise guest appearance onstage at their Kansas City concert, performing "Woman in Chains".

[citation needed] In 1994, Adams married drummer John Cushon at a United Methodist church in Kansas City, where they both taught Sunday School.