Adams the mass of contradictions; Music.

Byline: By Andy Welch

"THE well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves," said Oscar Wilde, the most quotable of all playwrights.

In that case, Ryan Adams must be the wisest of all songwriters, for he seems to constantly be at odds with things he's either said or done in the past.

A few years back, a member of the audience at one of his gigs, punning on his name, bellowed for him to play Summer Of '69, the mid-80s hit by almost namesake Bryan Adams.

Ryan, born in Jacksonville, North Carolina, apparently responded by singling out the man concerned, refunding him the price of his ticket from his own pocket and kicking him out of the auditorium.

Legend has it another concert-goer tried this trick around the same time, and Ryan's reaction was to ask the heckler up on stage, where he gave him the guitar from around his neck.

Such contradictions seem to run through everything the man does.

As he talks, he's hugely animated, and divides his time between bouncing around a large sofa, hunting high and low for an ashtray, filling said ashtray with discarded cigarettes and picking at some food that's been delivered.

As he explains in great detail during our interview, he hates the idea of being famous and has gone to great lengths to avoid the obvious pitfalls of celebrity.

That is true, to an extent.

The sales of 2001's Grammy-winning album Gold could have propelled him into megastardom but he dug his heels in, and followed it up with a collection of sketchy demos 12 months later. It was as if he was trying to alienate the fans who'd bought into his music.

A couple of years ago, however, he dueted with country star Willie Nelson in a TV commercial for uber-brand Gap which was shown around the world, and until recently, he was signed to Lost Highway, a subsidiary of Universal, the world's largest record company.

Adams's contradictory nature displays itself in the volume of his output, too.

Since splitting from altcountry band Whiskeytown in 1999, Ryan, whether as a bonafide solo artist or with current band The Cardinals, has released 10 studio albums, not to mention the scores of songs he put on his website under various pseudonyms.

He's also produced a number of albums for other artists, including friend Jesse Malin, and written a book, Infinity Blues, due for release next year.

When it's put to him that he's prolific, however, the 34-year-old, who plays Birmingham's Carling Academy on Monday, shakes his head in denial.

"No, it's not prolific," he says, beginning what turns into a 10-minute-long rant on the subject.

"It just doesn't fit into the ideas that corporations have instilled in the minds of record buyers in the last 15 years.

"They the companies can maximise their profits by over-advertising artists, over-working them, touring them on specific albums and never letting them graduate, artistically.

"By the time it's right for the band to produce new work, they've forgotten how to be musicians and are basically just walking billboards for a very silent corporation.

"I'm not prolific, I'm just not a sucker.

Ticket Info

RYAN ADAMS AND THE CARDINALS Monday: Carling Academy Birmingham Tickets: 0844 477 2000.

CAPTION(S):

Ryan Adams, who is at the Academy on Monday.