Egyptian customs 'deface' Bryan Adams' guitar

Bryan Adams has called out customs officials at Cairo International Airport who ‘defaced’ his instrument collection.

The staff allegedly scrawled on the instruments with green indelible marker, including his prized vintage guitar – a 1957 Martin D-18 worth thousands of dollars.

The singer told NBC: “It was some kind of customs clearance identification. The problem is, it’s a vintage guitar from 1957 and the outside of old instrument is fragile.

“The instruments were all marked – even my harmonicas! So silly.”

But he later told fans in Egypt: “It will be fixed no problem. I want you all to know that I love your country and we had an amazing time there, we felt at home. The incident of defacing our instruments at airport customs is annoying, but it needed to be said.”

An unnamed official from Cairo International Airport says: “We mark it to be sure that the same item that came in the country left the country.”

This isn’t the first time Adams’ instruments have been tagged by airport officials. He publicly messaged Air Canada on Twitter after finding pen markings on his guitar last July.

Adams is currently on his world tour to promote his latest album, Get Up.

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Bryan Adams world tour 2016

Mar 12: Pokolbin Bimbadgen Winery, Australia
Mar 13: Mount Cotton Sirromet Wines, Australia
Mar 16: Sydney Olympic Park, Australia
Mar 18: Melbourne Rod Laver Arena, Australia
Mar 19: Leconfield Wines McLaren Vale, Australia
Mar 21: Perth Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Australia
Apr 03: Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome, Canada
Apr 08: Spring, TX
Apr 09: Grand Prairie Verizon Theatre, TX
Apr 10: Cedar Park Center, TX
Apr 11: Catoosa Joint, OK
Apr 14: Biloxi Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center, MS
Apr 15: Nashville Ascend Amphitheater, TN
Apr 16: Alpharetta Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, GA
Apr 25: Antwerps Sportpaleis, Belgium
Apr 29: Bournemouth BIC & Pavilion, UK
Apr 30: Birmingham NEC, UK
May 01: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, UK
May 05: Glasgow SSE Arena, UK
May 07: London O2, UK
May 10: Dublin 3Arena, Ireland
May 11: Belfast SSE Arena
May 13:Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, UK
May 14: Sheffield Arena, UK
May 15: Liverpool Echo Arena, UK
May 24: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
May 25: Antwerp Sportpaleis, Belgium
May 27: Oberhausen Konig Pilsener, Germany
May 28: Hamburg Barclaycard Arena, Germany
May 29: Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena, Germany
May 31: Vienna Wiener Eisstadthalle, Austria
Jun 01:Munich Kleine Olympiahalle, Germany

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.