According to consequence.net, during his interview with Alt 98.7, Mike Shinoda discussed the decision to pick Emily Armstrong as the singer for a reunited Linkin Park instead of a Chester Bennington sound alike. The announcement of Armstrong was received with some backlash, due to drama surrounding her ties to Scientology and Danny Masterson but some fans were upset that the band did not pick someone who sounds just like Bennington.
“We just want Emily to be Emily,” Shinoda said. “The songs are the songs. Emily is Emily… There was a time early on, like 2020-ish, 2019, whatever and 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.”
The artist 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.”
Photo Credit: Shareef Ellis