Muse Recalls Opening For Red Hot Chili Peppers & Foo Fighters In The '90s

Before Muse's Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard became global rockstars, they cut their teeth opening for legendary bands Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers. During a recent interview, frontman/guitarist Bellamy reminisced about serving as a warm-up act on the Californication Tour.

“We really cut our craft there, watching other bands play,” Bellamy said in the interview. “It was the Chili Peppers one. We opened up for the Foo Fighters and Chili Peppers. We were the opening band. We did a leg around Midwest America, and that was amazing. That was really cool.”

He went on to say, “Getting to see them play every night, both of those bands, that was ’99, real early days, and I do think that actually changed the way we played. Before that it was shoegazer-y, indie, shy, and after that tour, after seeing Flea doing his thing and the energy he puts out there, it was like, no, we need to up our game massively.”

The lessons learned on that tour eventually led to Muse's high-production level shows complete with androids and a robot glove synth. Another legendary rock band also got a mention from Bellamy elsewhere in the interview. "We’ve learned from, in my opinion, the best. I’ve seen Rage Against The Machine 15 times. I just saw them twice this weekend. It was unbelievable. I even got a look from Morello. Our seats were just to the side of the stage, and he was playing Calm Like A Bomb – and I think he might know it’s my favourite song. And I was like, ‘Yeaaarghh!’ I was just going for it, and he gave me a wave, and it was like, ‘Tom Morello waved at me!’ [Laughs] It was amazing. I loved it.”

Muse's latest album Will Of The People is out now.