In a comprehensive and candid discussion with Vulture recently, Mike Shinoda touched upon numerous interesting subjects.
One notable topic mentioned was the apparent displeasure of the Sharon Osbourne, regarding LINKIN PARK‘s inclusion in the 2001 Ozzfest lineup.
“Sharon Osbourne said the only reason we’re including these bands on Ozzfest — and she meant us and PAPA ROACH and some others — is for the girls. The day before we played our first show of Ozzfest, and she’s already s**t-talking us.”
This wasn’t the first instance when Mike stated that Osbourne placed them in a difficult position during that tour. Earlier in 2018, he narrated a more detailed account to Vice, explaining how Sharon delivered a fatal blow by consistently grouping them with CRAZY TOWN in terms of nightly billing.
“When LINKIN PARK were playing Ozzfest, we were mid-to-early main stage. At the time, we had just put out our first album and we hadn’t played in front of many metal fans yet,” Shinoda said at the time. “We were on the bill with CRAZY TOWN and PAPA ROACH who, Sharon Osbourne admitted in an interview before the tour even started that she put all those bands on the bill, including us, for girls.
“That was her statement, not mine. And we were like, “what the f**k Sharon? You screwed us!” We started the tour the first week and we played immediately after CRAZY TOWN. “So the fans were booing unforgivably before we even got to the stage. So the beginning of our set was a like an understated electronic intro with MASSIVE ATTACK. We thought that this would let the Ozzfest fans know that we weren’t CRAZY TOWN.
“But the metal fans didn’t know the difference between MASSIVE ATTACK and CRAZY TOWN so they were booing from the start. We had a 40 minute set and it took most of it to win the fans back.”
“The next week, we were in Philly and our DJ Joe Hahn found this album in a record store and said, ‘Instead of our intro, I’m going to play ‘Raining Blood’ at the beginning of our set.” We thought that it couldn’t be any worse than what we’ve been dealing with. Why the f**k not? He played the first 60 seconds of that song and the crowd was booing before but when it started happening they went apesh*t and cheered the whole set. It changed the whole tour. All we needed to do was extend an olive branch and say, ‘We get you.’
