Brad Delson

Bradford Phillip Delson, born on December 1, 1977, is an American musician, songwriter, and music producer. Delson is best known as the lead guitarist for American rock band Linkin Park, co-founding the band with Mike Shinoda and Mark Wakefield in 1996. Brad Delson helped shaped the band's sonic textures with his distinctive guitar playing, later serving as one of the band's chief creative forces. In 2024, Delson stepped away from live performances but remained as the band's in-studio guitarist.

While Linkin Park has been Delson's main endeavor, he has also helped write and produce a number of tracks by other artists.

Early Life

Brad Delson has been interested in music as far back as he can remember. He played trumpet in his elementary school orchestra, and started learning to play guitar with his guitar teacher, Keith, when he was 12 or 13, taking lessons for about 5 years before he started teaching guitar and playing with friends in local bands. Mike Shinoda said, "When I was a kid one of my best friends lived right across from Brad, and all you could ever hear coming from his bedroom was Metallica, Metallica and more Metallica. If you were lucky you might hear some Exodus, or maybe some Sepultura, but that was it - the guy was an obsessive metalhead." In June 2020, Mike elaborated when asked about his first impression of Brad, "Brad lived next door to my friend Mark. And their bedroom windows were directly across from each other. And it was almost like a TV sitcom. He'd like play guitar in his room and you'd hear him shredding like Metallica. But it was always that really funny thing, you could out Mark's window and you could talk to Brad. I didn't know Brad at that point, he'd just like yell out the window and talk to Brad. Mark would. He seemed like a cool dude, though."

Brad's first band was The Pricks. He was neighbors with Mark Wakefield in high school and the two of them were in the band together. Mike noted, "they were both in several bands before Xero. Mark and Brad were in one called The Pricks, they were this awesome rap-metal band. I loved their stuff." Their most famous show happened in June of 1995, during the summer, at Douglas Robb's parent's backyard. They played as an opening act for Hoobastank's very first show with around 150 people in attendance. Members of both bands had been friends since long before The Pricks was formed and to prepare for the show they stole stages from their local high school in the middle of the night, set them up in Doug's backyard and hired security, charging a dollar for admission.

Mike Giangreco, a local promoter, met Hoobastank through Incubus and booked shows for them. Hoobastank then introduced him to The Pricks. Besides giving Brad jobs as a bouncer at The Roxy and Whisky A Go Go and as a waiter in his restaurant, Giangreco heard The Pricks' cassette demo and, although it was pretty raw, decided to work with them in the hope they would develop their sound and get better. The band played at many frat parties and he would let them borrow sound systems to play shows with the condition that they would carry everything by themselves and bring it back to his garage afterwards. The band would also spend a lot of time in local record stores searching for new releases and "showcasing their musical talents".

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

Brad met Rob Bourdon through the bass player of a local band called Karma, Dave Garrett. 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.

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."

Brad attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), studying communications. Brad was in his first year of college when he attended a class taught by Jeff Blue, who had just signed Korn and Limp Bizkit. Jeff was also developing a young woman named Macy Gray and told everybody in the class he was looking for an intern to help build her career and help him showcase artists, and Brad volunteered for the job. The next morning, Jeff walked in his office and his sister told him there was some kid waiting to speak to him (even though he had no appointments). He then saw Brad spinning on his seat, told Brad to don't ever sit on his seat again and asked him to talk about himself. He told Jeff about his dream of becoming a lawyer and about his band that he was developing. Brad then pointed to a big Limp Bizkit poster Jeff had in his office, which he was really proud of, and said "That band is not that great. I may have a band that's better than that." Jeff liked his confidence and hired Brad as his intern. Funny enough, Jeff had been playing the band's demos for DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit from the very beginning. He met Joe Hahn at Jeff's birthday party on November 20, 1999 and gave Joe several tips. In addition, DJ Lethal said, "I helped linkin park when the were hybrid theory,mike shinoda came to my house and I gave him music plugins and adive and sounds."

Brad met Dave Farrell while at university, being roommates at one point. The duo were playing small jazz events together. Dave had been excited about the progression Brad had been making with his high school friends in Xero, so when the opportunity arose, he joined the band.