Whenever an iconic singer is replaced, there’s bound to be some difficulties for the new guy, or in Linkin Park’s case, the new girl. Emily Armstrong was tapped for the vacancy left by the passing of Chester Bennington, and her arrival has not been without controversy or its share of detractors.
Armstrong was criticized for her previous ties to Scientology and for once befriending disgraced actor Danny Masterson. But prior to that, Armstrong detailed that it took her time to comprehend just how big of a job she was stepping into. On the band’s podcast, Armstrong told band co-founder Mike Shinoda how hard it was to keep her hiring under wraps before the official announcement.
“I mean, I’ve been invited to a lot of things like birthdays and stuff like that, and then I go in my head, I’m like ‘So I’m gonna go and hang out, have a couple drinks, and they’re gonna ask what I’m doing. And then I’m gonna feel weird by saying ‘Yeah, just rehearsing.” And it feels weird to just say ‘Yeah, rehearsing.'”
“Like, ‘So how’s Dead Sara doing? You guys writing something?’ And then I just talk myself out of going anywhere. I don’t want to have these fake conversations where I can’t say everything and I’m so happy, and I don’t want to pretend that I’m not as happy. And so I just talked myself out of it and just stayed here.”
Armstrong also revealed the moment where she began to process that she was in fact Linkin Park’s new singer. “Once we left the studio, that’s when I was just like, ‘Oh my f*cking God.’ I was allowed to just throw myself into this new world. It was like I stepped into Disney World. It was like, f*cking full of magic and full of opportunity, and everything you could possibly imagine.”
Armstrong’s full conversation with Shinoda can be heard below.
