LPLive Visits Jeff Blue

[Astat]

We kind of skimmed over this when it first happened because we didn't want it to get lost in the flood of From Zero-related news, but back in September, while in town for the first show of the From Zero World Tour in Los Angeles, LPLive staff members Mark (Hahninator), Dylan (RogueSoul), and Anthony (Astat) had the chance to spend an afternoon hanging out and filming some content with Jeff Blue! There's more of this stuff in the works, so be sure to follow Jeff on his socials so you don't miss out on anything! You can find him at JeffBlueMusic on Instagram, X/Twitter, and YouTube, as well as at jeffbluemedia.com.

 

You're probably already aware of who Jeff is if you're part of the LPLive community, but here's a short summary: In 1997, while working at Zomba Music Publishing, Jeff was also giving lectures on the music business at UCLA. In attendance at one of these lectures was a young Brad Delson, who met with Jeff a short time later and convinced him to hire him as an intern. Jeff subsequently attended the very first Xero show at the Whisky a Go-Go in Hollywood, and signed them to a publishing deal. Over the next three years, the band played showcases for every record label imaginable (many of them on multiple occasions), nearly split up following a particularly disasterous performance in December of 1998, saw Dave Farrell leave the band in early 1999 and spend the next year and a half recording and performing with numerous bassists (Kyle Christner, Ian Hornbeck, and Scott Koziol most notably), replaced vocalist Mark Wakefield with Chester Bennington, changed their name to Hybrid Theory, finally got signed to Warner Brothers after Jeff was hired to their A&R department, changed their name AGAIN to Plear...for about a week, before deciding Linkin Park was a better option, and finally, in October of 2000, released the album that would change all of their lives: Hybrid Theory. Jeff served as an executive producer on Hybrid Theory, and continued his A&R role with the band through the end of the Hybrid Theory touring cycle in 2002.

 

Given that Jeff was basically the only person other than the band themselves who was involved with their entire pre-Hybrid Theory journey, he amassed a huge collection of material from the band during his time working with them, and having visited with him, we can tell you that the guy has held on to ALL of it, both for archival purposes and out of a genuine love for what the band was doing. Every demo tape or CD, set of lyrics, photo shoot, contract, piece of artwork, etc. that the band produced between 1997 and early 2002 is still in his possession, and a lot of it is stuff that the fans have never seen. In fact, Jeff may be the ONLY person who still has a copy of some of this stuff! Jeff utilized this archival material to write his book, One Step Closer - From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park, which was published in 2020 and documents his time working with the band.

 

It goes without saying that as archivists ourselves, we share a massive mutual interest with Jeff when it comes to this stuff, and it was an amazing experience to go through a bunch of it with him. After the 20th anniversary edition of Hybrid Theory was released in 2020 with previously-unheard tracks like "Dialate," "Could Have Been," "Pictureboard," the Xero version of "Esaul," and the Chester version of "Stick N Move," some of us thought that we may be getting pretty close to having all of the band's pre-Hybrid Theory material, but the information in Jeff's book and our visit with him confirmed that there's still a LOT of stuff in the vaults. Obviously, we can't release any music without the band's permission, and neither can Jeff for that matter, but here's hoping that the rest of the world will get to hear songs like "Ashes," "Deftest," "Turn to Grey," and the various unreleased demo versions of other songs someday!

 

As far as the content we made together, Jeff has been uploading bits of it on social media recently. His first video features him meeting us for the first time, a brief summary of all the stuff he has, the story of how he met Brad and decided to sign the band, and some cool tidbits such as an early copy of the Xero demo tape (with "Dialate" as the second track instead of "Rhinestone," as well as artwork that differs from either the "baby" version we all know and love, or the more rare "shopping cart" version), Jeff's letters to Danny Hayes (the band's lawyer for many years) and Richard Blackstone (Jeff's boss at Zomba) regarding signing the band, and some details on other artists Jeff worked with during the same time period (check out that copy of Korn's "Neidermayer's Mind" demo tape!).

