The beginning of the band started when Mike and Brad were friends at high school (aged 13), their friendship formed over their love for all kinds of music and for making music, also Brad taught Mike how to play guitar. Meanwhile Brad was also playing in bands with Rob. They moved on to university where Mike met Joe at the Pasadena Art centre, and Brad and Phoenix were roomates in UCLA.
After university they became more serious about their music which they were making in Mike's bedroom, they recruited Mark Wakefield for the vocals and formed the band Xero in 1996.
The band sent out demo's to everywhere but with no prevail, leading to Mark to leave the band and for Phoenix to rejoin his old band Tasty Snax. Leaving Xero in need of a singer.
In March 1999, Jeff Blue sent out a Xero demo tape to Chester Bennington who he knew was looking for a band, Chester missed his birthday party to put his vocals over the demo and played it down the phone to the band the next day. He then flew to LA from Arizona the day after to audition for the band, the band were impressed and recruited him as their new singer. They also changed the band name to Hybrid Theory.
While waiting for a label to catch on, the band wrote new music and practised, while playing shows where ever would let them play. They also released the Hybrid Theory EP in 1999; before changing their name to Linkin Park, after the Lincoln Park that Chester had to walk through to get to band rehearsal, so they could get a linkinpark.com domain name and for other legal reasons.
After being rejected by major labels numerous times (including Warner Bros 3 times) Jeff Blue again helped the band to get a record deal at Warner Bros in 1999.
The bands first album Hybrid Theory was release on 24th October 2000 and was the biggest selling album of 2001. Phoenix rejoined the band and they toured the album extensively including being invited on the Family Values tour and Ozzfest, they also released the Frat Party At The Pancake Festival dvd on the 20th November 2001.
In 2002 they embarked on the first Projekt Revolution tour and afterwards released Reanimation on the 30th of July, a reworking of tracks from Hybrid Theory and the Hybrid Theory EP, by the band themselves and other guests such as Jonathon Davies and Black Thought. Also Joe Hahn made videos for every song on the album, with the Pts.of.Athrty video being released as a single.
During the tours they set up a elaborate studio in the back of the bus to work on the follow up to Hybrid Theory; and after recording at NRG, Meteora was released on the 24th (25th-USA) of March 2003 after a small LPU tour. Leading up to the release of Meteora a new episode of LPTV (series 1) was released weekly depicting the making of the album.
Again they toured the album including joining Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour, during which at their stops in Texas Linkin Park's set was filmed for the live DVD and CD Live In Texas which was released on 18th of November 2003.
After 2 Projekt Revolution tours and a Meteora world tour the band went back into the studio to work with Jay-Z who invited them to work with him for MTV's Mash Up Series, they spent 3 days in the studio and played a live show for LPUers and Jay-Z fans at the Roxy, which was filmed and released with the album Collision Course, on the 30th of November 2004. They went on to win a Grammy award for best rap/sung collaboration in 2006.
Afterwards the band embarked on their fourth Projekt Revolution tour, after which they took a break, during which time Mike Shinoda released The Rising Tied under the name Fort Minor and toured the album over the world.
In 2006 the band returned to the studio this time with producer Rick Rubin to work on their third album, with the goal to move on from Hybrid Theory and Meteora and make something new. Minutes To Midnight was released on the 14th (15th - US) of May 2007.
Again the band toured all over the world in support of Minutes to Midnight, including European festivals a UK arena tour, and 2 Projekt Revolution tours, which featured the first Projekt Revolution dates outside of North America in Germany and England.
The Projekt Revolution date in Milton Keynes, UK, was recorded for the CD/DVD "Road to Revolution : Live in Milton Keynes" which was released on the 24th November 2008.
Currently the band are working on their 4th studio album, and aim to release it in 2009.
