This last Thursday I had the experience of a lifetime in getting to meet Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and Stone Temple Pilots as well as Joe Hahn and Rob Bourdon. When I got there I was greeted by Marisela Huerta the lady who was in charge of the experience we were going to have. Originally I was only allowed to have one guest go with me who was Nikki Mitchell. However, since my LPU friends Katelyn and Susy were waiting with us, she invited them to do the experience with us as well. First she took us backstage to see the dressing rooms where we met Jim Digby, stage manager for Linkin Park. He was kind enough to let us in the STP dressing room and showed us around other places backstage. When that was over we made our way to the main floor where we would be meeting Chester later that night. While we were waiting, Tony Alva, who was being honored at the show walked by and we got to take a picture with him. He thanked us for coming in support of the mission of MusiCares.
When Chester got there it was simply an awesome experience. I had never met any members of Linkin Park before so I was really stoked to meet him. It was very casual when he got there, we were all literally just sitting on chairs and couches and having a conversation about the music they play on tour, his new role in STP and what songs they were playing that night. He was super nice and was more than willing to answer any questions we had for him. After that was done he signed tribute journals for all of us in the group and took individual photos with each of us, which was really cool. He then said bye to all of us and went backstage to get ready for the show.
At that point the night was just getting started. After the meet and greet with Chester we got to go out to the red carpet and have a professional photographer to take our picture. Following that we got back inside Club Nokia where we happened to run into Joe Hahn and Rob Bourdon who also were attending the show! Both were also awesome and let us take pictures with them, I didn’t even know that they would be there. Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda were there as well but unfortunately we did not get to meet them. We spotted several other celebrities there including Steve-O, Andy Dick as well as Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh from Dead By Sunrise and Julien-K. We then ate some food from the buffet and proceeded to go upstairs where we would be viewing the show. All together it was an extremely fun night and one that I will never forget!
– Kevin Selder (LPU member)
Jon Buttermore says:
Very cool man. You guys are making me look forward to coming down to LA for another awesome experience just like in Vegas. Looking forward to it bud.
PaulGardinerLP says:
Great review. I hope I get to experience something like this someday!