Ryan Adams: Highlights from his record collection

[Kanada Kev]

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23612450/ryan_adams_highlights_from_his_record_collection/1

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."

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."

and from an older interview in RS:

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ryanadams/articles/story/7605374/qa_ryan_adams

What are the best records to listen to after getting baked?

Sabbath's Vol 4. Sonic Youth's Sister. Coltrane's Sun Ship. There's a band that I really like with a terrible name -- they're called Anal Cunt. They have a record called Morbid Florists that's really fuckin' awesome. It's out of control and ridiculous. And the Dead's '77 tour. It got really deep.

You love to write while stoned, too?

I don't look at that stuff as a detractor at all. I think it's beautiful and creative. It's a healthy thing to open up your eyes a little bit wider.

How many of the songs on Jacksonville City Nights were written like that?

It's kind of obvious.

[NewRider]

Mariah Carey!??!?!!?

[Kanada Kev]

Mariah Carey!??!?!!?

Yup, this: