Throughout their entire career, the Beastie Boys have kept up morale on tour by remaining playful. But sometimes, the jokes had a lasting impact.
Beastie Boys detailed their career, lives, and practical jokes through their recently-released Beastie Boys Story documentary directed by Spike Jonze. While Beastie Boys Story shed a spotlight on the group’s tight-knit relationship, there were some stories that were left out of the documentary. One deleted scene, for example, recounts the time Ad-Rock found himself the target of a 15-year-long prank.
It all started when the Boys went to a post-show afterparty and Ad-Rock was approached by a “creepy” man who insisted that the rapper keep his ring. Without thinking too much about it, Ad-Rock pocketed the ring. But it kept mysteriously appearing in his backpack even after he threw it out. One time, the Boys were on a train ride to DC when Ad-Rock discovered the ring was once again in his backpack. The rapper freaked out, made a scene, and threw the ring to the back of the train car:
“Cut to 15 years later, Santiago, Chile. I’m in my hotel room, packing my bags, getting ready to meet everybody downstairs like usual. I reach into my backpack and there it is — the ring. What the f*ck? I f*ckin’ froze. I ran down to the lobby in full panic mode and I told everybody, ‘The ring! I got the ring.’ And they were like, ‘Ring?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah! Remember that super f*cking creepy guy with the ring and the thing in San Fransisco?’ And they were like, ‘Wow, that’s really peculiar.’ And I was left standing there with the f*cking horror show in my backpack. […] Outside the hotel there was this fountain it to have a little private moment of observance wit the ring. ‘Stop doing this to me.’ And I threw the ring in the fountain and we left Santiago, Chile.
The next night, we’re on the side of stage getting ready to go on and play a show, and Yauch pulls me aside. ‘Hey man. I put the ring in your bag. Remember when we were on that train to DC and you threw the ring down the end of the train? Well, when you went to the food car, I looked around on the floor and I found it and I just kept it. I had it and I put it in my bag every time we’d go out on tour and I’d wait for the right time to sneak it back into yours.’ ‘Wait, that was 15 years ago!'”
After finding it out was a prank all along, Ad-Rock was more impressed at Yauch than he was angry. “Who has the prank stamina to hold it back for 15 years?” he said.
Watch Ad-Rock tell the story above.
Beastie Boys Story is streaming now through Apple TV+. Watch it here.
