Linkin Park is recruiting Emily Armstrong as the new co-lead singer
During the live stream, band members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell and Joe Hearn announced they would meet again in seven years.
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Linkin Park has gone through the Rock and Roll Gauntlets, but the musical warriors are moving forward.
The Grammy-winning Altrock Group, previously led singer Chester Bennington, opened about its latest lineup with co-lead singer Emily Armstrong in an interview with the Guardian released on Friday, July 18th.
However, the change in Linkin’s security guards was not without controversy. Armstrong’s choice in the group sparked backlash among fans. This was part of Armstrong’s alleged connection to the Church of Scientology, convicting “Show of the 70s” actor Danny Masterson. Even Bennington’s family, namely his mother, Susan Eubanks and son, Jaime Bennington, criticized the change in the lineup.
“To be honest, I was a little naive about it,” Armstrong, 39, told the exit of the UK debate. “But I’m old enough to know the difference between real life and the internet.”
Backlash, co-led singer and rhythm guitarist Mike Shinoda suggested that the choice of female vocalists might have attracted fan rage.
“There was someone who assaulted me in Emily, because she wasn’t a man,” said Shinoda, 48. “They were very uncomfortable with how they chose a lot to complain. They pointed in 10 different directions and said, “This is why I’m mad, this is why the band sucks.”
“From Zero,” Linkin Park’s first album with Armstrong, was released in November and reached number one on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart. The band is currently performing on The Zero World Tour. This is scheduled to return to North America on July 29th for a show in Brooklyn, New York.
Why Linkin Park won’t play “One more light” on tour
Linkin Park celebrates the legacy of music on the road, but there are several boundaries.
The band, which “ultimately,” “crawling,” “numb,” and “breaking the Habit,” help define alternative rocks from the 2000s, pays tribute to the iconic catalogue on the Zero World Tour setlist.
“We all wanted the show to have a really good vibe,” Shinoda told the Guardian. “I want you to walk like you feel better, this was a really great, special, fun night.”
That’s why the band refrains from performing a handful of songs Shinoda described as “a strange performance” on stage, such as “another light.” The song serves as the title track for Bennington’s final album with the band (two months after its May 2017 release, Bennington died of suicide).
Shinoda said the song originally wrote “for the woman on the label who worked with the people we died,” but since then fans have paid it as a homage to Bennington.
“After Chester passed away, the world decided that was about him,” Shinoda said. “So, that’s too sad to play.”
Contributors: Kimmi Robinson and Brian Alexander, USA Today
