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Mike Shinoda looks back: ‘Would I have wanted Linkin Park to be successful without being recognisable? Probably’

The frontman on coping with fame, losing his bandmate, and finding new fans 20 years on

We knew he had done something life-changing with Hybrid Theory, and it was a moment in time people were going to remember While the group had got bigger, we were still the same, focused on curating and communicating our message, and always questioning our motives: what are we trying to say with our music and what is our artistic vision? The fame aspect of my career always felt odd – to the extent that I did an art series in 2008 and 2009 called Glorious Excess, where I painted about celebrity culture, reality TV, Michael Jackson and Diana, Princess of Wales. We toured non-stop for the first two records, and kudos to Brad [Delson, guitarist], Dave [Farrell, bassist] and Rob [Bourdon, drummer], who took stock of how our lives had changed and suggested we had a break.

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