Ryan Adams

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I believe in redemption and forgiveness for those honestly seeking it, and I believe people can change their behaviors, particularly when bad behavior is reinforced by substance abuse, which I'm sure much of his was. I've been in recovery and I know a lot of people who are sober who remain fans of his. That said acceptance is not to be sought, it should happen organically; apologies need to be honest, and not a manipulation; and very little Adams has done leads me to believe he has performed an adequate amount of self-reflection to warrant a comeback of the type he is hoping.

akm, Wednesday, 28 July 2021 21:07 (three years ago) link

He should get a dayjob and upload his little self-recorded songs to Bandcamp and YouTube on the weekends for his friends and family to pretend to listen to, like 800,000 other guitar-playing white guys his age.

nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 29 July 2021 03:47 (three years ago) link

He basically wants it back the way it was. A bit of selling a decent amount, a lot of media coverage, a large chunk of worship and respect. Basically, like how Bob Dylan had it, and has it now.

He'd settle for a low level of fame, respect, forward anticipation of his new/unreleased projects, etc.

What he'll end up with is a cottage industry, a small scope website, and a reasonably easy to ignore media visibility. Which is what Jonathan King was doing last time I looked (about 10 years ago)

Mark G, Thursday, 29 July 2021 08:50 (three years ago) link

Latest album released on his own label has about 6 million Spotify streams. At ~3000 USD per million streams that gives 18000 USD. Not a lot of instant money from streaming to cover expenses for musicians, studio time, mastering etc. But I would suppose he has some income from his older recordings, of which some original compositions have +30m streams on Spotify. And ofc there are many other streaming services, Youtube, Apple Music etc.

Major label could probably help both with playlisting to increase play count, but also licensing for ads/movies/games which I imagine is much more valuable. No idea how physical sales factor in. But I'd assume Ryan could easily make about 3000 dollars in personal profit for playing a concert, so that's probably better for fast cash. He doesn't need a label to book shows afaik.

corrs unplugged, Thursday, 29 July 2021 09:08 (three years ago) link

I bet he made a ton off of licensing songs to sentimental TV/film, Chipotle and Starbucks, Old Navy and so on. I remember Starbucks putting the Cold Roses right next to every cash register when it came out. Big lifestyle change when all of that dries up, other than past residuals. Also must be hard to know he will likely never set foot onstage again at the Ryman and so on.

... (Eazy), Thursday, 29 July 2021 13:38 (three years ago) link

whole lotta folks lining up to be ryan adams' business manager itt

class project pat (m bison), Thursday, 29 July 2021 13:40 (three years ago) link

haha, he's begging for it!

corrs unplugged, Thursday, 29 July 2021 13:41 (three years ago) link

he doesn't need a better business manager, he needs a better sponsor

akm, Thursday, 29 July 2021 13:45 (three years ago) link

And then he can go on Opportunity Knocks!

Mark G, Thursday, 29 July 2021 21:15 (three years ago) link

He's got options.

https://www.printwand.com/blog/media/2012/01/tear-off-sheets-300x296.jpg

birdistheword, Thursday, 29 July 2021 21:32 (three years ago) link

The 46-year-old has spent his forced isolation binging Bravo reality television, ordering copious amounts of Thai food, and plucking away at his guitar and writing somber lyrics, such as “I close my eyes and beg forgiveness before I sleep.”

Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 August 2021 17:23 (three years ago) link

I look forward to never hearing these:

But it’s hard to say exactly what Adams has learned, as he doesn’t get into specifics of what these past two years have taught him about his alleged controlling and emotionally abusive behavior. He hints that he’s saving these revelations for his music, with remorseful lyrics and song titles that question why he’s even doing all of this.

“​​I use what I’ve got and I work with it, and I try to make something beautiful out of it,” he said. “And then it changes me.”

Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 August 2021 17:26 (three years ago) link

“I’ve learned that Thai food is fantastic - but expensive if you eat it all the time”

Adams then asked the reporter if he knew of any Thai restaurants in the area that would allow him to perform an acoustic set of all new material

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 9 August 2021 17:31 (three years ago) link

“Maybe we could interest Bravo in a reality show about this, like, a comeback tour of Thai joints”

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 9 August 2021 17:32 (three years ago) link

He admitted that he was mostly taken aback by Moore’s participation in the story, where she alleged that over the course of their nearly six-year marriage, Adams was psychologically and emotionally abusive and had stalled her music career. “I was like, what is the point of this now? Because this is going to hurt my family and it’s going to hurt our friends,” Adams said. “And we talked about this stuff years ago.”

i mean we all know he learned nothing but he really learned nothing

STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 9 August 2021 17:45 (three years ago) link

His hero is Morrissey, so...

“Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 9 August 2021 17:48 (three years ago) link

hey we talked about this already i thought we were good!

pure rim rest (Spottie), Monday, 9 August 2021 17:55 (three years ago) link

Drunken noodle

ncxkd, Monday, 9 August 2021 17:56 (three years ago) link

Reading the longer profile linked in that article makes me realize how near-impossible it is to read a portrait of someone in L.A. without it sounding PR hokum. (See also last year's New Yorker profile of Beck driving around.)

... (Eazy), Monday, 9 August 2021 18:31 (three years ago) link

As in

One afternoon, he wandered into the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood, a gleaming miniature Taj Mahal built in 1938. Inside, Adams heard beautiful singing and saw flowers and other offerings to the Hindu deities. Then the singing stopped as worshippers began to meditate. In that moment, Adams says, he felt something beyond his initial curiosity. It was like, he says, “waking up inside my body.” Adams began returning to the temple nightly.

