Bryan Adams takes Pirelli Calendar ‘On the Road’

The Pirelli Calendar 2022, featuring photography by Canadian guitarist Bryan Adams and presented in a vinyl LP sleeve, has launched with an online event. Adams’s images celebrate stars of popular music, including historical icons Cher and Iggy Pop. As well as a self-portrait, the first time the photographer has been included as a calendar subject in its 48^th edition, Adams has written a song using the calendar’s title, ‘On the Road’, which will feature on his next album. Pirelli says the calendar’s launch represents a landmark for the company, as it marks a return after the pandemic crisis interrupted its annual publication schedule and because it coincides with Pirelli’s 150^th anniversary.

The concept of the 2022 Pirelli Calendar is to represent the touring lifestyle of musicians, which was severely disrupted by the pandemic. Using images shot over three days in two Los Angeles locations, the Palace Theatre and Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont hotel, and at the Scalinatella hotel in Capri, the full calendar contains 70 scenes over its 160 pages, representing tension before a performance, long journeys between cities, and the solitude of hotel rooms. The cast comprises ten world-famous artists of different ages, musical genres, and backgrounds: Cher, Grimes, Jennifer Hudson, Normani, Rita Ora, Bohan Phoenix, Iggy Pop, Saweetie, St. Vincent and Kali Uchis.

“It would be very, very hard to encapsulate everything that happens on the road in a couple of days. So what I tried to do was to represent some of the aspects of it… for example, musicians never really see the front of the building, they see the back of the building, we see the stage door, we see the backstage area, we see the basement of a building… you go from the stage door to the car door to the hotel door to the train door to the bus door, so it’s a bunch of doors, but it’s always about travelling,” explains Bryan Adams.

“I’ve known and appreciated Bryan for years. We thought his idea of coupling the world of music with that of the road and travel would be perfect for a Calendar that is making its comeback as we seek a gradual return to normality after the pandemic. This calendar will mark the months of a year, 2022, that is particularly important for us, for it is the year we celebrate Pirelli’s 150th anniversary”, says Marco Tronchetti Provera, executive vice chairman and CEO of Pirelli.