Bleed It Out

"Bleed It Out"
Single by Linkin Park
from the album Minutes To Midnight
Working title:	Accident / Refuckingwrite
Recorded:	2006-2007
Released:	August 14, 2007
Format:	CD, Vinyl
Length:	02:44
Stems:	Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock LPConcerts Open Labs SoundSlate Pro
Time signature:	4/4
Tempo:	140
Key:	F# Minor
Live debut:	May 11, 2007
Last performed:	October 27, 2017
Writer:	Linkin Park
Producer:	Mike Shinoda, Rick Rubin
Label:	Warner Bros.
Linkin Park single chronology What I've Done (2007) Bleed It Out (2007) Shadow Of The Day (2007)
Minutes To Midnight tracklist
Wake Given Up Leave Out All The Rest Bleed It Out Shadow Of The Day What I've Done Hands Held High No More Sorrow Valentine's Day In Between In Pieces The Little Things Give You Away

"Bleed It Out" is the fourth track off of Linkin Park's third studio album Minutes To Midnight. The song was released as the second single from the album on August 14, 2007.

Background

Several months before the album was released, Mike Shinoda talked about the sounds and influences found on "Bleed It Out" in an interview with Rolling Stone, stating "The guitar sounds like AC/DC, the beat sounds like Motown, and there's a Stones-like groove to it. But it's got rapping and Clash-style vocals. It's so different it may take people a beat to go 'I can't believe it's the same band. But hopefully their next thought will be 'F*ckin' Cool'."

The limited edition booklet for Minutes To Midnight reiterated that idea, saying "One of the band’s goals on this record was to enjoy it. This track is one of the places that it is most evident. With its 80’s-inspired guitar and bass, roadhouse blues piano and clapping, Motown-style drums, irreverent death-party rap verses, and punk chorus, this song is a party (albeit a strange one) from beginning to end." Chester Bennington, too, described the fun, party-like vibe of the song as something that "rides the line of what you might expect from us. It’s got rapping on it and a real big chorus, but it’s also got these great Motown drums and a real party vibe to it. So it’s something different too. It’s fun."

To achieve that, the band threw a real party in the studio as explained by Chester, "I've played everything from clapping, stomping my feet, we had a party in the studio once and recorded that, that's the beginning of "Bleed It Out"." The April 2007 issue of a French magazine published a track by track of Minutes To Midnight on which Rob said, "Rick Rubin had the idea to bring all the people from Linkin Park's maintenance team (make-up, photographers and security guards) into the studio and record their cheering voices to this song. The track was recorded almost at the very end of the recording of the entire album and was a great celebration for the completion of the work." Chester added, "It's Linkin Park's style (intro, rap verse, chorus, rap verse, chorus, bridge and chorus again); Mike raps and I do the choruses. This song has exactly the same structure as the old band songs, but the manner in which we performed it is very different."

Shinoda also went into detail about his frustration while writing the lyrics for "Bleed It Out" in an interview with Kerrang in 2007. "I wrote the lyrics to this about a hundred times. It's always frustrating as a lyricist to come in with a new version that you spent hours on and have the band tell you that it's not yet there. In one case they listened to my lyrics for 30 seconds and told me to start over again. That was pretty hard. It felt like I was bringing in lyrics, getting punched in the face and then going back to the drawing board. When it finally came together I said to the band, 'I don't think anyone but us could have made a song like this'. It's [expletive] bizarre death-party-rap-hoedown!" In 2020 he claimed this was the most difficult song to make in the Linkin Park catalogue. "That's why I started the lyric with 'here we go for the hundredth time' because I rewrote the verse to that dozens and dozens of time. And a lot of those were completely starting from scratch and I just didn't like them and I ended up on that one... because when I started with that it was like embracing the fact that the frustration of making the song was actually informing the content of the song. It took like, months. That was a tough one."

Tracklist

CD Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Bleed It Out	Linkin Park	2:44
2	What I've Done (Distorted Remix)	Linkin Park	3:47
3	Given Up (Third Encore Session)	Linkin Park	3:08

Vinyl Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Bleed It Out	Linkin Park	2:44
2	What I've Done (Distorted Remix)	Linkin Park	3:47

Music Video

Mike Shinoda announced that "Bleed It Out" would be the band's next single while introducing the song at the July 7, 2007 Live Earth Tokyo concert. He said, "Listen, we've got a new single we just shot a video for. Mr. Hahn directed the video. You guys want a preview of what the song's going to be? Hands up like this. This song's called Bleed It Out."

The music video was directed by Joe Hahn. The stunts in the video were edited to be shown in reverse, slow motion. The Stunt Coordinator was Al Goto and the Fight Choreographer was Steven Ho. It was shot at Hotel Alexandria in downtown Los Angeles.

