February 9, 2009 10:44

Linkin Park's Chester Bennington 'honoured to be playing Knebworth'

Frontman tells NME.COM about plans for new festival

Photo Gallery: Linkin Park

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington has told NME.COM that he is "honoured" to be playing Knebworth as part of the Sonisphere festival this summer.

His band and Metallica will headline the new touring rock festival, which includes a stop at the English stately home and famous rock concert venue.

Both bands top the bill at Sonisphere, which visits Holland, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Finland before finishing up at the legendary site on the weekend of August 1-2.

"As I've become aware of the awesome bands who have played Knebworth over the years I realise what an honour it will be for Linkin Park. This is definitely one of the big ones," he said of the venue which has hosted massive shows from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Oasis.

"You have to work on earning the respect of the fans in the UK," he added. "I would say the experiences over the years playing festivals over there, the audiences actually get better and better each time.

"I think it will be amazing to come out and play this festival. Obviously we're huge fans of Metallica as well. We’ve had the pleasure of playing with them on a number of occasions. We get on really well with Metallica and its so much fun to play with Metallica."

The singer hinted that Sonisphere might see the band debut some all-new material.

"I can't promise because we're still writing," said Bennington, "but I'm going to put it out there that you might hear some new stuff from us."

Linkin Park's last album was 2007's 'Minutes To Midnight'.

To check the availability of Sonisphere tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/GIGS now, or call 0871 230 1094.