1996–2000: Foundation and early years Linkin Park was founded by three high school friends:
Mike Shinoda,
Rob Bourdon, and
Brad Delson. The three attended
Agoura High School in
Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Delson introduced the band to
Jeff Blue, the vice president of
A&R for
Zomba Music, whom he had interned for in college. Blue offered the band constructive criticism to catch the attention of record labels. Blue himself was impressed with Xero after watching them play a live show in 1998, but believed the band needed a different vocalist. After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield's replacement, Xero recruited
Chester Bennington, a vocalist from
Arizona who was recommended by Jeff Blue in March 1999. Bennington, formerly of
alternative rock band
Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants because of the dynamic in his singing style. Additionally, the band recruited bassist Kyle Christner on a temporary basis. In May 1999, the band released a self-titled
extended play, which they circulated across internet chat-rooms and forums with the help of an online "
street team". In October 1999, Christner was replaced by Scott Koziol and Ian Hornbeck, whom along with Delson, provided bass tracks for the band's recordings. The band still struggled to sign a record deal. They turned to Jeff Blue for additional help after facing numerous rejections from several major record labels. However, the label advised the band to change their name to avoid confusion with
Hybrid. The band considered the names "Plear" and "Platinum Lotus Foundation" before deciding on "Linkin Park", a play on and homage to
Santa Monica's Lincoln Park, They initially wanted to use the name "Lincoln Park"; however, they changed it to "Linkin" to acquire the internet domain "linkinpark.com". Bennington and Shinoda both reported that Warner Bros. Records was skeptical of Linkin Park's initial recordings. The label's
A&R was not pleased with the band's hip-hop and rock-style approach. The album, which represented half a decade's worth of the band's work, was edited by Don Gilmore. Additionally, other singles from the album were featured in films such as
Dracula 2000,
Little Nicky, and
Valentine. MTV awarded the band their
Best Rock Video award for "In the End". During this time, Linkin Park received many invitations to perform on many high-profile tours and concerts including
Ozzfest,
Family Values Tour, and
KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band worked with Jessica Sklar to found their official fan club and
street team, "Linkin Park Underground", in November 2001. Linkin Park also formed their own tour,
Projekt Revolution, which featured other artists such as
Cypress Hill,
Adema, and
Snoop Dogg.
Reanimation claimed the second spot on the
Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week.
Hybrid Theory is also in the
RIAA's
Top 100 Albums.
2002–2004: Meteora '' (2003), the band updated their logo to represent the start of a new era.|alt= Following the success of
Hybrid Theory and
Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around the United States. The band members began to work on new material amidst their saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus's studio. The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by the rocky region of
Meteora in Greece, where numerous
monasteries have been built on top of the rocks.
Meteora features a mixture of the band's
nu metal and
rap metal style with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a
shakuhachi (a
Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments.
Meteora continued the success from the band's debut. The album sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and it ranked as the best-selling album on the
Billboard charts at the time. The album's singles, including "
Somewhere I Belong", "
Breaking the Habit", "
Faint", and "
Numb", received significant radio attention. By October 2003,
Meteora sold nearly three million copies. The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another
Projekt Revolution tour. The band released an album and DVD, titled
Live in Texas, which featured some audio and video tracks from the band's performances in Texas during the tour. In early 2004, Linkin Park embarked on the
Meteora World Tour.
Meteora earned the band multiple awards and honors, including
Best Rock Video for "Somewhere I Belong" and the
Viewer's Choice Award for "Breaking the Habit". Linkin Park also received significant recognition during the 2004
Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year ("Numb") awards. Although
Meteora was not nearly as successful as
Hybrid Theory, it was the third best-selling album in the United States during 2003. The band finally negotiated a new deal in December 2005.
2004–2007: Side projects and Minutes to Midnight Following
Meteora's success, the band worked on many side projects. Bennington appeared on
DJ Lethal's "State of the Art" and other work with
Dead by Sunrise, while Shinoda did work with
Depeche Mode, creating the remix song "
Enjoy the Silence 04". Linkin Park also participated in numerous charitable events, which included raising money to benefit victims of
Hurricane Charley in 2004 and later
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They also helped relief efforts for the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims by staging several charity concerts and setting up an additional fund called
Music for Relief. The band participated at
Live 8, a series of charitable benefit concerts set up to raise global awareness. Alongside Jay-Z, the band performed on Live 8's stage in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a global audience. They were joined on stage by
Paul McCartney who added verses from the song "
Yesterday". They would later go on to play at the 2006
Summer Sonic music festival, which was hosted by
Metallica in Japan. on June 17, 2007|alt= Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose producer
Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, it was delayed until 2007. The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed. Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from their previous nu metal sound.
Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band's third studio album, titled
Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007, in the United States. After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band members opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. The album's title, a reference to the
Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes.
Minutes to Midnight sold over 623,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts. The single peaked at no. 7 on the
Billboard Hot 100. The song is also used in soundtrack for the 2007 action film,
Transformers. Mike Shinoda was also featured on the
Styles of Beyond song "Second to None", which was also included in the film. The band also saw success with the rest of the album's singles, "
Bleed It Out", "
Shadow of the Day", "
Given Up", and "
Leave Out All the Rest", which were released throughout 2007 and early 2008. The band also collaborated with
Busta Rhymes on his single "
We Made It", which was released on April 29. performing with Linkin Park in 2008 during the
Projekt Revolution tour|alt= Linkin Park embarked on a large world tour titled "
Minutes to Midnight World Tour". The band promoted the album's release by forming their fourth Projekt Revolution tour in the United States which included many musical acts like
My Chemical Romance,
Taking Back Sunday,
HIM,
Placebo, and many others. They also played numerous shows in Europe, Asia, and Australia which included a performance at
Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007. and headlining
Download Festival in Donington Park, England and
Edgefest in
Downsview Park,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band completed touring on their fourth
Projekt Revolution tour before taking up an Arena tour around the United Kingdom, visiting
Nottingham,
Sheffield and
Manchester, before finishing on a double night at
the O2 arena in London. Bennington stated that Linkin Park plans to release a follow-up album to
Minutes to Midnight. However, he stated the band will first embark on a United States tour to gather inspiration for the album. The United States Projekt Revolution tour featured
Chris Cornell,
the Bravery,
Ashes Divide,
Street Drum Corps and many others.
2008–2011: A Thousand Suns In May 2009, Linkin Park announced they were working on a fourth studio album, which was planned to be released in 2010. Shinoda told
IGN that the new album would be '
genre-busting,' while building off of elements in
Minutes to Midnight. He also mentioned that the album would be more experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge". Bennington also addressed the media to confirm that
Rick Rubin would return to produce the new album. The band later revealed the album would be called
A Thousand Suns. While working on the new album, Linkin Park worked with successful film composer
Hans Zimmer to produce the
score for
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The band released a single for the movie, titled "
New Divide". Joe Hahn created a music video for the song, which featured clips from the film. After completing work for
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the band returned to the studio to finalize their album. in
Pori, Finland, on July 25, 2009|alt= performing with Linkin Park on
A Thousand Suns World Tour in 2010|alt= On April 26, the band released an app for the
iPhone,
iPod Touch, and
iPad, a game called
8-Bit Rebellion! It featured the band as playable characters, and a new song called "Blackbirds" which was unlockable by beating the game. The song was also later released as an
iTunes bonus track on
A Thousand Suns.
A Thousand Suns was released on September 14. The album's first single, "
The Catalyst", was released on August 2. The band promoted their new album by launching a concert tour, which started in October 2010. Other singles from the album include, "
Waiting for the End", "
Burning in the Skies", and "
Iridescent". Furthermore, a documentary about the album's production, titled
Meeting of A Thousand Suns, was available. On August 31, 2010, it was announced that the band would perform "The Catalyst" live for the first time at the
2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. The venue of the debut live performance of the single was
Griffith Observatory, a location used in Hollywood movies. Linkin Park reached No.9 in the
Billboard Social 50, a chart of the most active artists on the world's leading social networking sites. In other
Billboard Year-End charts, the band reached No.92 in the "Top Artists" chart, as well as
A Thousand Suns reaching No.53 in the Year-End chart of the
Billboard Top 200 albums and "The Catalyst" reaching No.40 in the Year-End Rock Songs chart. The band was nominated for six
Billboard Awards in 2011 for Top Duo or Group, Best Rock Album for
A Thousand Suns, Top Rock Artist, Top Alternative Artist, Top Alternative Song for "Waiting for the End" and Top Alternative Album for
A Thousand Suns, but did not win any award. The band charted in numerous
Billboard Year-End charts in 2011. The band was No.39 in the Top Artists Chart, No.87 in the
Billboard 200 Artists chart, No.11 in the Social 50 Chart, No.6 in the Top Rock Artists Chart, No.9 in the Rock Songs Artists Chart, No.16 in the Rock Albums Chart, No.4 in the Hard Rock Albums Chart, and No.7 in the Alternative Songs Chart.
