With Linkin Park, I think we all feel very fortunate to be where we’re at, just simply to be able to do what we do for a living is a blessing, you know? So when we’re…at a certain point, I think a few years ago, we thought we finally have made it to that level where we need to be…people look to us with a certain…just in a certain way. Call it a role model thing or whatever you want to call it. But we did, at that point realize…it would be a good idea to start looking into the things that make…that are more worthwhile. You can’t just be in this self-indulgent, self-absorbed rock star thing. There’s no point to it. You’ve got to go out there and show people a good example.

And we started being involved…I think we did…of our headlining tour on the Fort Minor album, we took 6 shows – 1 show each – and 1 of us took the revenue, took our personal money of the band for that one show and gave it to charity however we wanted. So we each got the same amount of money and we got to do whatever we wanted with it. And it went everywhere from United Way and Red Cross to organizations like Densho and Japanese American National Museum. I started a scholarship as well at Art Center College of Design. I know some of the other guys did some scholarships at, say, UCLA and other places, too.
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Mike Shinoda Interview #8: Being a good example for people

Interview Date: January 16, 2006

Location: California, US

Interviewer:  Chris Komai & John Esaki

Contributed by Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum 

© 2006 Japanese American National Museum

Interview was originally posted in the Interviews section: 
http://www.discovernikkei.org/interviews/clips/541/