 

 

Jeff's second video focuses on his massive binders full of lyrics and song notes. In addition to having copies of the lyrics themselves, Jeff would often have Mike write summaries of what his mindset was when he was writing them. Jeff wanted to be able to explain what kind of place the band's writing was coming from when pitching them to record labels. You can see some glimpses of demo lyrics (both typed and handwritten) in here, and just from the size of the binder and the equally-large one under it, it's clear that even in their primitive state, these were songs that had a lot to say to the world.

 

 

Video #3 touches on the differences between his roles as a music publisher with Zomba, and an A&R executive with Warner. These typically aren't roles that are occupied by the same person, Jeff just happened to make signing the band part of his employment contract when he was hired by Warner (since the band kept getting rejected by record labels otherwise), so he naturally became their A&R guy as well.

 

 

Again, we have more content planned from our visit with Jeff, so keep checking back! A HUGE thank you to Jeff for inviting us into his home to check this stuff out, we're hoping we get to visit with him again in the future!

[EgorN]

So whose idea was this meeting? Did Jeff invite you or did you ask to come?

[mrfox]

14 hours ago, Astat said:

Jeff may be the ONLY person who still has a copy of some of this stuff!

 

I think Mike has some early demos too. Around the time of LPU 11, he said something like he found old tapes with Blue and Slip in a "closet".

But I guees he doesn't really want these old records to be "out there". I remember him discouraging us from "Deftest hunt", when the cassette with this song was auctioned.

[vinifeijo]

That's a huge meeting. Congrats guys.

Did you listen to any of those secret songs he has?

Edited Tuesday at 08:07 PM by vinifeijo

[LeonardoMF93]

Did I get it wrong? Did you guys listen to Ashes, Deftest, and Turn to Grey? How would you describe these versions of those demos to us? I'm really curious!

 

Jeff seems like an amazing person and probably the biggest collector of pre-Hybrid Theory items. He must have more stuff than the band itself.

 

I'm looking forward to more details about this meeting, and it was really cool of you to wait for the hype around From Zero to settle before talking more about this.

Edited Tuesday at 08:25 PM by LeonardoMF93

[unksoldier2000]

54 minutes ago, LeonardoMF93 said:

Did I get it wrong? Did you guys listen to Ashes, Deftest, and Turn to Grey? How would you describe those demos to us? I'm really curious!

 

Jeff seems like an amazing person and probably the biggest collector of pre-Hybrid Theory items. He must have more stuff than the band itself.

 

I'm looking forward to more details about this meeting, and it was really cool of you to wait for the hype around From Zero to settle before talking about this. You weren't in a rush to reveal that you had this conversation, and that was really thoughtful of you!

Ashes is not so good, Turn to Grey is the worst song in the world's existence and Deftest is a cool song (judging by the Jeff's Vault thread and the Deftest snippet on YT)

hope we could get the full version someday.

 

16 hours ago, Astat said:

We kind of skimmed over this when it first happened because we didn't want it to get lost in the flood of From Zero-related news, but back in September, while in town for the first show of the From Zero World Tour in Los Angeles, LPLive staff members Mark (Hahninator), Dylan (RogueSoul), and Anthony (Astat) had the chance to spend an afternoon hanging out and filming some content with Jeff Blue! There's more of this stuff in the works, so be sure to follow Jeff on his socials so you don't miss out on anything! You can find him at JeffBlueMusic on Instagram, X/Twitter, and YouTube, as well as at jeffbluemedia.com.

 

You're probably already aware of who Jeff is if you're part of the LPLive community, but here's a short summary: In 1997, while working at Zomba Music Publishing, Jeff was also giving lectures on the music business at UCLA. In attendance at one of these lectures was a young Brad Delson, who met with Jeff a short time later and convinced him to hire him as an intern. Jeff subsequently attended the very first Xero show at the Whisky a Go-Go in Hollywood, and signed them to a publishing deal. Over the next three years, the band played showcases for every record label imaginable (many of them on multiple occasions), nearly split up following a particularly disasterous performance in December of 1998, saw Dave Farrell leave the band in early 1999 and spend the next year and a half recording and performing with numerous bassists (Kyle Christner, Ian Hornbeck, and Scott Koziol most notably), replaced vocalist Mark Wakefield with Chester Bennington, changed their name to Hybrid Theory, finally got signed to Warner Brothers after Jeff was hired to their A&R department, changed their name AGAIN to Plear...for about a week, before deciding Linkin Park was a better option, and finally, in October of 2000, released the album that would change all of their lives: Hybrid Theory. Jeff served as an executive producer on Hybrid Theory, and continued his A&R role with the band through the end of the Hybrid Theory touring cycle in 2002.

