Brad Delson Issues Statement on Not Performing Live

[RogueSoul]

With all the excitement of the livestream show, a lot of questions have been thrown around lately. A big one is the absence of Brad Delson at the show, but seemingly in all promotional interviews and pictures in the past few days' onslaught of interviews and articles (we'll provide a roundup soon of everything we've learned from these). The band posted a statement from Brad on their social media, expressing his excitement for the next chapter of Linkin Park, touching upon his absence, and introducing his live stand-in Alex Feder.

 

 

 

What are your thoughts? We'll miss Brad (and Rob) onstage with the rest of the guys, but we are incredibly excited to see what the band has in store for us this month at their shows. LPLive coverage kicks off in Los Angeles on September 11 - get ready!

[SinisterNL]

I uttermost respect his decision and I am super happy he is still in the band 

 

But all the personalities are just kinda leaving.

 

Thought: I would like LP to play Clubshow.

[NimaLP]

Brad is such a creative force and I'm happy he's still in the band. They're older now and it ain't a surprise that at some point they don't wanna go on tour anymore and wanna spend more time with their families (well, they have been for the past 7 years, but you get what I mean). I hope at some point Brad would pop up as a special appearance on stage once in a while.

[murphyLP]

3 hours ago, NimaLP said:

Brad is such a creative force and I'm happy he's still in the band. They're older now and it ain't a surprise that at some point they don't wanna go on tour anymore and wanna spend more time with their families (well, they have been for the past 7 years, but you get what I mean). I hope at some point Brad would pop up as a special appearance on stage once in a while.

 

I believe we may get him to join on award shows and stuff like these

[Qwerty18]

I'm just happy he stayed in the band and will continue to work in the studio. Always contributed a lot there.

[vinifeijo]

It's weird without Brad, his visuals on stage are iconic (his hair and headphones). Linkin Park imagery on stage has changed a lot (half of it).

But i can understand, Brad never was a great guitar player with lots of energy.
Hope he sticks around and play a few songs here and there.

 

Alex played for the singer LP and now he plays for the band LP. hahhaha that's funny.

[Pro_Ice]

Great to have Brad with the band — as others mentioned, he's been contributing a lot, especially taking on a production role with the last few albums. Gonna miss him on stage though.

 

 

Judging by the fact that Alex uses a Brad rig, I get a feeling this wasn't planned much in advance. That said, whatever personal, health or other issues were the cause, seems like this statement is vague enough to provide cover for Brad skipping this year's tour or not doing touring altogether going forwards. 

[HT_lash]

When the first news came out earlier this year that LP was coming back to play shows, the information was that it was just Mike, Joe and Dave there, so I don't think this decision was made at the last minute.

[hybridcloudyfz]

i cannot wait for the new live shows, they're going to be amazing. i completely understand rob's side of not wanting to associate with linkin park for the time being, and honestly i really wished brad could be on stage for these new tours. he was always kinda funny in the way he was on stage, plus his personality i love because he really made everything funny. i literally will watch the meteora documentary from 2003 just for his jokes. that aside, i can't wait to see how alex does with this.

Edited September 7 by hybridcloudyfz

[Sabi]

26 minutes ago, HT_lash said:

When the first news came out earlier this year that LP was coming back to play shows, the information was that it was just Mike, Joe and Dave there, so I don't think this decision was made at the last minute.

Actually, Brad was mentioned in that article, but Joe wasn't.

[rd1994]

He probably has his reasons and its kind of a bummer, but I respect his choice (I mean..theres nothing else I could do)

[mrfox]

what i've done sounds weird without his riff in chorus and his solo, but maybe he come back at some point in the future

[millytripleseven]

First of all I still support them continuing with LP 2.0, and I'm gonna listen to the new music.

 

With that being said, I gotta be honest.

 

Lack of Chester is extremely hard but of course nothing we can do about it. They gotta move on.

No Rob was a major disappointment, but somehow predictable.

But lack of Brad on tour on top of everything, it just hit me extra hard, because now we have 3/6 members and it's not even gonna be close to being the same. This might be a deal breaker for me when considering seeing them live.

 

A lot of new information in the last couple days, I think I need a week or few to compute all of this.

Edited September 7 by millytripleseven

[rosarioLP]

(new here but have been reading this forum for a while)

 

NOOOO ugh. i love this band. i’ve kept an open mind about everything. fully expected a new singer and was onboard. fully expected them to keep the name and supported it.

 

i was definitely delusional about rob coming back but i understand it. but being at the LPU show and seeing 3 new faces on stage was a LOT to process in the moment. i was relieved to later hear Brad was just not there that night.