2011–2013: Living Things and Recharged in October 2010. From left to right:
Joe Hahn,
Dave Farrell,
Brad Delson,
Mike Shinoda,
Rob Bourdon and
Chester Bennington. In July 2011, Bennington told
Rolling Stone that Linkin Park aims to produce a new album every eighteen months, and that he would be shocked if a new album did not come out in 2012. He later revealed in another interview in September 2011 that the band was still in the beginning phases of the next album, saying "We just kind of began. We like to keep the creative juices flowing, so we try to keep that going all the time ... we like the direction that we're going in". On March 28, 2012, Shinoda confirmed that the band was filming a music video for "
Burn It Down", directed by Joe Hahn. Shinoda spoke to
Co.Create about the album's art, saying that it will "blow them [the fans] away ... the average person is not going to be able to look at it and go, I understand that that's completely new, like not just the image but the way they made the image is totally new. So there's going to be that". In April 2012, the band announced that
Living Things would be the title of their fifth album and called it a "return to form". Shinoda stated that they chose the title
Living Things because the album is more about people, personal interactions, and it is far more personal than their previous albums. The album's lead single, "Burn It Down", was released on April 16. Other singles from the album include "
Lost in the Echo", "
Powerless", and
Castle of Glass". The band performed "Burn It Down" at
2012 Billboard Music Awards. On May 25, the band released the music video for "Burn It Down" "Powerless", the twelfth and closing track of the album, was featured in the closing credits of the film
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Linkin Park's single "Castle of Glass" was nominated for 'Best Song in a Game' at the 2012
Spike Video Game Awards. The band also performed at the award ceremony on December 7, but lost the award to "Cities" by
Beck. On August 10, 2013, the band collaborated with American musician
Steve Aoki to record the song "
A Light That Never Comes" for Linkin Park's online puzzle-action game
LP Recharge (short for
Linkin Park Recharge), which was launched on Facebook and the official
LP Recharge website on September 12, 2013. The song would later be included on a remix album, entitled
Recharged, which was released on October 29, 2013. Similar to
Reanimation, the album features remixes of ten of the songs from
Living Things, with contributions from other artists, such as
Pusha T,
Rick Rubin, and
Bun B. The band also worked on the soundtrack for the film
Mall, which was directed by Joe Hahn.
2013–2015: The Hunting Party In an interview with
Fuse, Shinoda confirmed that Linkin Park had begun recording their sixth studio album in May 2013. The band released the first single from their upcoming album, titled, "
Guilty All the Same" (featuring
Rakim) on March 6, 2014, through
Shazam. The single was later released on the following day by
Warner Bros. Records and debut at No. 27 on the US Billboard Rock Airplay charts before peaking at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock charts in the following weeks. Shortly after the single's release, the band revealed their sixth album would be titled
The Hunting Party. The album was produced by Shinoda and Delson, who wanted to explore musical elements from
Hybrid Theory and the band's earlier material. Shinoda commented the album is a "90s style of rock record". He elaborated, "It's a rock record. It's loud and it's rock, but not in the sense of what you've heard before, which is more like '90s
hardcore-
punk-
thrash.' The album includes musical contributions from rapper Rakim,
Page Hamilton of
Helmet,
Tom Morello of
Rage Against the Machine, and
Daron Malakian of
System of a Down. The songs "
Until It's Gone", "
Wastelands", and "
Final Masquerade" were released as singles from the album.
The Hunting Party was released on June 13, 2014, in most countries, and later released in the United States on June 17. performing with Linkin Park at Rock im Park in 2014|alt= on August 23, 2014|alt= Linkin Park performed at
Download Festival on June 14, 2014, where they played their debut album,
Hybrid Theory, in its entirety. Linkin Park headlined
Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in 2014, along with
Metallica,
Kings of Leon, and
Iron Maiden. They also headlined with Iron Maiden again at the
Greenfield Festival in July. On June 22, Linkin Park made an unscheduled headline appearance at the
Vans Warped Tour, where they played with members of
Issues,
the Devil Wears Prada,
A Day To Remember,
Yellowcard,
Breathe Carolina,
Finch, and
Machine Gun Kelly. In January 2015, the band embarked on a tour to promote the release of
The Hunting Party, consisting of 17 concerts across the United States and Canada. The tour was canceled after only three concerts when Bennington injured his ankle. On May 9, Linkin Park performed at the first edition of Rock in Rio USA, in direct support for Metallica. On November 9, 2014,
MTV Europe named Linkin Park the "Best Rock" act of 2014 at their annual
music awards ceremony. The band won the 'Best Rock Band' and 'Best Live Act' titles of 2014 on
Loudwire's Music Awards.
