‘Summer Of ’69’ Finally Sung By Ryan Adams, Not Bryan Adams, A Decade After Rocker Ejected Heckler Who Requested It


Ryan Adams took it upon himself to right a wrong that he committed over a decade earlier in Nashville on Monday night when he covered “Summer Of ’69” for the first time on stage, in the same venue where thirteen years earlier he’d forced a heckler who requested him to sing the track to leave the venue.

You can check out Adams singing a sumptuous version of his namesake’s gargantuan hit song below.

Ryan Adams made sure to implant the song with his usual melancholy swagger, while at the same giving it an edge and bringing a haunting beauty to the track.

The above video fails to clarify if Ryan Adams prefixed his acoustic version of “Summer Of ’69,” which was clearly met rapturously, with a message to the fan he ejected or to Bryan Adams himself.

To make the scenario even more full-circle, Ryan Adams was playing in the exact same venue where the original request was made. Back on October 16, 2002, Ryan Adams was incensed after a member of the crowd shouted up and asked him to play “Summer Of ’69”.

According to the Tennessean, via Billboard, Adams “reacted with [a] stream of expletives and ordered the house lights turned on.” At this point Adams, who previously used to lead the folk-rock band Whiskeytown, found the fan and then immediately paid him $30 cash as a refund for the show, and asked him to leave instantly. In fact, Adams was so adamant that the fan leave that he refused to play another note until he did.

Pam Matthews, the general manager at the Ryman Auditorium, hunted down the fan as he left, though, and alongside apologizing profusely, also allowed him back in. That didn’t stop the fan from keeping Adams’ money though, while it also helped the story grow and grow into a bona-fide urban legend.

And while Ryan Adams’ performance of the hugely popular 1985 song will bring closure to the story, it’s also simply the latest chapter in a burgeoning friendship between the two Adams’, something that, according to Rolling Stone, has been burgeoning over the past year.

In fact, Ryan even wished Bryan a happy birthday last November, which, prepare for your mind to be blown even further, also happens to fall on the same day as his. Ryan wrote, “@bryanadams I will be toasting you from a scret Pinball Lair with California’s most wondrous greenery!” They’re probably planning a duet as I type.

[Image via Wikimedia]

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