During a recent conversation on The Howard Stern Show, Mike Shinoda reflected on his and Linkin Park‘s past, recounting various stories involving the late Chester Bennington.
Among the stories he brought up, Shinoda spoke about a time when he and the band pranked Metallica. Speaking to Howard Stern, Shinoda mentioned that (as transcribed by NME), “Nobody had ever pranked them on stage.”
Shinoda went on to talk about the prank itself, which took place while Metallica was performing live. At that time, Linkin Park was opening for Metallica as part of a tour.
Speaking about this prank, Shinoda shares the following:
“By the way, it was like four of us I think. The gag was that we wanted to do something that, well their show was always so tough and dark, and so we were like, ‘What would be the least tough, least dark thing to do?’
“We 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 ‘Master Of Puppets,’ and we set up a picnic right above Lars [Ulrich].”
Referring to Metallica’s reaction to this prank, Shinoda says, “But the guys were laughing. They were playing ‘Master Of Puppets’ like, turning around laughing at us.”
That must have been funny as hell – here’s Metallica in the midst of a super intense set, and then Linkin Park strolls in and starts having a picnic. You can check out Shinoda talking about this prank himself via the video player below.
During that same conversation, Shinoda opened up about Bennington’s struggles with addiction and depression and spoke about how heartbreaking it was to see the late Linkin Park singer suffer. You can follow the link below to learn more about those struggles and Shinoda’s relationship with Bennington.
Mike Shinoda Talks Darkness of Chester Bennington’s Addiction and Depression
LISTEN: Linkin Park Drop Stunning Meteora-Era Song 'Lost'