Revolver ranked
The Hunting Party as the fourth best album of 2014. In an interview with AltWire on May 4, Shinoda reflected on
The Hunting Party and commented on Linkin Park's future, stating; "I'm really happy with the reaction from
The Hunting Party, and I think we're ready to move somewhere new on the next album, which will be coming [in 2016]". Linkin Park collaborated with
Steve Aoki on the song "
Darker Than Blood" for Aoki's album
Neon Future II, which was released in May 2015. The first preview of the song came during Aoki's performance on February 28, 2015, at the
Aragon Ballroom in
Chicago, Illinois. The released on April 14. Linkin Park performed at the closing ceremony of
BlizzCon 2015, Blizzard's video game convention.
2015–2017: One More Light and Bennington's death Linkin Park began working on new material for a seventh studio album in November 2015. Chester Bennington commented on the album's direction by stating, "We've got a lot of great material that I hope challenges our fanbase as well as inspires them as much as it has us." In February 2017, Linkin Park released promotional videos on their social network accounts, which featured Shinoda and Bennington preparing new material for the album. Mike Shinoda stated the band was following a new process when producing the album. Brad Delson elaborated: "We've made so many records and we clearly know how to make a record and we definitely didn't take the easy way out this time." in
London The first single from the new album was revealed to be titled "
Heavy"; it features pop singer
Kiiara, marking the first time the band featured a female vocalist on an original song for a studio album. The lyrics for the song were cowritten by Linkin Park with
Julia Michaels and
Justin Tranter. The single was released on February 16. As they have done in the past, Linkin Park had cryptic messages online in relation to the new album. The album cover was revealed through digital puzzles across social media; the cover features six kids playing in the ocean. The band's seventh album,
One More Light, was released on May 19, 2017. The promotional singles, "
Battle Symphony", "
Good Goodbye" (featuring
Pusha T and
Stormzy), and "
Invisible" were also released prior to the album's release. Bennington died on July 20, 2017; his death was ruled a
suicide by hanging. Shinoda confirmed Bennington's death on
Twitter, writing, "Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one". The band had released a music video for their single "
Talking to Myself" earlier that day. One day after Bennington's death, the band canceled the North American leg of their
One More Light World Tour. On the morning of July 24, Linkin Park released an official statement on their website as a tribute to Bennington. On July 28, Shinoda announced that donations made to the band's
Music for Relief charity would be redirected to the One More Light Fund, which had been set up in Bennington's memory. On August 4, when the band was initially scheduled to play on
Good Morning America,
Soundgarden vocalist
Chris Cornell's twelve-year-old daughter Toni appeared with
OneRepublic to perform "
Hallelujah" as a tribute to Bennington (who was the godfather to her younger brother, Christopher) and her father. Bennington had previously performed the song at the funeral for Cornell, who had also died from a suicide by hanging two months earlier. The
title track of
One More Light was released as a single on October 3. The band later confirmed that the concert, titled
Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington, would take place on October 27 at the
Hollywood Bowl. The event featured multiple guests performing Linkin Park songs along with the band. The event was over three hours long and was streamed live via
YouTube. As of March 2026, it has 26 million views. The band considered fulfilling their planned Japanese tour dates after the tribute concert, but cancelled the shows on October 3. In November 2017, Linkin Park announced that a live album compiled from their final tour with Bennington, titled
One More Light Live, would be released on December 15. On November 19, Linkin Park received an
American Music Award for Favorite Alternative Artist and dedicated the award to Bennington.
