Linkin Park wasn't so sure they could do it.
Mike Shinoda opened up about his late friend, Chester Bennington, on Los Angeles' KROQ on Monday, admitting that ahead of the Oct. 27 Hollywood Bowl tribute concert the band is playing in honor of their late bandmate -- who committed suicide at age 41 this past July -- he wasn't sure they could get back on stage.
"I had gone to Rick Rubin as a source of guidance," Shinoda shared of how the super producer convinced them to perform again after Bennington's death. "He said, 'I think you guys need to get onstage. I think that'll be the thing that'll feel good. It'll be super, super hard.' We haven't gone out together in public, we haven't played."
"'The fans want to see you,'" Shinoda says Rubin told him. "'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.'"
One thing that Shinoda hopes the tribute concert will accomplish is to help celebrate and shed light on the positive outlook that Bennington brought to the group, even given the tragic nature of his death.
"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 roller coaster of emotion," he said. "But when we talk about this and when we're focusing on the show, it's really about, like we say, celebrating life."
Meanwhile, in the wake of Bennington's death, there has been an outpouring of love and support from fans in memory of the late singer.
