Skip to content

Tenille Townes says a ‘wild thought’ and chance encounter led to Bryan Adams duet

Canadian country star joins forces with veteran rock icon
31961851_web1_copy_20230224120232-3cfe8a3a96ad04682ec23204c053c6546ff40aab5e568cbbfcf246f283506567
Rocker Bryan Adams and country singer Tenille Townes have combined forces for a duet called “The Thing That Wrecks You” (Canadian Press)

A new duet between rocker Bryan Adams and country singer Tenille Townes was borne from an unexpected encounter in a stairwell.

The Grande Prairie, Alta.-raised Townes describes a combination of luck and good timing as what led to recording “The Thing That Wrecks You” with one of her musical inspirations.

In a statement, she says the collaboration came about after she ran into Adams while leaving his Warehouse Studio in Vancouver last summer. She was there to record a song for a Hallmark movie.

Passing him in a stairwell, they struck up a conversation. And later that night, as she reflected on the encounter, she was reminded of how the spirit of one of her unreleased songs seemed fit for his voice.

The singer-songwriter says she went “out on a limb” and sent the Kingston, Ont.-born “Summer of ‘69” hitmaker a demo alongside a proposal that he join her on the track. That “wild thought” led to “The Thing That Wrecks You,” which captures the two exchanging reflections on the moment a relationship spirals into heartbreak.

Townes is nominated twice at the Juno Awards next month for songwriter and country album of the year.

—David Friend, The Canadian Press

RELATED: Tenille Townes leads with seven CCMA Award nominations

RELATED: Bryan Adams to be inducted into Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame