An Introduction To Linkin Park

Mike and Brad have known each other since 7th grade, they both went to Agoura high school, Brad was Phoenix's room mate in college, and Brad and Rob met when they both joined a band together. Mike met Joe at Art College.

The origins of Linkin Park date right back to around 1994, To a band called 'Relative Degree', This band featured Brad and Rob, they played a few live shows, recorded some demo's and then fell apart.

In 1996 Brad and Mike formed the band 'Xero' they were later joined by Rob, Joe, and Phoenix. They then recruited lead singer Mark Wakefield. At their first live show they were signed by record company 'Zomba Music' who later released the first demo tape for the band.

In 1997, Mark left the band to pursue other interests (He now manages the band 'Taproot') Xero carried on recording demo's with Mike on vocals, he also got some of his friends to perform some demo vocals to see if the lyrics were working, and to check the overall sound of the song.

In 1998, Zomba Music sent out a search for a new lead singer. They found a guy in Phoenix (Chester) who had recently split with former band 'Grey Daze'. They sent him an instrumental demo, and asked him to write and record some lyrics to go with it. 3 days later the demo was finished and Chester was flying to South California to deliver the demo tape himself. The band really liked Chester's style, and only a few days later he was confirmed as their new singer.

MySpace digs Forfeit_The_Game...

When Chester joined, Xero changed their name to 'Hybrid Theory'. At this time, Phoenix left the band to rejoin his former band 'The Snax' on a one and a half year tour. Hybrid Theory then bought in replacement bassist 'Kyle Christner'.

The band then wrote and performed a few demo's and sent out a demo tape through Zomba, After a short while Warner Bros. Were interested in signing the band and a short while later they did. They then released an Ep through Warner.

It was at this point that the band decided to change their name again (This time to avoid legal hassles with another local band of the same name). Chester suggested the name 'Lincoln Park' [after an old park he used to drive by everyday on his way to work]. They then realised that it would cost too much to buy an internet domain and that the domain would already be taken. So they decided on 'Linkin Park' (At this point bassist Kyle left to join another band).

In 1999 the band started working on their debut album with new bassist Scott (Who can be seen performing in the 'One Step Closer' video) after extensive song writing and performing, the band released a demo tape for the album.

In 2000 they released their debut album 'Hybrid Theory' through Warner Bros. Records.

In 2001 Phoenix rejoined the band as their permanent bassist.

In early 2002, the band released 'Reanimation', which most people see as a 'filler' album, It was basically remix's of all the songs from Hybrid theory. They had some big name collaborations on the album, and they state it was released as a Hip-Hop album, and an experimentation with cross-genre collaborations. It was also at this time that Hybrid Theory was named as biggest selling album of 2001.

In late 2002, Hybrid Theory had sold upwards of 10 million copies, and the band received 10 platinum discs for their efforts.

In 2003, the band released their second studio album 'Meteora' to date it has gone 4 Times-Platinum in the US alone. [Hybrid Theory has now gone platinum 18 times Worldwide]