K- It's the world famous KROQ. 106.7 K-R-O-Q and it's the Kevin and Bean show at 7:35. Norah Jones there with her song 'Papercut.'

B- Uh, no. That's Linkin Park actually.

K- But we do have Norah Jones on the phone from Milan, Italy right now as a matter of fact.

C- hahaha

KB- Chester! How are you?

C- What's up guys?

KB- Hey, uh, hows the time difference work for the Grammys? You're in Italy right now. What time was the Grammys on last night where you were?

C- I have no idea cuz I was playing a show.

KB- Ahh, so you missed it. Did you hear about it? Did you hear Norah Jones won everything?

C- No I haven't. I didn't even know the Grammys were last night.

KB- Norah Jones won album of the year over Eminem and Springstein and Nellyville and the Dixie Chicks.

C- Whatever.

KB- Yeah that's what I thought. She also won-

C- Hey dude.

KB- Yeah?

C- As that one, uh, I can't remember that name of that guy, but you know, WHATEVA!

KB- (laughs) Yeah right, WHATEVA.

C- Yeah, Norah Jones like won this, like, this award and I was like, WHATEVA!

KB- (laughs) Just so you know, by the way, she also won song of the year, record of the year, best new artist. It was, uh, so crazy.

C- Yeah, whatever.

KB- Now you guys-you guys ever won a Grammy before?

C- Actually, uh, yeah we did. We won a Grammy for best performance best hard rock performance for Crawling.

KB- Sweet. You're just lucky Norah Jones wasn't in your category.

C- Yeah, no kidding.

KB- Now you guys are in Italy, but you're calling in to promote a couple of things. One is your new CD Meteora which is coming out March 25th.

C- Yes

KB- I heard some of that. I heard some of the CD. Mike and some of the guys played it for me. It's unbelievable.

C- Thank you very much.

KB- I'm so happy.

C- I wanted to be there so I can hang out with you and say hi, but-

KB- BUT-

C- I was nursing, uh, I was nursing the plague.

KB- You had all that stuff to take care of and those things to go to.

C- Yeah-right.

KB- Tell us about making the record because, you know, we gave you guys a really hard time about that BS remix record that you put out and now you actually went into the studio and worked on some new songs. Tell us about the birth of Meteora.

C- Well ,actually, uh, Meteora took about 18 months to write.

KB- How long would it have taken without Play Station 2?

C- Uh, probably about 3 and a half weeks.

KB- That's what I thought.

C- (laughs) Yeah, actually, you know, it was something that we felt like we had to start getting ourselves geared up for early on. We…when we were on tour on Ozzfest, uh, in 2001, we basically dedicated one bus as the studio bus. We took out the back lounge and put in out pro tools rig and all that kind of stuff. And we started getting out all the ideas that was coming into out heads. Um, by the time we were done touring, we had about 80 songs.

KB- Wow! Oh my God

C- Uh, then we started, like, you know, we basically took time away from those ideas and we did Reanimation.

KB- Right

C- Kind of like take a step back from everything and kind of like really let the…let the fat float to the top.

KB- Right, right.

C- And, uh, once Reanimation was done we came back and we narrowed…we slammed those 80 songs into about 50. And then we brought in Don Gilmore. He listened to everything and we knocked those 80…no, 50 tracks down to 17 or 20 tracks. Uh, and then we really focused on those tracks at Mike's house. And, uh, we basically went in with about 17 tracks into NRG and cut those down to 12.

KB- Is that a difficult process? I mean, was there, for example, was there a song you thought was great and needed to be on the album that everyone else voted off or did ya'll pretty much agree on it?

C- You know, I mean, every song went through such a transformation, like over and over again that it really came down to the wire. You know what I mean? It really came down to, like, the last minute of which songs were gonna make it because there were some songs that were, like, really great songs, but they just didn't fit with the other songs we wanted on the record. You know what I mean? It would have stuck out.

KB- Mike was saying that you can he would write the chorus of the song 30, 35 times.

C- Yeah

KB- A lot of people don't know the perfectionism that goes into making an album like that.

