Chester Bennington:
(Vocals)
Date of Birth: 3/20/76

Chester has a tattoo on his left calf muscle of the soldier with wings from the "Hybrid Theory" CD cover. The flames on his arms represent the Aries part of his fire sign. His left shoulder has a Piscean symbol and a Japanese Koi carp on his right. His back piece is six arms spread out and was done by his friend who said it was a visual representation of how Chester reaches out and grabs the audience. He thinks tattoos are really painful but also really beautiful. Chester says that Stone Temple Pilots had the most influence on his career. He first saw them when he was 14. Chester is from Phoenix, Arizona. He lives in the LA area now.
Thanks to his brother (who's 13 yrs older) Chester was influenced by bands like Loverboy, Foreigner and Rush.
Chester got married at the age of 20 to his wife, Samantha, and they have a son-Draven Sabastian Bennington. He was born on April 19, 2002 at 1pm. Chester got the name from a movie called, "The Crow".
Chester used to enjoy the hip hop genre (acts like the Sugarhill Gang and Slick Rick) between the ages of 10 and 14 before delving into the punk rock scene.
The first album that made an impression on Chester was the Misfits.
Chester's first instrument was the piano.
Chester has his own "unique" thoughts on religion.
Chester's favorite albums are Black Celebration, Purple, Zeppelin #4.
The riskiest thing Chester has ever done was join the band.
Chester went to Greenway High School BUT graduated from Washington High School in 1994.
Chester's top five albums are:
1)Fugazi, 13 Songs
2)Al Green, Greatest Hits
3)Led Zeppelin, IV
4)The Beatles, the White Album
5)Stone Temple Pilots, Purple
Chester's first band was called Grey Daze in 1993.

Mike Shinoda:
(Emcee, Vocals, Beats & Sampling)
Date of Birth: 2/11/77

Mike is half Japanese.
Mike graduated from the Pasadena Art College of Design.
He majored in Illustration but studied graphic design heavily.
Mike designed the soldier on the "Hybrid Theory" cover.
Mike is from Agoura,CA but lives in L.A. now.
Mike went to Agoura high school.
Mike & Brad met in 7th grade.
Mike was inspired to become a musician after his first concert experience. It was a Killer B's show which was Anthrax and Public Enemy.
Mike uses or used a Paul Reed Smith CE-22 guitar.
The first time Mike heard 'One Step Closer' on the radio was in Arizona.
Mike's a big fan of Dido. He also likes a ton of female groups from Kittie to Madonna to Sneaker Pimps to Portishead.
Albums that Mike most listened to in 2000 were: Deftones - "White Pony" , The Roots - "Things Fall Apart",Nine Inch Nails - "The Fragile", Black Eyed Peas - "Bridging The Gap", Incubus - "Make Yourself", System Of A Down - "System Of A Down", Dido - "No Angel", Jurassic 5 - "Quality Control", Stone Temple Pilots - No.4" and Eminem - "The Marshall Mathers LP" .
Mike's top ten songs of 2000 were: Jurassic 5 - "Improvise", A Perfect Circle - "3 Libras", Outkast - "B.O.B.", Deftones - "Change (In The House Of Flies)", Taproot - "Again & Again", Eminem - "Kill You", Aphex Twin - "Windowlicker", P.O.D. - "Southtown", Lmno - "Grin & Bear It" and Disturbed - "Stupify" .
Mike's guitar from the Crawling video is probably an ibanez rg120. Don't know for sure though.
Mike took classical piano lessons for 10 years. He got sick of playing classical music though and moved into jazz then hip hop.
Before Chester joined the band, Mike would do his parts and find friends to do the other vocals.

Bred Delson:
(Guitars, Bass, & Backing Vocals)
Date of Birth: 12/1/77

Brad graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's Degree in Communications.
Brad and Phoenix were room-mates in college.
He didn't go to law school so he could pursue his career in the band.
Brad is a fan of Britney Spears and the rest of the band is embarrassed of him.
Brad is from Agoura, CA, but lives in the LA area now.
Brad calls himself "BIG BAD BRAD" or BBB, that's how he signs his name (BBB)
Brad's first instrument was the trumpet.
Brad's first band was the Pricks in 1994. Brad was also in a band with Rob. It was rock meets rap and funk, they were called 'Relative Degree'. They practiced a lot, played a show then it fell apart.
Brad's favorite album is Sunny Day Real Estate "Diary."
Brad's musical role model is Chester.
Brad can't imagine being on the road without all 16 personalities in the band.
Brad didn't want to go to Hooters to celebrate the success of the album because he was a good (innocent) guy who never really did things like that; he suggested bowling; but eventually went with the guys to hooters.
Every Christmas (or almost every x-mas) Brad and his family hold a dinner in an auditorium for the homeless & Mike likes to help out.
Brad is Jewish.
Brad went to Agoura high school.
Brad got his 1st guitar in (probably) 6th grade.
Brad does a lot of things in his playing that he does to try and define his own sound, one of which is using harmonics. He likes to use harmonics because oftentimes they don't even sound like traditional guitar playing. "With the right effects and the right performance harmonics on, a guitar can sound like a keyboard, or strings, and more rooted in an approach that works well with the hip-hop and electronic influences in our songs." - Brad.
The first time Brad heard 'One Step Closer' on the radio, it wasn't the full song, it was a clip of the song on a radio spot, and Linkin Park were all in the van together.
When Brad has 2 hours off (from LP stuff) then he tries to find a movie theatre and see whatever he can.
Brad's guitar heroes are: Dave Matthews, (Brad doesn't go for his tone but his musicality, his playing is ingenious), Stef from the Deftones, Sunny Day Real Estate and other non-guitar driven stuff. Brad prefers to listen to non-metal stuff like Dido rather then rock this way he can draw from a lot of sources and make something special.
Brad uses:
Guitars: Paul Reed Smith Standard, Ibanez RB 7-string
Amps: Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, Marshall cabinets
Strings: D'Addario 10-gauge
Currently listening to (jan '01): Taproot-Gift, The Roots-Illadelph Halflife

