Linkin Park guitarist/vocalist Mike Shinoda has cleared the air on the band performing without Chester Bennington, absence of Brad Delson, and more. Linkin Park finally announced their comeback on September 5 through live stream event. However, fans quickly noticed the absence of two core members—guitarist Brad Delson and drummer Rob Bourdon—during the performance. Vocalist Emily Armstrong was also introduced as guitarist Alex Feder stepped in to fill Brad Delson’s role on stage. The addition of Emily Armstrong to the band has garnered mixed reactions from the fans.
Mike Shinoda responds
Taking to Discord, Mike Shinoda wrote: “Many people will take time to wrap their heads around us with her. If people are respectfully not there yet, I’m totally fine with that. But disrepect me, and you will lose my respect in return”
One fan said that how it was hard to hear Shinoda live without Chester. He replied:
“I understand this. We need to give space for everyone who is shocked / processing. It is DIFFICULT. Seeing me and Em together, shoulder to shoulder, brought up SO many feelings for people in our crew and management. Happy and sad at the same time! So complex! ME AS WELL!”
When asked about Brad Delson, he said: “He made a statement about it, which you should read. Touring got to be less and less of a good fit for Brad as he got older. For one thing, he doesn’t like noisy places! That alone could be a deal breaker. But there’s so much diversity in the way people’s brains and their personalities are made. We were happy to figure out a great way for him to be invovled in ways that are a great fit for him and us. Think about introverts and extroverts. A crowd makes one person energized, and makes another person exhausted”
When a fan asked why isn’t Brad on this tour, Shinoda replied, “Yeah Brad made a rare “Brad post” about it! We love that guy, and want him to participate in the band in whatever ways are the best fit for him”
He was asked if he plans on doing music that isn’t exclusively involved in projects like Linkin Park, and he responded saying: “You know, I tried doing that for years, 2020-2022 ish. And it was fun and I learned some great stuff from other artists. But I started to realize that my heart wasn’t in it the same way as it was with LP. I make a different caliber of work when I’m doing it for and with my band”
Linkin Park’s short world tour will see six arena shows across the world between September and November this year. The tour will kick off at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on September 11. Other stops include New York, Germany, London, South Korea and Colombia. A fan asked about a potential show in Brazil and Shinoda said that they wanted to tour Brazil.
