'Taleban-like beard' sees Metallica frontman detained at airport

[IChing]

Source: New Zealand Herald



James Hetfield, frontman of US metal rockers Metallica, was detained at a British Airport before his appearance at London's Live Earth gig on Saturday.

According to British newspaper The Times, the rocker jetted into Luton airport ahead of Saturday's Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium - where his legendary rock band was due to perform - but was halted by officials before he could leave the terminal.

The legendary frontman was then subjected to a brief line of questioning, after which security-conscious officials were left red-faced when Hetfield explained he was a member of a world-famous rock band.

The Times claims Hetfield's friends blame his "Taleban-like beard" for the interrogation.

Read more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10450450

[NMMNG]

1. Oh yeah, he looks like a member of the taliban.

:sarcasm:


Idiots.

[The Stranger]

21. What if there are non-violent members of the Taliban? Is their very existing as "Taliban" illegal?

[sakabatou]

2. Carry-on luggage not allowed

Beards... water... your freedom...

[leftchick]

3. yep. Those white, tatooed taliban

with western accents! I have seen lots of them .

[Rick Myers]

4. The beard freaked them out, but the Al Qaeda tatoo was fine... LOL

[hvn_nbr_2]

28. Don't all Taliban have tats all over both arms?

Isn't that how they recognize each other? Like a secret handshake. Or something.

[thecrow]

5. OMG ! It's the beard police!!!

[Captain Angry]

6. Boy, it's a good thing that NOBODY ELSE IN HISTORY wore beards.

That will show those darn Taliban. We'll stop everybody with a beard!

What happens if they shave? Oh, right, they'd never do that, right Zarqawi?

[MissMillie]

27. I mean really

[Nihil]

34. That guy's on the FBI wanted list isn't he?

Troublemaker, charismatic speaker whose followers can get fanatical.
All that commie bullshit about the meek and all being "God's Children".

Can't go letting people like that into the country can you?

[Bluzmann57]

7. So what happens if ZZ Top tours England?

Or anywhere else? I mean they are famed for their beards (at least Gibbons and Hill are) and with whiskers like that, they may indeed be terrorists. You realize they are everywhere. Especially in Rock bands.

[calimary]

11. And they'll detain Frank Beard, too, just because.

Besides, he mighta been hidin' somethin'...

[Bitwit1234]

8. Goodness if the went most places in the mid-west

they would see a lot of people who have beards almost the length of one of the Oakridge boy's had. They roam the streets with two feet beards all the time.

[Ilsa]

12. My bro-in-law in WY has one. Rarely trims it, so it always looks

uh, scragly. He's a big Swedish-American, though, and otherwise doees not resemble Talebanians. Talebanatics. Whatever.

[CatholicEdHead]

9. James is going grey

Metallica is starting to show their age (I suddenly feel old).

[northernsoul]

24. that was my first thought too!

I was a fan back in their Master of Puppets days.

[Big Pappa]

10. "Sad but True"

n/t

[MadMaddie]

13. They were awesome yesterday.....

[Middle finga]

14. US and UK is so paranoid it's not even funny

The the first thing a real terrorist would do if he was trying to go undetected in a western country is shave his beard. I'm sure that's the first lesson in terrorism 101.

[melody]

15. Jimmy Hefield had way too many GI Joes to be Taleban, as I said in the other thread about this

He was a bratty little kid, but he was all-American.

His family lived across the street from my grandparents for forty years. His mom
was really sweet. I don't remember a lot about Jimmy except he was a brat and he
liked burying my grandmother's tablespoons in dirt.

[mainegreen]

22. 'he liked burying my grandmother's tablespoons in dirt'

:rofl:

[Quantess]

16. That's the silliest news I've read all day.

Ridiculous!

[DBoon]

17. I bet it wasn't the beard that got him detained

I bet it was really that foil-wrapped cucumber

[LibDemAlways]

18. It must have been the multiple tattoos, t-shirt, and

guitar case that gave him away.

[shenmue]

19. What the--?!

Somebody please tell me that's a joke?! :wow: :dunce:

He's had the same look since 1985! What the hell is these people's problem?

:rofl:

Thanks for making me laugh this morning.

[progressoid]

20. Oh Shit. that's funny

Well, funny in an absurd way.

[shimmergal]

23. No offense to James Hetfield, and

I'm sure he's a cool guy, but I do hate the look of those scraggly, unkempt beards displayed by ultra-strict Muslims (and some ultra strict "Christians" too.)

It cracks me up when they feel entitled to act as sex police, telling everybody else how to live. IMO, few women with free will would want to get cuddly with one of those beards--who knows how many lice--or even mice--are hiding in them?

Of course, how many women in a strict Sharia-law regime do have free choice about their partner?

Again, I'm not necessarily talking about Hetfield: just by virtue of being in Metallica, he's got to be different. But just in general: beards can be a turn on, but they should be clean and match the wearer's face, instead of drooping from it like some kind of toxic fungus.

[riverdale]

25. James hetfield's face without facial hair looks like the surface of the moon

Any beard is better looking than his face.

[originalpckelly]

26. No fucking way. Don't these idiots know Metallica?

Seriously? What the fuck were those overblown mall cops thinking?

[Conscious Confucius]

29. I was interrogated in Yellowstone last year

Last summer, while on an excursion away from the human race. I was questioned, searched and photographed by a Yellowstone park ranger, because I had a full beard. I was sitting on a rock reading "The Razor's Edge." He asked me, in complete seriousness, "Do you have any weapons of mass destruction?" My faith in democracy took a sharp downturn at that moment, and it has yet to recover.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

31. Right down here, officer. Want a peek?

[Aristus]

30. He looked better with the mutton-chops, anyway.

His new look looks as if the world's worst mullet slid down over his chin.

[superconnected]

32. Agreed, his beard is friggen ugly.

Not that, that should land him in gitmo or anythng.

[OhioChick]

33. How F*cking Ridiculous. n/t

[MLFerrell]

35. Well, Lames Hetfield is an asshole, so I can't say I'm too displeased...

Then again, how many of the alleged 9-11 hijackers had "Taliban-esque" beards again?