Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda Thinks Performing with a Chester Bennington Hologram Would Be "Creepy"

"For me, that's a clear no. I'm not into that."

Photo: Stefan Brending

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Mar 16, 2023

For well over a decade now, people have been quite obsessed with the concept of using technology to replicate musicians in hologram form — everyone from Our Lady Peace to Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly to Amy Winehouse are doing 'em (or, more accurately, having them done to them).

We're coming up on five years since we lost Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington to suicide in 2017, but don't count on a "creepy" hologram resurrection of the singer hitting the road with the band anytime soon. At least not if Mike Shinoda has anything to say about it.

In a new interview with 94.5 the Buzz, the multi-instrumentalist turned his nose up at the idea when the host admitted that she'd pay "good money" to see the band perform with a little helping hand from holographic technology.

"Those are creepy," Shinoda said. "Even if we weren't talking about [Linkin Park], if we weren't talking about Chester, which is… that's a very sensitive subject, and we would have our feelings about how we would represent that. For me, that's a clear no. I'm not into that."

Referencing ABBA's digitally derived Voyage tour, he also expressed trepidation from the perspective of a fan. "They're all still here, and yet they wanna do it this way because they wanna transport you back to that moment in time where those songs were new and it was whatever era it was," Shinoda explained. "I get that. I see that. I'm not positive, even under those circumstances, I'm not positive I personally would buy a ticket to the show."

The Linkin Park member went on to likewise express sympathy for the band's grieving fans — but that lines are often crossed in terms of the group's own feelings and boundaries about carrying on after Bennington's death.

"Everyone feels like they need to chime in, like, 'Well, here's my opinion. This is what I have to say. And if it's not for me, like if I don't like it, then nobody should like it,'" Shinoda said. "That's not the way the world works… If you like a thing and I don't like the thing, then you go see the thing, you go buy the thing. So please go see your thing. The only problem with that is, we're not going to do a hologram show."

Everyone will have to stick with the old Hybrid Theory.

You can watch the full interview with Shinoda below.


The band recently released a never-before-heard song from 2003, following last year's release by Bennington's old band Grey Daze with the late vocalist's remastered takes.

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