:: Biography

Linkin Park, were formed in 1996 when high school friends Mike Shinoda (Vocals/Guitarist) and Brad Delson (Guitarist) got together to record some material. Rob Bourdon attended the same school and was recruited to play drums. Mike met DJ Joe at Art College, and Brad shared an apartment with bassist Phoenix at UCLA.

They formed, what was then known as, 'Xero'. They dominated the Californian club circuit for a while, and Shinoda would often call members of the audience up to the stage to sing. At one gig a young Chester Bennington was welcomed onto the stage, where he made a huge impact and remained in the band. The band then changed their name to 'Hybrid Theory' before becoming aware of a band, which was already named that. Once again they changed their name, this time for good.

The band began writing an album and eight months later in the summer of 2000 signed a record deal with 'Warner Brother's Records'. They immediately went into recording and ended up with Hybrid Theory. It struck number 16 in the billboard top 200 within a week and the band went off touring.

Hybrid Theory sales rocketed and stand at just over 6,000,000 copies worldwide at the end of 2001. Several single releases from the album including One Step Closer and Crawling help to cement the bands status as one of the best nu-metal bands in the world today.