Phonix Farell:
(Bass)
Date of Birth: 2/8/77

Phoenix's real name is David Michael Farrell
Phoenix was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Phoenix grew up in Massachusetts but later moved to Mission Viejo, CA, AND now lives in LA.
After moving to CA, he joined a band in high school called 'Tasty Snax'. The band later changed their name to 'The Snax' While Phoenix was with The Snax he transitioned from guitar to bass guitar and stayed with it ever since.
Phoenix was the original bass player in Xero.
Phoenix played with Xero until he decided to tour w/ The Snax for a year and a half & then came back to Linkin Park.
Snax was/is a band from Orange County, CA. They are a Christian punk band.
Phoenix was taught how to play guitar by his mom, his greatest inspiration.
Phoenix is a graduate from UCLA.
Phoenix is also responsible for some of the song writing on the "Hybrid Theory" CD.
Phoenix uses both 4 and 5 string Ernie Ball Sting Ray Bass Guitars and uses SWR Amplifiers.
Phoenix prefers boxers instead of briefs.
The crowd sang 'happy birthday' to Phoenix at Minneapolis concert on Feb 8, 2001.
Phoenix's favorite movie is Braveheart.
Phoenix's most humiliating experience on stage is slipping and falling in front of everyone.
Phoenix moved away from Massachusetts to CA when he was just 5.
Phoenix likes to play soccer and snow board.
Phoenix likes: Weezer, Beatles, Deftones, Roots, Bob Marley, Sarah McLaughlin, Hughes & Wagner, Harrod & Funck.
Phoenix wishes he could play the drums.
Phoenix's advice is to take naps.
Most inspirational to Phoenix is his older brother (Joe).
When they were first starting out Phoenix and Brad were college room-mates so they would drive to practice together.
Phoenix has played lots of instruments including the violin.

Rob Bourdon:
(Drums & Backing Vocals)
Date of Birth: 1/20/79

Rob is from Calabasas, CA, but lives in L.A. now.
Rob went to Agoura high school.
Rob is Jewish.
Linkin Park watch videos of themselves and Rob (according to Brad) never plays a part wrong, but he'll always point out if something's not up to par.
Rob is the practice-perfect technical guru of the band.
Rob started to play the drums when he was in elementary school (third or fourth grade) after he went to an Aerosmith concert. His mom actually knows Joey Kramer (Aerosmith's drummer) so he got to go backstage and see the whole production.
When Rob got into high school he was into "a lot of funk" like Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Tower of Power.
Linkin Park is NOT Rob's first band. He started playing in bands when he was around 13 years old and he'd play cover songs like Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' with his buddies. That's when he met Brad and they played for about a year. It was rock meets rap and funk, they were called 'Relative Degree'. They practiced a lot, played one show and then it fell apart.
Rob likes to play the piano when he has time. He used to take classical lessons when he was young and was forced to keep going.

Joe Hahn:
(Records, Sampling, & Backing Vocals)
Date of Birth: 3/15/77

Joe has a split personality called Remy.
Joe or "Remy" talks in the beginning of "Cure for the Itch"
Joe came up with the concept for the "One Step Closer" video.
Joe is from Glendale, CA but lives in LA now.
Joe was into visual arts in high school and also pursued it after.
Joe and Chester both agree the Foo Fighters' "Everlong" is quite possibly one the best songs ever.
Mike (and then Rob, Brad, etc.) met Joe in college since Joe went to the Pasadena arts school/college too.
Joe and Mike both majored in illustration. They were both interested in painting and Joe stayed at the college for a year then he got into motion pictures. He worked on Sphere and Phantoms. He worked on monsters in movies.
"Mr. Hahn" constantly invents things in conversations with new fans who don't know Linkin Park very well and will make up things about them that are totally untrue. "So beware" -Brad
Joe was born in America, but his parents are Korean which makes him Korean.
The "One Step Closer" Video:
*Joe came up with the concept for the video.
*The video was supposed to include live shots of the band with fans or something..
*The video was shot in Los Angeles 63ft under ground in an abandoned L.A. subway tunnel
*that is adjacent to an abandoned V.A. hospital.
*Gregory Dark was the director and interestingly enough, he used to be a porn director.