Guitarist Brad Delson is still a part of Linkin Park in the studio and behind the scenes, but you won’t be seeing him out on tour with the band. Delson is being filled in for by guitarist Alex Feder, who already made his live debut with the group.
So why isn’t Delson playing with Linkin Park live anymore? Linkin Park mastermind Mike Shinoda explained in an interview with Zach Sang Show that Delson’s life doesn’t quite jive with touring constantly anymore. Which is fair – people’s priorities change, and it seems like that works just fine for Linkin Park.
“In case anybody doesn’t understand the dynamic, our guitarist Brad is our guitarist — he’s in the band — but he’s realized that in terms of his… It’s kind of a mental health thing. He doesn’t love the touring and the live show lifestyle, and so he is our guitarist, but he’s not playing live,” said Shinoda.
“So he’s chosen… he found a guy named Alex who’s spectacular, a really good guitarist and they get along great, and Brad chose Alex to play his parts live. But at the time, we hadn’t met Alex, and so we asked [drummer and producer Colin Brittain]. I was, like, ‘Brad needs somebody to play guitar, and we need a drummer. You do both equally well. What would you wanna do?’ And he was just like a kid in a candy store. I think he said, ‘I can’t believe what you’re asking me right now.’ He was so excited.”