Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda says guitarist Brad Delson quit touring with for mental health reasons

Linkin Park‘s Mike Shinoda has spoken more about the band’s recent line-up changes and how they came together, including the reasons for guitarist Brad Delson’s absence from live shows. 

• READ MORE: Linkin Park – ‘From Zero’ review: elite moments marred by a few blips

The band announced their comeback in September with a livestream event, where they revealed the addition of Emily Armstrong (formerly of Dead Sara) as their new co-vocalist. Drummer Colin Brittain joined the band too, following the departure of founding member Rob Bourdon. In Delson’s absence, Alex Feder is playing guitar live.

Now, Shinoda has given more of an insight into why Delson is sitting out of live shows.

“In case anybody doesn’t understand the dynamic, Brad is our guitarist. He’s in the band, but he’s realized that … it’s kind of a mental health thing,” he said on the Zach Sang Show.

“He doesn’t love the touring and the live show lifestyle, and so he is our guitarist, but he’s not playing live. He found a guy named Alex who’s spectacular, a really good guitarist and they get along great, and Brad chose Alex to play his parts live.

“But at the time, we hadn’t met Alex, and so we asked Colin. I was, like, ‘Brad needs somebody to play guitar, and we need a drummer. You do both equally well. What would you wanna do?’ And he was just like a kid in a candy store. I think he said, ‘I can’t believe what you’re asking me right now.’ He was so excited.”

He continued: “I just love working with Colin. I met him in sessions and then was bringing him in to help with writing and production. And then eventually we were, like, ‘Hey, dude, it turns out we need somebody to play drums.’ I know that’s his primary instrument. So I was, like, ‘Is that something you would wanna do? It would mean stepping away from your production career.’”

Shinoda previously said that the new line-up has “easily the best culture we’ve ever had”.

“The dynamic of everybody in the band, but especially those of us that have the most history together, the dynamic is so good. It’s really good. To me, it’s easily the best culture we’ve had,” he began on the From Zero podcast.

“I’m not saying that as a knock on the old line-up. I’m saying that specifically about the growth of Brad and Joe [Hahn] and Dave [Farrell] and me. Everybody is in a really good place and part of that is maybe the gratitude of being able to do it again,” he added.

“What’s your favourite thing to do in the world, and now imagine you get that taken away. You can’t do it. It’s gone. And then living in that for a while and then coming back later and being like, ‘Ok, guess what? You can have it back.’ That’s a fucking crazy feeling.”

In other news, earlier this week Linkin Park announced details of a massive world tour for 2025, which includes a stop at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The shows come as an extension of the ongoing ‘From Zero’ tour and will commence at the beginning of next year, hitting stadiums and arenas across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Just one UK show is lined up, taking place at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 28, and other European dates include stops in Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Hannover, Arnhem and more.

Special guests for the extensive run of shows will be Queens of the Stone Age, Spiritbox, AFI, Architects, Grandson, Jean Dawson, JPEGMAFIA, and PVRIS. Tickets for US shows will go on sale next Thursday (November 21) at 12pm local time, and tickets for Europe and the UK dates commence on Friday (November 22) at 10am local time.

Pre-sale options are also available to members of the underground fan club from November 18. Visit here to buy UK tickets, and here for international tickets.