Legendary Canadian rocker Bryan Adams released the official music video for his version of “War Machine”, one of two songs he co-wrote in the 1980s with Jim Vallance and KISS‘s Gene Simmons.
“War Machine” and “Rock And Roll Hell”, which Adams released earlier this month, both originally appeared on KISS‘s 1982 album “Creatures Of The Night”.
Adams will release “War Machine” and “Rock And Roll Hell” as a limited-edition double A-side seven-inch single on August 30 via his new independent label, Bad Records.
“War Machine”‘s signature riff was developed from a bass riff played to Adams by Gene Simmons.
Bryan explained: “Here are two songs I co-wrote when I was a 22-year-old struggling songwriter. I got a call out of the blue from producer Michael James Jackson to see if I would like to write for KISS, which I was thrilled to do, and these are a couple of the songs that were the result, written with both Gene Simmons and Jim Vallance.
“While sitting with the band, Gene played me this fantastic bass riff, which ended up being the backbone of ‘War Machine’. I was trying to think of a theme that could possibly match the riff and came up with the title. Seeing as the other song we’d written was about hell, War was the obvious theme to coincide with it.
“‘Rock And Roll Hell’ was actually Jim‘s song that had been released a few years earlier with BACHMAN TURNER OVERDRIVE, and I suggested that we re-write it for KISS. It’s incredible to think these themes are unfortunately still playing out for real in the world today, but I’m very grateful to the KISS guys for giving me the chance back then.”
Regarding the accompanying “War Machine” video, he added: “I aimed to create something monumental for the ‘War Machine’ video, and I’d been collaborating with CGI director Ben Ib on a peace-themed video entitled ‘What If There Were No Sides At All’. To contrast the peace message of that video, I proposed to Ben that we develop the ‘War Machine’ video showcasing chaos and destruction. In the video, the tyrant that is leading the war ultimately faces consequences for his actions.”
Adams previously stated about his collaboration with KISS: “I was thrilled to work with them back then. I was a broke songwriter, it came at the perfect time. While sitting with the band, Gene played me this fantastic bass riff, which ended up being the backbone of ‘War Machine’. I was trying to think of a theme that could possibly match the riff and came up with the title, which was actually an homage to a comic book character.”
Adams told Classic Rock magazine in 2014: “KISS‘s deal was they had to have their name on the songs if they were gonna record it. They put some bit in the song that would qualify for a credit, but they had nothing to do with writing the songs. At the time — this was around ’81 — Jim and I were just young songwriters looking for a break. I guess we were grateful for that.”
Adams‘s music has achieved No. 1 status in over 40 countries. He has garnered many awards and accolades, including three Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, a Grammy Award and multiple Canadian awards such as Companion Of The Order Of Canada and 18 Juno Awards, among others. His recent songs have been the peace track “What If There Were No Sides At All” and two songs from the Comedy Central film “Office Race”. Adams co-wrote all the music and lyrics for “Pretty Woman: The Musical” and released the Grammy-nominated “So Happy It Hurts” (Best Rock Performance) album in 2022.