In July 2007, a friend of Joe Hahn's posted on their blog, "I got to go check out my friend Mr. Hahn's new video shoot for Linkin Park last week. He directed a ridiculously crazy fight scene in a bar that is made up of 100 people, or 8 people, or 8 people that are computer-composited to look like 100 different people, or maybe everyone was holograms. I dont know. I was told to wear special glasses to protect my eyes the entire time, but perhaps those special glasses protected me from seeing holographic people doing karate in reverse. Either way, the video is going to look insane, and Hahn used a huge Milo crane (i think they called it that because it was invented for that Milo n Otis movie with the fiesty dog and the stuck up cat). The camera was a gigantic robot that ran by itself along a track, and they also referred to as the Genesis, which i thought was odd for something so state of the art, as it was surely more powerful than 16 bits."

Mike said, "Bleed It Out is one of my favorite songs on the record because it's pretty upbeat, to me it's not like a downer. I think we've written a lot of songs that are pretty dark, which I like, but at a certain point it's also like, 'Let's write a song that's not that' because we've done that so much. This song, although it has elements of dark themes to it, it stays pretty funny. And not only does that make it fun to play live, but it makes it great to shoot a video too."

On July 31, 2007 the music video was shown on MTV Germany and MTV Asia and has premiered in Canada through the MuchMusic Countdown.

Video Credits

Artist Name: Linkin Park
Song Name: Bleed It Out
Director: Joe Hahn
Production Company: Radical Media
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Bleed It Out	Minutes To Midnight Bleed It Out Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023	2:44	2006-2007	May 14, 2007
Bleed It Out	Minutes To Midnight (Clean) Bleed It Out (Radio CD)	2:44	2006-2007	May 14, 2007	Listed on the radio CDs as "Bleed It Out (Radio Edit)."
Bleed It Out (2007 Demo)	LP Underground 16	2:47	2006-2007	November 21, 2016	Different verse vocals. Scat vocal chorus and bridge. Less guitar in chorus. Rap vocals in outro. Piano note at the end of the track. No party effects in the background. Different mix. Mislabeled as "2011 Demo" in the digital release.
Bleed It Out	Minutes To Midnight Instrumentals Radio Publishing Instrumentals CD	2:47	2006-2007		The CD dates from May 24, 2007. Official instrumental version.

Live

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Bleed It Out (Live From Projekt Revolution, Holmdel NJ, Aug. 29 '07)	Shadow Of The Day	6:07	August 29, 2007	October 16, 2007
Bleed It Out	Live Earth: The Concerts For A Climate In Crisis	3:40	July 07, 2007	November 26, 2007
Bleed It Out	LP Underground 7.0	7:49	August 13, 2007	December 5, 2007	Censored. With drum solo. Recorded live at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC on August 13, 2007.
Bleed It Out (Live)	Live From SoHo (iTunes Exclusive EP)	3:26	February 21, 2008	March 4, 2008
Bleed It Out	Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes	8:15	June 29, 2008	November 21, 2008	With drum solo. Filmed at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes June 29, 2008.
Bleed It Out	Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes (Clean)	8:15	June 29, 2008	November 21, 2008	Censored. With drum solo. Filmed at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes June 29, 2008. The explicit version of Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes on iTunes comes with the censored version of "Bleed It Out". Despite the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" warning on the Record Store Day vinyl, all copies are censored.
Bleed It Out - TF2 Premier Mix		4:49	June 22, 2009	February 14, 2010	Released for free download on Monter Energy's hotsite for Linkin Park.
Bleed It Out/A Place For My Head	Live In Madrid	5:05	November 07, 2010	April 1, 2011	With "A Place For My Head". A Thousand Suns+ DVD. Includes bonus MP3 of the show.
Bleed It Out (Live)	iTunes Festival: London 2011	5:20	July 04, 2011	July 8, 2011	With "A Place For My Head".
Bleed It Out	Live In Red Square	5:28	June 23, 2011	July 21, 2011	With "A Place For My Head". Released as a prize for the "Iridescent" "Super-Fun Trading Fun-Cards" game. After all six cards were collected, the person could enter the codes of each card at linkinpark.com to get a free download of the full show.
Bleed It Out (Live From Melbourne, 2010)	Minutes To Midnight - Live Around The World	5:33	December 13, 2010	June 12, 2012	With "A Place For My Head" and drum solo.
Bleed It Out	Live At Admiralspalast Berlin, Germany		June 05, 2012	March 29, 2013	With "Sabotage" (Beastie Boys cover). DVD only. Living Things+ bonus DVD.
Bleed It Out	Live In Monterrey		September 12, 2012	June 13, 2014	Censored. With "Sabotage" (Beastie Boys cover). DVD only. The Hunting Party bonus DVD. Live show filmed at Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico on September 12, 2012.
Bleed It Out	One More Light Live	4:57	June 20, 2017	December 15, 2017
Bleed It Out	One More Light Live (Clean)	4:57	June 20, 2017	December 15, 2017	Censored.

