Bibliography

(select band member from picture to see his individual bio)

The band saw its beginnings in emcee/vocalist Mike Shinoda's small bedroom studio, where he and Delson recorded the band's first material in 1996. The two had attended high school together, where they met the band's drummer, Rob Bourdon. Shinoda hooked up with DJ Joseph Hahn while studying illustration at Art Center College in Pasadena. Meanwhile, attending UCLA, Delson shared an apartment with bassist Phoenix, who left the band after college and returned a year later. The final piece of the puzzle was singer Chester Bennington, a transplanted Arizona native who started making records when he was 16. "When I was two, I used to run around singing Foreigner songs--there's tapes of me doing that...Since I learned how to talk I've been telling everybody I was gonna grow up to be a singer." laughs Bennington.