Friendly Fire

"Friendly Fire"
Single by Linkin Park
from the album Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023
Working title:	Friendly Fire
Recorded:	2016
Released:	February 23, 2024
Format:	Digital
Length:	2:56
Writer:	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green
Producer:	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Andrew Dawson, Andrew Bolooki, Jon Green, Corin Roddick
Label:	Warner Records
Linkin Park singles chronology Lost (2023) Friendly Fire (2024)
Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023 tracklist
Crawling Faint Numb/Encore Papercut Breaking The Habit In The End Bleed It Out Somewhere I Belong Waiting For The End Castle Of Glass One More Light Burn It Down What I've Done QWERTY One Step Closer New Divide Leave Out All The Rest Lost Numb Friendly Fire

"Friendly Fire" is a song originally written for Linkin Park's 2017 studio album One More Light by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Jon Green. It was released as the lead single of Linkin Park's career-spanning compilation Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023 on February 23, 2024. The compilation itself was released on April 12, 2024 in digital, CD and vinyl formats. "Friendly Fire" is among the last songs Linkin Park recorded with vocalist Chester Bennington, who passed away in July 2017.

Background

"Friendly Fire" was a song that was written for One More Light by Mike, Brad, and Jon Green. The title was first seen on a song board in a picture Joe Hahn posted on September 6, 2016 alongside songs that made the album.

Jon Green is the singer of the English band The Bonfires. Both bands were at the Larrabee Studios in November 2015 and Jon proceeded to work with Linkin Park throughout 2016. While two songs with Jon made One More Light, "Nobody Can Save Me" and "Battle Symphony", Linkin Park worked with Jon on at least two more songs - "Friendly Fire", released in 2024, and "Tidal Wave", which is unreleased. Mike Shinoda went on to say Jon Green related really well with Chester.

When the album was released in May 2017, Jon wrote on Instagram, "Still assuming they meant to hit up the other Jon Green, who by the way is total quality. Total honour to have a couple of tunes on this record & to have got in the room with such a genuine & brilliant bunch of guys. Congrats @linkinpark all their team and all involved."

In a December 2016 issue of the Kerrang! magazine, Mike Shinoda announced Linkin Park had collaborated with Canadian musician Corin Roddick from Purity Ring, but when questioned about the collaboration, Roddick said it "does not exist". However, he is credited for additional production and additional programming on "Friendly Fire".

Following the release of One More Light, Mike said he would try to get demos and studio content that didn't make the album out to fans because there is some cool stuff. Brad Delson added, "There's definitely a few gems that we've got in our back pocket. But I would say the vast majority of those songs fortunately will never see the light of day. They were just a part of the journey; the ones that were the most satisfying and exciting were the ones we ultimately focused on and finished and make up the album."

In a stream on June 17, 2020, Mike confirmed "Friendly Fire" was completely finished and had vocals from Chester on it. "There was a song, a One More Light song, that we mixed. We mixed more than the finished album and we mixed a couple other songs just to see if one of them would make the cut or if we would use it for a b-side. And it was Friendly Fire. A Jon Green co-write. I wrote that with Jon, I think it was me, Jon, and Brad mostly. I still love that song." He went on to say that the song wouldn't be coming out soon, but would likely be released. This was the first public mention of Jon collaborating on the track.

When asked a few days later about more unreleased One More Light songs, Mike said, "Every album we've got so many songs that we make and you know, they're not... some of them are just in really like, half cooked, half baked conditions. So I mean, I think fans tend to be very overly optimistic about those types of things. In their imagination, there's some gem that's the best Linkin Park song that's sitting on a hard drive somewhere. I promise you that's not the case. The best stuff is always the stuff we put on the record. There are some songs where we were like, "oh this is really good", but it's not better than the record. Some of it is like, a verse and chorus copied twice and that's the second verse as well... it's like half done, it's not done."

Tracklist

Digital Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Friendly Fire	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green	2:56

Music Video

The official music video for "Friendly Fire" was directed by Mark Fiore and premiered on February 22, 2024 at 9pm PT, coinciding with the radio premiere of the song.

Video Credits

Directed and Edited by: Mark Fiore
Produced by: Amigo and Company
Executive Produced by: Devin Sarno and Linkin Park
Colorist: Loren White

Versions

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

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Friendly Fire	Friendly Fire Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023	2:56	2016	February 23, 2024

Promotion

The song had its world premiere on KROQ on February 22, 2024 at 9pm PT.

Personnel

Linkin Park

• Chester Bennington - Vocals
• Rob Bourdon - Drums
• Brad Delson - Guitar
• Joseph Hahn - Programming
• Phoenix - Bass
• Mike Shinoda - Keyboards, Programming, Vocals

Additional Musicians

• Additional Guitar: Jon Green
• Additional Programming: Andrew Dawson
• Additional Programming: Corin Roddick

Production

• Writer: Mike Shinoda
• Writer: Brad Delson
• Writer: Jon Green
• Producer: Brad Delson
• Co-Producer: Andrew Dawson
• Vocal Producer: Andrew Bolooki
• Additional Production: Jon Green
• Additional Production: Corin Roddick
• Engineer, Producer: Mike Shinoda
• Engineer: Josh Newell
• Engineer: Ethan Mates
• Assistant Engineer: Alejandro Baima
• Assistant Engineer: Warren Willis
• Drum Technician: Jerry Johnson
• Mixer: Manny Marroquin
• Masterer: Brian "Big Bass" Gardner

Lyrics

Album Version

Tell me the words I've forgotten
What we were fightin' for
Starin' right into the darkness
Through an empty open door

Can't put back what's been broken
Can't change the moment
We went too far

We're pulling apart for no reason
We're pulling a trigger in a useless war
And if we come back and go into the black (black)
What are we fighting for?
What are we fighting for?

I was supposed to protect you
No matter what's to come
Somehow forgot when they told me
"We hurt thе ones we love"

Can't put back what's been broken
Can't change the moment
We went too far
  
We're pulling apart for no reason
We're pulling a trigger in a useless war
And if we come back and go into the black
What are we fighting for?
What are we fighting
 
It's just friendly fire, fire
Fire, fire
 
We're strangers in between the darkness
Laughing underneath
I'll find you out in the horizon
We'll never be enemies
 
Can't put back what's been broken
Can't change the moment
We went too far
  
We're pulling apart for no reason
We're pulling a trigger in a useless war
And if we come back and go into the black
What are we fighting for?
What are we fighting
 
It's just friendly fire, fire
Fire, fire
Fire, fire
Fire, fire

Gallery

• 

  Single artwork

• 

  EMP exclusive bundle

• 

  EMP exclusive bundle

• 

  "Friendly Fire" reveal

• 

  "Friendly Fire" music video premiere

• 

  Song board with "Friendly Fire"

• 

  Jon Green in Linkin Park's studio. Photo by Joe Hahn

• 

  Linkin Park in the studio with Justin Parker and Jon Green

External Links

• Music Video: YouTube
• First teaser: YouTube
• Second teaser: SoundCloud