I was able to meet Linkin Park and ask them about there song Public Service Announcement. I wanted to know if the lyrics I heard about are true. So I asked Mike and Chester. First video is the song , second video is me talking to them 3rd video is the acutal song reversed so you can hear it there. But the First video is the regular song that was realesed and below are the actual lyrics done in reverse. Linkin Park did it as a joke but turned out to be a hot song. I know I messed up with saying feet instead of saying brushing your teeth!
I have been asked to post the transcript of Mix 93.9 interview/ Kansas Meet and Greet with Mike and Chester, so here it is. A big thank-you to Shela for typing down all of this. You deserve a shiny Bennoda plaque and a Platinum Bennoda membership. Please meet Ann in private to get your prizes :3
Anyway, back to the interview: read to know more about Dead By Sunrise, Fort Minor future plans, Chester's talking about Motley Crue, Velvet Revolver and what Mike and Chester think about Brad's hair!
Guy: The first two albums had absolutely no profanity and the last album has a parental advisory sticker on it I was wondering how...
Mike: It has a little bit.
Guy: Just a little bit but I’m wondering what made you guys decided to take that push?
Mike: Umm…
Chester: It worked for what they are… Nice. Like for example it’s not really necessary to be like ‘that chair just fucking broke’ cause Mike just did that, right? Caused that’s so unnecessary. But like when you are screaming like, you know ‘Put me out of my misery’, maybe it might use somewhere up there, you know what I mean? It’s all like…usually we tried to find a better way to sing what we’re saying without using too many words. But when Mike was like, we were in the studio and Mike goes ‘I want you to scream something you would really scream like up in the air when you feeling like that.’
Mike: We both said that, that was the line. Remember? We said that, and you looked at me like ‘Dude all of the guys are going to think that’s weird.’ And I’m like, I promise you that this line if it feels real, if it feels right …they heard it and we were totally wrong, we played it for them and they thought ‘that’s awesome.’
Guy: Mike, when you going to do another Fort Minor album?
Mike: No plans yet. Before “Minutes to Midnight” I didn’t know…But basically before this record I felt like that’s where that needed to go but now that’s why that sounded the way it does. Before “Minutes to Midnight” I wrote kind of songs like “Hands Held High” which happens to be the song on the Linkin Park record…but now with “Hands Held High” which like a Linkin Park song …I know I can just do that.
Guy: Hey Chester when is your “Dead By Sunrise” album coming out?
Chester: I don’t know when I going to be working on that and as well as working on then new LP record so…and I’m not even sure if I want to call it “Dead By Sunrise” any more. I think I might just go with Chester Bennington.
Guy: What made you changed it from “Snow White Tan” to “Dead by Sunrise”?
Chester: For the same reason that I might…I was just always kind of wondering if I should just go with my name or Phil Collins it or…I think there’s confusion with calling it, naming a band people think that might be…wondering away.
Mike: In my personal experience with Fort Minor it would have been better if I called it Mike Shinoda.
Chester: Yeah so like I don’t want anybody to get a misunderstanding of what it is, you know what I mean…
Mike: I had the worst time…I had the WORST time explaining that to people. Their like ‘Why is it called Fort Minor’ I was like ‘Well I wanted to name it something’.
Chester: Yeah that’s my thing to, like I wanted to name it something but I think I’m just going to name it me.
Guy: What was it like to have you guys’ song on “Transformers”? A big blockbuster to have you guys’ song it… How did that come about? I’m just curious.
Chester: One of the guys that was working on the film like the song and thought it would work great kind of as the song for the movie and took it in and played for Michael Bay, like put it over in certain pieces of the movie where he heard it and make an impact. And Michael Bay said ‘Go tell them that they need to put their song in our movie and do whatever you have to do to get it caused it fit so well, it work so well with the film’. And so it was pretty cool they kind of were very aggressive with us.
Mike: Yeah…I was telling somebody just the other day that their presentation was one of the most insane presentations we’ve ever gotten from anybody as like a pitch. Their pitch to get us like to like be convinced to use our song in the movie…like normally you would get like an email with like a synopsis, maybe like a preview with like some scenes like in a point in time...
Chester: Mind you we’re all huge “Transformers” fans. We all grew up on “Transformers” so we were fans away so all they had to do was to pretty much ask and we would have said yes.
