Scuzz TV Full Interview

[Geki]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVSydwDS62c

 

Scuzz TV has finally uploaded the full special with Linkin Park for One More Light. A lot of interesting things are said in the interview. I was wondering, does anyone know who Chester lost that was a dear friend to him during the process? It wasn't the girl that they wrote One More Light for, because he also mentions losing her.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Geki

[lpliveusername]

Wrong link.

[Geki]

Wrong link.

 

Edited the main post with the link, my bad.

[RickLPL]

Maybe he was referring to Scott Weiland?

[Geki]

Maybe he was referring to Scott Weiland?

 

Yeah, possibly. Didn't think of that. I thought it was possibly Church since I haven't seen him around in a while, but then I realized that he spoke at Chester's funeral and also was shown by TMZ flipping off the camera on the day that Chester died. I guess it probably was Scott. I didn't know that he was friends with Scott. I knew Scott practically hated Chester (even having a fuck you Chester) chant at one of his shows in 2013) but Chester did look up to him, I think.

[Justin]

EDIT: Sorry, misread the original post.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Justin

[Fleur de Lys]

What stands out to me the most in these later interviews is that Mike seems so distant and tired, and he let's Chester make most of the points. Mike is usually very enthusiastic and can't wait to get his points across. He looks defeated here. I believe the backlash to OML did make him question their decisions, you can almost see him cringing when Chester makes use of some of their usual interview buzzword pieces. I feel so bad for him. I think the trajectory they had envisioned for 2017 was that it would finally turn around for the band (not commercially, but personally), after all the personal struggles they had dealt with in the last couple of years. And then the backlash happened, not that it was that bad in itself, I just think they imagined that it would put them back in the top 40 game, looking at the later LPTV videos of Mike and Brad talking in the studio... And then everything with Chester happened. It's just such a shame.

[Soeffingnaive92]

I hope Mike will find the energy to carry on his ideas, he s so fucking talented. I have faith he will come out with s/thing great In years to come

[Geki]

What stands out to me the most in these later interviews is that Mike seems so distant and tired, and he let's Chester make most of the points. Mike is usually very enthusiastic and can't wait to get his points across. He looks defeated here. I believe the backlash to OML did make him question their decisions, you can almost see him cringing when Chester makes use of some of their usual interview buzzword pieces. I feel so bad for him. I think the trajectory they had envisioned for 2017 was that it would finally turn around for the band (not commercially, but personally), after all the personal struggles they had dealt with in the last couple of years. And then the backlash happened, not that it was that bad in itself, I just think they imagined that it would put them back in the top 40 game, looking at the later LPTV videos of Mike and Brad talking in the studio... And then everything with Chester happened. It's just such a shame.

 

The backlash definitely bothered Mike and Chester, despite what they may say, you can tell. I don't think they expected THAT BAD of a backlash for Heavy. I personally believe it was because it was the very first thing people heard from the record and it was by far the poppiest song on the album, even featured a pop female artist, etc. If they came out with something like Talking To Myself first, it would have been a much different story. And then they put out Battle Symphony and Good Goodbye which are two of the worst songs on the album, IMO. The actual album had some decent songs on it, but people had to wait until late May to hear them and many lost interest by that time, who weren't hardcore fans, not everyone checks out albums nowadays and digs for the deeper cuts on albums, a lot of people only listen to singles or promo shit, actually.

 

I also think the band had a different idea for this album and cycle. It was very personal to them, and I think Warner jumped all over it because it was a pop album, they wanted to market it as such in a big way. If you watch an interview with Mike just after Heavy came out, he said he wouldn't even call it pop, but eventually, he did, as well as the band, because the label really pushed that. Heavy is 100% a pop song, but the band didn't see it that way, is what I'm saying. It was largely dismissed as ''Linkin Park goes pop'' and many people shit all over it because of it and didn't give the album a chance.

 

Now, many people DID like Heavy, it did well in the charts, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still the band's lowest selling album of their career, right around the sales for The Hunting Party, which wasn't marketable at all, while this album was in a big way. Any of the songs could have been on pop radio, Disney channel, etc. Didn't Heavy get nominated for a Kid's Choice Award? Lol. But I think the hardcore fans did have a backlash, so didn't the rock fans, and it bothered Mike and Chester.

[hahninator]

I think a lot of that is speculation. That could have been Mike on a quiet day. They seemed very excited to play this music live and were very pleased with the album. As always, they take pride in what they record and release. I don't see them almost ever reflect negatively on their music except (lol) some of Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Mostly Runaway and Easier to Run. The hardcore fans have backlashed ever since Minutes to Midnight, which was a huge album. Fans went nuts about them playing WID, NMS, and GU live then the album has mostly softer stuff after that. And don't forget ATS, the biggest backlash ever. The thing is with LP, they expect it and know it's going to happen and have always handled it well.