Live

Linkin Park

"Bleed It Out" has been a staple in Linkin Park setlists since it's debut in 2007. Before the release of Minutes To Midnight the band was concerned about how the new material would be received at the shows but the first performances of "Bleed It Out" had a great response from fans as explained by Brad. “Well, it was scary releasing this record because it was such a departure. We didn’t know how it was going to be received. We just feel really lucky and fortunate because people have seemed to fallen in love with this record really quickly and even live you see it, with a song like Bleed It Out, which even when we started playing it early, early, early like before the record even came out, we were getting the same response to that song in comparative to our really well known songs so it was just a really great sign of things to come.”

The song has featured an extended bridge over the years that has been utilized to rap or song verses of other songs over (namely "A Place For My Head", "Burning In The Skies", and "Reading My Eyes") and for Rob to perform a drum solo over. "Bleed It Out" is the only song from Minutes To Midnight to not be dropped from a setlist during its respective touring cycle. A multitude of guests had appeared on the song at some point or another during live performances, including Timbaland, the Street Drum Corps, and Machine Gun Kelly.

The first instance of it being performed live was in early 2007, at in New York City, New York. The band performed at Webster Hall, debuting "Bleed It Out" as the second song in the encore as a rehearsal for their performance on Saturday Night Live the following day, where they performed the song again. On the following Minutes To Midnight European Tour, the band performed the studio version of the song to begin the tour, with the song positioned in the second slot in the encore. At their performance at Rock Am Ring on the tour, the band extended the bridge of the song for the first time (an occurrence that would become very common in the years following), with Mike and Chester conducting a sing-a-long with the crowd during the bridge. Midway through the tour (starting in Zürich, Switzerland), the band changed up the setlist, by rotating "What I've Done" around to the second slot of the encore and "Bleed It Out" to close out the main set. A funny moment from the show where this first happened (Zürich) featured the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out", where Mike and Chester both took one side of the crowd and had them yell "Fuck your side!" to the other side of the crowd!

Projekt Revolution saw the song moving around with the introduction of three rotating sets. First off, the band began performing an extended intro to the song, where the intro riff would be repeated several times before kicking into the main song. The band started to regularly perform the extended bridge sing-a-long starting on this tour, too. Lastly, a new jam outro that featured the chorus instrumental being performed from a slow tempo, gradually being sped up to a very fast tempo debuted, as well. The outro was performed semi-regularly, with it always being performed with the song closing out the show, but played on and off when the song did not. In Set A, "Bleed It Out" closed the show for the first time, being the first song besides "Faint" to close a show on the Minutes To Midnight Touring Cycle. In Set B, the band performed it second-to-last in the encore, before "Faint". Set C had the song close out the main set. Beginning at the show in Phoenix, Arizona, Rob began to perform a drum solo during the bridge of the song. He explained, "I actually never have really tried doing drum solos until the other guys asked me to do them. I just play whatever comes to mind at the time with a general idea of what to do based on previous solos." At the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007, the band performed the song unannounced, with Timbaland doing a remix intro of the song to introduce it. The following Minutes To Midnight Asian Tour followed the same general position of "Bleed It Out" with the same setlists as Projekt Revolution. At the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas in 2007, the band performed an extended jam intro to the song, as well as Rob performing a drum solo with members of the U.C.L.A. "BRUIN" marching band during the extended bridge.

At the beginning of 2008, the band debuted three more setlists on the first Minutes To Midnight European Tour of the year. Set R and Set T both had the song close out the main set, and Set S had it open the second encore. The Slow to Fast Outro was dropped from the song as a regular ending, but still made appearances here and there. At the show in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the extended bridge also featured a rendition of "Happy Birthday", sung to Rob after his drum solo. At the last show of the tour in London, England, Chester sang the entire chorus once as an extended intro to the song. The song remained in its positions in the three setlists on the following tour in North America. However, during this tour began experimentation with verses over the extended bridge. Due to "Points Of Authority" being dropped because of Chester being sick in West Valley City, Utah, the outro jam was tacked onto the end of "Papercut", without the added verse of "There They Go" by Fort Minor. So, Mike rapped the verse over the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out".

