“But that was because we were so focused on getting our stuff done. “We did get a reputation for being a business rather than a band,” admits Shinoda. When Hybrid Theory did eventually blow up in spectacular fashion, the band had to fend off the accusations of being corporate puppets from all quarters. If meeting your singer through A&R teams and label suits seems a little – or maybe even a lot – businesslike to you, then you’re not alone in your thinking. “When I finally met the guys, I remember that they seemed very nice, very smart, very serious and, most importantly, they had a plan, which was pretty refreshing.” Such quick movement, though, meant that at this stage, Chester hadn’t even set eyes upon the men who would become his new bandmates. I listened to the instrumental side first and immediately I was like, ‘This is it, these are the ones.’ The next thing I know, I’d flown to California and was sat outside Zomba Music Publishing, opposite Whisky A Go Go on Sunset Strip.” He said, ‘Well, I’ll just send you this demo,’ which turned out to have two tracks on one side and instrumentals on the other. “A dude who had been working with my old band gave me a call, going, ‘I’ve got these guys and they’re writing this great music but they really need a singer.’ I immediately was asking all sorts of questions, like, ‘How old are they? How long have they been doing this?’ because I didn’t want to waste my fucking time. That’s a fairly remarkable statement for someone who had only just turned 21 at the time, but Bennington, it turned out, was not a man to do things by halves.
“I’d got a job in real estate and thought that while I would probably still make tunes for fun, I would need to find something else to do full-time.” “I had basically decided to retire from music,” says Chester Bennington, reflecting on his frustrating early years trying to make it in a band.
The answer, it turned out, would be found in the form of a flame-haired vocalist from Arizona. A merry-go-round of endless demoing ensued, but something was missing from the fledgling line-up. With his ambitious creativity and Spartan work practises already earning praise, Shinoda began to form the nucleus of what would become Linkin Park.
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