Linkin Park Recruit Bad Religion, Offspring for Philippines Benefit

Linkin Park (Photo: James Minchin)

Linkin Park will headline a benefit January 11th at Los Angeles’ Club Nokia to raise money for victims of the recent typhoon in the Philippines. LP, who’ve become leading philanthropists in the music world with their Music for Relief organization, will be joined by the Offspring and Bad Religion, as well as special guests, guitarist Brad Delson tells us.

Tickets for the intimate show are being given to those who raise funds for the victims, with 500 tickets earmarked for those who raise a minimun of $250 (with all proceeds going to the charity). VIP packages are also available for those that raise more. 

Linkin Park are currently in the studio working on the follow-up to 2012’s Living Things. But as Delson explained, having just been to the Philippines to play a show a few months ago, the sextet had to find a way to help. Delson talked to us about his experience there, playing with both Offspring and Bad Religion and the group’s festival plans in 2014, including playing their breakthrough debut, Hybrid Theory, in its entirety.

What made you put this show together?
For starters, we were just in the Philippines. I extended my stay there and it was one of the highlights of my trip to Asia mainly because the people of the Philippines are so warm and generous of spirit and I just loved it. And when the guys saw what happened, we just felt such a need to want to help and certainly Music for Relief’s mission is to raise awareness and resources to respond on behalf of victims of natural disasters.

How will the proceeds from this show be distributed?
We’re so pleased that all of the money raised from the show, all of it, will be going to Music for Relief’s partner in this case, International Medical Core. We vetted all the potential partners and determined they were the best first responders if you will, they are already there on the ground delivering emergency medical response and they do long-term disease prevention.

How did you put together the lineup?
Our band responded immediately and we just started making phone calls. We got a lot of responses from groups that couldn’t do it for a lot of reasons, like someone might be on tour. A lot of those groups have donated items and experiences to an auction we’re gonna do, so beyond the Offspring and special guests we have committed for the show there are a lot of groups, like Dave Grohl was super generous in donating something, Thirty Seconds To Mars as well, Green Day, Chili Peppers were really helpful, Rick Rubin was helpful, there are a ton of people to make this thing work. That’s why it’s called Music for Relief, because it’s really a response for the entire music community for this important cause.

Have you ever played a show with the Offspring before?
We’ve been on festival bills with them and Mike [Shinoda] and I were just talking about it yesterday. When you see their show it’s incredible the depth of their catalog. They’re one of the few bands where when they play a show you truly know every song they play. We’ve always enjoyed watching them and listening to their shows on festivals, but I don’t believe we’ve ever organized a show with them and for them to step up and want to lead the charge on this speaks to their character and how sweet those guys are. We’re really grateful to them for being an integral part of this and we just got a confirmation from Bad Religion, so they’re gonna be on the bill as well. I’m really excited to have those guys on the bill.

Have you ever played with them before?
We played like festival-style shows, I believe we’ve been on an Acoustic Xmas or something and again we haven’t really had the opportunity to organize something together as bands and as friends. So to have them on this is just incredible. Both of these bands are bands that we have looked up to growing up and love their music and respect them as men.

You guys are also doing the Rock Am Ring festival in Germany with Metallica, Kings of Leon and Iron Maiden.
I grew up listening to mostly heavy music for a long amount of my formative years and to be able to share the stage with some of these bands it’s just epic. And we always appreciate the opportunity.

You are playing Hybrid Theory in its entirety at the Download Festival. Will you be doing that anyplace else?
Right now that’s the only place we’ve announced we’re gonna do that. Since 2000 we’ve never played Hybrid Theory in its entirety. And even then I don’t know if we played the whole album as an album and this is gonna be quite a special experience for fans who are in the U.K. for the Download Festival.

Are there songs from the album you are excited to play again after a long absence?
It’s funny, we were joking, because there are a few songs we do incorporate in our set so we probably have half the boxes checked and the other half will definitely require some revisiting in rehearsal to sharpen the tools. There are a couple in there that are like, “I think I remember how to play that, but I shouldn’t be overconfident about it.”

With all these tour dates announced in summer does this mean the album will be done by then?
We’re in the studio almost every day working on our album for next year, so it’s a very fun time for us and very creative. It’ll be out when it’s ready, we’re working very hard toward that end and it’s been a really fun process so far. Right now we’re still in the early phases of everything so everything’s really nebulous, we’re just trying to capture an initial inspiration and see where it leads us.