Linkin Park’s Mike Shinodaexperienced a handful of failed attempts when trying to get the band back together afterfrontman Chester Bennington’s death in 2017. Shinoda spoke with theBroken Record Podcastabout it,saying he was met with indifference from bandmates,couldn’t get them on the phone, plus members left him high and dry after planned meetings.
It wasn’t just his bandmates, though; Shinoda also stood miles away from makingLinkin Park musicagain, and he began making the slow trek back in 2020 by working on outside projects, first creating songs with fans on Twitch, then experimenting with other music that was too early to label.
How Linkin Park Members Reacted To Shinoda Wanting To Reunite
After Linkin Park announced their new singer last year, Dead Sara’s Emily Armstrong, it was met with pushback, namely from Bennington’s son, Jaime Bennington. However, before Armstrong joined the musical fray, and they started working on their comeback LP, 2024’sFrom Zero,Shinoda’s bandmates wouldn’t return his phone calls. Then, when they met, the overall synergy was lacking.
“I had kept in touch with all the guys in the band, and we had gotten together and then nothing was there,“Shinoda explained.“Like, we would get together for a little bit, and then people just wouldn’t show up or call back or whatever. And that happened maybe once a year, a couple times a year.”
How Linkin Park Finally Got Back Together
Now, the band’s seeming reluctance to make Linkin Park music could’ve been related to members not wanting to feel the empty space left by Bennington’s tragic death, orit could’ve been just a plain old lack of inspiration, since it’s hard to fake motivation.
Around 2023, however, conversations were had between Shinoda, the band’s DJ Joe Hahn, as well as bassist Dave Farrell, and it was then that Shinoda got the true sense that they were ready to make Linkin Park music again. Plus, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, because he was in the same creative space.
Today, the band is on theirFrom Zero World Tour, with their next show date being August 19, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s PPG Paints Arena, The tour then wraps up in Zürich, Switzerland at Stadion Letzigrund on June 28, 2025.
