Rob Bourdon

Robert Gregory Bourdon is an American musician, best known as a founding member and former drummer of rock band Linkin Park. He was born on January 20, 1979. His style blends rock, metal, and hip-hop together, helping blend Linkin Park's genre-bending sounds together. He left the band sometime between 2022 and 2024, being replaced by Colin Brittain officially in 2024.

Early Life

When he was 8 or 9 years old, Rob Bourdon and his brother used to play along to Aerosmith and Faith No More on their parents' couch with a pair of drumsticks. Later his brother got a drum kit and Rob started playing piano. When he was 12, he started taking drum lessons and switched to playing drums full time. He was inspired to play the drums after his mom took him to an Aerosmith concert when he was in the 4th grade and introduced him to Joey Kramer (Aerosmith's drummer). In 6th grade Rob started playing in a band with 3 friends called No Clue, that would play cover songs in backyard parties. In 7th grade they switched their name to Physical Evidence and covered Nirvana, Bad Religion, and Suicidal Tendencies. When they started writing their own original music, the songs sounded like a blend of those 3 different artists, with most of the lyrics being about the teachers they hated in their junior high school. When he was in the 10th grade his parents made him join in his high school's jazz band (the Calabasas High School Jazz Band).

Career

Relative Degree

For further information, see Relative Degree.

Rob was in the band for a couple of months in high school and played one show, but he didn't like it. In the audience, two musicians who were contemplating forming a new band called Karma saw Rob performing and recruited him to audition. He didn't get the job, but through the bass player of Karma, Dave Garrett, he met Brad Delson and Mike Shinoda who both lived nearby in the San Fernando Valley.

Although Mike never joined the band, he would occasionally put samples into their songs and watch them practice. He developed a strong friendship with Brad when they were both in 8th grade. "I loved the drums so much growing up, just listening to them. The reason that I got to know the Linkin Park guys because in high school I was really good friends... I started it with my friend Mark and we were both in art class together every day, we hung out outside of school all the time. I always gave him rap recommendations. He was in a band with these other guys from school (Relative Degree) that I didn't really know, and the drummer was from another school. And I would literally go watch them practice just to watch the drummer play. And then that ended up being Rob and our guitarist Brad. Eventually it was Mark on vocals but that didn't work out and we parted ways and found Chester. People always think "wouldn't suck to be the guy that didn't make it Linkin Park?" but he's a successful music manager and a good friend of mine."

Relative Degree played a show at The Roxy Theatre on May 17, 1996 before disbanding.

Mark Wakefield, Brad and Rob, along with Dave Garrett, then started a band called Relative Degree. They had a dream of playing one show at The Roxy Theatre, so they set it as their big goal. The Roxy was a popular club for up and coming bands located on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, California. The band wrote 12 songs and rehearsed for a year before playing the show at The Roxy which finally happened on May 17, 1996.

Brad said, "People laugh at me when I say this but my goal was - as a musician - to play a show at our local club, the Roxy, in L.A. in high school for my friends. I did it. Now I say this, and it may sound like bullshit, everything that's happened from that point on is all gravy. We're really proud of the music we've made, and for everyone that gets to hear it, that's more love for us. We're totally happy." After playing only one show, the members of Relative Degree started losing focus and the band eventually broke up.

Linkin Park

After the end of Relative Degree, Rob went through a rough period in his life, struggling with drugs and alcohol, and became isolated from everyone. Towards the end of high school, he got his life back on track and went back into playing drums full time again. Around that time, he got a call from Mike asking if he wanted to listen to some songs he had written with Brad and Mark. He was impressed by their work and became involved right away.

Xero played their first shows as a band on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, with the first one taking place on November 14, 1997 at the Whisky A Go Go, playing before SX-10 and System Of A Down. Rob explained how they got in the bill, "Basically, with clubs of that magnitude, you pay to play. If you can sell enough tickets, you can play. But, actually, we made a little bit of money, because we could sell a lot of tickets. At that time, all of us were either in school, or just out of school. I was in between high school and college. So, we had a lot of friends at school, and all of us would each try to sell 50 to 75 tickets. We would just go crazy, and try to sell them to everyone; family members, it didn't matter. We had to sell them to everyone just to play there."

Talking about the show, Mike said, "I remember that gig. I was wearing the most ridiculous thing ever. I had this white beanie hat on with blue goggles and white gloves, I think because it made me feel more like a performer and not the normal dude that I knew I was. So I had to get into costume in order to get psyched up and get into character. We were awful, just horrible but we survived." The club was packed with A&R scouts that had all fled by the third song. Jeff Blue added, "The place was empty. You could hear crickets." He saw that the group had potential but were pretty far from actually "making it", so he offered them a development deal with a little financial support from Zomba Music Group. Brad received the proposal on December 4th, but the band didn’t accept the deal right away. Mark and Brad were convinced Jeff Blue was the right person to help them, but Mike and the others disagreed. They shopped the deal to other managers for 9 months in hopes they would find something better. When the band decided to sign it, Jeff's surfing buddy Danny Hayes was hired to represent them. The deal was signed by every band member except for Phoenix at the law offices of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles. The moment was registered with several group photos. This was followed by a Zomba Signing Party at Hollywood Athletic Club on October 10, 1998.

Xero would soon change their name to Hybrid Theory and then again finally to Linkin Park, going into the studio in 2000 with new vocalist Chester Bennington to record their debut album Hybrid Theory. The album went on to achieve international success, bringing massive fame to the band and its members as they continued to release number one albums and sell out tours around the world. Rob's drumming work shined throughout the discography, with acclaimed work on Minutes To Midnight and The Hunting Party.

Rob Bourdon was involved with the band all the way from the 2017 break to at least the middle of 2022, as he was a co-signer of the aforementioned "Notes From the Band" series Linkin Park was doing. Mike described Rob Bourdon coming to the band sometime in the middle-to-end of 2022 and saying that he wanted to leave Linkin Park. Mike said, "And we understood that — it was already apparent. He was starting to just show up less, be in less contact, and I know the fans noticed it too. The Hybrid Theory rerelease [Editor's Note: Rob was there for the Hybrid Theory 20 box set, but was absent from the Meteora 20 box set promotion] and Papercuts release, he didn’t show up for anything. So for me, as a friend, that was sad, but at the same time, I want him to do whatever makes him happy, and obviously everybody wishes him the best."

Mike added (to Zane Lowe, 2024), describing the situation, "We had a conversation a little while ago, a couple years ago at this point, where he said he wanted to step away. We didn't talk about that in public because we didn't know how that would work out. The fans noticed it, we released a bunch of things and he wasn't a part of any of the interviews or marketing. And that's why. We’ll always love the guy. We'll always respect the wonderful things we’ve built together. With his absence being a real thing, I was already working with Colin."

Discography

Full article: Linkin Park Discography

• Hybrid Theory (2000)
• Meteora (2003)
• Minutes To Midnight (2007)
• A Thousand Suns (2010)
• Living Things (2012)
• The Hunting Party (2014)
• One More Light (2017)
• From Zero (2024)