When Linkin Park ALMOST Split Over a Label Pitch | Mike Shinoda on Chester Bennington’s Loyalty

[0:00]during Hybrid Theory, there was a question from the label. The singer is so good. Like, well, maybe, like, you just have the singer sing and you don't do any rapping. Which to all of us was like an offensive suggestion, but they'd kind of backdoor it to him and went directly to him. The pitch was, we're gonna build a new thing all around you. You are the star. You already are the star. Like, it should be all about you. Yeah. Like, whatever about these other guys. We don't need them. You're the most important. And you remember we sat in the kitchen at NRG studio and he took us aside and he's like, hey, you guys, like you need to know. They did this to me today. They said these things to me. And we were all like, holy shit. In my mind, I'm like, oh, boy. Like, this is the beginning of the end, right? Because they're right. Like he's incredible, and we need him. I don't know if he needs us. So, they went to him and they said these things. We were like, what did you say? And he goes, I told them to go fuck themselves.