Linkin Park started about 5 or 6 years ago as a band that a bunch of buddies jammed with in their spare time. Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson where high school friends and started up a band named Xero. The bands lineup was much different than it is now, but the groundwork was laid for what would eventually become Linkin Park. Mike met Joseph Hahn while going to school at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The band's lineup slowly switched around and a new name was adopted and that name was "Hybrid Theory".

After a while the band ended up dropping their old singer Mark Wakefield and set out on the search for a new vocalist to fill his hole. They sent out many demo tapes all over to country to their friends and whoever else, and asked that people interested in the job record their own vocals over the tape and send it back. Chester Bennington and his wife had just bought a house in Phoenix, Arizona when a friend gave one of the tapes to Chester. Chester called the band that night and told them he was interested in the job. The band hadn't expected a response so quickly and were suprised that they had gotten such a quick reaction. They asked Chester to play his tape with vocals over the phone, he did and they loved it and he flew out to Cali immediately afterwards.

Once Chester was in the band, they started recording. The outcome of these recordings was their self titled EP. Using the internet they slowly developed a street team and a large fan base. Their street team was and still is very very dedicated and worked their asses off to promote Hybrid Theory. The bands big break came when StreetWise Concepts and Culture, a promtional company, heard some of Hybrid Theory's tunes and posted a song titled "plaster" (early version of one step closer) on their website as a hot up and coming band. Streetwise provided incredible amounts of publicity to the band and suddenly there was a serious interest by everyone to hear more of what they had to offer.

After playing a show at L.A's "The Whisky" they were approaced and ultimately signed to Warner Bros. records. Once joining the label, law suits were threated over their name and that it apparently was similiar to another bands name. To avoid a legal battle the band simple decided just to change it's title. In honor of Santa Monica's Lincoln Park the band changed their name to Linkin Park. Soon after they were signed they were put onto the line up of several big name tours and began to tour the country and instantly met great success. Once exposed to a larger fan base they discovered that everyone loved them, and their cd became highly anticipated. In October of 2000 their debut cd "Hybrid Theory" hit the charts and met immediate success and hasn't stopped since.

The band is incredible with their fans. When their show is completed, rather than leaving the stage or playing an encore, the band comes down into the crowd and shakes hands with as many fans as they can and sign as many autographs as people ask for. Often times the band would stay until the entire arena emptied out and everyone got their stuff signed and got to meet the band. Not only are these guys the most sensitive and down to earth music group out there today, they are also one of the hardest working, and they deserve all the success that they get.

Biography borrowed from someone elses website...