Brad Delson
Delson performing with Linkin Park on the A Thousand Suns World Tour, 2010
Background information
Birth name	Bradford Phillip Delson
Also known as	Big Bad Brad, BBB
Born	(1977-12-01) December 1, 1977 (age 34)[1] Agoura, California, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, alternative metal, nu metal, electronic rock
Occupations	Musician, A&R representative
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, saxophone, trumpet, drums, vocals
Years active	1996–present
Associated acts	Linkin Park, Jay-Z, Xero, Fort Minor, Busta Rhymes
Website	linkinpark.com
Notable instruments
PRS Custom Series 24, PRS Standard Series 24, Fender Stratocaster, Ibanez RG, Gibson Les Paul

Bradford Phillip "Bradley" Delson (born December 1, 1977) is an American guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award winning rock band Linkin Park.^[2] He is also the A&R Representative for Machine Shop Recordings.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Brad Delson attended Agoura High School with childhood friend and Linkin Park band mate Mike Shinoda. He played in various bands throughout his high school career, the most notable being Relative Degree, in which he met and teamed up with drummer Rob Bourdon. Relative Degree's goal was simply to play a show, and, after achieving that goal, they disbanded.

After graduating in 1995, Delson, Shinoda, and Bourdon formed Xero, which would eventually become the starting point for Linkin Park.

Delson entered UCLA in 1995 as a Regent Scholar working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies with a specialization in Business and Administration. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and shared a dorm room with future Linkin Park band mate Dave Farrell for three out of his four years at school.^[3] Delson also had the opportunity to intern with a member of the music industry as part of his studies and ended up working for Jeff Blue, an A&R representative at Warner Bros. Records, who offered constructive criticism on Xero's demos. Blue later introduced Chester Bennington, who would become the lead vocalist of Linkin Park, to the rest of the band.

After graduating summa cum laude in 1999, Delson decided to forgo law school in order to pursue a musical career with Linkin Park.^[1] He remains an avid fan of all things blue and gold.^[2] Brad is of Jewish descent.

Linkin Park[link]

In 1999, Delson's band, Xero, replaced former lead vocalist Mark Wakefield with Arizona native Chester Bennington and renamed themselves Hybrid Theory. Before long, Delson, along with Shinoda, had produced the six-track Hybrid Theory (EP), distributing it to various websites online and earning the band its own cult following. By 2000, after one more band name change, Linkin Park was signed by Warner Bros. Records.

On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park released the overwhelmingly successful Hybrid Theory. Over the next year, Delson helped produce the remix album Reanimation (2002), and added his own creative insight into the remixed interpretation of "Pushing Me Away" ("P5hng Me A*wy").

After Reanimation, Delson played a key role in the production of Linkin Park's second studio album, Meteora (2003), which featured heavier guitar riffs than ones in Hybrid Theory.

Linkin Park released their third studio album Minutes To Midnight on May 15, 2007 in the United States. For this album, the band strayed away from the style of nu metal style they had perfected in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, and developed an entirely new sound. For Delson, this meant experimenting with different guitars and amps, both new and vintage. It also meant he needed to push aside his disinclination for guitar solos, which are featured in tracks such as "Shadow of the Day", "What I've Done", "In Pieces" and "The Little Things Give You Away".

While the band pieced together the song "The Little Things Give You Away," Delson experimented with an E-Bow, creating a song called "Ebow Idea," which would afterwards become "No More Sorrow". Listeners can also hear him jingling his keys in "Given Up", an idea which he is credited with in the album booklet, as well as the multiple tracks of hands clapping. He has also played the piano for a few of the live shows on the song Hands Held High.

Brad also added his own creative insight into "New Divide" the track composed by Linkin Park for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Album in 2009. It was also the band's last single before the whole band got together, away from their side projects to compose music for their last album, A Thousand Suns, released on September 14, 2010. Their next album, Living Things, is due for release on June 26, 2012.

Side projects[link]

• 2002–present - A&R Representative for Machine Shop Recordings, a Warner Bros. Imprint label started by both Delson and Shinoda in 2002. Delson is responsible for scouting artists, such as Holly Brook, and signing them to the label.
• 2006 - Produced "Where'd You Go (BBB Remix)," which was featured on the retail single of Fort Minor's "Where'd You Go".
• 2008 - Aided in the production of and provided guitar parts for Busta Rhymes's "We Made It", which featured Linkin Park.

