Rob Bourden Details

Rob Bourdon

Robert Gregory Bourdon (born January 20, 1979) is the drummer and youngest member of the nu metal band Linkin Park.
Rob was born in Calabasas, California and now lives in Los Angeles. He grew up in the same town as the members of Incubus and Hoobastank.

Rob started to play Drums after watching an Aerosmith concert. His mother, Patty, is friends with Joey Kramer, Aerosmith's drummer. They also dated when the were much younger. This friendship meant they were able to go backstage and see the entire production. Kramer also gave Rob a kick pedal.

In his early teen years, Bourdon played in a few bands with his friends. It was around that time that he met his current Linkin Park bandmate, Brad Delson, and they played together for about a year in a band called Relative Degree. Their goal was to play at the Roxy Theatre, after achieving their goal with a sell-out show, Relative Degree eventually broke up.

Personal Life

He once dated actress Shiri Appleby. He dated actress Vanessa Lee Evigan, starting in 2001 but has been single since at least early 2008.

His birthday was featured on an episode of iTunes' LPTV. On January 20, 2004, Linkin Park played a show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the band can be seen joking around backstage and saying that it is Rob's twentieth Rob and Brad didn't have any tattoos for religious reasons. Both are actively of the Jewish faith.

Trivia

Rob's favorite songs to play are "In the End" and "The Little Things Give You Away".

He is the tallest member of the band, standing at 6' 4" (1.93 m) and the youngest.

Bourdon wears Puma racing shoes to get a better feel for the drum pedals; he says it gives him better control of the pedals. He is said to be somewhat of a perfectionist. Rob's hobbies include playing the piano (although he has never done so for a Linkin Park recording) and surfing.

He also said that the song "Easier to Run" was the most difficult to play as he had to approach the drums very differently.

In Linkin Park's third studio album, Minutes to Midnight, Rob has used standard wooden drums, in addition/comparison to triggers which were used in the previous albums. Photos of the drum machines to be used for the record have surfaced via Joe Hahn's personal SlamXHype blog.

In the extended live version of "Bleed It Out" Rob plays a complex drum solo, in which he broke the tip off his right drumstick around ten seconds in but continued to play, showing his talent at the drum kit.

Equipment

Drums (Gretsch USA Custom)

14X5 Snare Drum
22X16 Bass Drum
18X16 Floor Tom
16X13 Floor Tom
10X8 High-Tom
12X10 Mid-Tom

Cymbals (Zildjian)

14" A-New Beat hi-hats
14" A-Custom Mastersound hi-hats [Changes between hi hats live]
18" A-Custom Projection Crash
10" A-Custom Splash
19" A-Custom Crash
21" A-Custom Projection Ride
20" Oriental China "Trash"
14" ZXT Trashformer

Others

Electronics: Pintech Pads(to the left of hi-hats)

Hardware: Gibraltar cage/drum supports

Heads: Various Remo Heads

Sticks: Vater 5B (Hickory with wood tip)

Footwear: Puma racing shoes

Recording Software: Pro Tools

Triggers on snare(DDrum)

KD-7 Bass Drum Trigger Unit (Roland)

MultiDirector DI (Whirlwind)

Headphone Mixer MH4 (Rane)

Crossover SAC22 (Rane)

Bass Shaker (Aura)

DW 5000 double kick pedals (DW)

S6000 Sampler (Akai)

MPC2000XL Sampler (Akai)

DM5 Drum Module (Alesis)

M-1400I Power Amp (Mackie)

PL Plus Power Conditioner (Furman)