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Ryan Adams talks about music the same way he writes songs: abundantly. Sitting in his New York apartment one autumn evening, Adams — whose classic-rock-indebted new album, Cardinology, recorded with his band, the Cardinals, is out October 28th — spent three hours discussing his heroes and showed that he's been a passionate and omnivorous listener since his early teens. "Growing up," says the 33-year-old Adams, "I had a Grateful Dead Steal Your Face sticker on my skateboard next to a pentagram logo and a Danzig sticker. I couldn't differentiate."
Black Flag
"What the fuck is this shit?" Adams quipped after a friend gave him
a tape of the hardcore pioneers when he was a teenager. "Soon
afterward, I got my first tattoo: the Black Flag 'bars' logo on my
left shoulder," he says. "For me, Black Flag represented what the
Grateful Dead represented for an earlier generation. Listening to
them, I had this moment where I said, 'I accept this music and this
idea of fucking being yourself.'"
The Strokes' Is This It
While recovering from painful oral surgery and a bad breakup, Adams
married his love of country music and the Strokes' first record: "I
made a four-track recording of me covering Is This It on
banjo, mandolin and pump organ. Fab [Moretti, the Strokes' drummer]
begged me for a copy of it. I declined — some of it's bad,
and some of it's just weird."
Emmylou Harris
Adams first heard the singer through his grandmother, who was a big
fan. "[Emmylou] was one of my first crushes," says Adams. "I've
always been into intellectual and artistic gals." Adams finally met
Harris when she sang on his first solo CD, Heartbreaker.
"I was overwhelmed by her voice and who she was," he says.
"Thankfully, I managed to act low-key around her."
Sonic Youth's Sister
The band's 1987 release is the first cassette Adams bought with his
own money. "When I heard this, I remember thinking, 'I have to get
a guitar,'" says Adams. "I traded a skateboard and $70 for a Hondo
Les Paul. I never paid the guy the entire $70. I still owe
him."
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Nas' Illmatic
Adams turned to this Nineties rap classic to help him weather a brutal split last year. "My ex turned me on to it," he says. "Every one of Nas' lines has some sense of hunger, survival and realism. At the time, I felt like my heart was physically damaged. Whenever I had that feeling, I would walk to Central Park listening to this."
Jerry Garcia
After falling off a stage and breaking his wrist in 2004, Adams had
to readjust his guitar-playing style. "During my recovery, Jerry
Garcia was a big influence, because he wasn't afraid to fuck up,"
he says. "There's such a playful nature to Jerry's guitar. He's a
spiritual American who dove so deep into our culture."
Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade
"It's an album about leaving home, and I related because I left at,
like, 17," he says. He got a big hug from Hüsker Dü
frontman Bob Mould when they met this year, but another of his
heroes from Minneapolis wasn't that into him. "Paul Westerberg said
in an interview that someone should knock my teeth out," Adams
says. "I left home because of things like that. I can't listen to
his music again, ever."
Mariah Carey
Not only is Adams a huge fan of the R&B singer, he named an
album after a Mariah Carey cut. "My manager called and said, 'You
have 15 seconds to name this record,'" he says. "My eyes focused on
this poster of Mariah wearing a T-shirt that said HEARTBREAKER. I
just shouted, 'Heartbreaker!' Daydream is one of my most
played records. People need to reinvestigate Glitter. I'm
settled enough in my masculinity to say I don't see anything wrong
with Glitter."
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[From Issue 1064 — October 30, 2008]