 

Mike for sure was reading all of the comments online about Heavy/OML but as usual, there is like a 50/50 reaction, it isn't 100% against it. The label couldn't be any more supportive of LP than they already are, IMO.

 

OML has outsold THP at this point in their releases, if I am reading numbers correctly. Heavy did pretty good on the radio. Europe sold a LOT of tickets and so did South America, but the USA wasn't moving big tickets for the tour. It happens, sometimes albums aren't massive for them in certain regions. They skipped Asia or Australia now for several albums. Skipped South America for MTM. OML was really big in certain areas, especially Europe.

 

I think people are reading too much into it. I see OML as just another album that they were happy about and were touring for, nothing exceptionally unique about this one. I don't think you'll ever see a backlash like you saw with ATS again, even for the OML pop sound. ATS truly divided people, and now it's funny because it's regarded as one of their top albums.

[Geki]

I think a lot of that is speculation. That could have been Mike on a quiet day. They seemed very excited to play this music live and were very pleased with the album. As always, they take pride in what they record and release. I don't see them almost ever reflect negatively on their music except (lol) some of Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Mostly Runaway and Easier to Run. The hardcore fans have backlashed ever since Minutes to Midnight, which was a huge album. Fans went nuts about them playing WID, NMS, and GU live then the album has mostly softer stuff after that. And don't forget ATS, the biggest backlash ever. The thing is with LP, they expect it and know it's going to happen and have always handled it well.

 

Mike for sure was reading all of the comments online about Heavy/OML but as usual, there is like a 50/50 reaction, it isn't 100% against it. The label couldn't be any more supportive of LP than they already are, IMO.

 

OML has outsold THP at this point in their releases, if I am reading numbers correctly. Heavy did pretty good on the radio. Europe sold a LOT of tickets and so did South America, but the USA wasn't moving big tickets for the tour. It happens, sometimes albums aren't massive for them in certain regions. They skipped Asia or Australia now for several albums. Skipped South America for MTM. OML was really big in certain areas, especially Europe.

 

I think people are reading too much into it. I see OML as just another album that they were happy about and were touring for, nothing exceptionally unique about this one. I don't think you'll ever see a backlash like you saw with ATS again, even for the OML pop sound. ATS truly divided people, and now it's funny because it's regarded as one of their top albums.

 

Yeah, but did OML did better than THP before Chester died? Because ever since Chester died, people have been buying/streaming/downloading LP's music again in big numbers. Also, the reason that the tour probably didn't sell as well in the U.S. is because we already have a shit ton of pop all over our radios here, so if people are going to listen to that kind of music, they aren't going to think ''Hey, I know, I'll put on the rock/metal band Linkin Park''. That's the mentality. The tour also had the strangest and worst picks for touring bands, it wasn't like Carnivores that had MASSIVE support acts with a big following. They had like 5 different support acts for this tour and they were all strange choices. If they had came out and said they were doing a full 30 date U.S. tour with Blink-182 and another rock band, they would have sold a shit ton. It's all about marketing in the U.S. I'm not trying to just defend THP because I fucking love THP, but marketing is very important here in the states. It's not even about the quality of music anymore, it's sad, but it's the truth. OML does have some good music on it, I'm not trying to bash it completely (although I do hate Heavy).

 

You are right, though, it is all speculation. We can't possibly know/have known what was going on in Mike's or Chester's heads at any given time.

Edited August 13, 2017 by Geki

[hahninator]

It outsold THP in week one, right? Or am I wrong?

 

I agree, a 30 date Blink/LP tour, while I do not like Blink, would have been a big tour. Machine Gun Kelly is pretty much regarded as a joke by anyone I've ever brought him up to. Snoop would have been cool but he's already toured with LP. Maybe LP booked the tour too late to get bigger artists on it.

[Geki]

It outsold THP in week one, right? Or am I wrong?

 

I agree, a 30 date Blink/LP tour, while I do not like Blink, would have been a big tour. Machine Gun Kelly is pretty much regarded as a joke by anyone I've ever brought him up to. Snoop would have been cool but he's already toured with LP. Maybe LP booked the tour too late to get bigger artists on it.

