CHESTER BENNINGTON OF LINKIN PARK ON FORMING 2008 PROJEKT REVOLUTION LINEUP X

Chester Bennington talks about choosing the lineup for 2008’s Projekt Revolution Tour and the logistics that go into the decision

Linkin Park are gearing up for 2008’s Projekt Revolution Tour and this years version features a rock infused lineup consisting of Linkin Park, Chris Cornell, The Bravery, Ashes Divide on the main stage and Atreyu, 10 Years, Hawthorne Heights, Street Drum Corps and Armour for Sleep on The Revolution Stage. Hip Hop Fans will also be extremely pleased to know that Busta Rhymes has just been added for the complete North American run of tour dates. Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park have also just released ‘We Made It’ which is a collaborative single due to appear on Busta Rhymes upcoming album ‘Blessed’ which is set for a July 2008 release.

As in all Projekt Revolution Tours in the past, Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington and drummer Rob Bourden are on the committee that has the difficult task of deciding which bands to invite on their Summer Tour. We caught up with Chester Bennington to get his thoughts on why it’s so difficult to narrow the list of bands to take out on Projekt Revolution.

“When you put together a list of 150 bands or whatever, finding the ones who are into the idea, finding the ones who will take the right amount of money, finding the ones that are ok with their position on the bill, finding the ones that are available that haven’t already made commitments or not in the studio, that’s the most time consuming part and that’s really difficult.”

Although it certainly can be time consuming putting a traveling two stage tour together, certain musicians can also be no brainers to add, like the addition of the legendary Chris Cornell formerly of Soundgarden and Audioslave and rising rockers Atreyu, who will be touring off their recently released hit album ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor.’ Bennington also talked about certain bands being easy to choose for Projekt Revolution.

“There are certain aspects at work that are easy and there are other aspects that aren’t. I think when it came to Chris it was very easy. We had toured with Chris in the fall of last year and we talked at the end of that and said ‘We should do this again, it was too short.’ My response was ‘As soon as we find what that is we’ll do it.’ And this was it. So that was very simple. When it came to Atreyu, it was very simple. We asked and they said ‘Yes!’ It was like ‘OK!’

Linkin Park have always tried to bring a diverse lineup of Rock and Hip Hop to their Projekt Revolution Tous and in the past the tours have included Cypress Hill, Ghostface Killah, Snoop Dog and Xzibit. In 2008, Busta Rhymes joins the lineup and Chester talked about what Busta Rhymes will add to this summer’s version.

“And then with the addition of Busta it feels like now we truly have accomplished what Projekt Rev was started out to be. We want to bring all these types of genres together and we love Hip Hop and that was the one element that was missing from this year’s Projekt Rev. I think that Busta will not only fill that spot with grace and do a really good job performing live. I think that everyone will be engaged because he’s such a great personality and his music is so unique and so good.”

Projekt Revolution North American dates start July 16th in Mansfield, MA and extend until August 24th in Woodlands, Tx. 2008 will also be the first time Projekt Revolution will take place outside of the US. as the tour has a few dates in Germany in June with HIM, N*E*R*D, The Used and The Blackout. Jay Z will also join Linkin Park for a highly publicized Projekt Revolution show in the U.K. on June 29th. Pendulum, N*E*R*D, Enter Shikari, The Blackout and The Bravery will perform along with Jay Z and Linkin Park in The U.K.