“The Grammys asked us to perform with Jay-Z since we were nominated for the mash-up, but since we already played together on some really high-profile stages with our MTV special and with Live 8, we wanted to do something really special that showcased the power of the mash-up,” explained guitarist Brad Delson, who orchestrated the performance. “So we had this idea to do something with Paul, and when I went to Mike [Shinoda]’s house and we were listening to some of the older Beatles songs to see what would work best, ’Yesterday’ really popped its head up.”
“This is getting into technicalities, but Jay’s verse is like a weird measure, like 18 bars, and the fact that ’Yesterday’ works with that weird number, we just looked at each other like, ’How did that happen?’ ” Shinoda added.
“The Da Vinci Code was cracked,” Bennington joked.
Once Delson and Shinoda had the mash-up on tape, they took it to the rest of Linkin Park and eventually McCartney and Jay.
“I thought it sounded great, but at the same time I said, ’I think I am going to puke,’ because you can’t mess it up,” Bennington said. “Either you go out and you nail it or you quit the business, pack up and move to some strange country where no one knows who you are. It was really that much pressure, but what was really interesting was that once I met Sir Paul McCartney, all of that went away and … he brought everything down to a level that made it more real rather than surreal. And that was very helpful because in my mind he is one of the greatest legends of rock and roll.”
Crew
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Jim Digby | Production Manager |
| Sean Paden | Guitar Technician (Brad) |
| Mark Fiore | Videographer |