Alex joins Halsey at Rock in Rio

[LeonardoMF93]

Yesterday Alex was playing with Halsey at Rock in Rio in Brazil.

 

I don't know what this means about Alex possibly joining a future Linkin Park tour.

 

According to setlist.fm and Halsey's official website, she doesn't have any more shows scheduled, and her last show was at the end of August in New Zealand. Was his appearance just a one-off performance, or is he going to tour with her?

 

 

[LPLStaff]

Split this off into its own topic anyway because we will need a show page for it and we were going to make a thread eventually: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/halsey/2026/parque-olimpico-palco-mundo-rio-de-janeiro-brazil-5375e77d.html

 

Alex was on a 2024-2026 contract with LP for the touring cycle, meaning any show in which LP plays in that period he's going to perform at. This is pretty common in music. Check this Ilan Rubin article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/foo-fighters-drummer-ilan-rubin-says-his-move-from-nine-inch-nails-was-certainly-not-a-swap/

"At the time, there was nothing I knew about. The [early 2026 leg of the Peel It Back] tour that Nine Inch Nails had just triumphantly wrapped up was not on the books. So, as far as I knew, my contract ended on a date. After that, it was, what am I doing next? And when this happened, and the opportunity presented itself, and it was just an obvious great fit and a great thing for me."

 

Ilan isn't a full band member in NIN and was only contracted to play on albums if needed and to tour certain lengths at a time. This is what happens with touring musicians, like Morgan from Muse. Alex is on a contract with LP.

 

His last post says, "Man. It has been a joy and an honor to spend the last two years on the road with Linkin Park. I am endlessly grateful to Brad for trusting me to stand in his place on stage, extraordinarily grateful to the guys for an incredible tour, and very excited for whatever life throws at me next. If anybody needs me I’ll be enjoying coffee with Alejandra and working on arranging early 20th century Jewish cantorial pieces for fuzz guitar"

 

He probably isn't sure if they will select him again as there is always a chance Brad returns, although very unlikely, or the band goes a different route. Hopefully Alex doesn't accept a huge touring contract with another artist and go on the road with them, because he's pretty engrained in the LP world/community already after 100 shows. Surely they had conversations with him after Zurich or at some point, but maybe they didn't. For all we know about how he joined the band, it was VERY last minute and he had literally days to rehearse and learn the songs before the Launch Show... like less than a full week. So, who knows what LP will do next but hopefully they keep Alex.

 

Love to see him with Halsey, she rocks.

[LeonardoMF93]

Yes, exactly! I knew everything you pointed out to me.

 

I only brought this information to the forum to discuss whether his participation ends up being a clue about whether he will be on the next tour or not.

 

What I find curious is that even though Alex is not an official member, he didn't feel like a support musician on stage. That impression only happened in the band's promotional material. For example, during Bleed it Out, he had a major spotlight moment with the lights focused just on him.

 

His participation in her eventual tour could mean that he was already told he won't be on the next LP tour, or maybe that it will take a while to happen.

 

I think right now we don't have clear information about this, but this participation is already the first clue for what we can expect.

 

I just think it would be interesting for Linkin Park to keep a musician who is already integrated into the band, knows the whole setlist, and is very loved by the fans.

 

Now, music is business. It's too early to speculate.

[Yucker]

He's a hired musician, like Dan Mayo and Matthias Harris when Mike Shinoda took them for his solo tour. LP needed a guitar player so they hired him. 

 

Probably at the end of the EU leg they told him that he's free to join whoever he wants/calls him for the rest of the year and (probably) all 2027. This is just a delulu thought of mine but if they start touring again in 2028 (following the usual 2-year-break between albums) and they want him back in the live setup, this is the clever way to do it.

[Trumtram]

There is probably a bigger downtime in the LP worls.

[Rasputin 93]

Let's hope so, since this would benefit the likelihood of a MTM20 release.

[Cesar656]

as it has been said, he is paid to perform for bands live. If LP are not performing he will just take other gigs. Im sure LP will reach out to him for the next tour

[LPLC24]

I don't think the majority of fans really care who the guitarist is. People went to an LP show to see Mike & Chester and now they go to see Mike & Emily. 

 

I think it is very unlikely that Brad will play anytime soon. If he didn't play at Wembley the biggest ever show then he will play nowhere. He was at that show and never even went onstage to wave after.

I would actually prefer it if Alex played on future albums because it is better to see the guitarist who recorded the music on stage rather than a touring musician like he is now.

Edited September 15 by LPLC24

[Vinescence]

16 hours ago, LPLStaff said:

For all we know about how he joined the band, it was VERY last minute and he had literally days to rehearse and learn the songs before the Launch Show... like less than a full week. 

 

There's a gap in the story that I don't get...who was playing guitar during rehearsals before Alex joined?

Mike has said LP had never rehearsed so much in their careers.

Did they rehearse without the lead guitarrist for months? When did Brad decide not to play live anymore?

 

If it's explained in Unshatter, I'll gladly wait for those answers 🙂

[bloodbath]

As we all know, LP isn't one of those bands that they tour for the sake of it (except for 2009), for sure he know that he has a gap of 1 or 2 years until LP start touring again, until then he can do whatever he wants. The conversation must be something like "we will call you in about 18 months, go touring anywhere else if you wish and we will talk then". 

