Bryan Adams’ Vintage Guitar Defaced By Egyptian Customs Officials At Cairo Airport

Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams doesn’t have the best of luck when bringing his instruments through customs. In July of 2015, he claimed Air Canada officials defaced one of his guitars by writing on it in black lettering, and it seems to have happened to Adams again, this time by Egyptian customs officials at Cairo airport when Adams was heading to Egypt to perform in front of the pyramids.

Earlier this week, Bryan Adams took to Instagram to post a picture and vent his dismay, claiming that customs officials at the Cairo airport had defaced his vintage, 1946 Martin acoustic guitar by scrawling on the side of the guitar in green ink — other instruments were also defaced. In the Instagram picture, a number and a word in Arabic can be seen on the side of the guitar just by the neck. The graffiti wasn’t the only trouble Adams had after arriving in Egypt to play a number of concerts near the world-famous pyramids at Giza as part of his Get Up tour — the instruments almost didn’t make it into the country, Bryan Adams says.

“We almost didn’t get the equipment into the country, and when we did it was all marked like this. There were absolutely no apologies.”

According to CBC, Agence France-Presse contacted Egyptian customs upon learning of the problems Bryan Adams faced while in Egypt, and though an anonymous official claimed that all instruments are marked with serial numbers — usually with stickers — Jamal Turki, director of customs at Cairo International Airport claimed that it wasn’t them who had defaced Adams’ instruments.

“I followed the big fuss the international artist made on Facebook and these accusations are false. We don’t write on equipment whether arriving or departing and the international artist should specify which department wrote on his guitar.”

Turki went on to suggest that perhaps someone else had defaced Bryan Adams’ guitar, and he was just placing the blame on airport officials, saying that the number means nothing to any airport or customs officials, and that it may have happened elsewhere, anytime between leaving the airport and arriving at Adams’ hotel. He suggested that perhaps it was Adams’ room number, or the number of the car that was taking him to his hotel.

Despite Bryan Adams’ accusations against Egyptian customs, Adams posted on Facebook on Friday, thanking all his fans that had written to him regarding the vandalized equipment and assured the Egyptian community that he wasn’t taking the instrument defacing as a personal affront. He promised fans that he loved their country and hoped to be back soon. Adams also stated that the instruments could be fixed.

While in Egypt, Bryan Adams posted several pictures to his social media accounts showing the singer playing in front of the pyramids at Giza, as well as the Sphinx. He also said he plans to bring his family to visit the country one day, but has one simple request, “next time no green markers please!”

This isn’t the first time Bryan Adams has had problems with his instruments getting vandalized while going through customs, reports the Guardian. In July of last year, Adams took to Twitter, calling out Air Canada for damaging another of his guitars while on a flight from Toronto to Detroit. In the tweet, Bryan Adams included a picture of a guitar with a serial number scrawled on it in black marker.

Hopefully, the string of bad luck Bryan Adams seems to have while bringing instruments through customs stops sometime soon, and he can finish his world tour without further incident.

[Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images for GQ]