Linkin Park

Linkin Park's origin began in 1996 when rapper guitarist Brad Delson and the infamouis Mike Shinoda started a band called Xero. Other members of the band were Mark Wakefield the vocalist, Joseph Hahn the DJ, Rob Bourdon the drummer, and "Phoenix" Farrell the bassist. Brad Delson and emcee/vocalist Mike Shinoda attended the same high school together, where Delson also met the band's drummer, Rob Bourdon. Shinoda then hooked up with DJ Joseph Hahn while studying painting at the Pasadena Art Center. Xero made a four track demo tape including: Fuse, Stick N' Move, Rhinestone, and Reading My Eyes.

Mark left the band before they were called "Hybrid Theory" because things didn't work out, but he has always been a really good friend of theirs. Now Mark is Taproot's manager. The guys played around for fun and started getting attention from friends. So they set up a show at LA's Whisky and got signed to Zomba Music Publishing their 1st show. They were with the bands System of a Down and SX-10.

Later "Phoenix" chose to leave the band to tour with another band, called"The Snax". Also while Phoenix was with the band when they were "Xero" he left the band at some point to tour with another band Snax (more info on Snax on Phoenix's pg). He is not the bassist on the Hybrid Theory ep, Kyle Christner was bass. Once Phoenix finished up w/ the Snax tour he came back as a permanent member of Linkin Park. Kyle is now in the band NoseDive. So basically Phoenix was the bassist for "Xero", Kyle was the bassist for "Hybrid Theory" and Scott was just a temporary bassist for linkin park until Phoenix came back. (Scott can be seen in the 'One Step Closer' video). The rest of the gang continued to play together primarily for fun. They later, signed with Zomba Music an occasion that came about when they played at The Whiskey Club in Los Angeles. The final addition to the band came in the form of Chester Bennington. Magical Chester was absolutely the missing catalyst. His extra-ordinary voice lets him deliver the lyrics at a gentle yet aggressive pace. He can hit pitch notes like no other. Chester humbly even blames this on "years of singing" and "scar tissue".

They started getting serious from there but "labels weren't really catching on" so they changed a few things and were looking for a new singer. About 2 yrs later or so Chester joined the band. That's when they changed their name to "Hybrid Theory".

Chester had previously been in the band Grey Daze which had done pretty well and had some offers. (more grey daze info on chester's pg)...so he met Mike and the guys through mutual friends in the industry. They met through their law firm Miniet Phelps and Phelps.

The firm told "xero" that they had a guy in Phoenix (Chester) who might be good for the job and sent Chester a demo. He was asked to sing/make up something to the demo. He really wanted the job so he went to a recording studio to do it professionally. Within 3 days he had finished recording it.The guys were surprised when Chester called and said he was done and would fly to S. California because it was his birthday. He supposedly left people at his party or birthday and worked on the tape. They asked to hear the tape over the phone first. Once they heard it,they were blown away and told him to fly over.

Once Chester was in the band, they focused on making demos and used their connections at Zomba to get their demos out to people who would listen.

Eventually after a buzz started, Warner Brothers was interested and signed them to their label. Then "Hybrid Theory" changed their name to "Linkin Park" to avoid legal hassles w/ another band who had the same name. They chose "Linkin Park" because Chester used to drive by Lincoln Park in Santa Monica, CA (which was a middle class neighborhood where lots of homeless people hung out) after practice and it grabbed his attention & the guys in the band liked how it sounded. They changed the spelling so that they could buy the domain; lincolnpark.com was already taken and too expensive to buy. They also think it's cool because there are so many Lincoln Parks that everywhere they play people think they are a local band.

Chester has been recorded to say he wanted a name which was unique, "where the music could define the name rather than the name define the music". Phoneix pulled a mythical rebirth and rejoined the band fulfilling his destiny. New demos were made and the chase for a record label was on. Warner Records were lucky to hear the music, like it and sign up Linkin Park. A massive page in their history was written.

Ask Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson for a wish-list of bands he'd like to tour with, and he's ready with a response. "We told our manager, 'Pick a band and we can tour with them.' Our music reaches out in so many directions that there's pretty much an unlimited amount of cool bands with which we could play." Delson is understandably proud of the diversity and uniqueness apparent on the band's debut album, Hybrid Theory (the band's original name). Built on an aggressive hard rock foundation, flavored with hip-hop vocal styling and electronic flourishes, Linkin Park's sound is utterly their own, an accomplishment strengthened by the band's remarkably powerful and unforced songwriting. But almost everything about Linkin Park has been unforced, including their Southern California origins.

Linkin Park released their debut album, Hybrid Theory In October, 2000. Hits like One Step Closer, Crawling, and In The End were born. Hybrid Theory eventually received 8x platinum. Hybrid Theory does not follow a trend set up by a lot of other bands in that it doesn't contain any curses or swear words. This was because the band wanted to write lyrics honestly and they thought that unnecessary swear words take away attention from the music. They wanted something that the public could listen to over and over again and enjoy repeatedly. At it's completion they felt they had achieved this feat with Hybrid Theory.

Linkin Park was in demand. Come January 2002, Hybrid Theory received three Grammy nominations for "Best Rock Album" and "Best New Artist." A month later, Linkin Park walked away with an award for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for "Crawling."

After Hybrid Theory was released, Linkin Park's fame permitted them to tour all over the world. They toured with bands like POD, 3 Doors Down, and System Of a Down.

July of 2002, saw LP release the Hybrid Theory Remix album, Reanimation. These remixes included talent from rappers like Black Thought and 20 tracks were cut.

In March of 2003, LP released their 2nd year album, Meteora. The first single "Somewhere I Belong" was an instant hit. The second annual Projekt Revolution tour got underway in spring 2003 with Linkin Park joining Mudvayne, Xzibit and Blindside; Summer Sanitarium dates with Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and the Deftones followed in July and August. This album includes hits like Somewhere I Belong, Numb,, and Faint. Included on Meteora and Reanimation were ground breaking extras. They contained enhanced portions. These parts of the discs included videos and other extra "goodies" fans could view on their PC. The band wanted to use technology and let the fans to see the process of making albums . This helped them share all the "Blood, Sweat and Tears," they put into making the albums .

Linkin Park has won numerous awards including an award at the VMAs. Their popularity has grown world-wide. They are now truly international with a multitude of fans. From their hybrid genres to their non offensive swear-free lyrics, to their use of turntables and samples, Linkin Park cover a truly versatile ground and provide an entertaining and unique performance.