LINKIN PARK’s Mike Shinoda Reflects on Feeling Out of Place on Early 2000s Metal Tours

While many bands during the early 2000s metal boom leaned into the wild, party-fueled lifestyle of the era, Linkin Park always approached things differently — or at least, that’s how Mike Shinoda remembers it.

Speaking recently on the Broken Record Podcast, Shinoda reflected on the band’s early touring days and how out of place they often felt alongside the more party-centric, masculine energy of the metal scene at the time.

“It’s funny because we were, in the context of the bands and the festivals and the shows that we were doing, we were the least bro-ey bros of the lineup. We were on these shows with — it was Ozzfest — and people were just waking up, getting drunk, blacking out, and then waking up next morning and chugging Pedialyte to rehydrate and then drink again.”

Rather than join the backstage antics, Linkin Park typically kept to themselves on tour, often staying tucked away in their bus.

“We were just sitting there in our bus isolating ourselves because we didn’t… There were only, like, a handful of people on those tours that we were like, ‘Oh, these are kind of our people.’”

Despite the social disconnect, Shinoda stressed that the band held no animosity toward their tourmates.

“I have nothing against all those folks from those tours. A lot of really sweet performers, great dudes in bands. The energy was very masculine. The crews were all bros with tattoos and beer guts, and that wasn’t our… Even way back in like, 2002–2003, that wasn’t really our scene.”

In a separate conversation with The Guardian, Shinoda further described the cultural divide they felt at the time, painting a picture of early 2000s rock tours as an “arms race for who could make the most macho music.” Sharing stages with heavyweights like Metallica, Korn & Slipknot, Linkin Park stood apart thanks to their introspective and emotionally vulnerable songwriting.

When referencing the late Chester Bennington, he said:

“Chester connected with it a little more than the rest of us did, but not by much. It wasn’t like: ‘Hey, I’m gonna kick your ass.’ It was like: ‘Somebody kicked my ass and I’m so frustrated.’ In high school, I wasn’t kicking anybody’s ass. That was not happening.”

While bands like Limp Bizkit embraced frat-boy energy and shock-value lyrics, Linkin Park carved their own path — blending vulnerability with intensity, connecting deeply with fans, and still commanding massive crowds, even while existing outside the era’s dominant trends.

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