Ongoing History Daily: Getting the Red Hot Chili Peppers through customs

When you’re touring internationally, one of the most stressful things you have to do is go through customs. Is your paperwork in order? Do you have the right visas? Are they going to insist on searching for drugs and other contraband?

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been through all those nightmares, but a trip into Belarus was definitely extra-weird. Customs officials wouldn’t let them into the country until they signed a bunch of CDs and swag. The problem was that the stuff they wanted signed was all by Metallica. The Chili Peppers tried to explain that they weren’t Metallica, but that didn’t matter. It was either sign or get turned back.

So they signed the stuff, their passports were stamped, and they were allowed in.