Linkin Park Share Clip Of Unreleased Song Featuring Chester Bennington
Linkin Park have announced that they will be releasing a previously unheard track called Friendly Fire and shared a 30-second clip of the song.
Friendly Fire features vocals from late frontman Chester Bennington, and was recorded for 2017 album One More Light – the band’s final full-length to date. The song was written by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and songwriter/producer Jon Green. It has not yet been confirmed when the song will be fully released.
? 20 “Friendly Fire” #FriendlyFireLP pic.twitter.com/YZVKAXKq9w
— LINKIN PARK (@linkinpark) February 19, 2024
In a 2020 interview with Alt Press, Mike Shinoda alluded to the song, “We mixed more [songs] than [are on] the finished album and we mixed a couple [of] other songs just to see if one of them would make the cut or whatever. [Or] if we could use it for a B-side and it was Friendly Fire.”
Shinoda added: “I still love that song. Is that out somewhere? Did we put Friendly Fire out at some point? We didn’t, did we?” When fans asked to hear the song, Shinoda replied, “You literally are going to have to wait years to hear that song FYI.”
Back in December 2023, Linkin Park had their first new charting album in half a decade with with the compilation Lost Demos. The title was previously only available in a deluxe edition box set of that album, but for Record Store Day, Linkin Park released it on vinyl, and their fans pushed it up to No 191 on the Billboard 200 and No 26 in the Top Album Sales chart.
Back in 2022, Shinoda was non-committal on the subject of new music from the band, telling Loudwire, “The only Linkin Park news that I have for you is that… yeah, we talk every few weeks. There’s no tours, there’s no music, there’s no albums in the pipeline. Let me just tell you that. Just keep in your minds that that is not happening. I’m just gonna say that much for now.”
Shinoda added, “Any time the band says anything or does anything, everyone tries to start up the hype train. And we’re like ‘No, no, no, no. Don’t start the hype train. You’re going to disappoint yourself.'”