Chester Bennington Left His Own Birthday Party To Record Linkin Park's Lost Track, Pictureboard

After 20 years of waiting, Linkin Park's 'lost track' Pictureboard has now been released. The source of much discussion and rumour amongst fans for two decades, it is included on the Forgotten Demos disc of the new Hybrid Theory anniversary boxset.

Speaking to Kerrang! about the previously unheard song, guitarist Brad Delson revealed that it was the first track he heard Chester Bennington sing on, before the vocalist had officially joined the band.

"We had made a bunch of demos and at that moment we were looking for a vocalist, and someone… a friend of a friend, had worked with Chester in Arizona. Chester’s story – which I’m certain is true – is that he left his own birthday party to go to the studio and record his vocals on the tracks he had sent. That’s how excited he was.

"He’d been in bands for years in Arizona and had basically hit the point where it was harder to get noticed out there, which was frustrating, and by that point he’d got a 9-5 job. And then he got this demo, left the party, recorded the vocals, and the rest is history."

And Brad's reaction to Chester's demo? "I was like, ‘Holy expletive,’" he smiles.

"It just blew my mind. He sounds like two different people on the same song; the verses sound very, very, vulnerable. That song shows you all of his range: it’s got the tiny, tiny, vulnerable verse, which we were able to channel on songs like Leave Out All The Rest or Breaking The Habit or One More Light… and then it’s got the big, melodic, almost screamy but still melodic chorus that you’d hear on Crawling. It had all those elements there and it was like fireworks."

Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory boxset is out now available to buy, stream and download.

READ THIS: The secret history of Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory: In their own words