 

This is possible, it's just weird to me. The album was originally supposed to come out in June 2016. It didn't end up coming out until May 2017. Many tour dates for South America and Europe were already booked in 2016. So they must have had at least some of the framework of the touring cycle planned out in 2016. I can't imagine that they didn't plan the U.S. tour until last minute, but you never know. I firmly believe that they asked twenty one pilots to tour the U.S. with them and twenty one pilots declined, but that's just my own speculation and opinion. Maybe they asked Blink-182 to do a full co-headlining tour with them but they didn't want to do a whole tour? It was strange that Blink-182 was headlining the NYC show and Linkin Park was headlining the Hershey show. Or maybe they just genuinely wanted Machine Gun Kelly as the support act. He is also regarded as a joke by many people I know in real life who are into hip-hop, etc. One Ok Rock was also playing at a lot of the east coast shows, too. Snoop Dogg would have been good support but who knows. The tour was all around a very strange tour for the band.

 

As far as the sales of OML go, I thought it did worse than THP in it's first week of being out. But I could be wrong. It doesn't really matter to me anyways. But I think it did much better overseas than it did in the U.S. Linkin Park haven't been ''huge'' in the U.S. for a long time. People I know in real life always say stuff like ''I think they did that song for Transformers years ago and haven't made music since'' or ''I think they broke up and did solo projects'', etc. They were big in America from 2000-2009, that whole decade of the 2000's, but they weren't very big here in America in the 2010's at all, IMO.

[hahninator]

I have my theories why the album took so long but I don't think they are appropriate to mention here so I won't get into that out of respect for LP/Chester. I also agree with you they probably asked 21P. They were absolutely going to tour in 2016, but something happened that they decided to push the album. And I'll leave it at that.

[spraypaintninkpens]

OML was marketed terribly. I blame WB for that. The worst 3 songs were used to promote the album. I had a bad taste of the album before even listening to it. As a result, I didn't really give it a fair shot until after July 20. I feel bad about the backlash but the label is to blame again, imo.

I have my theories why the album took so long but I don't think they are appropriate to mention here so I won't get into that out of respect for LP/Chester. I also agree with you they probably asked 21P. They were absolutely going to tour in 2016, but something happened that they decided to push the album. And I'll leave it at that.

Why not, dude? There's literally not much else to talk about here besides depressing stuff.

Edited August 13, 2017 by spraypaintninkpens

[Geki]

I have my theories why the album took so long but I don't think they are appropriate to mention here so I won't get into that out of respect for LP/Chester. I also agree with you they probably asked 21P. They were absolutely going to tour in 2016, but something happened that they decided to push the album. And I'll leave it at that.

 

I see no reason to not bring it up, it's all public information. And the community has been deader than a door nail since Chester has passed. Yeah, probably the fact that Chester got back into drinking and shit again in 2016. It was revealed in Rolling Stone Magazine like a week or two ago, it's all public information. No reason to not talk about it... but if you don't want it to be discussed, you can edit my post, or I can edit it, etc.

 

Chester blacked out from alcohol last August and has been drinking as recently as October 2016, according to the interview. It could be why the album was delayed, I guess. But I don't see how Chester drinking would be a reason to not put out the album or tour. He was drunk 24/7 for most of 2000-2005 and the band toured the most out of anytime in their career during those years. Unless Chester wasn't interested in Linkin Park or making music during that time, which could be possible, I don't see the band putting everything on hold just because Chester was drinking again. The band knew Chester struggled with addiction, and a lot of addicts are bound to relapse at some point. It's a constant battle.

 

I like what you pointed out, spraypaintninkpens. I didn't love any of the music released before the actual album came out, either. I still don't love the album, even now. I find about half of the album tolerable whenever I get an urge to listen to it. I like Nobody Can Save Me a lot, that's really the only song on the album that I genuinely like. But some others songs are tolerable as well, such as Talking To Myself, Sorry For Now and Sharp Edges. The only thing I hate about Sharp Edges is that ''what doesn't kill us makes us stronger'' line. But the rest of the album, I don't really like at all. Halfway Right is ok, but I don't enjoy the whole song, I really only like the verses. I do feel bad about being such a dick when Heavy came out, but I really hated it. I tried so hard to get on board. I also didn't like Battle Symphony or Good Goodbye, and I thought Invisible was meh.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Geki

[BeardyWilderness]

 

Yeah, possibly. Didn't think of that. I thought it was possibly Church since I haven't seen him around in a while, but then I realized that he spoke at Chester's funeral and also was shown by TMZ flipping off the camera on the day that Chester died. I guess it probably was Scott. I didn't know that he was friends with Scott. I knew Scott practically hated Chester (even having a fuck you Chester) chant at one of his shows in 2013) but Chester did look up to him, I think.

 

Church is still around, and was still Chester's friend. He fell out of the DBS/JK circle but was still friends with Chester.