Ryan Adams reveals the story behind 'Doomsday'

Ryan Adams released the new single for his forthcoming album, Prisoner, on Jan. 19, and the timing — and title — couldn't have been more appropriate.

Called "Doomsday," it's a devastating ballad that kicks off with a screaming harmonica and a chorus that punches its way out of the country-tinged arrangement. 

Adams released the single the night before U.S. president Donald Trump's inauguration, and while he's speaking about it on the phone, Three Doors Down is playing the Lincoln Memorial.

"I put a 'Doomsday' out on doomsday," Adams deadpans after reflecting on the current state of his country.

"I have to say, you folks in Canada don't really have to watch TV lately, you can just look down South at the dramatic s--t show going on."

Despite the coincidence, Adams' song is far from political in nature. If anything, it's hard not to read it as a reflection on the singer's personal life, including a split from wife Mandy Moore that occurred while he was writing for Prisoner. "My Love, we can do better than this," he sings, his voice cracking at the word love.

But the song structure itself existed for some time, dating back a couple of years to recordings he did at his PAX AM studio in Los Angeles. Adams said it was recorded at least four times, including a punk version, before becoming the single that was eventually released. After that, "the words kind of found their place," he says. "I found the thread of disappointment I was looking for in the song and it really worked."

"Doomsday" was eventually recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City while Adams was touring, and he says it was unique in that it didn't fit into anything he was working on already.

"It's funny, sometimes a song needs a minute to latch on to the rest of the songs that are going down the road, and I had never experienced that before," he says. "I just think we couldn't find the vibe for it."

That is, until they started playing with a LinnDrum machine. "We're like, let's experiment with LinnDrums for like, the first time … and we ended up with that track. It's weird, it really pops off on the chorus, it develops all of a sudden. … Somehow it just started to make sense. I think there had been a pretty good amount of listening to Def Leppard's Hysteria going on at that period of time, so we were like, ya man, can we make the Strats sound like lasers?"

As for that screaming harmonica, as always with Adams, it was live off the floor.

"I always do that harp live," he says. "If there is a harp on there it means I'm standing there singing and playing."

Listen to "Doomsday" below. Ryan Adams' Prisoner is out Feb 17.

By Jesse Kinos-Goodin