... (Eazy), Monday, 9 August 2021 18:31 (three years ago) link

Lol

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 9 August 2021 18:45 (three years ago) link

o_O

Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Monday, 9 August 2021 18:52 (three years ago) link

what do you do about a problem like ryan adams

xxp Don't think that's unique to L.A. I've seen plenty of NYC-focused profiles like that.

Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Monday, 9 August 2021 19:55 (three years ago) link

One thing that really rubs me the wrong way in that article is how handwavy the writer is in dismissing Adams' accusers. For instance, musing that because she was successful in the past, Mandy Moore should have had no problems relaunching her singing career, or implying that Phoebe Bridgers built her career on writing songs about her relationship with Adams.

“Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 9 August 2021 21:51 (three years ago) link

It’s not really the music he misses, it’s the power trip.

Citole Country (bendy), Monday, 9 August 2021 22:02 (three years ago) link

Also he didn't abuse some of his female employees!

Number None, Monday, 9 August 2021 22:03 (three years ago) link

Also must be hard to know he will likely never set foot onstage again at the Ryman and so on.

do you think he thought of himself as The Ry-man?

wankee hotel fuckstrot (peace, man), Monday, 9 August 2021 23:16 (three years ago) link

It’s not really the music he misses, it’s the power trip.
I miss neither of them w Adams.

Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 00:30 (three years ago) link

I was into different music when this guy got popular, so I have only heard most of his music by Adams second hand - but from the start from someone that played a couple shows with Whiskeytown way back in the mid-90s I heard this dude was a serious dick. And pretty much any story from when that band broke up onward, pretty much any story had him being enfant terrible as an undercurrent. I just never gave his music any real chance and this was years and years before all this other stuff broke out...

earlnash, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 01:11 (three years ago) link

I'd just moved to North Carolina (pretty much for the twang music scene) as he was beginning his ascent, and he'd already stepped on so many people in the scene I didn't have much interest in hearing him. I've had friends from other regions who were really struck by his songs. To the extent his art has bled into my life, it's struck me as about the level of solo Paul Westerberg.

It's only post #metoo that I'm starting to see that there's many successful people may feel some passion for songwriting/corporate management/owning a shop/directing prestige TV, but that's secondary to the high of controlling people.

Citole Country (bendy), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:16 (three years ago) link

I'm not going to lie, I was a huge fan of Whiskeytown and his first couple of solo records. But yeah, I remember lots of rumors about him being a complete asshole and essentially that being why they split up.

a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:42 (three years ago) link

Good post, bendy.
it's struck me as about the level of solo Paul Westerberg.
Particularly sick burn.

No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:42 (three years ago) link

David Berman said back in 2001 "I don’t expect to be insulted by being told Ryan Adams in the best songwriter in America. Maybe mid-period Steve Forbert B-sides sound fresh to some ears. It's just self-pity in rock."

Which sounds like a sick burn just from the sound of the word Forbert, but then you hear Forbert's "Romeo's Tune" and (for better and worse) it's completely Adams's predecessor.

... (Eazy), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 14:19 (three years ago) link

it's struck me as about the level of solo Paul Westerberg.

in what universe is this a burn?

Ryan Adams was never a tenth the songwriter Westerberg is / was

Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 17:17 (three years ago) link

He said "solo Paul Westerberg."

No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 17:27 (three years ago) link

eight months pass...

Dude is doing Instagram ads now, guess he’s taking promotion into his own hands:

https://i.imgur.com/lLZBVav_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Hops: Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe (morrisp), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 04:06 (two years ago) link

it bums me out that this guy i used to like sucks but it bums me out more he got away with it for so long

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 5 May 2022 17:30 (two years ago) link

I thought the FBI was investigating him - what happened with that?

birdistheword, Thursday, 5 May 2022 17:35 (two years ago) link

four weeks pass...

There will always be an audience for him, people for whom Wilco is just too spicy.

papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 5 June 2022 01:44 (two years ago) link

fuck variety for entertaining that bullshit.

Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Sunday, 5 June 2022 02:00 (two years ago) link

Weirdly enough, I was listening to some music on random shuffle the other day, and I was given not one but two or three songs that turned out to be by Ryan Adams (or Whiskeytown). I'd never really listened to more than a couple of albums of his, and the couple of shows I'd seen were shitshows, but these songs were all pretty good. And he's a shithead.

Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 June 2022 04:06 (two years ago) link

Kind of interesting to see their strategy, as hideous as it is:

Cancel culture freezes bad behavior. It doesn’t give people a chance to apologize. Everything we like about our legal system is the presumption of innocence, the right to confront your accuser, the statute of limitations; none of that kind of stuff exists in cancel culture.

Personally, I see ‘call-out culture’ as better, far better than cancel culture. I understand that you can call attention to someone’s wrongdoing, and then, with the right people, they can have a chance to learn and correct the issue and become a better person. You can’t turn the clock back. We can’t change what’s happened. But I feel that everybody deserves a second chance, and as long as they follow the right path, then they should be allowed to certainly pursue that.

groovemaaan, Sunday, 5 June 2022 06:34 (two years ago) link

Here's the path he is actually on:

Since he participated in the Los Angeles magazine profile last year, Adams has avoided directly referring to the events that seemingly brought him down. But he may have said a lot just in a response he offered to Johnny Depp’s victory-lap post on Instagram, following a court verdict that went mostly in his favor. Adams added a comment under Depp’s post that consisted of a congratulatory heart and fire symbol.

Position Position, Sunday, 5 June 2022 11:48 (two years ago) link


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