LINKIN PARK Is Planning 'Something Very Cool' For 20th Anniversary Of 'Hybrid Theory'

Mike Shinoda says that LINKIN PARK is planning "something very cool" for the 20th anniversary of the band's debut album, "Hybrid Theory".

"Hybrid Theory" — the band's original name before it was changed to LINKIN PARK for legal reasons — was issued in October 2000 and was a breakout success for the group, which had formed in 1996 and had played the Los Angeles club scene for several years. The album yielded four massive hit singles — "One Step Closer", "Crawling", "Papercut" and "In The End" — while going on to sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.

Speaking to an audience of Kerrang! magazine readers as part of a Kerrang! Face-To-Face video, Mike said about the upcoming "Hybrid Theory" 20th-anniversary celebrations (see video below): "I don't know what I should say about it. We're planning some fun stuff. All I'll say is that we've put some work in — not just the band. In fact, I'd say the label and management and the folks who have been with us for a long time and worked on our stuff along the way… We've done our best to kind of go to a lot of people who are family, in a sense, and say, 'What do you think we should do? What would be a good kind of celebration of 'Hybrid Theory'?' and try to do our best to actually do a bunch of those ideas.

"The LINKIN PARK fanbase is one of the most creative and active fanbases out there," he continued. "The problem, for me, is that if I'm not allowed to divulge information because I want it to be a surprise, then the creative fanbase starts jumping out and imagining things. They come up with their own great ideas, and then once in a while, those great ideas are better than our ideas. [Laughs]

"So I would urge the fanbase to just let it happen. And don't come up with ideas of what we ought to do, because your ideas might be better than ours. But we do have something coming that I think is very cool. And I'm excited for — what is it? The end of October, right?"

LINKIN PARK singer Chester Bennington and Shinoda spoke to The Pulse Of Radio a while back about some of the challenges of making their debut album.

"We walked into every song with a fresh, you know, outlook on it and we focused equal amounts of energy on every song," Bennington said. "And that at times was quite interesting, and also difficult at the same time. So we really learned how to push ourselves to new levels, and that was an accomplishment."

"Our biggest obstacle was putting something together that we felt was strong from beginning to end and doing our best to give each song its proper attention," Shinoda added.

Bennington was found dead in his Los Angeles-area home on July 20, 2017 after hanging himself. LINKIN PARK headlined an all-star tribute concert for Bennington in October 2017 in Los Angeles but has not announced any future plans for recording or touring.