Linkin Park is calling out fans who don’t like their new pop album, One More Light. 

In an explosive interview with Kerrang! Radio, lead singer Chester Bennington challenged fans who thought their recently released pop-inspired album was a radical departure meant to market to a wider audience. Bennington offered fans to fight him, said any fans who thought the band sold out could “suck my dick” and were a “fucking pussy.”

“Because guess what, calling us a sell out for that purpose is… selling out on your f—king excuse as to why you don’t like it. You’re a f—king pussy. For any band to take musical risks because you like what you’re doing in spite of what you know some people will say they don’t like, it doesn’t matter if they like it or not – what matters is that you took the chance to do something that you felt was important to you and that’s what being an artist is all about.”

Bennington’s frustration was channeled at diehard fans who seemingly fail to understand the band’s musical direction with their latest release. Throughout the years, Linkin Park has never been afraid to challenge their own sound, changing genres multiple times since their nu-metal 90s days.

I recently wrote that it’s OK for the band to try something different with One More Light. Better to try something new and fail than stick to the same conventional sound over and over again. It’s bold risk-taking that you don’t see in music too much these days. However, with both fans (every post on Linkin Park’s Facebook page is littered with comments of hate towards the new sound) and critics (the album currently has a 45 rating on Metacritic) alike dissing their album constantly, Bennington’s frustration boiled over, leading to the asinine remarks.

Linkin Park has developed a loyal, passionate fanbase over the last 15-plus years that many bands would die for. Fans who have supported them through their experimentation with different sounds ultimately helped keep them relevant in the face of adversity. So, for Bennington to criticize them — even if his point about the band’s constantly changing sound is correct — is bordering on career suicide. You never want to bite the hand that feeds you. Bennington cut the entire arm off.

How is a fan base supposed to support an album they don’t particularly like when the lead singer who they’ve supported for more than a decade tells them to piss off? Driving away diehard fans who support you through the thick and thin is the exact opposite of what Linkin Park should be doing. It’s easy to imagine the disappointment of longtime supporters after waking up to those comments.

Thankfully for Linkin Park, they’re popular enough to survive this idiocy. But if they want to take further risks with their next album after One More Light, their leash just became significantly shorter.

About Liam McGuire

Social +Staff writer for The Comeback & Awful Announcing. Liammcguirejournalism@gmail.com