The Offspring’s Kevin ‘Noodles’ Wasserman on Emily Armstrong fronting Linkin Park: “It’s an amazing and brave choice”

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The Offspring’s Kevin ‘Noodles’ Wasserman has said that Linkin Park choosing Emily Armstrong as their new singer is an “amazing and bold” move.

Armstrong, who previously co-founded the band Dead Sara, was unveiled as the new vocalist for the nu metal band in September, taking over the role previously occupied by the late Chester Bennington, who took his own life in 2017.

The initially warm reception to the band’s return, which also saw drummer Colin Brittain join the new line-up, quickly became divisive after it emerged that Armstrong seemingly had ties to Scientology and convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

She has since issued a statement to “to clear the air”, and Mike Shinoda has continually insisted their reunion tour is “not about erasing the past“.

The band have since released their eighth studio album ‘From Zero’, their first full body of work in seven years, and will embark on a massive world tour in 2025 with their new line-up.

Now, The Offspring’s guitarist Wasserman has had his say on Linkin Park’s change in direction. In an interview with Marcelo Vieira, he described their addition of Armstrong as “an amazing and a brave choice for them” (via BLABBERMOUTH).

“I know a lot of people aren’t going to accept a female singer – just for whatever reason,” he said. “I think it’s a dumb reason. Emily is amazing. She’s got such an amazing voice. We got to do a tour with Dead Sara before.”

“I wish those guys the best. I hope they’re as successful as ever, ’cause Emily’s amazing and those guys are just great guys and they make great music.”

Shinoda recently spoke about going with Armstrong ahead of someone with a similar voice to Bennington: “We just want Emily to be Emily,” he said. “The songs are the songs. Emily is Emily… There was a time early on, like 2020-ish, 2019, whatever – like, I remembered I was watching videos… I think a video of a cover band, a Linkin Park cover band, showed up in my feed. Fans were loving it. They were all like, ‘Oh my God, this person’s so good. They sound so much like Chester.’”

“So, when I was watching this YouTube video, or Instagram video, of this cover band, I was like, ‘That’s really cool, but it’s also creepy that it sounds so much like Chester.’ I don’t like it, it weirds me out. It made me immediately know that it wasn’t the move for us. I don’t like it. I like it for [the cover bands], I just don’t like it for us… These bands do a great job, but I wouldn’t put that in our band.”

’From Zero’ was given a three-star review by NME, who described the record as having “an intriguing mix of sensational, knockout stadium rock and some perplexingly tired songwriting”.

Linkin Park’s 2025 tour, meanwhile, kicks off in Mexico City on January 31 and will include one stop at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 28. Special guests for the extensive run of shows will be Queens of the Stone AgeSpiritboxAFIArchitectsGrandsonJean DawsonJPEGMAFIA, and PVRISVisit here to buy UK tickets, and here for international tickets.

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Beyoncé Is Joined By Blue Ivy At Christmas Halftime Show, Teases Big Announcement

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Houston, TX - Beyoncé‘s halftime show during the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game on Christmas Day became a family affair when she was joined by eldest daughter, Blue Ivy.

The Christmas Day special, which aired on Netflix, was a showcase for her country themed Cowboy Carter album and featured the live debut of several songs from the LP.

Near the end of the set, as she was about to launch into “Texas Hold Em”, Queen B was joined by Blue Ivy for a line-dancing sequence and mother and daughter could be seen linking arms for a dance while dressed in all white.

Blue Ivy wasn’t the only guest during the performance as Beyoncé was joined by Post Malone for a rendition of their collaboration “Levii’s Jeans” while Shaboozey had earlier dueted on “Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin”.

 

Shortly after the performance finished, Beyoncé went on to tease a big announcement on social media.

Alongside a video of the iconic singer sitting on a white horse waving a large American flag, the caption on the post read: “Look at that horse.”

The clip then cut to a date which read January 14.

While no more information was revealed, speculation has spread that Bey could unveil a tour or even a new album.

It’s been a merry Christmas for the “Single Ladies” legend as she recently received 58 new certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for albums and singles spanning her entire solo career.

Among them were two Diamond certifications (for sales of 10 million units), both for tracks that appear on her 2008 LP I Am… Sasha Fierce. “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Halo” both vaulted past the 10 million mark to land at 11 times platinum (11 million units).

With sales like these for a catalog dating back to 2003 (not to mention another slew of Gold, Platinum, and multi-Platinum certifications for her work with Destiny’s Child), it’s no wonder that the singer was recently named the greatest pop star of the 21st century by Billboard.

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