 

Given that Jeff was basically the only person other than the band themselves who was involved with their entire pre-Hybrid Theory journey, he amassed a huge collection of material from the band during his time working with them, and having visited with him, we can tell you that the guy has held on to ALL of it, both for archival purposes and out of a genuine love for what the band was doing. Every demo tape or CD, set of lyrics, photo shoot, contract, piece of artwork, etc. that the band produced between 1997 and early 2002 is still in his possession, and a lot of it is stuff that the fans have never seen. In fact, Jeff may be the ONLY person who still has a copy of some of this stuff! Jeff utilized this archival material to write his book, One Step Closer - From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park, which was published in 2020 and documents his time working with the band.

 

It goes without saying that as archivists ourselves, we share a massive mutual interest with Jeff when it comes to this stuff, and it was an amazing experience to go through a bunch of it with him. After the 20th anniversary edition of Hybrid Theory was released in 2020 with previously-unheard tracks like "Dialate," "Could Have Been," "Pictureboard," the Xero version of "Esaul," and the Chester version of "Stick N Move," some of us thought that we may be getting pretty close to having all of the band's pre-Hybrid Theory material, but the information in Jeff's book and our visit with him confirmed that there's still a LOT of stuff in the vaults. Obviously, we can't release any music without the band's permission, and neither can Jeff for that matter, but here's hoping that the rest of the world will get to hear songs like "Ashes," "Deftest," "Turn to Grey," and the various unreleased demo versions of other songs someday!

 

As far as the content we made together, Jeff has been uploading bits of it on social media recently. His first video features him meeting us for the first time, a brief summary of all the stuff he has, the story of how he met Brad and decided to sign the band, and some cool tidbits such as an early copy of the Xero demo tape (with "Dialate" as the second track instead of "Rhinestone," as well as artwork that differs from either the "baby" version we all know and love, or the more rare "shopping cart" version), Jeff's letters to Danny Hayes (the band's lawyer for many years) and Richard Blackstone (Jeff's boss at Zomba) regarding signing the band, and some details on other artists Jeff worked with during the same time period (check out that copy of Korn's "Neidermayer's Mind" demo tape!).

 

 

Jeff's second video focuses on his massive binders full of lyrics and song notes. In addition to having copies of the lyrics themselves, Jeff would often have Mike write summaries of what his mindset was when he was writing them. Jeff wanted to be able to explain what kind of place the band's writing was coming from when pitching them to record labels. You can see some glimpses of demo lyrics (both typed and handwritten) in here, and just from the size of the binder and the equally-large one under it, it's clear that even in their primitive state, these were songs that had a lot to say to the world.

 

 

Video #3 touches on the differences between his roles as a music publisher with Zomba, and an A&R executive with Warner. These typically aren't roles that are occupied by the same person, Jeff just happened to make signing the band part of his employment contract when he was hired by Warner (since the band kept getting rejected by record labels otherwise), so he naturally became their A&R guy as well.

 

 

Again, we have more content planned from our visit with Jeff, so keep checking back! A HUGE thank you to Jeff for inviting us into his home to check this stuff out, we're hoping we get to visit with him again in the future!

so we were discussing that (i forgot where) does Jeff has multitrack CDs around there?

someone mentioned that there was a "CD Parts"

Edited Tuesday at 09:05 PM by unksoldier2000

[Hybrider]

This is incredible. Tell us more about unreleased demos. Are there any 2001 demos? How they sound? And did you heard Xero versions of Step Up or Stick N Move from studio? 

[Rob_Wilson]

I’m confused. A couple of years ago when his book came out, his name was mud due to how he treated the band in the early days…

 

Now it’s kind of forgotten to be able to get access to some rare stuff from him?

