While many bands embrace the wild, party-fueled lifestyle that often comes with life on the road, Linkin Park always walked a different path — or at least Mike Shinoda says they did. In a candid conversation on the Broken Record Podcast, Shinoda reflected on the band's early touring days, highlighting just how out of step they felt with the party-heavy metal scene of the early 2000s.
"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," said Shinoda. "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."
While many of their peers thrived on the chaos of the road, Linkin Park kept to themselves. Instead of joining backstage revelry, they often stayed tucked away in their tour 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 was quick to point out that there was 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 interview with The Guardian, Shinoda expanded on that cultural divide, describing early 2000s rock tours as "an arms race for who could make the most macho music." He recalled sharing stages with heavyweights like Metallica, Korn, and Slipknot, where aggressive energy was the dominant currency. "We were immersed in a culture where it was like an arms race for who could make the most macho music."
That hyper-masculine vibe, often laced with sexist undertones, never sat well with Shinoda — particularly the lyrics of certain nü-metal peers. "Chester connected with it a little more than the rest of us did, but not by much," he said, referencing late frontman Chester Bennington. "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 leaned heavily into frat-boy energy and shock-value lyrics, Linkin Park carved out their own space with introspective songwriting, vulnerability, and emotional depth — all while still commanding massive crowds on those same tours.