On the second European Tour of the year, the band debuted three more setlists. All three sets Set X, Set Y, and Set Z, "Bleed It Out" closed the main set, debuting a new extended ending. The Slow to Fast Outro made a rare appearance, only being performed once. Mike took performing verses over "Bleed It Out" up another notch, performing a verse from the Xero song, "Reading My Eyes" over the bridge after an LPU member brought the Xero demo tape to the meet and greet. The band was playing the full song in another setlist of the tour, however (Set X). The final performances of the song in 2008, throughout Projekt Revolution 2008, saw it become to new closing song in Set X and Set Z, while it remained as the closing song of the main set in Set Y. As the final song, it featured a brand new extended drum solo intro, and featured the Street Drum Corps from the extended bridge to the extended ending.

While the 2009 touring cycle with short lived, "Bleed It Out" still had some new additions. Throughout the tour, it was the closing song of the main set. It featured a new drum solo intro by Rob as well as a new extended fast ending. The song kept its regular extensions throughout the tour and did not change much, except for the final international date of the tour in Macao, China, where the band extended the bridge of the song and Mike rapped verse one of "Papercut", which was not being played on the tour.

2010 marked the beginning of the era in which the bridge of "Bleed It Out" consistently featured a piece of another song over the extended bridge. It was mainly performed at the end of the set: it closed the show in both Set A-1 and Set A-3. The only show on the A Thousand Suns European Tour in which it did not close the show was in London, England, where it was moved back a spot in the encore and "One Step Closer" closed instead. Starting at their show at the Maquinaria Festival, Mike began to sing the chorus of "Burning In The Skies" over the extended bridge. This remained as the most common bridge song for "Bleed It Out" for much of the following A Thousand Suns European Tour. On the date in Dortmund, Germany, Mike pointed out members of the LPLive forums and dedicated verse one of "A Place For My Head" to them - the first time he'd rapped the verse of the bridge! The band took it a step further two shows later in Hamburg, Germany, where Chester sang the bridge of "A Place For My Head" after Mike rapped the first verse over the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out". After that point, the band rotated "Burning In The Skies" and "A Place For My Head" over the bridge. At the show in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Mike rapped verse one of "Reading My Eyes" over the extended intro of "Bleed It Out" - the first time he had done a verse of the intro of the song. He did the same thing again later in the tour, in Birmingham, England. Instead of a song, a the date in Newcastle, England, Mike and Chester conducted a sing-a-long, akin to what they did in 2007 and 2008. "A Place For My Head" was performed over the extended bridge for all of the following shows in the Middle East.

On the following Australian Tour, the band changed their setlists a little bit. Set A-1 remained, still featuring "Bleed It Out" as the closing song. In the new set, Set B, it closed the main set instead. Mike rapped verse one of "Reading My Eyes" over the extended intro of the song again, this time in the first night in Melbourne, Victoria. The band continued to rotate Mike rapping "A Place For My Head" and Chester singing the bridge and Mike singing the chorus of "Burning In The Skies" throughout the tour. Starting on the second night of Melbourne, Victoria, the band began playing Set B-9, where "Burning In The Skies" (and "Blackout") debuted live, so "A Place For My Head" was performed over the bridge in that set every time. For the next two shows, Rob began performing a drum solo again and the band conducted a sing-a-long during the bridge, as well as the verse and bridge from "A Place For My Head".

2011 had just as many variations as 2010, if not more. The band debuted new setlists for the A Thousand Suns North American Tour. Set A-1 and Set C-6 featured "Bleed It Out" as the closing song, and sets B-11, B-13, and C-5 all featured it as the closing song of the main set. The band continued to rotate the verse and bridge of "A Place For My Head" and the chorus of "Burning In The Skies" over the extended bridge. For two shows, in Tampa, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia, the band even did both instances of songs over the bridge of "Bleed It Out". They did this again in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sets that featured the full version of "Burning In The Skies" always featured "A Place For My Head" in the bridge of "Bleed It Out". Rob performed a drum solo during the bridge at the shows in Salt Lake City, Utah and Dallas, Texas.

The band brought out three more setlists on the following A Thousand Suns European Tour, where "Bleed It Out" closed the show in Set A and Set D, and was third-from-last behind "Faint" and "One Step Closer" in Set B. In Set C, it originally performed as the closing song, but eventually swapped placed with "One Step Closer" and closed the main set instead. The extended bridge of "Bleed It Out" still rotated the chorus of "Burning In The Skies" and the verse and bridge of "A Place For My Head'. The Download Festival featured both songs in the bridge, Stockholm, Sweden, Leipzig, Germany, and Los Angeles, California featured drum solos in the bridge. The shows at Hessentag, Hamburg, Germany, and München, Germany featured one of the most massive "Bleed It Out" bridges to date: "Reading My Eyes" verse one, a drum solo, and the verse and bridge of "A Place For My Head" all in one! On the final tour of the cycle, the A Thousand Suns Asian Tour, "Bleed It Out" retained its positions in the three setlists. In the new setlist, Set E, "Bleed It Out" closed the show. Every extended bridge of the tour featured the verse and bridge of "A Place For My Head". The first show of the tour in Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong and the shows in Nagoya, Japan, Osaka, Japan, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Singapore, Singapore featured a drum solo over the bridge. For two shows mid tour, in Chiba, Japan and Yokohama, Japan, the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out" feature the only performances of "No Roads Left" ever, with Mike singing the first verse and chorus before "A Place For My Head"'s verse and bridge.

