Mike Shinoda recently appeared on the Tonight Show and discussed the reunited Linkin Park. During the chat, the rocker revealed that the band didn’t have any intention to find a new singer and get back into the industry.
“I think the important thing for us is that we never said, ‘Let’s bring the band back,’ or ‘Let’s find a singer.’ It was never our intention or never our goal.”
The rocker also explained their actual intention: “It was more like… I remember there was a moment where our DJ Joe, we went to breakfast. I think we would just like to hang out more often. We’d like it together and just be creative, I don’t know what that means but one thing led to another and it was almost like this new record.”
“We wrote it, we came up with the music while we were creating the new band. When we started the music we didn’t have a band. And it just came together while the music came together,” he added.
Linkin Park is now back with a new singer, but the band members are being accused of trying to erase Chester Bennington’s history from the band. One notable name for those claims is Bennington’s son, Jaime.
“You quietly erase[d] my father’s life and legacy in real time… during international suicide prevention month and refuse to acknowledge the impact of hiring someone like Emily, without so much as a clarifying statement on the variety of victims that make up your core fan base,” he said in a social media post.
Shinoda sent a subtle message to Jaime after his comments. During a recent show, Shinoda clarified, “It is not about erasing the past – it is about starting this new chapter into the future, and coming out here for each and every one of you.”
Emily Armstrong gave her first performance with the band two weeks ago in a live-streamed private show. Armstrong got mixed reviews from fans, but she mostly received positive feedback from rockers and even from Bennington’s widow Talinda Bennington.