Canadian Rock Icon Bryan Adams Takes Aim at Trump, Says His Protest Song Gets Standing Ovations in Red States (Exclusive)

He never says him by name — not in the songs and not in this interview. But there can be no mistaking who Bryan Adams is taking aim at in his recent musical output, a string of Canadian protest songs like “51st State” and his latest, the plaintive “Lake Ontario.” Adams has Donald Trump on the brain. Both of those songs appear on How’s It Goin’, a Canadian concept album which drops Nov. 6 and features a dozen new tracks about Adams’ homeland. It’s the 17th studio album for the rocker — whose catalog of indestructible hits includes “Summer of ’69,” “Run to You” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” — and easily his most politically pointed, having found a new muse in the deterioration of relations between his homeland and the United States. Since returning to the White House, Trump has placed punishing tariffs on Canadian goods, repeatedly threatened to make Canada the “51st state” and even ordered Lake Ontario renamed “Lake America” in U.S. federal records, inflaming tensions with the country’s longtime ally north of the 49th parallel. Adams, for one, has had enough. He checked in with The Hollywood Reporter from a tour stop in Las Vegas — he’s in the middle of a five-show run at the Wynn — to share where his head is at these days. It’s firmly grounded in the waning months of 2026, about as far as you can get from the summer of ’69. I’ve lived in L.A. for 25 years, but I grew up in Montreal. I’m still very much a proud Canadian. And I’ve got to say, listening to “Lake Ontario,” I got a little choked up. Wow, that’s super nice. Now wait till you hear the rest of the album. Half my family is still there, and it’s been a really rough couple of years. You put those dark feelings into these angry, beautiful words that really helped me process it a bit. I mean, it’s not even angry. It’s not? It’s not angry. It’s stating the facts. I’m just commenting on current affairs and feeling the temperature in the room, basically. Do you live in Canada? Yeah. So you might not be angry, but I know people there are very angry. No, I mean, listen, I might be angry, but I don’t think the songs are angry. I think there’s a lot of irony in there. And they’re heartfelt and funny. But it’s helping process what feels like a betrayal. You say it in the song: We’ve had so many years of peace and harmony, and it just takes “one dude” — and I’m wondering if “dude” was the original word you wanted to use — to fuck it all up. Yeah, “dude” was the original word. There are other expletives you could put in there, but I consider myself respectful as well, even under the circumstances. But the thing I really wanted to say is that if you have that much power, why would you not want to channel it for good? You could do so much good in the world with that much power, and it’s just not happening. So I think that’s the thing that perplexes me more than anything. Put Canada aside for one second and just look at the global situation. It’s baffling. How did the idea for the album come to you? Did it come out of this frustration? It started out that I was asked to write a song for a documentary on Canada, about Canada’s East Coast. When I write, I don’t just focus on one thing. I just start writing. Looking back on my notes, I noticed there were a few things I had that were potentially interesting. So I went down and finished that one, then I finished another one, and then I started getting into the current affairs thing. Before I knew it, I had three or four songs that seemed like part of a concept album. So I just kept going, and the whole album was written and recorded in three months. “51st State,” that was the first song on the album that was quite political. How did people react to it? We debuted that song in St. Louis on our tour this summer, and we weren’t sure how it was going to go down in America. But the first night we did it, standing ovation. Second night we did it, standing ovation. Got into Texas, into the red states, standing ovation. And I suddenly thought to myself, I’m not sure that the people in this country, in America — I’m in Las Vegas at the moment — I’m not sure everybody agrees with what’s going down. And that was the way of testing the temperature in the room, because if you play it live, you can see automatically what people think. We were getting just full-on cheers. Well, we’ll see in a few days what people really think, with the Nov. 3 election. It’s not worth predicting it at all. I’m just writing my truth. I want to bring up this viral thing that happened, and I return to it whenever I want to smile. It’s when that drunk guy came onstage during “Summer of ’69,” and you let it happen, and then you continued the song without missing a single beat. Not only is it funny, but it says something about you, I think. Which is? A lot of people would have been angry, would have been reactive, would have said, “Get this guy off the stage!” But you let the universe just happen. That’s me. That’s what I’m getting at. I feel that I saw the real you at that moment. Well, that’s nice. I think that’s actually very much what I am like. I let the universe do its thing. And when I saw that guy coming, I mean, I could have easily backed off, but I saw him coming and just thought, “Go for it, have a crack.” As he climbed onto the stage, he whacked his head. And I remember that moment, thinking, “He’s not going to make it all the way up here.” But he did. Oh dear. I’m glad somebody filmed it. Since we’re on the subject of “Summer of ’69.” I’m just curious, how much of those lyrics are true? Do you remember your summer of ’69? Did you really have a band with friends? The song is obviously bittersweet, and it’s a song of nostalgia, but it’s not about the year. Someone told me it’s about another kind of 69. I was like, “There’s no way.” Well, it’s just a metaphor. It’s about first love. It’s about first figuring out where you’re going, what you’re doing, and it’s about reflecting on how that summer went. But there’s no double entendre in there. Oh, of course there is. OK then! My friend is right. I was like, “Are you crazy? No, it’s about the summer of 1969!” Nowhere in the song do I say [1969]. Where did you get your first real six-string? My father. Well, I’m glad he got it for you. Same here.