Early during his concert Saturday night (Aug. 15) in Detroit, Bryan Adams spoke about having “the pleasure” of having Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo supporting him on tour since last October, but noted that he’d “never had them on stage — before tonight.”
And because, as Adams told the Little Caesars Arena crowd, “this is Motown city,” he invited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame duo to join his band onstage for the first time, delivering a spirited rendition of Stevie Wonder‘s “Superstition.” Adams and Benatar shared lead vocals, while Giraldo and Adams’ Keith Scott traded guitar licks. Afterwards, Adams said, “Thanks everybody. That was awesome.”
Released by Wonder in 1972, “Superstition” was his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in nine years. It went on to win two Grammy Awards, for best rhythm & blues song and best R&B vocal performance, male, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Saturday’s show was the penultimate date of the two acts’ latest road trek together, which wraps up Sunday night (Aug. 16) in Milwaukee. Adams will continue promoting his latest album, Roll With the Punches, with four shows in his native Ontario later this month, while Benatar & Giraldo have August shows in Las Vegas and Rancho Mirage, California, followed by a handful of West Coast concerts, mostly in California, in early fall.
Thanks to its proximity to Windsor, Ontario, just across the Detroit River, Adams also found a particularly receptive audience for his latest single, “51st State,” a protest response he described as “a love letter to Canada,” offering defiant opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about annexing the country.
“I had the song for the documentary and suddenly I had ’51st State’,” Adams told Billboard earlier this month. “I thought it would be perfect to put out on Canada Day (July 1), so we did it.”
Adams acknowledged that the song is more overtly political than what he typically writes, adding, “but why not? If certain people can say what they want, so can I. It’s just his garbage. You want to think people can see through that stupidity, but I don’t know.”
The documentary project also inspired Adams to write more songs about his homeland that will be part of his next album, though he’s not announced any specific details about it yet.