Extensive changes in the bridge of "Bleed It Out" ended during the Living Things era, where the band consistently played what they had rehearsed. During a LPU chat in January 2012, Rob said he was forced into playing drum solos by his band mates. Sometimes it was fun but he wasn't sure if he would carry on doing them. For the European Tour, "Bleed It Out" was third-to-last in the setlist in the festival setlist, and closed out the shows for the headlining setlist. In almost every performance of the song in 2012, the band performed a cover of the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" during the bridge, to honor the passing of their rapper/bassist, MCA (Adam Yauch). In addition, the song was also performed with an extended outro. On the Honda Civic Tour, the band has three new setlists. "Bleed It Out" closed the shows in Set A, while it closed the main set in Set B and Set C. Near the end of the Honda Civic Tour, starting in Englewood, Colorado, guitarist Mike Einzinger from Incubus began to perform a guitar solo after the band performed "Sabotage", further extending the bridge. During the band's performance at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, a shortened version of the song was featured in the second slot of the setlist for the first time ever. At the final show of 2012, at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, the band dropped the "Sabotage" bridge (after original listing it on the setlist). On the physical setlist, it listed "[to be retired]" after the "Sabotage" note of "Bleed It Out".

In 2013, "Bleed It Out" did not feature an extended bridge for the first time since 2007. It still featured an extended outro, however. The band carried over the setlists from the Honda Civic Tour throughout the rest of the Living Things World Tour. In the Festival versions of the setlist for the Living Things Australian & New Zealand Tour, it was performed second-to-last in Set A and performed third-to-last in Set B. The show in Melbourne, Victoria is the only show on the entire touring cycle to feature a drum solo during the extended bridge. At the final show of the leg, at the Soundwave Festival in Claremont, Joe sampled a part of the "Harlem Shake" over the extended bridge of the song. For the the final tour of the cycle, the Living Things Asian Tour, the band brought back the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out" on a consistent basis. To honor the band performing at the Sunset Strip again (as a result of their appearance at the Sunset Strip Music Festival), Mike began rapping verse one of "Reading My Eyes" over the extended bridge of "Bleed It Out". He continued to do this at every other show of the Asian leg of the tour.

In early 2014, "Bleed It Out" saw some unique activity. At the first show for the Harman Infinity One Launch, it closed the show with only its extended outro as an extension. The next show in Las Vegas, Nevada saw it close the main set, this time with an extended bridge that had a chorus sing-a-long. For the Concert For The Philippines, "Bleed It Out" featured a drum battle between Rob and Blink-182's Travis Barker over the extended bridge, as well as its classic extended intro and extended ending. On The Hunting Party World Tour for the year, the band performed a sing-a-long version of the refrain from "The Catalyst". Rob's drum solo also returned, on a now consistent basis. At the band's appearance on the Warped Tour, the band was joined by Machine Gun Kelly (and all of the other guests that joined the band that show) to perform the song - Machine Gun Kelly rapped a verse of his song "What I Do" over the bridge.

In 2015, the band continued performing a sing-a-long of "The Catalyst" during the ill-fated The Hunting Party North American Tour, that was cancelled after three shows due to Chester's leg injury. While the band waited for his recovery, Mike took part in a jam session with Troy Resq, Austin Carlile, Johnny Christ, Synyster Gates and M. Shadows in April at Coachella Festival's ResqHouse. During the session, Mike rapped verses of "Bleed It Out".

When the band returned to touring in May, the bridge received some changes. The drum solo became less and less consistent, while the refrain sing-a-long of "The Catalyst" was replaced by a regular sing-a-long (seemingly by the mistake of Chester at the Rock In Rio USA show, but it ultimately replaced "The Catalyst"). At The Hunting Party European Tour's Berlin stop, Mike rapped "There They Go" over the intro of "Bleed it Out". At the final show of the touring cycle, at Relief Live, Page Hamilton from Helmet joined the band for the song.

