> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Bryan Adams – ‘Spirit: Stallion of The Cimmarron’ - URL: https://www.smdp.com/bryan-adams-spirit-stallion-of-the-cimmarron/ - Published: 2002-05-25T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:18:10.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import *By SEAN DALY Special to the Daily Press* Relaxing on a crème-colored sofa in the posh Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Bryan Adams is beaming with pride about his contributions to the new movie, “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.” Sure, he knows most people want to talk about his incredible 20 year music career, multiple Grammy nominations and string of hits (including “Cuts Like A Knife” and “Summer of ‘69”). But there will be plenty of time for that later. “All that stuff has been said a hundred times,” he notes. “Today I want to talk about this movie I just worked on for a year.” “Spirit” an animated family feature for which Adams contributed a half dozen original songs, including the soon-to-be radio hit, “Here I Am.” Five years in the making, it is the story of an untamed horse in the Wild West, which is captured by the Calvary, broken, and converted into a mount. The stallion’s thoughts are shared throughout the film as narrative, voiced by Matt Damon. Adams, sporting a red and white striped sweater, blue jeans and a spiked short blonde haircut, admits it took some convincing from Dreamworks studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg before he agreed to sign on for the project. 5CB,“My first reaction was, ‘You’ve got the wrong guy,’” he remembers. “I was sort of not really into doing anything last year. Then I saw a little bit of the film and had a few more conversations and I really got into the idea.” Staying in the news Musically speaking, Adams, 42, has been laying low for much of the past decade. While the raspy-voiced singer chooses not to discuss much of what he has been up to, he has remained in the public eye by speaking out frequently against both nuclear weapons testing and the killing of whales. Adams also landed in the headlines in June 2000, when he was involved in a near-fatal motorcycle accident in Jamaica. Since then he has been spending time on the less dangerous hobby of photography. In November, Adams photographed Paul McCartney for the Canadian fashion magazine, Flare. And earlier this year, he was one of a lucky few invited to photograph Her Majesty, the Queen of England. “It was really fun,” he said in February. “They were really nice and it was very unpretentious — you were suddenly talking with the Queen and it’s just you and her.” It wasn’t Adams’ first brush with Greatness — in December 2000, he performed two songs for Pope John Paul II. For his less famous fans, Adams continues to tour “about ten dates a month” — but not surprisingly, on his own terms: “I just go anywhere I want and sing with my band and I don’t have to do any of this traditional role model playing,” he says. “I can just do my thing.” Adams also continues to record — mainly at his Vancouver studio — though he prefers not to comment on his upcoming albums either. Over the past decade, the Kingston, Ontario native has released a half dozen albums (mostly Greatest Hits collections and live recordings). But unlike his heyday in the mid-1980s, Adams has largely failed to achieve commercial pop success. “Maybe it’s a good thing ‘Spirit’ came along,” he surmises. “It'll help put me back in the public eye.” To get the ball rolling, Adams will make a rare appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, where “Spirit” premieres on May 18. “We’ll be presenting the entire film live to picture,” he explains. “I'll be on stage with a six-piece band that includes (composer) Hans Zimmer. I’ll be standing there singing the songs.” Finding success with movie songs In the past, Adams has found great success in the marriage of film and music. His hits “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” (from “Don Juan DeMarco”) and “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” (from “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”) both reached the top of the charts and earned Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. Adams also scored big with songs from “The Three Musketeers” and “A Night in Heaven.” But those experiences do not compare to his work on “Spirit,” he says. “Those songs were just like, you know, work with the composer and make one song for the end title and then see you later. There was no press involved. This is quite alien for me to be doing this.” Adams replaced Nick Gilder as lead singer for the popular Canadian band Sweeney Todd in 1977\. He embarked on a solo career in 1979 and achieved his biggest success six years later with the release of the album, Reckless. Since then, Adams has become Canada’s musical ambassador to the world. “No matter where I go, I feel proud to be a Canadian,” he boasts. “The whole start of my career happened in Vancouver. I don’t feel like I belong anywhere else.” But ironically, he has pitched tent for the past few years in London. “I prefer living in Europe,” he says. Long before he topped the charts with such hits as “Heaven,” “Cuts Like A Knife” and “Summer of ‘69,” Adams made his home in Toronto. “I lived there as a starving musician,” he remembers. “It’s a great place to be because there are lots of gigs there.” (Sean Daly is president of Showtime Entertainment and a Santa Monica-based writer.) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 25, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)