He's one of the biggest-selling artists of all time, but describes himself on Twitter as a 'former dishwasher, now having a go at music and photos'. The legendary rocker Bryan Adams chats to Natasha Dirany.

Your new album ‘Bare Bones’ features stripped-down versions of songs from your decade-spanning career. Was it fun to record?
Oh yeah, it was brilliant to record. It’s all acoustic and very simple, a collection of songs from my tour, ‘Bare Bones’. I went on Twitter and asked my fans for suggestions in order to choose the final songs.

Is it important to you to break down the boundary between star and fan?
It’s great having them involved. You know, to get their suggestions, the new songs, the old songs, and the more obscure ones too. In the end we managed to put together a good balance, but if I’d taken all the suggestions the album would have been a four CD set, not a 20 track album.

Your career as a fashion photographer has really taken off. How did you get started?
I just got into it like you do any hobby – because you like it. But music is still my first love, it always will be.

You’ve photographed a lot of troubled stars, like Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan. What do you think of the way these women are portrayed by the media?
You know, I don’t really have my own opinion on how people are ‘portrayed by the media’. I prefer to make my own judgements. It’s like getting a perspective on a country if you’ve only watched the news about that country. I don’t pay a lot of attention to the news, even. I mean, I do stay aware of what’s going on, but I prefer to make my own mind up about stuff.

Bryan Adams will be performing live in Beirut, Dec 14. For more information and tickets call 01 999666.

For the rest of the interview, check out the upcoming December issue of Time Out Beirut Magazine