Loyalty is a difficult thing to come by. There are multiple ways to show loyalty to one another, and once both sides trust each other 100 percent, they would do anything not to lose it. This is usually how band members become more than bandmates and also a family to each other over time. Linkin Park was and still is a family, and, according to Mike Shinoda, a certain event proved Chester Bennington’s loyalty to the band.
When a singer of a band gets a lot of attention regarding their voice, their looks, and their performances, every producer would be lucky enough to strip them of their band and present them to the world as the ultimate star. This can be very appealing to the singers, especially those who have confidence in themselves. However, this is also betraying their band in a way because the band usually cannot continue without their lead singers.
Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington had proven his loyalty to his band even before they became insanely famous. During their debut album ‘Hybrid Theory,’ the producers approached Chester and asked him to shine like a star. They suggested that Chester dropped Mike and his rapping so that he could be the star of Linkin Park only because of his obvious vocal talents.
Mike Shinoda began telling the story:
“At one point, there was a suggestion, ‘Maybe you just have the singer sing, and you don’t do any rapping.’ Which, to all of us, was like an offensive suggestion. But, they kind of backdoored it to him [Chester Bennington] and went directly to him, and the pitch was, ‘We’re gonna build a new thing all around you. You’re the star, you already are the star. It should be all about you. Whatever about these other guys, we don’t need them. You’re important, you’re the most important.'”
Shinoda was the one to tell this story recently because what Chester did right after he had this conversation with the producers was to go and talk to his bandmates. Mike and the rest of the band thought that they were in a bad position because if the vocalist left to pursue stardom, then Linkin Park would cease to exist. However, Bennington refused the producers and proved that Linkin Park is his family.
Mike continued:
“I remember coming; you remember when we sat down in the kitchen at NRG studio, and he took us aside, and he’s like, ‘Hey, you guys, you need to know. They did this to me today. They said these things to me.’ He recounted the whole conversation, and we were all like, ‘Holy shit.’ In my mind, ‘Oh boy, this is the beginning of the end.’
They’re right; he’s incredible, and we need him. I don’t know if he needs us, so they went to him, and they said these things, and we were like, ‘What did you say?’ And he goes, ‘I told them to go f*ck themselves.’ I was like, ‘Yes! He has our back; we have his back.’ That was the start to me, a real galvanizing moment that was the start of all for one and one for all.”
This was probably the closest call to Linkin Park’s demise even before their career properly began. The band demonstrated their trust and loyalty to each other through this event and knew that they were a family. Unfortunately, Chester passed away in 2017, and the band has been on hiatus ever since as they are trying to find a way to continue Linkin Park after the tragic event.
