Mike Shinoda talks about Linkin Park sans Chester Bennington

MANILA, Philippines – It’s been almost a year since the death of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, but the future of the band without it’s vocalist still hangs in the balance.

Co-frontman Mike Shinoda said as much in an interview with Rolling Stone contributing editor Joe Levy in the debut episode of the Inside the Studio podcast.

“That’s the million-dollar question, right,” he said after being asked what the band’s options are when it comes to filling the role Chester played in the band. “Unfortunately, there aren’t any answers to that at this point. It’d be awesome if there were.”

Bennington died by suicide in July 2017.

“I wish we were in a Brian Johnson/Bon Scott situation where it’s, like, no, the guy, our best friend, who sang for the band who passed away, he literally said, ‘This is the guy,’ and we listened to the guy and the guy’s definitely the guy, and we all love hanging out with him, and we want to play with him,” Shinoda said, referring to AC/DC’s vocalist Johnson, who took over after the original vocalist Scott died.

“That hasn’t happened to us,” Shinoda said.

He also said that making decisions as a band has become more challenging now, with everyone having differing opinions.

“All that noise is not something I can deal with right now, and it’s not a knock on anybody else. Any one of us could be the outlier opinion, the minority voice on something,” he said.

In the interview, Shinoda shared the experience of playing with other artists in tribute to Bennington.

The concert, “Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington,” was held at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2017, and featured various artists including Blink-182, Korn, Sum 41, and Yellowcard.

“In retrospect, after having done those rehearsals and played the show, even watching it back and stuff I was like, these people who came on stage with us all have awesome, awesome voices and they’re really, really wonderful and talented people and not a single one of them is Chester,” he said.

He added that while their performances with other artists during the show were “great moments,” they weren’t “sustainable things.”

“There isn’t a version of the band that exists with any of those types of people as wonderful as they are,” Shinoda said.

Since Bennington’s death, Shinoda has released a solo album, Post-Traumatic, a deeply personal record that details his experience of grief after losing his longtime bandmate and friend. – Rappler.com