Bryan Adams's 98-year-old mother still attends his concerts as new album arrives

A mother who attends shows nearby

Bryan Adams, 67, told the German news agency dpa in Vancouver that his mother attends his concerts whenever he performs near her home in Canada. Jane Clark, 98, is known regionally in British Columbia as a visual artist. Adams said he cannot keep her away from the shows and that the family can only back her in doing what suits her best. Her attendance was documented at his 2025 North American tour, including concerts in Vancouver and Boston, where Adams greeted her from the stage. He said the family's goal is to bring her to 100, with 17 months still to go.

An album written about Canada

Adams's new album How's It Goin' is released on his independent label Bad Records on 6 November 2026. He told ntv.de that the project began with a song for the documentary Canada's Wild Eastern Edge, after which more ideas about his home country piled up. Most of the lyrics were written in hotel rooms in Africa during his tour, where he had no distractions. The sound draws on the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh roots of the east coast, with stomping rhythms and mandolins on tracks such as When Canada Joined Newfoundland. Speaking to Focus, he described the style as Acadian music and folk rather than country.

Trump and the 51st State protest

The track 51st State takes aim at the plans of US President Donald Trump to annex Canada, an idea Adams rejects. He said that if America wants to take on the role of world policeman, it should also look after the people it seeks to control. In his view, the bombing campaigns of recent years do not match the conduct of a president who works for peace. Adams said he does not see himself as a political musician, describing himself instead as a mouthpiece for what happens around him.

Carney and Merz

Adams praised Canadian prime minister Mark Carney as one of the leading statesmen of the free world, appreciating how he stands up to pressure on Canada, though he said he is not especially close to Carney's party. Of German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Adams said he is not popular, adding that he is really unpopular, and said he does not understand how someone can keep a position when the public mood is like that. He said he does not follow German politics in detail but forms impressions through conversations with people.

Tour dates and Berlin

Adams is currently touring Spain, with further countries to follow. He is due in Germany in summer 2027, opening on 23 June in Wiesbaden. Further German dates include Hannover, Bonn, Rosenheim, Rostock, Erfurt and Dresden. Adams has spent time in Berlin repeatedly and said he travelled there straight after the Berlin Wall fell. He said he chipped a piece of the wall away with a sledgehammer, and he described that moment as the start of a new era.