Mike Shinoda has recalled the moment his daughter refused to accept his guitar-playing advice because she was unaware of his talents – and seemingly had no idea who Linkin Park were.
Guesting on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to discuss Linkin Park’s much-hyped return – which sees Dead Sara vocalist Emily Armstrong joining in place of the late Chester Bennington – the guitarist and producer discussed the humbling interaction.
As Shinoda explains, his daughter has been learning to play guitar and, as a supportive father, he recently decided to check in on her to see if he could offer some words of wisdom.
“I was like, 'Hey, by the way, that one chord at the end of this part, actually your fingers go here,” Shinoda recalls. “And she's like, 'Yeah, whatever' – basically: 'Leave me alone.'
“So I backed away like, ‘Okay, cool, I'm sure you've got it,’” he continues. “A little while later, I wanna say it was the next day, she came to me and was like, 'Hey Dad, can you show me that chord?'”
Touched by his daughter’s change of heart, the Linkin Park member then proudly told his wife the story of how she’d eventually come around.
However, all was not as it seemed. Shinoda says his wife started laughing at him, before she explained what really happened: “I heard you two talking originally and she was like, 'Get out here, don't tell me how to play,'” the guitarist recalls his wife saying.
As it turns out, his wife had approached their daughter and informed her it was probably worth listening to her dad's advice. Her response? “What does he know about performing?”
Shinoda goes on, “My wife literally pulled up a video of Linkin Park on stage at Rock In Rio in front of 85,000 people and my daughter goes, 'Who's that?'”
It seems unlikely that Shinoda Jr. will be quite as unwilling to listen to her old man’s advice from now on, especially as the family has been able to witness the nu metallers return in recent weeks.
Perhaps that's teed up a potential father-daughter collaboration in the future, following in the footsteps of David Gilmour's recent impromptu duet with his daughter in a British pub, and Jack White inviting his daughter on stage to play Hardest Button to Button.
Meanwhile, Shinoda's co-guitarist Brad Delson has confirmed he's sitting out of Linkin Park's comeback tour, preferring to take a back seat and focus on contributing behind the scenes.