[blackout]

1 hour ago, Vinescence said:

 

There's a gap in the story that I don't get...who was playing guitar during rehearsals before Alex joined?

Mike has said LP had never rehearsed so much in their careers.

Did they rehearse without the lead guitarrist for months? When did Brad decide not to play live anymore?

 

If it's explained in Unshatter, I'll gladly wait for those answers 🙂

 

I was thinking about this too... Did Brad decide not to play last minute but had rehearsed with the band before that?

[FelixSFD]

1 hour ago, Vinescence said:

Did they rehearse without the lead guitarrist for months? When did Brad decide not to play live anymore?

 

If it's explained in Unshatter, I'll gladly wait for those answers 🙂

It is kinda explained in Unshatter. But not the exact timeline and details iirc.

[Vinescence]

3 minutes ago, FelixSFD said:

It is kinda explained in Unshatter. But not the exact timeline and details iirc.

 

Glad we'll get some kind of explanation.

Thanks!

[silverwing]

2 hours ago, FelixSFD said:

It is kinda explained in Unshatter. But not the exact timeline and details iirc.

Is it? Cause i watched and didn't noticed it.

[LPLStaff]

8 hours ago, LPLC24 said:

I don't think the majority of fans really care who the guitarist is. People went to an LP show to see Mike & Chester and now they go to see Mike & Emily. 

 

I think it is very unlikely that Brad will play anytime soon. If he didn't play at Wembley the biggest ever show then he will play nowhere. He was at that show and never even went onstage to wave after.

I would actually prefer it if Alex played on future albums because it is better to see the guitarist who recorded the music on stage rather than a touring musician like he is now.

 

Alex in an interview said he went out to eat in LA after the Launch Show with friends and family. And the waiter or whatever came up and said "are you in Linkin Park?" and thought he was Brad. lol. I think he didn't know the band even played that day, he just randomly thought he was Brad.

 

4 hours ago, Vinescence said:

 

There's a gap in the story that I don't get...who was playing guitar during rehearsals before Alex joined?

Mike has said LP had never rehearsed so much in their careers.

Did they rehearse without the lead guitarrist for months? When did Brad decide not to play live anymore?

 

If it's explained in Unshatter, I'll gladly wait for those answers 🙂

 

Honestly have never known that information either.

But they have so many guitarists in the band now, Mike and Colin play a ton of guitar, then you have Dave and Emily. And Brad when he wants to play.

 

Unsure who rehearsed on guitar. Mike said they asked Colin at one point early on if he wanted to be the drummer or the guitarist, because Brad had not committed to rejoining the band yet. They were well into making From Zero at the studio before Brad decided to join. They were going to just make the album with Mike, Dave, Joe, Colin and Emily.

[MMM]

At the first rehearsals, it was most likely Mike's or Brad's guitar technicians who played (Marc VanGool, Ben Young). And this is nothing new in the world of music. Alex could easily have joined later, because touring guitarists like him usually learn quickly due to the specifics of the profession.

Edited September 15 by MMM

[Vinescence]

7 hours ago, LPLStaff said:

But they have so many guitarists in the band now, Mike and Colin play a ton of guitar, then you have Dave and Emily. And Brad when he wants to play.

 

Unsure who rehearsed on guitar. Mike said they asked Colin at one point early on if he wanted to be the drummer or the guitarist, because Brad had not committed to rejoining the band yet. They were well into making From Zero at the studio before Brad decided to join. They were going to just make the album with Mike, Dave, Joe, Colin and Emily.

 

The live aspect still gets me. They needed a live guitarrist. Even if Colin had played guitar for a while, that would've led to a even bigger problem, because they'd need a live drummer (way more critical)

 

7 hours ago, MMM said:

At the first rehearsals, it was most likely Mike's or Brad's guitar technicians who played (Marc VanGool, Ben Young). And this is nothing new in the world of music. Alex could easily have joined later, because touring guitarists like him usually learn quickly due to the specifics of the profession.

Great point about the techs playing Brad's parts.

For me it's still wild to think that LP prepared their triumphant return for months, allegedly rehearsing far more than any other time in their career, only to play with their new lead guitarrist a couple of days before the launch show watched by millions of people lol

[LeonardoMF93]

14 hours ago, Vinescence said:

 

The live aspect still gets me. They needed a live guitarrist. Even if Colin had played guitar for a while, that would've led to a even bigger problem, because they'd need a live drummer (way more critical)

 

Great point about the techs playing Brad's parts.

For me it's still wild to think that LP prepared their triumphant return for months, allegedly rehearsing far more than any other time in their career, only to play with their new lead guitarrist a couple of days before the launch show watched by millions of people lol

 

Considering how secretive the band's entire comeback was, postponing the inclusion of someone completely outside their team may have also been a choice to prevent information leaks, while Brad was still figuring out what he wanted to do.

[FromTheInside]

Hey guys, I'm sorry this is a little bit off topic, I brought up this topic a few months ago but I have to ask again. I was watching a new live videos and I still don't know what Alex is playing live. To me it looks like he's trading a guitar parts with Mike and sometimes playing a different chords than the actual song. Am I completely wrong or is this a real thing? Thanks for reply.