Following the legendary track hitting a whopping one billion views on YouTube, Mike Shinoda has spoken to Rock Sound about the story behind how Linkin Park hit ‘In The End‘ first came to fruition.
“We were rehearsing in this little room in Hollywood. And when I say ‘Hollywood,’ it was the grossest part of Hollywood,” Shinoda began.
“At the time, Hollywood and Vine had prostitutes and drug dealers…. and a bunch of Scientologists. There was a place that was calling itself a reading centre, to teach you how to read, but all of the books were Scientology books, which is really kind of dark,” he explained.
“And that was the place where we found a rehearsal room that we could afford. And we were writing it there. And we were working on our show and our songs there. And I decided to stay overnight in that building, and I wrote ‘In The End’. And I think Rob Bourdon [drums] was the first one to show up the next day for rehearsal, and I played it for him, and he was freaking out.”
“There’s a weird battle with hopelessness and the ephemeral nature of time and our lives that the song is really about,” he continued.
“And what’s so odd about the song is it’s almost talking about these things and saying, ‘I don’t have any answers.’ ‘Cause usually a song isn’t about having no answers, right? It just kind of runs itself around in a circle, lyrically. And especially as a young person, that’s just how I felt — that’s how we all felt. We didn’t know what to make of things, and, in a sense, that’s still what goes on today. It’s a timeless and universal thing.”
Going on to examine the ongoing popularity of the famous Linkin Park track, Shinoda said, “It’s also easy to ‘Monday Morning Quarterback’ these types of things where you go, ‘Okay, it’s popular, so this is why it’s popular.’ You can’t say, ‘This is what will be popular,’ and then make that thing. [Laughs] You can only do it after the fact. The fact is that, yeah, it’s been one of our biggest songs, it’s been our biggest song for a long time.”
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The explanation comes after Linkin Park said they had some “special things planned” this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its debut album, Hybrid Theory. Following the tragic of frontman Chester Bennington in 2017 at the age of 41, Linkin Park have yet to reveal if they formally plan to carry on as a band.
Check out Mike Shinoda talking ‘In The End’ by Linkin Park:
