The successful and influential Canadian musician Bryan Adams released a cover of the song “Rock and Roll Hell”, which he co-wrote with Kiss and the songwriter Jim Vallance back in the early 80s. That track was originally released on the 1982 Kiss album “Creatures of The Night”.
Credited to Jim Vallance, Bryan Adams and Gene Simmons, the track was originally written for Bachman Turner Overdrive and they recorded the song in 1979. However, the Kiss version was altered and released as a new song. Adams also covered “War Machine”, which only will be available on the physical format.
He talked about the song in an official statement, saying: “I was thrilled to work with [Kiss] 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. ‘Rock and Roll Hell’ was actually Jim’s song. … I suggested that we re-write it with Kiss, as the themes of hell and war were both strangely forefront in my mind at the time.”
“It’s incredible to think those themes are unfortunately playing out for real in the world today. But I’m very grateful to the Kiss guys for giving me the chance back then,” Bryan Adams said.
Hear the Bryan Adams cover of “Rock and Roll Hell”, co-written with Kiss
As songwriter Jim Vallance recalled in an interview with Rock Pages back in 2007, he originally wrote the track for the Canadian band Bachman Turner-Overdrive. BTO released the song in 1979 but it was altered for Kiss three years later.
“I originally wrote the song for Fred Turner to sing (BTO). I was trying to tell Fred’s story. In fact, the lyric grew from some conversations I had with Fred. He was at a point in his life when he was burned out and discouraged, and not interested in touring. That’s what the original lyric was about.”
“When Bryan and I wrote the new lyric for KISS, we were thinking about a young guy who WANTS to be in a famous band. Can’t wait for the chance to do a tour. In other words, the opposite situation from Fred’s. You can see what we’re trying to say in the first two verses of the song. The third verse was written by Gene,” Jim Vallance said.