 

The rare stuff is cool and all, but if we can’t see it or listen to it then it’s a shame. Plus knowing how Mike talks about him (without naming him) whenever he’s asked about early challenges the band faced, he’s clearly still pissed at him. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Hybrider]

I wonder if Jeff have Xero - Coal. There isn't anything about that demo. At least I don't know about it. There must be more unfinished instrumental demos like Coal is. All of those demos which Jeff have, have also vocals. So there must exist more unfinished demos which maybe even Jeff don't know about them.

[bloodbath]

I still don't understand the dynamics between the band and Jeff. Mike implies that Jeff was an asshole with the band. While in the other hand, Jeff seems the biggest, most invested fan in the world. What went wrong betwythem? Did Jeff mistreated LP, was he a good guy but committed some mistakes?

 

Btw, HUGE THANKS FOR THIS

Edited Wednesday at 12:24 AM by bloodbath

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

2 hours ago, bloodbath said:

I still don't understand the dynamics between the band and Jeff. Mike implies that Jeff was an asshole with the band. While in the other hand, Jeff seems the biggest, most invested fan in the world. What went wrong betwythem? Did Jeff mistreated LP, was he a good guy but committed some mistakes?

 

Btw, HUGE THANKS FOR THIS

 

Read his book

The label was trying to get in the way of the bands image, music, style, trying to get rid of Mike and Jeff was in the middle of that and he kinda listened to the label and tried to do the things that they wanted, they let him work with them again for Meteora basically Mike said to Jeff "no bullshit this time" the album got insanely successful but the relationship was already fractured and they decided that they didn't want to work w him ever again.

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

4 hours ago, Rob_Wilson said:

I’m confused. A couple of years ago when his book came out, his name was mud due to how he treated the band in the early days…

 

Now it’s kind of forgotten to be able to get access to some rare stuff from him?

 

The rare stuff is cool and all, but if we can’t see it or listen to it then it’s a shame. Plus knowing how Mike talks about him (without naming him) whenever he’s asked about early challenges the band faced, he’s clearly still pissed at him. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

They have the right to be angry at him he did stuff that hurt their relationship but its undeniable that he was very very important for the band he was like the only guy who believed in them.

 

Probably without his involvement linkin park wouldn't exist. 

 

Who knows?

 

Would be cool if they reunite and make amends, seems unlikely.. If thst didn't happen when C passed away its unlikely that it will happen now. 

[Hybrid1988]

Wild stuff. Crazy to think that LP as we know them might have never existed without Jeff. Maybe The band just never makes it. The story of the band and their rise is seriously such a mash up of hard work and serendipity. 

[Trumtram]

5 hours ago, JZLP-Benningstrong said:

Mike said to Jeff "no bullshit this time" the album got insanely successful but the relationship was already fractured and they decided that they didn't want to work w him ever again.

Wasn't that said to Don Gilmore? They severed ties with Jeff before Reanimation came out, if I recall correctly.

[Trumtram]

I feel like the whole situation with Jeff and the band is strange in a way. I have no fixed opinion on Jeff. He is super proud of his work in the industry and the artists he helped to push, as he should be. To me, it seems like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place once he joined Warner. Let's not forget that we are talking about the record industry in the late 90s. There were certain ways of handling artists, and he describes these problems in his book. He was forced to apply "label rules" in his function and had to please his new employer. At the same time, he was this big fan of the band which he advocated for. He tried to strike a balance, but the band seemed to think that he wanted to sell them out to the label. They probably felt betrayed and offended by his input after a certain time (which is natural when stuff like taking Mike out of the band is proposed). Once they became a worldwide sensation, they had the means to demand stuff, and they didn't want to repeat what happened during the making of HT. So they cut Jeff out.

 

There is probably stuff we don't know about, but I think it's super harsh to not even acknowledge Jeff and his immense contribution, even after 25 years. Without Jeff, there wouldn't be Linkin Park because he took the risk of making it a condition that LP gets signed with him to Warner. Even if everyone in the band agrees that his handling of things was not good, he deserves a lot of credit for discovering and believing in the band. Personally, I can't recall one positive mention of Jeff by anyone from the band when it comes to the band's history. It's not the best look in my books, but it is what it is.

