LINKIN PARK singer Mike Shinoda was asked by Metal Hammer to single put the album that defines what metal is to him.
Shinoda picked METALLICA‘s Ride the Lightning: “I heard this album in high school and I hated metal when I was 12 or 13, but I’d inadvertently heard them through Brad [Delson, LINKIN PARK guitarist]. Ride the Lightning always defines metal to me.”
Asked to single out the album he wishes he’d made, Mike opted for Jimi Hendrix‘s 1967 record Are You Experienced, saying: “I love Axis: Bold as Love too but Are You Experienced is beyond comprehension. You can’t improve on it. The title track, ‘Purple Haze,’ ‘Hey Joe’… those are some of my favorite songs ever.”
Asked about the first record he ever bought, Shinoda replied with RUN DMC‘s 1986 album Raising Hell, saying: “I got it on vinyl when it first came out and my favorite track that I’d play over and over was ‘It’s Tricky.’ That made me want to rap, for sure. That and ‘Yo! MTV Raps.’
“Me and my friends used to swap cassettes and RUN DMC changed my life. It was the most hard rock rap album at that time.”
