Bryan Adams apologises for coronavirus rant, says he wanted to promote veganism

Bryan Adams has apologised for his recent social media rant about the coronavirus which drew accusations of racism, saying he wanted to speak out about “horrible animal cruelty” and promote veganism.

On May 11, the Canadian musician had posted a clip of himself on Instagram singing his 1983 single ‘Cuts Like a Knife’. In its strongly worded caption, he blamed “some fucking bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards” for the coronavirus pandemic.

“My message to them other than ‘thanks a fucking lot’ is go vegan,” Adams wrote in that post.

After facing intense backlash on social media, including accusations of racism, the ‘Summer Of ’69’ singer deleted a tweet which hyperlinked to the Instagram post, and turned off comments on the Instagram post itself.

On May 12, Adams posted another performance clip to Instagram. He wrote in its caption: “Apologies to any and all that took offence to my posting yesterday. No excuse, I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet-markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism.”

He added, “I have love for all people and my thoughts are with everyone dealing with this pandemic around the world.” See the full post below.

View this post on Instagram

INTO THE FIRE. Title track from the same album. Apologies to any and all that took offence to my posting yesterday. No excuse, I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet-markets being the possible source of the virus, and promote veganism. I have love for all people and my thoughts are with everyone dealing with this pandemic around the world. Here’s the appropriately titled song that would have been performed tonight at the @royalalberthall . #bryanadamsintothefire #songsfromisolation #covid19 #banwetmarkets #govegan

A post shared by Bryan Adams (@bryanadams) on May 12, 2020 at 7:53am PDT

Adam’s new post featured a video of him performing ‘Into The Fire’. He said he would have performed the song at his residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which would have begun May 12. The residency, like all if not many concerts, had been cancelled because of coronavirus pandemic and the onset of social distancing restrictions.

See Adams’ original post about the coronavirus below.

View this post on Instagram

CUTS LIKE A KNIFE. A song by me. Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of a tenancy of gigs at the @royalalberthall, but thanks to some fucking bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards, the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus. My message to them other than “thanks a fucking lot” is go vegan. To all the people missing out on our shows, I wish I could be there more than you know. It’s been great hanging out in isolation with my children and family, but I miss my other family, my band, my crew and my fans. Take care of yourselves and hope we can get the show on the road again soon. I’ll be performing a snippet from each album we were supposed to perform for the next few days. X #songsfromisolation #covid_19 #banwetmarkets #selfisolation #bryanadamscutslikeaknife #govegan