Red Hot Chili Peppers in Metallica airport mix-up

By Christina O'Neill
( Classic Rock )
last updated

Red Hot Chili Peppers asked to sign Metallica CDs and photos by customs officers at Belarus airport

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Image credit: Getty)

Red Hot Chili Peppers were mistaken for Metallica by customs officials at Belarus Airport in Eastern Europe.

The band were called into an office by airport staff and asked to autograph CDs and photos – but to their surprise, the items were Metallica-related.

Chili’s bassist Flea says: “We were called into a custom officials’ office at an airport in Belarus and they asked us to sign a bunch of Metallica CDs and photos. We tried to explain to them that we weren’t Metallica, but they insisted that we sign anyway. They had the power.

“Well I did play Fight Fire With Fire with Metallica once. I love Metallica anyways, but I’m no Robert Trujillo.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers will play the Ontario Bluesfest and the Quebec Festival in Canada this week.

A photo posted by on

Red Hot Chili Peppers tour dates 2016

Jul 15: Ottawa Ontario At Bluesfest, ON
Jul 16: Quebec Festival d’ete de Quebec, QC
Jul 22: Jisan valley Rock Festival, South Korea
Jul 29: Osheaga Quebec At Osheaga, QC
Aug 25: Belfast Tennent’s Vital, UK
Aug 26: Reading Festival, UK
Aug 27: Leeds Festival, UK

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Christina O'Neill

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.