C- I'll tell you man, it was really, like, you know, at points you just really felt like, um, sometimes, like, I was, like, beating a dead horse. You know what I mean? I just, I was like, we have 4 great choruses that anybody will kill for and you know, we scrapped all of them.

KB- (laughs) That doesn't seem like the plan.

C- You know, I mean, I was just going insane. You know, but that's the way we work. We don't…when we wrote…when we actually went in and recorded, um, the track…uh…uh…

KB- 'Somewhere I Belong?'

C- No, not 'Somewhere I Belong.' Um (makes fart noise) I'm like on a total brain fart. But, anyways, it was track number 8.

KB- Right

C- Um, on the record it was actually the first song that we recorded and that song was basically, like, I think, in my opinion, one of the best songs we've ever written. And to start the recording process off like that kind of set a bar. You know what I mean?

KB- Right

C- And we had to live up to it. So, it kind of threw us off. You know what I mean? (laughs)

KB- We have uh

C- Your supposed to save the best for last, but you like saved the best for first.

KB- First, right.

C- And we had to like live up to the standard of that song for the rest of the album.

KB- This is Chester Bennington on the phone from Milan, Italy. He is, of course, the singer for Linkin Park. We're getting ready to world premiere a new LP song here in just a minute. Do you think any of these songs are good enough that Simon Cowell would give them thumbs up on American Idol?

C- I don't think so.

KB- (laughs) No, probably not.

C- I actually had a bet. I said, " I wonder if I disguise myself and went and auditioned for American Idol, if I would actually be talented enough to make it into the top 10?"

KB- The answer to that is no.

C- Yeah (laughs)

KB- Let me ask you this Chester, because of the success of your first 2 records, millions and millions sold, did that afford you anything in the studio that you didn't have the first time around because now, you know, they're gonna give you whatever you want because you're proven hit makers. Were you able to do some cool stuff or get equipment that you wanted or anything like that?

C- Yeah, actually, um, one of the great things about, you know, having the success of Hybrid Theory and then putting out Reanimation and having kind of like that as a surprise success, um, really kind of afforded us to be able to really expand out abilities to like work with different things. Like, we pulled in, uh, a ten piece orchestra, um, and a couple of the songs we used a Japanese pan flute. Um, we used live piano for the first time, acoustic guitars. We just basically…we afforded ourselves, uh, the opportunity to do whatever we wanted to creatively.

KB- Now on the new CD, I guess there's also a limited edition DVD? What is that? Like a 35 min. behind the scenes type of thing?

C- Well, um, there's going to be 2 versions of the album. There's gonna be like a regular list price album that still has tons of enhanced features and like, uh, awesome booklet and everything like that.

KB- Right

C- But then there's gonna be another version that's just a couple dollars more that has a 40 page booklet with, like, you know, a couple hours worth of video footage and enhanced footage. And what that basically shows you is, it pretty much documents the entire making of the album and so you really get to see what we did, you know.

KB- We are going to play a brand new song. 'Somewhere I Belong'  from Linkin Park and then were gonna come back and talk about the tour and tell people about this new tour your gonna be on and a couple of dates in southern California where they can see you guys.

C- Yeah

KB- Alright? So let, uh, lets world premiere 'Somewhere I Belong." It's from the new album Meteora.

(plays Simon and Garfunkel)

C- (laughs)

B- Kevin-Kevin, I think uh

K- What's that?

B- I think you got Simon and Garfunkel from the Grammys last night. I think that's what you're listening to.

K- Oh, that's Simon and Garfunkel?

B- That's not the Linkin Park-no.

K- Oh! Sorry.

(plays 'SIB')

KB- Come on! That's Linkin Park right there. That's what I'm talking about. Now you see why I like that so much. Chester, nice work friend, nice work.

C- Thank you , thank you.

KB- You guys did a little bit of touring after your last album. Are you excited to be able to play some new stuff now when you get on stage?

C- Oh my God, it was like, you know, we rehearsed and everything for a good month and whatever and, you know, you're sitting at the rehearsal stage, you guys were down there…

KB- Yeah

C- You can't really get into the live vibe.

KB- Right

C- You know what I mean?