"Bleed It Out" returned as the closing song on the 'One More Light World Tour. The song didn't feature any regular verse of a song throughout the tour, but did often feature a direct intro where Mike would start rapping at the same time as Brad started playing guitar. Chester would often lead the crowd in a sing-a-long during the bridge. As part of their takeover of Depeche Mode's Instagram page, Chester sang a cover of "Strangelove" by them during the extended bridge of the song at the One More Light Release Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mike brought back the "Reading My Eyes" verse and performed it over the extended bridge at various stops on the tour. Machine Gun Kelly joined the band at their performance at the Impact Festival in Poland, performing a verse of his song "What I Do" over the bridge, as he did when he joined the band in 2014. "Bleed It Out" closed the Hollywood Bowl tribute show, with many guests from the night joining them onstage. Oli Sykes from Bring Me To Horizon and M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold manned most of the main vocals, Synyster Gates from Avenged Sevenfold played guitar, and Graham Sierota from Echosmith played drums for the first half of the song. Jon Green also played keys during this performance. The song didn't end with a final chorus, but instead with an extended bridge that reprised "The Messenger," Frank Zummo from Sum 41 taking over on drums.

Picking up right where things left off, "Bleed It Out" retained its status as the de facto closing song. Like other songs in the set, it was transposed up from its original key (from F# minor to G# minor). Over the bridge, Mike would usually rap the first verse of "A Place For My Head", opting for "There They Go" instead at shows where "A Place For My Head" was in the set. As a one-off, he rapped the first verse of "Reading My Eyes" in Incheon to close out the first leg of the tour.

Variations

Last Updated: November 19, 2024

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Intro	Intro riff repeated	July 25, 2007	November 7, 2015
Intro	Timbaland Intro	September 9, 2007	September 9, 2007
Intro	Ext. Intro Jam	December 8, 2007	December 8, 2007
Intro	Ext. Intro w/ Chorus	January 25, 2008	January 29, 2008
Intro	2008 Drum Solo Intro	July 16, 2008	August 23, 2008
Intro	2008 Drum Solo Intro w/ Brad Prank	August 9, 2008	August 9, 2008
Intro	w/ Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine"	August 16, 2008	August 16, 2008
Intro	2008 Drum Solo Intro + "Reading My Eyes" Verse 1	August 21, 2008	August 21, 2008
Intro	2009 Drum Solo Intro	July 19, 2009	August 22, 2009
Intro	w/ "Papercut" Verse 1	August 16, 2009	August 16, 2009
Intro	w/ "Reading My Eyes" Verse 1	November 2, 2010	August 21, 2014
Intro	w/ "There They Go" Verse 1	September 3, 2015	September 3, 2015
Intro	Direct Intro	June 15, 2017	July 6, 2017
Bridge	w/ Sing-a-long	June 1, 2007	July 6, 2017
Bridge	w/ Sing-a-long + Drum Solo	August 1, 2007	June 29, 2008
Bridge	Riff repeated	September 7, 2007	July 26, 2009
Bridge	w/ Sing-a-long + Happy Birthday + Drum Solo	October 20, 2007	January 20, 2008
Bridge	w/ Sing-a-long + Drum Solos (Rob + BRUIN)	December 8, 2007	December 8, 2007
Bridge	w/ Drum Solo	February 12, 2008	June 5, 2008
Bridge	w/ "There They Go" Verse 1 + Sing-a-long + Drum Solo	March 8, 2008	March 8, 2008
Bridge	w/ "Reading My Eyes" Verse 1 + Sing-a-long + Drum Solo	June 20, 2008	June 20, 2008
Bridge	w/ Street Drum Corps	July 16, 2008	August 24, 2008
Bridge	w/ "Burning In The Skies" Chorus	October 9, 2010	June 11, 2011
Bridge	w/ "A Place For My Head" Verse 1	October 26, 2010	November 15, 2024
Bridge	w/ "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge	October 29, 2010	May 4, 2012
Bridge	w/ "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge; + Drum Solo + Sing-a-long	December 13, 2010	December 15, 2010
Bridge	w/ "Burning In The Skies" Chorus + "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge	January 22, 2011	June 12, 2011
Bridge	w/ "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge; + Drum Solo	January 25, 2011	June 14, 2011
Bridge	w/ Drum Solo + "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge	June 18, 2011	September 25, 2011
Bridge	w/ "Reading My Eyes" Verse 1 + Drum Solo + "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge	June 19, 2011	June 25, 2011
Bridge	w/ "No Roads Left" Verse 1 + Chorus; + "A Place For My Head" Verse 1 + Bridge	September 11, 2011	September 13, 2011
Bridge	w/ Beastie Boys' "Sabotage"	May 18, 2012	November 10, 2012
Bridge	w/ Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" + Guitar Solo (performed by Mike Einziger)	August 30, 2012	September 8, 2012
Bridge	w/ Baauer's "Harlem Shake"	March 4, 2013	March 4, 2013
Bridge	w/ Travis Barker + Rob Drum Solos	January 11, 2014	January 11, 2014
Bridge	w/ Drum Solo + "The Catalyst" Sing-a-long	May 24, 2014	November 23, 2014
Bridge	w/ Machine Gun Kelly's "What I Do" (performed by Machine Gun Kelly)	June 22, 2014	June 15, 2017
Bridge	w/ Drum Solo Tease + "The Catalyst" Sing-a-long w/ Faster Tempo	August 6, 2014	August 6, 2014
Bridge	w/ "The Catalyst" Sing-a-long	August 15, 2014	January 18, 2015
Bridge	w/ Drum Solo + Fugazi's "Waiting Room" + "The Catalyst" Sing-a-long	November 12, 2014	November 12, 2014
Bridge	w/ Drum Solo + Guitar Solo + "The Catalyst" Sing-a-long	November 24, 2014	November 24, 2014
Bridge	w/ Guitar Solo (performed by Page Hamilton)	November 14, 2015	November 14, 2015
Bridge	w/ "Reading My Eyes" Verse 1 + Sing-a-long	June 17, 2017	June 17, 2017
Bridge	w/ "Reading My Eyes" Verse 1	June 27, 2017	September 28, 2024
Bridge	w/ "The Messenger"	October 27, 2017	October 27, 2017
Bridge	w/ "There They Go" Verse 1	September 11, 2024]]	November 16, 2024
Outro	Slow -> Fast Outro	July 25, 2007	June 7, 2008
Outro	Ext. Ending	February 12, 2008	July 6, 2017
Outro	Ext. Fast Ending	July 21, 2009	August 22, 2009
Outro	Ext. Outro	October 11, 2010	January 11, 2014
Alternative	Shortened (Until Bridge)	September 22, 2012	September 22, 2012
Alternative	Shortened (No Ending)	October 27, 2017	October 27, 2017

