With the help of Metallica’s security, they host a picnic on stage – during the show.
Mike Shinoda was a guest on a new podcast edition of Australian radio station Triple M’s The Rush Hour Sydney. In addition to stories about his career, the singer and guitarist shared how he and his band Linkin Park made fun of Metallica in 2003.
Shinoda explains in the interview that they were “the only ones who ever pranked Metallica.” They asked Metallica’s security for permission to do this – they already knew the head of the security team because he had also worked for Linkin Park. “Hey, Tom, people often play pranks on each other at the end of a tour. Do you think we could prank Metallica?” they asked him and the security boss agreed: “Well, I don’t know if you know this, but it’s never been done before. But I think I can manage it,” he is reported to have said.
So while Metallica were unsuspectingly playing their concert and were in the middle of a song, Linkin Park stormed the stage. With complete picnic equipment, they joined the visibly confused metal heads. Shinoda narrates, “Chester comes out. He has a skateboard. We went to the middle of the stage and got out sandwiches and drinks and started having a picnic on stage.”
Despite the sudden appearance of Linkin Park and their packed lunch, Metallica remained unperturbed, remembers Mike Shinoda: “No one goes on stage with them. So they were like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ It was great.”