Thursday, February 11: Rock Birthdays

Happy Birthday today (Feb. 11) to Mike Shinoda. The co-founder of Linkin Park is 39.

Shinoda co-founded Linkin Park in 1996. He is the band's co-vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, and songwriter. The band formed out of Augora Hills, California and rose to fame in 2000 with the album Hybrid Theory through Warner Bros. Records. The album was a huge, commercial success selling over 10 million copies in the U.S. with singles like  "One Step Closer", "Crawling", and "In the End". It's one of the biggest selling albums of all time with worldwide sales of 27 million. The band followed that success up with the album Meteora which topped the Billboard 200 chart in 2003. Other albums include 2007's Minute's to Midnight, A Thousand Suns (2010), Living Things (2012), and The Hunting Party (2014). In 2014, UK rock magazine Kerrang declared Linkin Park, "The biggest band in the world right now."

Linkin Park are currently in the studio working on a new album . For more on the band, check out their official website here.