Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda knew a reunion was going to be rough, but that's why he wanted it to be different.
The band's co-founder opened up about the band's decision to bring on new vocalist Emily Armstrong an interview with Los Angeles radio station Alt 98.7. During his interview, Shinoda acknowledged how some fans were upset that the group did not find a singer with a similar voice to the late frontman Chester Bennington.
"We just want Emily to be Emily. The songs are the songs. Emily is Emily... There was a time early on, like 2020-ish, 2019, whatever — like, I remembered I was watching videos... I think a video of a cover band, a Linkin Park cover band, showed up in my feed. Fans were loving it. They were all like, 'Oh my God, this person's so good. They sound so much like Chester,'" he says.
He continued by sharing his reaction to covers of the band.
"Your brain likes it better and better and better the more it gets more real and close to the real thing, and then the moment before it becomes exactly as real, your brain goes completely the opposite direction ... right back down to 'I hate it,' because your brain can tell that it's trying to be tricked. And nobody's brain likes that," Shinoda adds.
"So, when I was watching this YouTube video, or Instagram video, of this cover band, I was like, 'That's really cool, but it's also creepy that it sounds so much like Chester.' I don't like it, it weirds me out. It made me immediately know that it wasn't the move for us. I don't like it. I like it for [the cover bands], I just don't like it for us... These bands do a great job, but I wouldn't put that in our band," he revealed.
Linkin Park announced that they would be returning to music in September and revealed Armstrong as their new co-vocalist. The new vocalist became divisive among the fans of the group as well as family members of Bennington.
His mother slammed the band for their "screeching" new singer.
"I feel betrayed. They told me if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn't let me know, and they probably knew that I [wasn't] going to be very happy. I'm very upset about it," Susan Eubanks told Rolling Stone.
"I thought her singing... I don't even remember what it is [she was singing], because I didn't want to hear it. It was just a moment. But it was her, I'm just going to say it, screeching her way through a very high note. And I got out of there as fast as I could," Eubanks added.
Eubanks' comments come shortly after Bennington's son criticized the decision to bring Armstrong on board with Linkin Park.
He stated that Shinoda had "quietly erased my father's life and legacy in real time... during international suicide prevention month."
Bennington tragically passed away in July 2017 and was found in Palos Verdes Estates, California. His death was ruled a suicide. No note was discovered.
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