Wywiad - UGO ( Brad )

UGO: Why Linkin Park and not “Lincoln Park?”
Brad Delson: There’s a really serious reason why we misspell “Lincoln,” why it’s “Linkin.” And that’s because we couldn’t afford to get the real spelling dot-com, because as you might know there are a number of Lincoln Parks, actual parks all around the country. So I think the city of Lincoln Park actually owns that one so we misspelled it so we could have our home on the Internet.

UGO: What’s the story with Linkin Park getting on the Little Nicky soundtrack?
Brad Delson: With Little Nicky, I basically just got the CD and we were on it, and it’s a kick ass CD so it happened that easy. I didn’t even know there was a plan to go on that soundtrack. I just got the CD one day and we were in there with Incubus and Deftones and all the other bands we love. So we’re very excited to be a part of the soundtrack.

UGO: Do you have a favorite Adam Sandler movie (Because we don’t)?
Brad Delson: I really like Happy Gilmore. I was actually going to buy it on DVD last night, but the dude in the store was like, “You can’t buy that on DVD, it doesn’t have any extras! You gotta get T2!” I wasn’t into T2, so I wound up getting Boogey Nights instead.

UGO: What’s your take on the Napster controversy?
Brad Delson: I think that file sharing and stuff that’s going on on Napster, at least for us, for Linkin Park, has been really helpful because our album was basically on Napster in its entirety before the record came out. And people were first apprehensive "Oh, that’s going to cut into album sales. If people can get it for free on Napster why would they go out and buy it?" But I think what did was it created a lot more awareness about the band than existed previously and our first two weeks at retail have been very strong, so I can say that Napster has helped us.

UGO: Do you think that the heavy metal/hip-hop hybrid has reached a saturation point?
Brad Delson: When people listen to what we've done on our record, they'll hear that we're not just pasting together rap and rock. Our goal since we've been a band is always to fuse our different influences together as seamlessly as possible so that when you listen to a Linkin Park song, you're not hearing rap and then rock. Those different styles start to lose their delineations, and what you wind up hearing is just Linkin Park and you can identify it and say, “Oh, that’s just a Linkin Park song.”

UGO: With bands like Poison and Ratt creating a sense of nostalgia for the late ‘80s, as well as selling records again, do you think glam metal will come back?
Brad Delson: I think one of the things that have really revitalized rock is that it’s not just the rock from ten years ago. For instance, what we're doing is incorporating things that weren’t going on ten years ago in rock music and I think that’s what’s really exciting people, not necessarily just that the same thing is being recycled.

UGO: What do you think about the election fiasco in Florida?Brad Delson: I think that I won the state electoral vote in Florida, but now they’re having a whole lawsuit with the major parties...something to do with a ballot that was confusing in Florida and my name got mixed up with a couple of the other candidates. But I’m pretty confident that after all the legal stuff is over that I’m going to come out on top in that state.

UGO: Do you like Fozzy?
Brad Delson: I haven’t heard of them.

UGO: Are there any videogames out or coming out about which you're psyched?
Brad Delson: We don’t have the new Playstation. I really want to get that. I know it’s sold out everywhere but we just got upgraded from a RV to a bus. We have a TV in there now and we have Playstation. I’m really into the skateboarding and snowboarding games, like the Tony Hawk-style stuff.

UGO: If you could be any guitarist in history for one night and play a concert as that person, who would it be?
Brad Delson: In terms of someone who's really influenced me that I’d love to play with and be able to experience what he does is Dave Matthews. That kinda throws people for a curve because that’s not necessarily the band that influences our songs, but in terms of actual guitar virtuosity I kinda idolize Dave Matthews.