Mike: Instead of that they came down to this thing where we were already at, like they came down to this press thing we were doing. And our manager said ‘Ok you know these guys from “Transformers” are down stairs and they’re ready to give you a presentation for the movie.’ We were like ‘Ok cool’, so we go downstairs and they had taken the entire hotel restaurant and transformed it into a movie theater. The biggest flat screen I have ever seen, 7.1 surround sound, that like blew our ears out, like we had to tell them to turn it down.
Chester: It was crazy.
Mike: We were just like…They went through so much like trouble just to sell us in this movie and we were like ‘ You really didn’t need to do that’.
Chester: It’s was cool though because we got to see like scene of the movie before it came out. We got to like see how they made the, you know, everything from like the finished fight scenes to just kind of like the broken down CG versions.
Mike: I know we saw like the highway scene…
Chester: It’s pretty awesome.
Mike: Umm unfinished which was really cool.
Guy: Think you guys are gonna have like, another song in the “Transformers” sequel album?
Mike: I say…I say it’s probably unlikely, cause I think the things just lined up really well cause our album coming out and their movie coming out, so unless their movie comes out at the exact same time as our album did then it’s unlikely so you never know.
Girl: Chester I saw your “Artist on Artist”… that was awesome. You guys know each other pretty well.
Chester: Yeah, we met when we did…I performed… during the Katrina middle phased and we did a Motley Crew song together, we kind of just hit it off. I’ve known Tommy Lee for a while and umm I didn’t really know anybody else in the band and when we did “Home Sweet Home” we just started talking, and it was like we were friends. He called me up and be like ‘hey just wondering what you’re doing’, you know, just like what the hell? Umm yeah, so we got to know each other pretty well, and he called me up to asked me to do some singing on the record… and I couldn’t do it cause we were working on “Minutes to Midnight” but then you know, I be like I don’t know, I was telling him about the record and how different it was and asking him for his advice on how I should feel about that. And he was like, ‘who cares because we did like “Shout Out to the Devil” and then we did “Girls, girls, girls,” and everyone was telling us not to do that and we did “Doctor Feel Good” and everyone tells us not to do that and every time they told us not to do it we did it anyway, and they were totally wrong.’ So it was pretty cool. And so yeah naturally we being friends for a few years and so when he asked me to do that, it was nice. We basically just talked for the whole time and it was nice.
Guy: How would you feel about singing with Velvet Revolver?
Chester: It’s pretty cool, I mean I would sing with Velvet Revolver, unfortunately I’m friends with Scott Weiland and I’m friends with everybody else in the band so it would be a little weird cause I know there was some tension between them and it was interesting cause Slash called me and asked me to sing, to do a show in Vegas with them because Scott couldn’t make the show and I was like ‘Ok I’ll do it, what do you want me to do?’ and he was like ‘Well I don’t know like what do you think.’ Well do you want me to sing whole set or do you want me to do some songs? And so that I think might of some how transpired to somebody else and that was when the rumor started and I said couldn’t do the show.
Guy: Is it true that you going to appearing in Timberland’s next album?
Chester: Me?
Guy: Umm Linkin Park.
Mike:…That was a rumor from before the record that he put out already and that happened a lot in the hip-hop community for some reason that people have to go out and say that we’re going to be on their record and we’re not. I heard that we’re going to be in Timberland’s record, I’ve heard we’re going to be in Akon’s record, I’ve heard that we’re going to be on 50 Cent’s record because, because, cause Chester sang on Young Buck’s track and that got misconstrued.
Guy: What you guys think of Brad’s hair when he first grew it?
Mike: I told him he should cut it or I’ll kick his ass…
Chester: I would like him to shave his beard though, his beard is kind of gross but his hair is cool. Just trim it down.
Mike: With the hair and no beard?
Chester: Just trim it down like the beard is kind of like, he’s half of caveman.
Mike: His hair with no beard would look like Will Ferrell…
~***~
On another note, Chester was talking to Billboard about Linkin Park's forth album which will start being recorded next month and there's a high chance it will be a concept album. He also said that he is finishing his very first solo album and revealed the producer's name. Check out all the cool news in this article.
Four pictures from LPU Meet and Greet with Mike and Chester in Dallas, Texas, 23rd August 2008 taken by Nighthauke.
