Linkin Park have confirmed that their long-awaited track ‘Pictureboard’ will be included in the 20th Anniversary Hybrid Theory release next month.
The band are celebrating 20 years since the release of the iconic album on Saturday, October 24th, and before that they’ll drop the special anniversary edition (on Friday, October 9th).
One of the tracks that fans have been hanging out for is a cut called ‘Pictureboard’, which has been a point of discussion among the band and fans for years but has never been released to the public.
In a virtual press junket (via Loudwire) Mike Shinoda spoke about the track admitting he has always found it a bit strange that there has been so much hype around ‘Pictureboard’ even though no one has ever heard it.
“There’s so many songs … why is there so much focus on this one? You’ve never even heard it,” he said.
The clip was performed during an interlude at a rock festival that Linkin Park played in 2000 or 2001, and that’s when fans began getting their detective hats on.
“The fans had even come up with a name for that performance,” he added.
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“They made up their own name for that interlude and they were asking me about that interlude, and I was like, “You don’t understand. You guys made up the name. I don’t even know what song it is you guys are referring to.
“You literally named that thing something else. I didn’t come up with that.”
Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson offered his own explanation as to why the song is important, especially to him.
“Unless my memory is super wrong, which is very possible, but not likely, I think that was the first thing I heard Chester’s voice on,” he revealed.
“I remember getting that and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of this guy? He just sent us this recording.’ I wasn’t like crying with joy, but almost. I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t even know what that is.’”
Despite everything, Shinoda said he is “excited” for fans to finally hear ‘Pictureboard’.
“It was almost that the occasion had to be of big enough significance that it was worth doing all those things. This was that occasion.”
Earlier this month Hybrid Theory went 12x Platinum in the US.
Check out ‘Numb’ by Linkin Park:
