Bryan Adams

Adams was born to parents who had emigrated from England in the 1950s., Adams' father joined the Canadian Army, followed by a stint with the United Nations as a peace keeping observer, and finally as a Canadian diplomat. Adams grew up traveling around the world with his parents, with his father's diplomatic postings in Europe and the Middle East. He traveled through the United Kingdom, and the Middle East, and spent more than four years in Birre, Cascais, 25 km near Lisbon, Portugal and a year in Vienna, Austria. After his parents divorced in 1973, Adams and his mother returned to settle in Vancouver, British Columbia.

From the ages of 14–18, Adams worked as a dish washer to save money for a proper guitar. He started auditioning as a guitarist while rehearsing his own band in his mother's rented basement in North Vancouver. Adams elected to sing until they found a singer, but they never found one, and his auditioning landed him a few jobs, with bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd, who in 1976 released If Wishes Were Horses with the 16-year-old Adams as the singer.
He quit school to play nightclubs and go on the road and upon his return he settled into the Vancouver studio scene, working as a background vocalist for the CBC and working with keyboardist Robbie King, whom Adams attributes as having given him his first paying session.