Live Guests

Last Updated: August 25, 2018

• Amir Derakh (Julien-K & Dead By Sunrise)
• Benjamin Chandler (replacing Brad Delson)
• David Schmitt (Breathe Carolina)
• Deryck Whibley (Sum 41)
• DJ Z-Trip
• Frank Zummo (Sum 41)
• Gavin Rossdale (Bush)
• Graham Sierota (Echosmith)
• Jeremy McKinnon (A Day To Remember)
• Jeremy DePoyster (The Devil Wears Prada)
• Jon Green (The Bonfires)
• M. Shadows (Avenged Sevenfold)
• Machine Gun Kelly
• Michael Bohn (Issues)
• Mike Einziger (Incubus)
• Mike Hrancia (The Devil Wears Prada)
• Nate Barcalow (Finch)
• Noah Sierota (Echosmith)
• Oliver Sykes (Bring Me The Horizon)
• Page Hamilton (Helmet)
• Ryan Key (Yellowcard)
• Ryan Shuck (Julien-K & Dead By Sunrise)
• Steve Aoki (Helmet)
• Steven McKellar (Civil Twilight)
• Street Drum Corps
• Sydney Sierota (Echosmith)
• Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold)
• Takahiro Moriuchi (ONE OK ROCK)
• Timbaland
• Tim McIlrath (Rise Against/The Killing Tree)
• Travis Barker (Blink-182)
• Tyler Carter (Issues)
• UCLA BRUIN Marching Band
• Warren Willis (replacing Joe Hahn)

Mike Shinoda

Mike included part of "Bleed It Out" in his Post Traumatic Tour set, mashing it up with "Good Goodbye." The mashup was performed over the "Good Goodbye" instrumental, Mike rapping the first verse of "Good Goodbye" before singing the chorus of "Bleed It Out" and rapping the second verse. There were times where Mike would sing the chorus of "Good Goodbye" instead of the "Bleed It Out" chorus. When Matt Harris joined the tour, he played the main riff of "Bleed It Out" over the instrumental.

Variations

Last Updated: April 28, 2020

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Alternative	w/ "Good Goodbye" Chorus"	June 20, 2018	August 31, 2019
Mashup	"Good Goodbye" / "Bleed It Out"	May 12, 2018	September 8, 2019

• NOTE: All extensions from Mike Shinoda sets are to the "Good Goodbye" / "Bleed It Out" mashup, not the individual song itself.

