While many are leveraging technology to pay tribute to deceased artists on a live stage, there is a line to be drawn somewhere. For Mike Shinoda of acclaimed rock band Linkin Park, that line is a hologram. “For me, that’s a clear no,” Shinoda said to 94.5 The Buzz in response to whether or not the band would be willing to utilize hologram technology to bring late singer Chester Bennington back to life on stage, much like hologram concerts featuring Tupac or Michael Jackson.
“I feel like those are creepy. Even if we weren’t talking about us, if we weren’t talking about Chester, which is a very sensitive subject, and we would have our feelings about how we would represent that,” said Shinoda, the band’s primary composer and rapper.
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Bennington tragically took his own life in 2017, leaving his friends, family, and fans shocked and distraught. Shinoda, not only a bandmate but one of Bennington’s closest friends, is naturally guarded of his image. The multi-instrumentalist acknowledges that a live show featuring a hologram Bennington might appeal to a portion of fans, but that is ultimately not something he is comfortable with.
“The problem with the internet now is that everybody thinks that everything is for everybody,” Shinoda mused. “What I mean is 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.’ 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.”
Notably, Linkin Park last month released an unreleased track off their 2003 Billboard number 1 album Meteora, titled Lost, which features never-before-heard vocals from Chester Bennington. The band announced that they would be releasing a special 20th anniversary edition of the album in April.