KB- Yeah

C- And last night, you know, we put our first show in Milan and walked out on stage and that adrenaline rush that I haven't had like in 12 months…

KB- Right

C- just kicked me in my face and I had no control over my body. (laughs) It was unreal. Like, I totally forgot, you know, that intense rush. You know what I mean?

KB- People in the audience were like, "What's up with Chester? He looks like a retard. Is that a stroke man? Dude…"

C- Exactly. I mean, I had no control over my body functions. I think I crapped my pants a couple times.

KB- (laughs) Nice, nice. Very nice.

C- It was awesome, but I mean, you know, that really reminded-it's like you sit there and you deal with all this…you know…now that we're big rock stars or whatever, you deal with a lot of crap that you didn't have to deal with when you were, like…you know…nobody.

KB- Right

C- And you go, "Ok, yeah. This is what I- this is why I'm in the band."

KB- This is what I signed up for. Now, we're going to talk about the local shows in just one second, but first the Summer Sanitarium, which by the way, we're going to announce the dates for and all the information tomorrow. You're on the bill with Metallica and Limp Bizkit and Mudvayne. Um, why not headline your own tour?

C- Well, um, you know the summer is a pain in the butt as far as touring is concerned because you have…everybody's going out. You know what I mean?

KB- Right

C- And, um

KB- Especially this year with Lalapalooza and with Ozzfest and with Warped.

C- Yeah I mean you got Lalapalooza and Ozzfest-all this stuff and we basically…you know we were asked by Metallica while we were actually like almost in the beginning of making the record, while we were in the studio.

KB- Right

C- And, uh, you know, we were honored for Metallica to even consider us a band that they would consider as headlining band. They said we want you guys to play a headlining slot. This is going to be a shared bill and I was like…for them to have that much respect for our music and think that we're good enough to do that was an honor in itself. And we were all stoked on it and we felt that rather than going up and competing against other big tours, why don't we just get on the tour that's just going to make all of them, you know…

KB- Right

C- kinda look ridiculous. This is the tour that I think that everybody is going to have to go to.

KB- Well, there's no question about that. I mean it really is going to be a fantastic tour. I'm super excited about it.

C- The Deftones just got added. The Deftones lined up for that too so it's going to be Mudvayne, the Deftones…

KB- Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park. Hey Chester have you heard any of the new Metallica music? It's been such a long time since their last record.

C- No, I haven't heard any of that. I haven't heard anything. They've kept it under tight wraps.

KB- That's going to be on of the best things about going out on this tour. It's getting to see Metallica every night. Uh, let's talk about the southern California shows. The KROQ Linkin Park Underground Fanclub Shows is what we're calling it. Monday 3/24 and Tuesday 3/25 you guys are playing at the Wiltern.

C- Yes, uh, what we're basically doing is, uh, we wanted to kick this touring cycle off by giving a big thank you to all the fans out there who, uh, basically given us this opportunity to do what we do, you know, and, uh, we put together these ideas to do free shows. And anybody who's on Linkin Park Underground, which is our fanclub, pretty much got free tickets to come to these shows.

KB- That's cool. Monday 3/24 and Tuesday 3/25 and of course Tuesday 3/25 is when the CD is going to come out. Meteora.

C- Yes

KB- And we're going to be giving out tickets each half hour all day today.

C- Awesome

KB- To KROQ listeners and fans of Linkin Park. Man I'll tell ya, this new song 'Somewhere I Belong' is awesome and so is every other song I heard from this CD. I'm really excited about it so…

C-Thank you very much you guys.

KB- Chester, thanks a lot for calling us from Italy. We really appreciate it.

C- Hey, anything for you guys, I love you guys.

KB- We appreciate that and I know you're going to Germany and you're going to England and are you at all worried about France? You know, they've got this big anti- American thing going on in Paris and you're getting ready to play there in a few days.

C- What's new?

KB- Yeah, right. Chester will kick all their asses.

C- You know, none of that crap bothers me. I don't care because those people aren't there to see Americans. They're there to see Linkin Park.

KB- That's right.

C- You know what I mean? They don't care.

KB- Alright, well Chester thanks very much for calling us.

C- Hey, thanks guys.

KB- Alright, we'll talk to you later. See you soon.

C- Alright, take care.

KB- Bye now.

C- Bye