Mike Shinoda revealed which Linkin Park album got the most hate from fans in a new Anthony Fantano interview. Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his remarks.
“‘A Thousand Suns,’ which was our fourth record, it wasn’t as commercially successful as the earlier ones because nothing could be – that would be impossible.
“It was very polarizing. It got one or five stars by everybody, so we ended up with three-star ratings all over the board because half the people hated it with all of their heart and soul.
“And now we’re at a point where if you ask the average person who’s relatively familiar with the band what their favorite record is, a lot of them say that one. It’s changed, the whole relationship with the band has changed.
“People go, like, ‘Man, that was like the first album I ever bought, that’s how I learned to play guitar! And then I moved on to guitar that was harder…’
“And that was part of the thing we were like, ‘Yeah, Brad [Delson, guitar] could actually play much more difficult stuff…’
“But we loved how that sounded and we wanted to make stuff that a kid who couldn’t really play guitar, and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, let’s play this riff!’
“I appreciate that being older, I do love the idea of being in a position to maybe be a good teacher or a role model if I know something that somebody else doesn’t know.”
