MIKE SHINODA: How LINKIN PARK pranked METALLICA without getting teeth ๐š”๐š—๐š˜๐šŒ๐š”๐šŽ๐š ๐š˜๐šž๐š

Linkin Park Live on X: "Happy Birthday, James Hetfield! @Metallica  @ChesterBe https://t.co/gPkltuC0SQ" / X

 

In 2003, Metallica hit the road on the second and final edition of their Summer Sanitarium Tour, joined by aย veryย of-the-era roster of opening acts: Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Mudvayne andย Linkin Park. That last band’sย Mike Shinodaย recently guested on SiriusXM’sย The Howard Stern Show โ€”ย celebrating the impending 20th anniversary of Linkin Park’s smash second album,ย Meteoraย โ€” and looked back on the trek. In particular, he told the story of how he and his bandmates worked up the guts to prank Metallica during the middle of their set, when they were playing “Master of Puppets,” no less.

 

 

MIKE SHINODA: How LINKIN PARK pranked METALLICA without getting teeth  knocked out

 

โ€œNobody had ever pranked them onstage,โ€ Shinoda recalled, adding: โ€œTheir show was always so tough and dark, and so we were like, โ€˜What would be the least tough, least dark thing to do?’โ€

The answer? Have a picnic. โ€œWe ended up going out with a picnic basket and like little sandwiches and drinks and Chester [Bennington] had a skateboard so he skated out onstage. And then we walked out on to their stage, and they were playing, I think, โ€˜Master of Puppets,โ€™ and we set up a picnic right above Lars [Ulrich].”

 

 

Linkin Park waren die Einzigen, die Metallica je einen Streich spielten

Shinoda noted that theyโ€™d planned the gag with Metallicaโ€™s head of security who โ€œpromised he wouldnโ€™t take us out.” Plus, Linkin Park knew Metallica โ€œjust well enough to know that James [Hetfield] wasnโ€™t gonna knock my teeth out,” according to Shinoda, and the prank went off without a hitch. โ€œThe guys were laughing,” he said. “They were playing โ€˜Master of Puppets,โ€™ like, turning around laughing at us.โ€