In this last pic, you can see Chester signing on Brandie's arm. Just FYI, the Dallas Meet and Greet story was reported by Brandie's husband, Grant, in an earlier post on our site. You can reread the story HERE
Some pictures from the same Meet and Greet by Brandie
Also, two pics by Nighthauke from Selma, Texas, 2007 Meet and Greet
Jaclyn, thank you for finding out Mister Nighthauke. You rock my socks!
Thanks Steph for sharing with us her Music For Relief Meet and Greet experience from the Charlotte, NC, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre show, 30th July 2008. That's a long and interesting story. Enjoy!
m-m-mMIKE Shinoda and Mr. Chester Bennington!
(Note: In this story, Michael is Steph's husband, different from Mike as in Mike Shinoda)
The Music For Relief lady takes us backstage and we wait at a picnic table with her until the manger dude comes to get us. He was like, "You guys are in luck. The rest of the band isn't here yet. So you guys get Mike AND Chester." I was like bouncing up and down. I was hoping for one of the them, but to get both was too unreal. The guy was like, "It's the first time they have done the Private Meet and Greet with the both of them, so you really lucked out."
So, we walk out of 106 degree heat into this nice air conditioned room and Mike Shinoda is like showing us to a little table and is like have a seat. So we sit down and Mike is all giggly talking to Chester who is standing across the room. They are saying something about Will Farrell before he asked us how our day was. I was thinking are you kidding me, I sitting at the table with you, Mike Shinoda!
The manger dude tells them that we were the MFR winners and Mike was like oh cool, so you know all about what that's about then. Michael and I were like, "Yeah…" Then he asked us how the Music For Relief booth was. Michael was like, "Yeah man, it's nice." Mike looks over at me, smiles while resting his chin down on the table and was like, "So it was up to your standards then?" He is being playful so I tease him, "Well you can always do better." Which made Chester laugh and sit down at the table with us and ask me, "Well, what do you suggest?" and I told him, "You. Standing beside the booth."
(LoL yes I did.)
He smiles and laughs, "Yeah and that wouldn't be a distraction at all. I made the mistake of going out on the revolution stage today. I thought a couple of kids would notice, but I didn't expect the bum rush the front." I told him, "Yeah, I was on the barrier, thanks. I got mawed." He was like, "yeah, I felt like an asshole. I even said 10 years when it was Armor For Sleep's set. I'm an ass." and gave me this sad smirk. Mike agreed with him, he was like, yeah you are" or something to that effect. Chester goes, "Yeah, when I do something like that I always say that I'm Mike." Mike goes, "Yeah until he gets a bloody nose." Chester smiles over to him and is like, "Yeah that always stops me. One too many of those and you stop." Mike goes, "yeah, No nobody likes me." and I go, "Aw, I like you."
(lol, yes I did)
Then Mike smiles at me and asks if we saw Will Farrell accept Tiger Woods' award. I was like "nah, I missed it." He was like, "Youtube that shit. It was funny." then he explains what Will Farrel did and is all giggly over it, lol. Come to think of it he was pretty much all giggly the entire time, lol.
While Michael and Chester talk about some MTV VJ guy from like a hundred years ago. That I had no clue as to who they were talking about, but whatever I was too busy watching Mike smile as he talks about the VJ dude being at the MLB donating ceremony thing and the guy was bothering him there too.
Then Mike asked if we had any questions and I actually found the words to ask Mike and Chaz which one of them wrote my favorite lyrics on M2M, I was like, "Yeah, actually I do. I was curious of who wrote a certain lyric on Leave Out All The Rest." and then the both of them like lean in and stare at me, with this like serious, I'm listening to you and you have my full attention stare and I have the realization that holy shit I'm asking Mike and Chester a question and my mind goes blank when I have to recite the lyrics to them and I was like 'Shit, fuck, shit fuck...think Stephanie, think' and before I know it I am spilling them out, "I'm strong on the surface, not all the way through.
Chester points over to Mike who is beaming like a dork. he said, "That was my baby." Then he went it to the whole back story of where he wrote the song. He said he was sitting on a metal crate and that he was swashing bugs that were crawling on his writing pad the entire time and he proceeds to pretend to smash bugs on the table with his thumb,
lol.
Shinoda is lush.
Chester laughs and joins in on Mike swashing these pretend bugs that are 'crawling' on the table…(lol, They're weirdly hyper funny dudes :P) Chester was like, "Yeah like swashing them way more then you really had to, just getting out some frustration…"
Mike was like, "Yeah, exactly."
