Bryan Adams on Thursday blamed customs officials in Cairo with defacing several of the Canadian musician’s instruments during a tour stop in Egypt this week.
The “Summer of 69” singer shared a picture over social media on Thursday showing one of his acoustic guitars adorned with what he called “Airport customs graffiti.”
“We almost didn’t get the equipment into the country, and when we did it was all marked like this,” he told NBC on Friday through his Facebook account. “There were absolutely no apologies.”
The instruments “were all marked — even my harmonicas! So silly,” Mr. Adams said.
The branding was likely “some sort of customs clearance identification,” he told NBC News.
Among the instruments “defaced” is a vintage Martin D-18 guitar made nearly 60 years ago, the singer said.
“Back to the luthier,” he wrote on social media.
In a follow-up post on Friday, the singer told fans that “The incident of defacing our instruments at airport customs is annoying, but it needed to be said.”
Jamal Turki, Cairo airport’s director of customs, said the singer is all wrong.
“I followed the big fuss the international artist made on Facebook, and these accusations are false,” he told NBC News. “We don’t write on equipment whether arriving or departing and the international artist should specify which department wrote on his guitar.”
“It may have been his room number or the car number taking him to airport,” he added. “The number doesn’t mean anything to us in the airport.”
The singer said Friday that he plans on returning to Egypt again, adding: “But without the green paint markers please.”
Mr. Adams is currently touring for his 13th studio album, “Get Up,” and performed near the pyramids in Giza this week. He’ll be in Australia next.
Last year, Mr. Adams blamed Air Canada staff with similarly defacing one of his guitars.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.