Ready for Revolution

On the eve of the launch of the fifth Projekt Revolution — the multi-genre tour founded by Linkin Park in 2002 — Rolling Stone checked in with two of its acts, LP's Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell. The pair of famous frontmen chatted about the greatest rock singers and classic Lollapalooza fests.

How does being around all these different artists on the Projekt Revolution tour inspire you?
Chris Cornell: Being on tour can sometimes be less complicated than being at home because your day is regimented. You wake up in the morning, you warm up, you do a soundcheck, you play your show, you sleep or get on the bus — every single day is like that. There's someone putting a sheet of paper under your door telling you what time you're gonna do what. But a festival tour like this is very different. It's much less predictable and a lot of different things can happen. And seeing other bands perform for me changes my whole mood in terms of what I end up bringing onstage. I've often watched live performance footage from any band before I go onstage just 'cause it gets me in that mindset.
Chester Bennington: What I like about doing a touring festival, especially Projekt Rev, is the fact these are bands that I can get really excited about since I'm part of the reason they're there. For me, last Projekt Revolution was probably the best touring experience I've ever had. For me to be able to bring out Mindless Self Indulgence — a band that I've always liked and I've felt that they've never really gotten the love that they deserve — to see them show up and play with another band like Saosin and 5,000 kids are showing up at noon, just like, "Yes, it's happening." And I felt really proud that they got to do that and that Gerard [Way, of My Chemical Romance] and Lyn-Z [Mindless Self Indulgence bassist Lindsey Ballato] reignited their friendship and then ended up getting married backstage on the last show. I was like, "This is freaking awesome." When we did Ozzfest I couldn't go to the main stage because I had the wrong pass. I felt like I was segregated from everybody else. The main stage guys were in their superstar land and it was just like, "I don't feel comfortable here." Everyone needs to feel respected and everyone needs to be able to go wherever they wanna go and do whatever they wanna do.

Chris, going back to what you said, how does seeing live music affect the way you approach playing?
Cornell: Energy and enthusiasm, those are the things that I'm talking about. To stand up in front of thousands of people and perform whatever way it is, whether it's in a rock band or a string quartet, it's an intense thing to do. As soon as I see it, it's like I immediately absorb it. The other way to do it is sit in a room by yourself and then you go out and suddenly stand in front of a bunch of people for the first time. At Lollapalooza '92 I would go into the pit, put my hair in a hat, and watch Ministry and try to see if I could jump over the security guards and stage dive and really get into being a fan.
Bennington: That was a great tour [laughs].
Cornell: That was also very diverse and seeing all those bands in one day I could see it sort of changing everybody. But the enthusiasm, the passion for doing it is what I connect with immediately just by seeing it happening in front of me. When we toured Australia, Chester broke his wrist on like, the third song and then finished the whole set with a broken wrist. That kind of dedication and passion, like, "This is what I'm doing, this is the most important thing there is, I'm onstage right now." That affects me.