Chester looks at me and said "That song hated me, man. I couldn't do shit with it." and shrugs.
Mike goes, "Now you have the whole back-story of how I wrote that."
I thank them for answering me and Mike asked if we wanted a picture so the 300 plus dude in the corner came over and took our picture for us.
Mike stands next to me! lol, Maybe cause of the lyric question I don't know but he picked me and Chester stands next to Michael and the guard fumbles with the camera, Mike teases him, "Come on dude, I know you can do it."
Michael tells them that the flash should be off and Chester's like, "Don't worry about it, it don't matter, man. Just like when there is 80 different cameras going off at one time it can really mindfuck with your eyes."
We finally get our picture and Michael tells Chester that I caught his guitar pik in Va Beach a couple days before, and I said yeah and Rob's drum stick too. Chester was like, "That's awesome, no one ever catches those things. It's cool you got both."
Mike told me I should play baseball, I was like, "Naw, man soccer, I was a goalie for nine years!" he was like, "oh so that's why you can catch..." lol.
I told him that I got the bravery pik too and he teased, "now you're just being a show off" and Chester said, "You're a spider."
Which confused the shit out of me and I looked at Mike for help understanding his slightly insane bandmate.
Mike read my face I guess cause he was like, "What, dude?"
lol and so Chester elaborates that "Yeah, she would have this web that would like come out of her hands and it would like catch all the guitar piks and then she would like suck them back in and stuff." and he is all dramatically acting out how it would work like shooting a web out of his hand all Spiderman style and Mike laughs and goes, "Yeah, okay dude. I don't know how you got there, but okay."
LMFAO.
Then Chester turns to Michael and deadpans, "be careful, dude. She'll suck the life out of you" then he looks back and smiles at me.
lol. I love that guy.
We got handshakes and said our thankyous and goodbyes. Mike like squeezed my hand to death while Chester was all soft and gentle. We told them that we had pit tickets and we were going to go push our way to the front and Chester was like, "alright guys, see you out there, nice meeting you."
Pain and simple, LP is my favorite band. Sitting down with Mike and Chester at a table for 20 minutes, alone, with no one else in the room except for one 300lb security guard and having a meaningful conversation with them was beyond amazing. They were everything that I thought they would be, no ego bullshit. Just laid back, funny, chill guys.
Chester found me out in the crowd after the M&G cause it was like 15 minutes before they took stage, (the green hair most likely helped with him spotting me). We pushed our way back in front of the pit on the barrier (not easily, btw.) I was further down on the left then I would of liked to of been because I know from other shows that he likes to hang out of the other side of the stage but whatever, I couldn't be that choosey getting back into the crowd that late. He pointed at me several times during the show and would bend down right in front of me and scream his little heart out...While I would scream, "I fucking love you!" lol, Fucking unreal! Mike came over once and smiled at me while playing guitar too.
I didn't think I could love LP anymore than I did. But I do.
Top 3 concerts that I have been to:
1. LP 2. LP 3. LP
Her pic from the Meet and Greet:
Steph also told us that after the Meet and Greet, she got the courage to get her tattoo done: a pretty tattoo with a Leave Out All The Rest lyric's line "I'm strong on the surface, not all the way through" and a bug - which was from Mike Shinoda's story. Like she said "my favorite lp lyric to date. the smashed bug is curiosity of Mike Shinoda". Totally dedicated!
ProjektCharlotte on the LPU also posted another pic from the same show's LPU Meet and Greet
It surprised me to realize that Charlotte, 30th July 08 show is the only show with both LPU Meet and Greet and Music For Relief Meet and Greet with Mike and Chester PLUS the Charlotte "kiss". This is definitely the best Bennoda show of the year! Also, thanks Jaclyn for finding out Steph's story! :D
The awesometastic Andrew aka ManBearPig, who attended the Music For Relief Meet and Greet in Noblesville, 17th August 2008 decides to share with us his interesting story about the Meet and Greet experience with Mike and Chester. A big fluffy thank you to Andrew, you rock, Presidente!
We're led back into the MNG area, which is a lot backstage where tour buses are parked. There's a little canopy set up and tables and chairs and we're told to sit down there (or stand up) and we talk to the MNG coordinator for a while. So anyway, we're talking with her, waiting and waiting.
