Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda has looked back upon his relationship with the band’s late leader Chester Bennington, describing the musical partnership as “amazing”.
Sadly, Bennington passed away in tragic circumstances in 2017 which led to Linkin Park parting ways. For many years, it seemed impossible that the band would ever return without Bennington. Not only was he their frontman, but he was also the creative lifeblood of the project along with Shinoda, and it wasn’t as simple as merely acquiring a new singer.
At the start of the calendar year, speculation begun to grow that Linkin Park were readying a return with a new female singer. The band’s silence on the rumours only heightened the discussion surrounding their future, and then on September 5th, they confirmed their comeback with new vocalist Emily Armstrong.
In addition to announcing the arrival of Armstrong, Linkin Park also revealed details of their new album, From Zero, which is set for release on November 15th. Furthermore, they’ve since completed a series of arena concerts across the globe, which included a return to the United Kingdom for a sold-out performance at The O2 in London.
To promote the upcoming record, Linkin Park have launched the From Zero podcast. In the latest episode, Shinoda praised the current spirit within the band, remarking, “The dynamic of everybody in the band, but especially those of us that have the most history together, the dynamic is so good. It’s really good. To me, it’s easily the best culture we’ve had.”
While this may seem like a reference to Bennington, Shinoda clarified it was not intended in that manner, stating, “I’m not saying that as a knock on the old line-up. I’m saying that specifically about the growth of Brad and Joe [Hahn]and Dave [Farrell] and me. Everybody is in a really good place and part of that is maybe the gratitude of being able to do it again.”
Later in the episode, Shinoda re-affirmed his appreciation for Bennington and the magical connection they once shared, commenting, “With Chester, I had another human being where I could feed him ideas and he could bring them to life like nobody else. It was amazing. And I didn’t know any better.”
Elaborating further on Bennington’s brilliance, Shinoda added, “I hadn’t had very much experience with anybody else so I was just like, ‘Oh this is just what it’s like to have a really good singer and be like what do you think about this?’ Here’s an idea and you both try it and then you go high five. That’s great.”
Understandably, following Bennington’s death, it was a shock to the system for Shinoda to work with other people, and for a time, he believed nobody else would ever come close as a collaborator, continuing, “When I started working with other people, I started to realise it’s harder to find. That’s unusual.”
The Bennington family’s criticism of Linkin Park
While Shinoda spoke in glowing terms about Bennington, the late singer’s family have been heavily critical of Linkin Park for carrying on in his absence. His son, Jaime, was the first to raise complaints due to Armstrong’s alleged connections to the Church of Scientology.
Jaime also claimed that he wouldn’t feel comfortable at a Linkin Park concert because of threats he’s received online, stating, “To be honest, I don’t think I feel safe going to the show under general admission because I don’t know who I’m around.”
Additionally, Bennington’s mother, Susan Eubanks, hit out at Linkin Park for not informing her of their decision to continue, telling Rolling Stone: “I feel betrayed. They told me that if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I wouldn’t going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it.”