 

That being said: It's super cool that he is inviting people like LPL-staff to check out all this stuff he has because it is a GOLD MINE. So, thanks for everyone involved here and looking forward to what the future brings.

Edited Wednesday at 10:33 AM by Trumtram

[LPsMart]

Is Episode 2 prove that Pointillism is So Far Away? That song has so many titles man... still my favorite from that era I think

[Hybrider]

2 hours ago, LPsMart said:

Is Episode 2 prove that Pointillism is So Far Away? That song has so many titles man... still my favorite from that era I think

Mine too. So Far Away is such a banger. They could it finish on HT.

[mrfox]

If they are pissed at each other, it's quite unlikely that LP gave permission to release anything from Jeff Blue's vault.

Edited Wednesday at 03:56 PM by mrfox

[Hybridtheory]

I hope something leaks! lol

[RayGun4200]

20 hours ago, unksoldier2000 said:

 

 

so we were discussing that (i forgot where) does Jeff has multitrack CDs around there?

someone mentioned that there was a "CD Parts"

Yeah we were discussing that in the Chatbox days ago and that was me lol. But by the looks of it he has an unknown one to blurry to see and possibly In The End and Crawling but I'd imagine he has all the Parts CDs

[Hybridtheory]

I hope the band releases all these demos that were left out of the HT20 box set. Maybe it could appear in some way on the HT30, even if there isn't a new box set, but maybe a page on the band's website with the files there in a kind of "HT 30th vault" page with all these demos, some rare shows from the 2000-2002 era, that would be really cool.

[LPsMart]

39 minutes ago, Hybridtheory said:

I hope the band releases all these demos that were left out of the HT20 box set. Maybe it could appear in some way on the HT30, even if there isn't a new box set, but maybe a page on the band's website with the files there in a kind of "HT 30th vault" page with all these demos, some rare shows from the 2000-2002 era, that would be really cool.

My guess is that he's gonna sell some tracks to Warner for HT30. Maybe back out if they give too little.

There's definitely demand and I think Jeff should be compensated somehow, if he offers that catalogue to be released. After all, he did contribute to the success of the band. Maybe not what the band wanted, but maybe something the band needed. Also he is godlike for keeping this archive. I envy Astat, Dylan and Mark for that experience. Did they listen to stuff? I'm so intrigued. If only Mike would reach out to make amends.

[unksoldier2000]

18 hours ago, RayGun4200 said:

Yeah we were discussing that in the Chatbox days ago and that was me lol. But by the looks of it he has an unknown one to blurry to see and possibly In The End and Crawling but I'd imagine he has all the Parts CDs

hope any info related to that can come in a near future... imagine if he has all NRG session tracks as multi.

 

17 hours ago, LPsMart said:

My guess is that he's gonna sell some tracks to Warner for HT30. Maybe back out if they give too little.

There's definitely demand and I think Jeff should be compensated somehow, if he offers that catalogue to be released. After all, he did contribute to the success of the band. Maybe not what the band wanted, but maybe something the band needed. Also he is godlike for keeping this archive. I envy Astat, Dylan and Mark for that experience. Did they listen to stuff? I'm so intrigued. If only Mike would reach out to make amends.

yes, read this thread

[bloodbath]

4 hours ago, Hybridtheory said:

I hope the band releases all these demos that were left out of the HT20 box set. Maybe it could appear in some way on the HT30, even if there isn't a new box set, but maybe a page on the band's website with the files there in a kind of "HT 30th vault" page with all these demos, some rare shows from the 2000-2002 era, that would be really cool.

Another boxset would be a cash grab, to be honest.

 

Man, regarding Jeff, after reading all the comments, I kinda feel bad for him. He seem to me like a father who has better intentions than idea about raising his son and after many mistakes his kid doesn't even want to speak with him anymore. He feels tremendously guilty years after and collects every single thing his son has done when he was in good terms with him. I don't know, maybe is a douchebag, but seems honest to me. 

[EgorN]

I really hope Jeff's house is safe these days.. I think there was a story about Fred Durst's house burning down a few years ago, and with it some of Limp Bizkit's memorabilia...

Edited Thursday at 11:30 AM by EgorN