Live Guests

• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell (Linkin Park)

Awards and Nominations

Year	Award	Category	Status
2007	Planeta Awards	Rock Song of the Year	Nominated
2007	Planeta Awards	Best Male Vocal Interpretation (Chester Bennington / Mike Shinoda)	Won
2008	MTV Video Music Awards	Best Special Effects	Nominated
2008	MuchMusic Video Awards	Best International Group Video	Won

Personnel

• Chester Bennington
• Mike Shinoda
• Brad Delson
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell
• Joseph Hahn
• Rob Bourdon

Track 1

• Produced by Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda
• Mixed by Neal Avron
• Mastered by Dave Collins
• Worldwide Representation: Rob McDermott for Mad Mac Entertainment
• Management Team: Ryan DeMarti and Trish Evangelista
• From The Warner Bros. / Machine Shop Recordings Album Minutes To Midnight
• Design & Additional Photography: Frank Maddocks
• Cover Photograph: James Minchin III

Track 2

• Remixed by Mike Shinoda
• Mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner

Track 3

• Recorded by Ken "Pooch" Van Druten and Dylan Ely
• Mixed by Ethan Mates
• Mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner

Lyrics

Album Version

Yeah / Here we go for the hundredth time
Hand grenade pins in every line
Throw 'em up and let something shine
Going out of my fucking mind
Filthy mouth / no excuse
Find a new place to hang this noose
String me up from atop these roofs
Knot it tight so I won't get loose
Truth is / You can stop and stare
Bled myself out and no one cares
Dug the trench out / Laid down there
With a shovel up out of reach somewhere
Yeah / Someone pour it in
Make it a dirt dance floor again
Say your prayers and stomp it out
When they bring that chorus in

I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
Just to throw it away
Just to throw it away

I bleed it out / Go / Stop the show
Choppy words and a sloppy flow
Shotgun, opera, lock and load
Cock it back and then watch it go
Mama help me / I've been cursed
Death is rollin' in every verse
Candy paint on his brand new hearse
Can't contain him / He knows he works
Fuck this hurts / I won't lie / Doesn't matter how hard I try
Half the words don't mean a thing and I know I won't be satisfied
So why try ignoring him
Make it a dirt dance floor again
Say your prayers and stomp it out
When they bring that chorus in

I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
Just to throw it away
Just to throw it away

I bleed it out
I've opened up these scars
I'll make you face this
I've pulled myself so far
I'll make you face this now

I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
Just to throw it away
Just to throw it away

I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
I bleed it out
Digging deeper just to throw it away
Just to throw it away
Just to throw it away

I bleed it out
I bleed it out
I bleed it out

Demo Version

How did this all come back around
Left for dead when I hit the ground
After everything, now I've found
That you've set me up just to knock me down
Here and now is where this begins
I don't know what your sickness is
But I do know what the difference is
You just show that face for your witnesses
Just talk and talk and talk and lie
With every little word, you rot inside
You're not really gonna stop and try
To make right of the wrong you've caught me by
So I know what's happening
I see that web you're trappin' in
You can kid yourself now all you want
I'm not falling for that again

To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no
 
Forget about all that who and when
The hurt you knew that drew me in
The dirt you rubbed my bruises in
The guilt that I felt when the rules were bent
This is where the brand new begins
This is where the confusion ends
I don't care if I lose or win
I just know that I don't want to pretend
So just talk and talk and laugh and grin
Here we go just like that again
Back to get stabbed in the back again
Like the last time wasn't just practicing
This time here's what's happening
I see that web you're trappin' in
You can kid yourself now all you want
I'm not falling for that again
 
To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no

Na na na na / Da na na na na na
Na na na na / Na
Na na na na / Da na na na na na
Na na na na / Na na
Na na na na / Da na na na na na
Na na na na / Na
Na na na na / Da na na na na na

To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no
To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
To sha na ba ba ba ba ba na na no
Lo ba na na ba ba ba ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no
Shi ga na ba na na no

This time here's what's happening
I see that web you're trappin' in (Ga na ba)
You can kid yourself now all you want
I'm not falling for that again (Ga na ba)
This time here's what's happening
I see that web you're trappin' in (Ga na ba)
You can kid yourself now all you want
I'm not falling for that again

Gallery

• 

  Single

• 

  Vinyl Side A

• 

  Vinyl Side B

• 

  DVD artwork

• 

  Live Earth - The Concerts For A Climate In Crisis

In Other Media

• "Bleed It Out" is featured in the 2010 videogame Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock.
• "Bleed It Out" was released in 2015 as part of a DLC for the 2013 videogame Rocksmith 2014.

Cover Versions

"Bleed It Out" have been played live in 2011 by Punch, a cover band fronted by Jeff Gutt. What's interesting about this cover in particular is that, for many years, many Dry Cell (Gutt's former band) songs have been mistaken for Linkin Park songs, the most prominent being an early version of "Body Crumbles".

External Links

• Bleed It Out (Music Video): LPTV | WBR | MTV
• Bleed It Out (Live Earth Japan 2007) - LPTV | WBR | Dailymotion
• Bleed It Out (Clarkston 2007) - Simply New | Simply New Vimeo | Marc Scarpa | NowWhat
• Bleed It Out (Milton Keynes 2008) - LPTV| WBR | WMG