Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Didn't Want a Chester Bennington-Like Vocalist Audio Ink Radio

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Didn’t Want a Chester Bennington-Like Vocalist

2024-11-26

Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park says he didn’t want a vocalist in the band who sounded too much like the late Chester Bennington. – Author: Charles Ken, Photo via Audio Ink Radio

Linkin Park is back with a fresh lineup, featuring longtime band members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix and Joe Hahn, as well as new female vocalist Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara and new drummer Colin Brittain. The group just released their first album together, “From Zero,” and they’re getting ready for a massive arena tour in 2025 that will last much of the year.

When searching for a new vocalist, Shinoda, who’s pretty much at the helm of the band these days, says that he didn’t want someone who sounded just like late vocalist Chester Bennington. In fact, he says that it “weirds him out” to hear someone who sounds just like Chester.

Speaking with Los Angeles radio station Alt 98.7 on November 22, Shinoda opened up about the process of getting a new Linkin Park singer and why he wants Armstrong to be herself.

It’s ‘Creepy’ When Someone ‘Sounds So Much Like Chester,’ Mike Shinoda Says

“We just want Emily to be Emily,” he said in the interview. “The songs are the songs. Emily is Emily… There was a time early on, like 2020-ish, 2019, whatever — like, I remembered I was watching videos… I think a video of a cover band, a Linkin Park cover band, showed up in my feed. Fans were loving it. They were all like, ‘Oh my God, this person’s so good. They sound so much like Chester.'”

Shinoda said this kind of reaction does a number on your brain, noting that “your brain likes it better and better and better the more it gets more real and close to the real thing, and then the moment before it becomes exactly as real, your brain goes completely the opposite direction … right back down to ‘I hate it,’ because your brain can tell that it’s trying to be tricked. And nobody’s brain likes that.”

That’s where Shinoda said he got kind of weirded out but singers who sound a lot like Bennington.

“So, when I was watching this YouTube video, or Instagram video, of this cover band, I was like, ‘That’s really cool, but it’s also creepy that it sounds so much like Chester,'” he said. “I don’t like it. It weirds me out.”

Having a Chester-Like Vocalist ‘Wasn’t the Move for Us’

That’s when he knew that having someone who sounded like Bennington wouldn’t be the right move for Linkin Park going forward. “It made me immediately know that it wasn’t the move for us,” he said. “I don’t like it. I like it for [the cover bands], I just don’t like it for us… These bands do a great job, but I wouldn’t put that in our band.”

Frankly, it’s worth mentioning that some bands have actually brought on singers who sound just like their former vocalists, and with success. For example, years after Layne Staley from Alice in Chains passed away, the band regrouped with vocalist William Duvall, and they’ve been playing arenas and releasing new music with him in the fold. He sounds pretty much just like Staley, but it works. So, to each their own. With a female vocalist in place of Bennington, it’s certain that Linkin Park going forward won’t sound exactly like the Linkin Park of the past. Shinoda certainly seems happy with the pick.

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Charles Ken

Meet the expert - Charles Ken is a graduate of Michigan State University where he studied writing and history. He's a longtime music buff and covers classic rock for Audio Ink Radio. Contact him at ken@audioinkradio.com.