B
rad Delson had grown up
on a diet of Guns N’ Roses
and Metallica, chemically
straightening his curly hair to
look more like his heroes, before
realising he risked it falling out.
The guitarist would soon develop his own
trademark look, though, donning a large
pair of headphones onstage.
“I’m not sure why I wear them,” Brad would
ponder later. “I started wearing them a while
ago and got used to it, so thought it would be a
good idea to keep wearing them.”
Thankfully, it was around this time that a
somewhat better decision was made by Brad,
when he elected to take an internship at Zomba
Music Publishing. Upon seeing the various items
of Korn and Limp Bizkit paraphernalia adorning
the walls of their offices, Brad felt compelled
to tell the company’s vice president, Jeff Blue,
about his fledgling band, Xero, and their plans
to change the world.
Struck by the 19-year-old’s ambition and,
well, balls, Jeff went along to the band’s firstever show – at the legendary Whisky A Go Go
in West Hollywood, of all places. Sufficiently
impressed by what he heard, he offered Xero a
publishing development deal.
Brad had known Mike Shinoda since they
were both 13. The rap-loving son of a Japanese-
American father, and a mother who encouraged
him to take up piano because it would look good
on college applications, Mike was something of
a technical genius. After starting Xero with Brad
and drummer Rob Bourdon in 1996, Mike turned
his bedroom into a makeshift studio, complete
with four-track recorder and vocal mic to capture
their early demos. Rob’s roommate was Dave
‘Phoenix’ Pharrell, who joined a Christian ska-
punk band called Tasty Snax in high school,
switching from guitar to bass to fill the gap in
their ranks and sticking with that instrument. DJ
Joe Hahn, who bonded with Mike at art school
over their shared love of hip-hop, and co-vocalist
Mark Wakefield completed the line-up.
You’d think receiving a development deal
would be a quick win for Xero, but it was anything
but. The lack of progress soon proved enough forMark, who left to pursue other projects.
“I wanted somebody in the band who had the
same drive and passion for melodic singing vocals
as I had towards rapping vocals,” Mike would
say of the gap left by the departure of Mark,
who today is the VP of Velvet Hammer, an artist
management company with a roster that includes
Korn, Deftones and The Smashing Pumpkins.
Chester Bennington could relate to the idea
of not being where you want to be, and certainly
had the requisite passion. He’d enjoyed modest
acclaim in his native Phoenix, Arizona, with local
band Grey Daze, a post-grunge outfit that saw
the late-teen make his first record, enjoy radio
play and perform in 2,500-capacity venues. But
while that might have suited some, Chester
dared to dream even bigger, growing impatient
with the absence of ambition in his Grey Daze
bandmates, and lack of traction beyond the
borders of his home state.
“Nobody outside Arizona was interested,” he
recalled. “It was very difficult to be the guy who
wrote and sang the songs and share the credit
with people who didn’t really give a shit. Very fewKERRANG! 25Only one man here was confident
he wasn’t going to be losing his
wallet any time soon