Mike Shinoda Pays Tribute To Chester Bennington

Photo: Paul Harries

On October 27, Linkin Park will be hosting a special one-off show in tribute to the late, great, Chester Bennington. The gig will be the first time the band have played together since Chester sadly passed away back in July, with friends and special guests set to take part in the event, too. 

LP rapper and long-time friend, Mike Shinoda, has spoken about how producer Rick Rubin convinced him to put on the concert. In an interview with Los Angeles radio station KROQ, Mike said, "I’d gone to Rick Rubin as a source of guidance, and he said, ‘I know you guys know this, it’s obvious because you’re looking at social media and stuff, but I think you guys need to get onstage.’ 

"We haven't gone out together in public, we haven't played… we haven't gone onstage. He said, 'The fans want to see you. Not because they want to see a show, there's a cathartic experience that needs to happen and it'll inform what you guys are doing.' And I thought it over — and I know that for some of the guys in the band, getting onstage is more scary than other guys in the band, but I will say that for all of us, it's definitely the thing that we want to do. It feels like the right way to celebrate Chester."

"With something like this, and it was the same at his funeral… I know that the circumstances of his passing were really dark, and as we said at the time, the darkness that he had was always there and was kind of part of the package, but what was so unique and special about this guy is that he used it as fuel to do so many positive things.

"The fans have been incredible. I don't think we could have ever expected such an outpouring of love and all these tributes," Mike added. "Fans everywhere were making these montages of images of Chester, images of themselves to this song and so we realised it struck a chord with them and we wanted to let them know we see that, we hear that so we made an official video for that."

Watch the video for Linkin Park's One More Light below:

The video for One More Light was released by the band yesterday. It's a small celebration of Chester's life and the incredible legacy he has left behind for the world to enjoy.

"The song One More Light, we wrote it in an effort to reach out to people," says Mike. "It was written to say ‘In times like these, there’s often times not a lot you can do for someone who’s hurting,' but you can reach out and say, 'Hey, I’m thinking about you, I care.' And sometimes that’s enough.

"...Now we find ourselves on the receiving end of that, where the fans have taken our own song and played it back to us, and let us know that they’re there, they’re listening and they’re thinking about us. I can’t stress enough how special, and what an important role that has played in getting through this.

"The way he was, he was such a happy guy, he was such a fun guy, when he'd walk in the room, there was such a positive, funny, upbeat energy, and that's what we wanna get out of this show… I know it's gonna be a rollercoaster of emotion. But when we talk about this and when we're focusing on the show, it's really about, like we say, celebrating life."

Listen to the full interview below:

The Linkin Park And Friends Chester Bennington Memorial show will take place on Friday, October 27, at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Tickets go on general sale this Friday (September 22) from the following link.