Emily Armstrong on being asked to join Linkin Park: “I was panicking in the best way”

Fresh from the unveiling of their 2024 line-up, Linkin Park’s new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong has unsurprisingly revealed that she was in “dreamland” when she was asked to join them.

In an interview with Billboard, Mike Shinoda details how “this time last year” the band decided to “get a serious temperature check” while in the studio with the Dead Sara singer to see if she was up for fully committing (of course, all of that has since resulted in upcoming eighth record From Zero, and an impending tour).

“They’re like, ‘Hey, um, just a couple questions,’” Emily remembers. “And we were recording at the time. ‘Hey, so, you know, we got some shows coming up, and some big festival stuff. And, you know, it’s a year out, and we think that you’d be great. We think you could sing all the old songs, and we love what you do and what’s happening with this whole process…’ I’m just like, ‘Cool, coo coo coo cool!’ I had already talked to the people around me, and Dead Sara, who were like, ‘Absolutely. If they ask, it’s a no-brainer.’ I’d already put my feelers out just to make sure, and they were putting their feelers out on me. It was like Melissa McCarthy in The Heat: ‘That’s why you don’t feed stray cats!’ I had just kept showing up; I was the stray cat. But that was the moment.”

Emily continues: “So then imagine hearing that, and then you have to nonchalantly waltz back into the studio, and they’re like, ‘Okay, Emily, let’s think of another line, we’re working on the verse!’ I can’t fucking think of anything else, and I have to pretend that I’m not [freaking out]. I’m there for another few hours, and I’m just trying to play it cool, because they played it so cool. But there’s fucking no way you can process it. I remember we were there late that night, and afterward I was panicking in the best way: ‘Is it real?’ For three days at least, I don’t ever remember touching the ground. And then everything was different when I came back down – knowing my life was going to be different, in the best way. I came back to a dreamland.”

Catch Linkin Park on the From Zero world tour at the following dates – and get your tickets here from Friday, September 13 at 10am local time:

September

11 Kia Forum – Los Angeles, CA
16 Barclays Center – New York, NY
22 Barclays Arena – Hamburg, Germany
24 The O2 – London, UK
28 INSPIRE Arena – Seoul, South Korea

November

11 Coliseo Medplus – Bogota, Colombia

Read this: The 20 greatest Linkin Park songs – ranked