Ryan Adams’ 50 facts: best known for his prolific solo career, and as former member of alternative country band Whiskeytown

50 things to learn about musician Ryan Adams.

1. David Ryan Adams is an American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, poet and painter.

2. He is best known for his prolific solo career, and as a former member of alternative country band Whiskeytown, with whom he recorded three studio albums.

3. In 2000, Adams left Whiskeytown and released his first solo album, Heartbreaker, to critical acclaim. The album was nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize.

4. In 2001, Adams released the UK certified-gold Gold, which included the hit single, "New York, New York".

5. He released five albums with the rock band The Cardinals.

6. In 2009 Adams married singer-songwriter and actress Mandy Moore.

7. Adams left The Cardinals and announced that he was taking a break from music.

8. He resumed performing in October 2010 and released his thirteenth studio album, Ashes & Fire, on October 11, 2011. The album peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.

9. In September 2014, Adams released his fourteenth album Ryan Adams on his PAX AM label.

10. Adams has also produced albums for Willie Nelson, Jesse Malin, Jenny Lewis, and Fall Out Boy, and he has collaborated with Counting Crows, Weezer, Norah Jones, America, Minnie Driver, Cowboy Junkies, Leona Naess, Toots and the Maytals, Beth Orton and Krista Polvere.

11. He has written Infinity Blues, a book of poems, and Hello Sunshine, a collection of poems and short stories.

12. Ryan Adams was born on November 5, 1974, in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

13. He has an older brother and younger sister.

14. His childhood has been described as "dysfunctional."

15. His father left when he was five and at that time he, his mother and his brother and sister had to move in with his grandparents as they became homeless as a result of the divorce.

16. Ryan was raised by his mother as a single parent until he was 13 at which time she remarried.

17. When he was eight, Adams began writing short stories and limericks on his grandmother's typewriter. He is quoted as saying, "I started writing short stories when I was really into Edgar Allan Poe. Then later, when I was a teenager, I got really hard into cult fiction: Hubert Selby, Jr., Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac."

18. At the age of 14 Adams began learning to play the electric guitar that his mother and stepfather had bought him, and shortly afterward joined a local band named Blank Label.

19. Although Blank Label did not stay together long, a three-track 7" record exists, dated 1991 and lasting less than seven minutes in total.

20. Adams attended Jacksonville High School but dropped out in his first week of tenth grade, moving to live with bandmate Jere McIlwean at his rental house just outside Jacksonville.

21. Around this time he performed briefly with two local bands, Ass and The Lazy Stars.

22. Following this, Adams joined The Patty Duke Syndrome and once played in a bar in Jacksonville.

23. After obtaining his GED, Adams left Jacksonville for Raleigh, shortly followed by McIlwean. The Patty Duke Syndrome split in 1994 after releasing a 7" single containing two songs (The Patty Duke Syndrome was on one side, while the other side was a band called GlamourPuss).

24. Following the breakup of The Patty Duke Syndrome, Adams went on to found Whiskeytown with Caitlin Cary, Eric "Skillet" Gilmore, Steve Grothmann and Phil Wandscher.

25. The founding of Whiskeytown saw Adams move to alt-country, describing punk rock as "too hard to sing" in the title track of Whiskeytown's debut album Faithless Street.

26. Whiskeytown was heavily influenced by the country-rock pioneers, most notably Gram Parsons.

27. Adams made his solo debut in 2000, with Heartbreaker (produced by Ethan Johns).

28. Adams released Gold, the follow-up to Heartbreaker, in 2001. It was well received; however, Adams initially refused to promote the record through radio station meet-and-greet and other music industry conventions, instead opting for more recording and some live dates.

29. A video was eventually made for the album's first single, "New York, New York". The music video featured Adams performing in front of the city's skyline four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The video was played often on MTV and VH1 after the attacks and became Adams's breakthrough to mainstream music consumers.

30. Following the success of Gold, in 2002 Adams was blocked by his label from releasing his choice for a follow-up. This would be the second time this happened, the first being with Gold; Adams had recorded "the Suicide Handbook" which was rejected on the grounds that it was "too sad".

31. In May 2002, Adams joined Elton John on CMT Crossroads, which brings together country artists with musicians from other genres.

32. During the show, John referred to Adams as "fabulous one" and spoke of how Heartbreaker inspired him to record Songs from the West Coast, which at the time was his most successful album in several years.

33. Also in 2002, Adams reportedly recorded a cover of The Strokes' debut album Is This It, though it has never been publicly released.

34. Rock N Roll and Love Is Hell, Pt. 1 were released in November 2003, followed by Love Is Hell, Pt. 2 in December. Both albums were well received by critics, and in May 2004 Love Is Hell was re-released as a full-length album.

35. Love Is Hell included a cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall", which Adams had previously performed live, and about which Noel Gallagher once said, "I never got my head round this song until I went to [see] Ryan Adams play and he did an amazing cover of it." The song earned Adams a Grammy nomination for "Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance".

36. While on tour to support Love Is Hell in January 2004, Adams broke his left wrist during a performance at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. Adams fell off the end of the stage into the lowered orchestra pit six feet below, while performing "The Shadowlands". Dates from Adams's European and American tours had to be canceled as a result of his injury.

37. 2005 saw Adams join with backing band The Cardinals to produce two albums, Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights.

38. In addition to releasing three albums, that year Adams joined other musicians in playing a Hurricane Katrina benefit show at Irving Plaza in New York City.

39. In early 2006 Adams performed a solo tour of the United Kingdom, often accompanied by Brad Pemberton (drummer for The Cardinals) and on the final date in London by Carina Round, who performed harmony vocals on 'Come Pick Me Up' from his first solo album- 'Heartbreaker'.

40. Adams produced Willie Nelson's album Songbird, while he and The Cardinals performed as Nelson's backing band. The album was released in October 2006.

41. He also opened for Nelson at the Hollywood Bowl later that fall, a show that featured Phil Lesh on bass and multiple Grateful Dead songs.

42. Late in 2006, Adams experimented with hip hop music, adding to his web site 18 albums worth of new recordings under various pseudonyms, featuring humorous and nonsensical lyrics, as well as covers of two Bob Dylan songs ("Isis" and "You're a Big Girl Now").

43. In April 2009, Adams uploaded three new tracks under his black metal moniker Werewolph, and five hard rock tracks under the name Sleazy Handshake.

44. In August 2009, Adams began posting on the fan-site, Ryan Adams Archive, discussing the possibility of a Whiskeytown reunion, new songs and releasing his many 'unreleased' albums.

45. In August 2009, Adams also began blogging for The Awl.

46. In September 2009, Adams debuted a new song online, entitled "Happy Birthday", and began releasing singles, featuring previously unreleased material, from his new record label, PAX AM.

47. On September 9, 2014, the self-titled album Ryan Adams was released on PAX-AM records.

48. On December 5, 2014, "Gimme Something Good" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

49. On August 5, 2015, Adams announced via Instagram that he is going to cover and release his version of Taylor Swift's 2014 album 1989. He has released multiple clips via Twitter and Instagram showcasing his takes on Swift's songs.

50. In 2008, Adams began dating singer and actress Mandy Moore. They became engaged in February 2009 and they were married on March 10, 2009 in Savannah, Georgia. On January 23, 2015, in a joint statement, Adams and Moore announced, "Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams have mutually decided to end their marriage of almost six years. It is a respectful, amicable parting of ways and both Mandy and Ryan are asking for media to respect their privacy at this time."

Source: Wikipedia.org