Personal life[link]

Delson married Elisa Boren in September 2003 in a Jewish wedding at the Skirball Cultural Center.^[4] Elisa gave birth to their first child, a boy named Jonah Taylor Delson, on March 25, 2008. He has two younger brothers. Delson also handles many of the business aspects of Linkin Park along with his father Donn Delson. Together, the two created BandMerch, which handles the merchandising affairs for Linkin Park and others. In 1991, Delson was an extra in the movie "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey".

He was the keynote speaker at his alma mater UCLA's College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony on June 12, 2009 in Pauley Pavilion.^[5][6]

Philanthropy[link]

• 2004 - Delson and his wife established the Delson Scholarship Fund at UCLA, which annually awards four-year scholarships to extraordinary students from Huntington Park.^[2]
• 2005 - Linkin Park established Music for Relief, a non-profit organization founded to aid victims of world catastrophes and combat global warming. Since its founding, Music for Relief has raised almost three million dollars, helping victims of the South Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Southern California wildfires.^[2]
• 2005 - Signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underserved public schools throughout the United States. Delson has personally delivered instruments to children in the program and sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.^[7]

Playing style and equipment[link]

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Brad Delson performing at Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas, Texas on August 4, 2007.

Delson's style is sometimes criticized as being too simplistic, lacking complexity, and largely limited to non-solo, non-instrumental sections, particularly during the Hybrid Theory and Meteora eras. He has stated that he "doesn't like to show off", and that he tries to play his guitar so that it sounds as though it were the keyboard or strings so as to seamlessly fit in with the band's hip-hop- and electronica-style compositions. He started performing solos in the Minutes to Midnight era after his bandmates encouraged him to do so. Delson performs guitar solos on the tracks "The Little Things Give You Away", and, perhaps most notably, "In Pieces".

In the early days of Linkin Park, their usual bassist, David "Phoenix" Farrell was unavailable due to touring commitments with Tasty Snax. As a result, on Hybrid Theory, Delson filled in as their recording bassist. For live shows, Brad has occasionally swapped instruments with Farrell and he also plays the keyboards during the song "Hands Held High." During the A Thousand Suns Tour he expanded his live repertoire to include percussion and backing vocals, as well as keyboards during "Waiting for the End" while Mike Shinoda performs the song's rhythm guitar parts.

Delson uses includes the following equipment:^[8][9]

Guitars[link]

• Paul Reed Smith Custom 24/Standard 24/CE 24 guitars - Brad's favorite guitar is his custom-made red PRS with the Hybrid Theory soldier on the body. Tuned to Drop C# Also has one with a greyburst finish and the "Minutes to Midnight-era LP" logo on it for tuning to Drop D and for performing songs from Minutes to Midnight. He also has a blue CE24 and sunburst Custom 24 that was his main guitar for the early days of Linkin Park and can be seen in the videos for In The End, Crawling, and One Step Closer. It was retired in 2003. Also has 2 CE24 and a Custom 24 with a Fernandes Sustainer neck pickup for performing No More Sorrow
• PRS Custom 22/CE 22 guitars. Actually Brad has 2 Custom 22, one in a greyish colour tuned to E♭ tuning and one red, with the Hybrid Theory soldier on the body identical to his Custom 24 tuned to Drop C#. The same red guitar had it's neck pickup changed out for a Fernandes Sustainer pickup for performing No More Sorrow.
• PRS NF3 - used on "Runaway" and "With You".
• PRS Standard Silver finish. Used in Eb tuning. Retired in 2002.
• Ibanez RG470XL guitar - used on "Don't Stay" and "Nobody's Listening", tuned to Drop B
• Ibanez GRG370DX guitar
• Ibanez RG120 guitar - Used on "A Place For My Head" during the Summer Sannitarium 2003 Tour and some Projekt Revolution shows in 2004. (one was smashed at just about every show on Summer Sanitarium in 2003, and occasionally on Projekt Revolution in 2004)
• Ibanez RG7620 7 string guitar - Used on "Runaway" and "With You" from 1999 - 2002, tuned to B tuning
• Fender Rory Gallagher Tribute Stratocaster - Used on "What I've Done", "The Little Things Give You Away", "Valentine's Day", "Bleed it Out", "New Divide", "Iridescent", "Burning In The Skies" and "The Catalyst".
• Fender vintage 1950's Stratocaster - Use mainly in the studio or as a back up for his Fender Rory Gallagher Tribute Stratocaster. (During Summer Sonic 2009 he asked for one in the middle of New Divide as his Rory Gallagher had a problem)
• Fender Jaguar
• Fender Telecaster
• Gibson Les Paul (no longer used)
• Ibanez RGT3120 - used on "Runaway" and "With You" in 2003-2007, tuned to B
• Gibson J45 - Used on "The Messenger" (A Thousand Suns)