Straight From The Heart
Remembering Bryan Adams has longtime fans in Heaven a few days before rock legend runs Back to You
By Cheryl Binning
ON a rainy August day in 1992, 29-year-old Tom Stumpf went to work as usual at his uncle’s limousine company. He was told his job that day was to pick up a big white van, go to the airport, and transport a band (his uncle wasn’t sure who they were) to Birds Hill Park for a concert.
Stumpf showed up at the appointed time and watched in awe as a blond guy wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and a light jacket approached.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when Bryan Adams came walking out,” says Stumpf, who is now 42 and runs a Winnipeg transportation company.
“I love his music — I’m a big fan — so it was unbelievable.”
The band members hopped into the far back of the roomy van, but Adams, to Stumpf’s surprise, jumped into the front seat beside him.
“I was dumbfounded,” he recalls. “I just stopped and stared at him, until Bryan said, ‘OK, you can close the door now.’”
The young driver’s adventure with the rock star was just beginning.
After dropping the band off at their trailers near the stage, Stumpf stood under a security guard tent with a good view to watch the show.
“Bryan went on stage, the crowd went crazy and he began to sing the first song,” Stumpf recounts. “Then suddenly through the rain I see a guy, drenched and covered in mud, running towards me yelling, ‘Tom, you’re part of the band this weekend, so where I go, you go.’ It was Bryan. He actually left the stage to come get me.”
A flabbergasted Stumpf was led by Adams backstage, where the singer found him a spot to watch the concert near a control booth.
“It was amazing. I was 10 feet away from Bryan as he was singing. It was better than a front-row seat.”
Stumpf is one of the Free Press readers who responded when we asked for favourite Bryan Adams memories as a lead-up to the 46-year-old Vancouver rocker’s Jan. 11 MTS Centre concert date. The current tour coincides with Adams’ 25th anniversary as a recording artist and the release of a two-CD retrospective collection, Anthology, that includes all of his hits, from the early singles such as Cuts Like A Knife, through to more recent ballads like Let’s Make a Night to Remember.
We received several dozen e-mails from enthusiastic Winnipeg fans (many of whom call themselves Baddies, a take-off from their favourite artist’s initials B.A.). Some recalled gigs in the early ’80s when Adams played small clubs like the Norlander or the Zoo, or great moments from his many Winnipeg Arena shows. Others related hilarious tales about the trials and tribulations they faced buying tickets or getting to his concerts.
Some Baddies, such as Gudrun and Martin Ruthner, have never met the superstar, but say they will always associate Adams and his music with a special moment in their lives.
In April 1997, while still living in their home city of Vienna, Austria, the engaged couple attended an Adams concert. That’s where Martin got the idea of surprising his wife by playing a selection of Adams’ ballads as she walked down the aisle.
He recorded a tape with Straight from the Heart, to accompany Gudrun down the aisle, followed by an extended version of Everything I Do (I Do It for You) which would play softly in the background during the ceremony.
However, things didn’t go quite according to plan.
Martin had not realized that Adams’ guitar solo (in the middle of Everything I Do) gets increasingly louder, and as they said their vows they found themselves yelling over the music to be heard. By the time they got to the end of their “I do’s” they were literally shouting over the strains of Adams’ guitar.
“It was very embarrassing,” says Gudrun, noting that her conservative parents were not amused.
Today the couple live in Winnipeg where Gudrun, 38, works for a social service agency and Martin, 35, is a computer systems analyst for Western Canada Lottery Corp.
“Whenever we hear Everything I Do we think of our wedding,” says Martin. “It wasn’t funny at the time, but now we look back and laugh.”
Marcie Davies is another Winnipegger who, in hindsight, laughs at her rather memorable up-close-and-personal encounter with Adams. But at the time, she was embarrassed at her less-than-cool reaction to meeting her idol.
Davies, a 35-year-old assistant in the student affairs department at the University of Manitoba, met Adams in January 2000 when he was signing copies of his photography book Made in Canada at Chapters Polo Park.
Although Davies describes herself as a very calm and collected person, she was understandably nervous when she dashed from work to Chapters just minutes before the book-signing line was cut off.
She has been an ardent fan, she says, ever since she was 14 years old and first saw Adams’ Run to You video on Video Hits. Since then she has attended four of his concerts, joined his fan club, and bought all his albums and books.
“As I waited in line I started mentally rehearsing what I would say to him,” recalls Davies, who was 29 at the time. “I wanted to tell him I had admired him for a long time and think he is a great musician, and I wanted to ask if the German shepherd in the Please Forgive Me video belonged to him.”
As she edged closer in line, she caught a glimpse of Adams.
“He was dressed in a black turtleneck and jeans and looked really bored and tired, as if he didn’t really want to be there.”
When it was finally her turn, Davies suddenly became more nervous and flushed. Instead of going in front of his desk, like everyone else, she rushed behind the desk where he was sitting, touched his arm and said, “Hey, peace.”
“I don’t know where that came from,” says Davies. “I had never said that before in my life.”
Adams opened the book and commented that it had already been signed. (Davies’ husband Roy had arrived earlier to get her book signed, just in case she didn’t make it in time.)
She suddenly felt faint and began to panic. She was shaking.
“I leaned right into him, really close, right in his space… I mumbled and stumbled, then blurted out, ‘I think I need oxygen.’”
Adams looked up and gave her a big smile, chuckled, and opened up the last page in the book and wrote under his picture B + M, and x for a kiss.
As he wrote, Davies — still in a state of shock and without thinking about what she was doing — put her other arm around his shoulder.
“I remember his sweater was so soft. I’m pretty sure it was cashmere,” she says.
The Chapters representatives and Adams’ bodyguards moved closer, watching her carefully.
And then, as they guided her away, she tripped over his chair.
“I made such a fool of myself,” Davies groans. “I had my whole speech mapped out. I was going to be so cool. And there’s Bryan chuckling at me, like, oh my God, I have a crazy here…”
And although Davies thinks she is probably now on Adams’ management’s “lunatics to watch out for list,” she says the embarrassment was worth it.
Stumpf also recounted a misadventure with Adams the night of that soggy and stormy Birds Hill concert.
As the show came to a close, the weather worsened. Parts of the stage began to blow away and the soaked equipment began to short out. By the time the band returned to the waiting van, they were miserable and angry with Adams for insisting on playing right through to the last set.
To make matters worse, Stumpf only drove a couple of feet before the van’s tires got stuck in the mud in the middle of the deserted field.
“So Bryan said: ‘Everyone out, we’re pushing,’” recalls Stumpf. “And no one said a word. They got out and started rocking the van, mud was flying everywhere, and finally they pushed it onto the road. I remember thinking that he looked very hard and tough, but his attitude wasn’t like that at all. He acted like a regular down-to-earth guy.”
Still, Stumpf wasn’t sure what to expect when a mud-covered and soggy Adams got back in the van.
“He slapped me on the shoulder, laughed and said, ‘That was awesome. I’ve never done anything like this. I will never forget this night.’
“And I said, ‘Don’t worry, neither will I.’”
(source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com)
Filed under: General News
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January 8th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
well it was great ,superb .good to know so much about him, i would like to be at tom’s place
January 9th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Some of Bryan Adams’ song are so wonderful. I’ve been listening to his music & watching his videos when I was a child ( I’m 28 years old now &listening to Christian music). I really do wish that he can come to Michigan.