He described her as “queen of all my dreams” in his song Diana, stating “The day she married you, I almost lost my mind.”
Now Bryan Adams has spoken for the first time about his friendship with the late Princess Diana, revealing it was sparked by her amusement at the lyrics he wrote about her.
The Canadian singer, now 64, was rumored to have embarked on an affair with Diana in the 1990s, speculation that grew after his ex-girlfriend Cecilie Thomsen said publicly that “ours was a stormy relationship and the affair “Bryan with Diana didn’t make it.” easier.’
Diana met Bryan Adams after a pop concert in Vancouver during her 1986 tour of Canada.
When Diana met the man who wrote a song proclaiming his love for her
Bryan Adams, Elton John and Ringo Starr sing together at Prince’s Trust concert
But she recently avoided addressing the rumors, instead describing a touching friendship in which the pair “had many, very good conversations” after meeting on a plane.
He told her that he had used her name in a song and she replied: ‘Yes, I know, very funny.’ I’d actually like to hear it again.’
He sent a copy to Kensington Palace and she invited him to tea.
‘It’s actually strange and surreal to think about it. I really liked Diana a lot, she was an incredible woman and a great inspiration,’ she said during the interview with the Sunday Times.
“Meeting her was truly one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me.”
Adams, best known for hits such as Everything I Do (I Do It For You), Summer of 69 and Heaven, was one of the major pop stars who met Diana before her death in 1997.
A huge music fan whose love of pop began during her time at West Heath boarding school in Sevenoaks, Kent, she was delighted that her position as Princess of Wales gave her the opportunity to mingle with many of her idols, from Duran Duran even Elton John. .
Duran Duran were her favorite band and she was believed to have danced in front of her mirror at Kensington Palace listening to their hit Girls On Film on her Sony Walkman.
He attended a number of their live shows and met them several times. At Diana’s memorial concert in 2006, Simon Le Bon said: “We were honored that she always referred to Duran Duran as her favorite band, as she was without a doubt our favorite princess.”
One of the band’s concerts, at the Dominion Theater in London in 1983, could have ended in disaster due to an IRA plot to assassinate the princess and her then-husband, Prince Charles, but the man who was supposed to install the bomb Gelignite was actually a police informant who foiled the plan.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, the Duran Duran bassist said: “They wanted to kill Diana and Charles and everyone in the room.” It was so shocking. “We only found out years later, but it was very scary.”
Last year, Taylor also revealed that the band’s music was a passion Diana shared with her two children.
Princess Diana laughing with Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Simon Le Bon at the royal premiere of View to a Kill
Charles and Diana attend the Prince’s Trust Rock Gala at the Dominion Theater in 1983
Princess Diana went backstage and shook Andy Taylor’s hand after finishing the gala.
Princess Diana meets Simon and Yasmin le Bon at the Help a London Child charity appeal at the Café Royal in 1991.
Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran performs on stage at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium which Princes William and Harry organized in 2007 to celebrate their mother’s life.
William and Harry chat with Simon le Bon and Nick Rhodes after Diana’s concert in 2007
“When we met William and Harry, they said, ‘Oh, we used to sit in the back seat and Mom would play Wild Boys and we’d sing,'” he recalled.
‘That stuck with me, that little kids would say ‘Wild Boys!’ and that would be a moment for them.’
George Michael was another star with whom he shared a deep bond. The latest series of The Crown features two of his songs, Fast Love and Spinning the Wheel, which reflect his long friendship with former Wham! star, who died in 2016.
The couple, two of the biggest celebrities of their time, met in 1985 at the Live Aid concert at Wembley.
She was reportedly in love with Michael and told him she found him “very beautiful”, to which he replied: “Thank you ma’am, he’s breaking down.”
According to Michael’s biographer James Gavin: “Thus began the awkward 12-year friendship between a lovesick aristocrat and a closeted sex idol.”
The couple called each other “honey” and Michael gave her a gold watch.
In 2011, she spoke of their relationship, saying, “I think we clicked in a kind of intangible way, and it probably had more to do with our upbringing than anything else.”
She was very similar to many women who have been attracted to me in my life because they see something that is not threatening.
Maybe because I take care of my sisters and am so protective of them, women seem to smell that.’
Princess Diana meets George Michael, KD Lang and Mick Hucknall at the annual World AIDS Day Concert of Hope at Wembley Arena in 1993.
Diana and George in A Concert of Hope the following year
Princess Diana met George Michael for the first time at the 1985 Live Aid concert.
He also suggested that Diana would have liked the friendship to turn romantic, even though he was gay:
“Certain things happened that made it clear that she was very attracted to me. There was no doubt,” he said, adding that they were never intimate because “I knew it would be disastrous.”
He was left devastated after her death in the Paris car crash in August 1997. Speaking after her funeral, he said it reminded him of the death of his mother, Lesley, six months earlier.
‘I cried my eyes out. It was almost like I was reliving my mother’s funeral,” she said.
It is impossible to think of Diana’s funeral without remembering Sir Elton John’s moving performance of Candle in the Wind, with new lyrics written especially for her.
They first met at Prince Andrew’s birthday party in 1981, and Sir Elton was impressed by what he described as her “incredible social ease, her ability to make people feel totally comfortable in her company.”
The night Elton and Diana met at Prince Andrew’s stag party
Diana, Princess of Wales with singer Elton John at a television awards ceremony in 1993
Elton John chatting to Princess Diana when she attended a charity performance of Tango Argentino in aid of the National Aids Trust at the Aldwych Theater in London in 1991.
Elton’s moving performance of ‘Candle in the Wind’ at Diana’s funeral
They “clicked immediately” and became great friends. At Gianni Versace’s funeral, just weeks before Diana’s death, she was photographed leaning down to comfort Sir Elton, although she later claimed that what she had actually said was: “God, I’d love a Polo.”
Just six weeks later, he was devastated again when he learned of her fatal car accident.
It was Sir Richard Branson who, with the blessing of the Spencer family, approached Elton with the idea of rewriting his 1973 song Candle in the Wind, originally about Marilyn Monroe, for Diana’s funeral.
The opening lyrics were changed from “Goodbye Norma Jean, though I never knew you at all” to “Goodbye rose of England, may you ever grow in our hearts”, ensuring that Diana would be remembered as the rose of England.