2017–2023: Hiatus and 20th anniversary reissues Linkin Park went on hiatus following Bennington's death. On January 28, 2018, Shinoda replied to a tweet from a fan inquiring about his future with Linkin Park, writing, "I have every intention on continuing with LP, and the guys feel the same. We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it'll take time." On March 29, however, Shinoda stated that he was uncertain of Linkin Park's future when being interviewed by
Vulture. On April 17, Linkin Park was nominated for three awards at the
2018 Billboard Music Awards but did not win any of them. The band was presented with
The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at
UCLA on May 18. On February 18, 2019, Shinoda said in an interview that the band is open to the idea of continuing though what form that takes has yet to be decided. Shinoda stated "I know the other guys, they love to be onstage, they love to be in a studio, and so to not do that would be like, I don't know, almost like unhealthy." When asked about the band's future minus Bennington, Shinoda stated, "It's not my goal to look for a new singer. If it does happen, it has to happen naturally. If we find someone that is a great person and good stylistic fit, I could see trying to do some stuff with somebody. I would never want to feel like we are replacing Chester." Shinoda, Farrell and Hahn began working on new music together, without any public announcement; by 2019, Delson had returned to the group, but Bourdon chose not to participate. The band met
Dead Sara vocalist
Emily Armstrong in 2019, and began working on music with her shortly after, along with various other musicians, including drummer
Colin Brittain. On August 13, the band released "
She Couldn't", a track that was originally recorded in 1999, and it was included on a
20th anniversary edition of their debut album
Hybrid Theory, released on October 9. On January 8, 2021, Linkin Park released a remix of "
One Step Closer" by American electronic duo
100 gecs. The band revealed it was the first of many new remixes inspired by
Reanimation to come. On October 29, when asked about the band playing live shows again, Shinoda stated, "Now is not the time [for the band's return]. We don't have the focus on it. We don't have the math worked out. And I don't mean that by financially math, I mean that like emotional and creative math." In April 2022, Shinoda reiterated that the band was not working on a new album, new music, or touring. In February 2023, the band started an interactive game on their website teasing the
20th anniversary of
Meteora. On February 6, they revealed a previously unreleased demo, "
Lost", that was formally released on February 10, as the lead single from the reissue of the album, released on April 7. The second single, "
Fighting Myself" was released on March 24.
2023–present: Reformation and From Zero performing with Linkin Park in November 2024 Unbeknownst to the public, in 2023, the band approached Armstrong and Brittain to reform as Linkin Park to record and release new music and perform the band's back catalogue. This was followed up by the band's first
greatest hits album,
Papercuts, which was released on April 12. The collection also includes "Friendly Fire", as well as the first official release of the song "
Qwerty", which first appeared on
LP Underground 6.0 in 2006. On April 30, 2024,
Billboard reported that Linkin Park's booking agency
WME had taken offers for both a potential reunion tour and headlining festival dates to take place in 2025, with the lineup featuring Shinoda, Delson, Farrell, and a female vocalist in place of Bennington. At a livestreamed event on September 5, Linkin Park announced the band's comeback, including Armstrong and Brittain's entry into the band. In addition, the band performed and released "
The Emptiness Machine", the lead single of the group's eighth album
From Zero, which was released on November 15, 2024. one of Bennington's sons said that Linkin Park "betrayed the trust" of the fanbase with the change. Armstrong responded to the criticism via an
Instagram story, stating that she had not been in contact with Masterson since attending his 2020 court appearance and that she condemned his crimes; however, she did not clarify her current status within the church. Linkin Park embarked on
a nine-date arena tour across four continents on September 11 at the
Kia Forum in
Inglewood. This initial run of shows concluded in
São Paulo, Brazil, on November 16, 2024. Following this, the band announced a worldwide stadium and arena tour for 2025, a tour which included their first ever performance at
Wembley Stadium in England. The album's second single, "
Heavy Is the Crown", was released on September 24, 2024, and was used as the main theme for
Riot Games'
2024 League of Legends World Championship. The album's third single, "
Over Each Other", was released on October 24, 2024. The album's fourth single, "
Two Faced", was released on November 13, 2024. Not long after the album's release, the band entered the studio again, sharing clips on social media. On March 17, 2025, the band announced a new song titled "
Up From the Bottom", released on March 27 as the first single from the deluxe version of
From Zero. On April 25, the band released "
Unshatter" as the second single of
From Zero deluxe. A third song titled "Let You Fade" was released on May 16. On May 31, the band performed during the
2025 UEFA Champions League final at the
Allianz Arena in
Munich, Germany. In November 2025, the band was nominated for two Grammys for the
68th Annual Grammy Awards, which took place on February 1, 2026.
From Zero was nominated for
Best Rock Album, while "The Emptiness Machine" was nominated for
Best Rock Performance. That same weekend, "Heavy Is the Crown" was used as the theme song for
WWE's
Royal Rumble event. ==Philanthropy==