 

but him not coming back to tour at all sucks. it just visually doesn’t look like the band i expected back. i got tickets to the nyc show expecting the 4 of them then this announcement comes out :(( given that the comments section on IG are just going on and on about Emily I suppose this isn’t a huge deal to the majority but mann I love Brad and his big hair and headphones 😭

[linkinepi]

Can't blame Brad at all for not wanting to tour and the grueling aspect of it, I am sure he will come and play a few shows here and there.

[Justin]

6 minutes ago, rosarioLP said:

(new here but have been reading this forum for a while)

 

NOOOO ugh. i love this band. i’ve kept an open mind about everything. fully expected a new singer and was onboard. fully expected them to keep the name and supported it.

 

i was definitely delusional about rob coming back but i understand it. but being at the LPU show and seeing 3 new faces on stage was a LOT to process in the moment. i was relieved to later hear Brad was just not there that night.

 

but him not coming back to tour at all sucks. it just visually doesn’t look like the band i expected back. i got tickets to the nyc show expecting the 4 of them then this announcement comes out :(( given that the comments section on IG are just going on and on about Emily I suppose this isn’t a huge deal to the majority but mann I love Brad and his big hair and headphones 😭

Brad's stage presence will be missed, but since he's still very much in the band in every other way besides touring, I have to believe this decision was made out of concern for his physical well-being. Touring is a hard lifestyle, and with Brad being 46 now after 7 years off the road, I can understand his decision.

[rosarioLP]

3 minutes ago, Justin said:

Brad's stage presence will be missed, but since he's still very much in the band in every other way besides touring, I have to believe this decision was made out of concern for his physical well-being. Touring is a hard lifestyle, and with Brad being 46 now after 7 years off the road, I can understand his decision.

yea I respect the decision and appreciate the creative input he will continue to have. just kinda wish the announcement had been made before tickets went on sale. though i guess i would’ve still gone lol

 

his stage presence will definitely be missed ❤️

[Yucker]

I did some research about Alex Feder and he one collaborated with LP. The other LP.

 

 

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

Its better to have him taking care of the business side and also being involved in recording, producing and planning releases.

 

Brad its going back to his roots, when he was a kid this is what he started doing with Jeff Blue.

 

its so good that he's with us, Mike Shinoda is a killer multi instrumentalist but Brad's guitar playing has a unique touch and sound he's the best.

 

 

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

hey guys @LPLStaff @RogueSoul

 

i think that Rob Bourdon departure deserves a newswire post to address his situation 

 

its just like he faded away and we forgot about his existence

 

wish i could be a good writer like you guys to do that

[rd1994]

Also I was just reminded: Billy Talent has a similar thing. Their first drummer can not drum anymore (due to health reasons), but hes still able to work behind the scenes and like coming up with drum parts and it goes as far as still listing both "drummers" as members in the line up and also including both in promo photos.

[TheUnicornOfPower]

I love Brad's look on stage and will miss it. The headphones, the afro, the red PRS. It's actually the thing that made me interested in this band and wanting to pick up a guitar. But have to say that in the later years he seemed much less energetic on stage. Sometimes even wandered off to the side of the stage while performing. From all the original members, I believe that he skipped the largest number of shows, being replaced with the roadie. Not that there were tons of them, but it does stick out. I have a feeling that it's health-related, though I might be wrong. I hope we get to see him from time to time. 

[EnhanX]

Understandable, but he will be missed 🥺

[Hybrider]

It's very sad. I hope Brad is reading this topic.

Edited September 7 by Hybrider

[Astat]

There's a lot to consider about why Brad did this. He dealt with a lot of injuries, especially in the last few years prior to 2017. He hurt his back on the THP tour, and he spent a significant portion of the THP and OML tours wearing KT Tape on his right arm on stage because of chronic wrist problems. He also had the ever-present issue of ear sensitivity, which is why he always wore headphones, and it resulted in concerts being cancelled a few times when he developed ear infections.

 

He's also always been heavily invested in the business side of the band. Remember, Brad's dad was the head of their original merch team (he founded Bandmerch), and Brad by extension had a lot to do with that, and many other business projects since. He's one of Mike's most valued partners when it comes to songwriting/arrangments/production, and apparently he also had a lot of input on the live show production for this run. He wears a LOT of hats, possibly even more than Mike does.

 

I think when you couple 7 years of aging with a previous history of issues that affected his ability to play/tour, plus the numerous other things he does behind the scenes, it's not surprising that the grind of touring might not be the best thing for him. Also, he already set the precedent for this a little bit by missing a few shows here and there starting in 2014 and having Ben fill in for him.