Adams unwittingly wrote a song that became anthem for Sept. 11

September 09, 2011|By Jillian Mapes, Billboard.Com

Troubadour Ryan Adams was afraid that his New York, New York video, which… (MARK ABRAHAMS )

On Sept. 11, 2001, alt-country troubadour Ryan Adams released what would become his most successful single to date. That same day, the song’s simple video hit VH1 and MTV. The timing was almost eerie, given the song’s title - “New York, New York’’ - and the prominence of the Twin Towers in its NYC-centric video, which Adams reveals was inspired by his love of “Friends.’’ Now, 10 years after 9/11, Adams revisits that peculiar-yet-crucial moment in his career, and the anthemic rise of “New York, New York,’’ off his Sept. 2001 album, “Gold.’’

Q. I remember so clearly when your “New York, New York’’ video came out - right on 9/11. Having the Twin Towers in the video, how did you react? Did you ever worry it would be pulled from the networks?

A. I did what anybody would have done. I said I wasn’t working the song, not playing it live. Basically, my request was that the song wouldn’t be used in any television, documentaries or commercials, and that they would just take the video off. I was told they couldn’t take the video out of rotation. The same guy that signed me [to my publishing contract] had become the head A&R guy at Lost Highway [Adams’s then label], so you do the math on that [laughs]. It played a few times, and I said that if they didn’t add some kind of statement to the video, I was gonna protest in some way. Finally they took care of it.

Q. It’s one of the most quintessentially “New York’’ videos ever. Did the timing freak you out?

A. It was so weird, like it was meant to be. The original video we shot was in a taxi cab and it came out badly. I was a fanatic for the show “Friends.’’ Like, I’ve seen every episode in order. So I said, “Can we just shoot it so it has all the angles from the “Friends’’ opening sequence, when they show the city?’’ If you actually look at “Friends,’’ and the angles that sweep by in the opening sequence, it’s pretty much exactly where I am in several of those parts of the video, in the performance part. So that was the original intention of the video, me poking fun at my “Friends’’ obsession.