Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda appeared on the latest episode of The Allison Hagendorf Show to discuss the early years of the band. When the topic turned to Hybrid Theory, he described an MTV show called TRL as ‘the loudest thing he had ever seen’ and said:
“Pop was having a huge moment. When I hear pop stuff these days, it’s much more integrated and tasteful, to be honest, than what I was hearing back then. And there were also limited channels, taste makers who were breaking things, making them popular. TRL existed, right. So, I watched TRL, avoided TRL, and when I did see it, I hated it. I was like, this screaming, frenetic fanaticism is creepy to me. I get that it’s the most important thing, meaning if you get on it, you’re going to be popular. The moment you’re on this show…”
He continued:
“Then I started to see groups that I liked go on it, and I was like, oh my God, okay, so hold on a second. This show can have room for these other things, and people are just as excited to see Jay-Z as they are to see Britney Spears. I got to wrap my head around that. We ended up getting invited to go to the show, and I just kind of went along for the experience. I will tell you, I’ve never heard something so loud. The format of the show was you have dozens and dozens of people placed immediately next to you, screaming as loud as they can, violently expressing their fandom about everything that’s happening.”
While chatting about the late singer, Shinoda revealed that it took him a while to warm up to him. He said of his friend:
“When we first met Chester, it took us a minute to really click. I think we were just all green and like a little nervous. And to be honest, a few of us, myself included, we take a while to warm up to people. It’s just how I am. He’s very different. I mean I didn’t know Phoenix [Dave Farrell], our bass player, super well, I knew Rob [Bourdon] okay. I knew Joe [Hahn] and Brad [Delson] well. When Chester came in the band, he was a chameleon.”
Chester Could ‘Sing In Different Styles’
Known for his vocals and lengthy screams, apparently, the rocker could also sing in many different styles, as well as imitating other rockers. Shinoda recalled his late friend’s singing and continued:
“But he is a very good singer, and he could sing in a lot of different styles, and one minute he’d be singing like Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode, and the next minute he was doing like a Perry Farrell thing, and the next minute it was something else. You could literally call out a singer, and he adjusts to sound more like them. So the goal was in the beginning if I had known it was called producing, I would know that’s what I was doing. But I didn’t know, I was just figuring it out with him as we went.”
The Two Had A ‘Difficult’ Relationship
Although the two had been close friends for many years, the start of their relationship has been rough. Shinoda detailed whether or not Chester was a difficult person to get along and deal with. Though not the whole time, according to the rocker, they had a difficult friendship during the early days of the band, namely the ‘Hybrid Theory’ era, due to not knowing how things would go in the future.
You can watch the latest episode below.