And suddenly, I see Chester coming up. I look back to my friend, I guess because staring is impolite, lol. But I get calmed down, actually, since this will have marked the fifth time meeting him this year. FIFTH. And fifth in a ROW: MFR MNG in London, ON Club Tattoo, MFR in Toronto, MFR in Quebec City, MFR in Noblesville. So he's walking up to us, and then I see MIKE is with him. That's when I start to sort of get all excited and nervous and stomach rumbly.
Chester shakes our hands.Mike comes up to the table, and I have my Canadian flag laid out on the table for them to see.And he's like "Oh, looks like we've got some Canadians with us tonight". And that was when I calmed right down and realised he's the most disarming person ever. He's looking at it and goes "You want me to sign your flag? Really?"and I'm all "Yes! Of course!""You sure?""Oh, yeah!" So then he looks at it for a second, and then goes "Oh, I have an idea" and starts drawing on it.ANd just keeps going. He says that if he didn't have people stop him, he'd keep drawing forever because he keeps getting ideas and stuff. I ask Chester if he wants to contribute to the flag and he's all "Oh, I'm not really in an artisitc mood"so I'm like "Oh, ok, that's alright" Not ten seconds later he's like "Oh, wait a minute"and draws the bowtie.
During the drawing, we talk about a bunch of stuff. Like the number of shows we've been to, the money I've spent, the school money I've spent, my schooling (MIKE KNOWS WHERE I GO TO SCHOOL!!!). We joke that he should put the flag up in his next art show and he's like "I don't think it would go with the rest of the pieces". My friend and Chester talk about Lil Wayne and his cough syrup addiction. Mike is so proud with his Lil Wayne beaver that he takes pictures of it with his iPhone. We stand up for pictures, my friend gets the one done with her camera, and Mike goes turns around and says "I suck with names, but I'll try my best to remember." He extends his hand, and I'm all "I'm Andrew".And then my friend introduces herself, we take the picture with my camera. We say thank you and as we turn to walk away, we hear him repeat our names to himself! HOW CUTE! We're DEAD.
And so we figure nothing can top that. And then before Papercut...Mike said: "So, I met some people today who have been to 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 shows and a kid who has been to three. I asked him what his other two were besides us, and he says only you guys. We just want to say to them, we love you and this one's for you" or something like that, I can't remember. BUT WE DIED. WE HAD PAPERCUT DEDICATED TO US. AND MIKE LOVES US. He remembered us from Detroit in February!
Just FYI, Andrew has been to 13 Linkin Park shows, including 1 Club Tattoo Party, and there's only one of them in which he did not meet at least one of the band members in some capacity, that is the Clarkston, MI, PR 04 show. All the other shows, he have met them in person or interacted with them in some ways, and like he said, that's basically 92% meeting rate. You pwn, Andrew
Another LPU Meet and Greet with Mike and Chester was held in Dallas, Texas. Thanks Grant for sharing with us his Meet and Greet experience by his story and pics!
The M&G's are picked randomly. I got the e-mail on Monday. They changed the M&G format to only 2 members and made it a sit down Q&A with the members. We were really hoping for Mike and Chester but it could have been any of them. The fact that it was those two made the night all that much more awesome. My wife managed to convince them to autograph her wrist and then went and got it tattooed the next day. Had to be the best night of our lives.
I can't really recall all that was asked, seeing as how I was in shock the whole time. I know my wife asked about the "little fans" one being our 4 year old who has been singing their songs since he was about 3. Said we were "terrible parents, just kidding", but they thought it was great and as long as we trained him to go out and buy one of their shirts or CDs, they were cool with it. Actually he said they thought it was great they have fans so young.
I know that someone asked about the next CD, which Mike said they were already working on it Chester is still trying to finish his solo project. There were actually 2 groups of people in the M&G at the same time (LPUers and a Verizon group , so questions were being thrown at them left and right. Said they would continue doing Projekt Revolution and asked if we still wanted the outdoor venue with a lot of bands or would we prefer it indoors with about 5 bands. I think the majority said they liked the outdoor venue better. After everyone asked question and got stuff signed, we took two group photos which I posted in the share photos section.
That sounds quite amazing, innit? Here is the group photo he mentioned:
Pictures from the Meet and Greet:
In this special one pic, Grant explained that Mike was doodling on the table (drew Chester a bulldog):D
The tattoos from Mike and Chester's signature on his wife Brandie's wrist
Two live pics, also taken by Grant from the Dallas, TX, 23rd August 2008 show
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