Significance: Robert means "Bright Fame." (quite prophetic, ain't it?) Gregory means "Vigilante" or "Watchman." Bourdon is French and literally translates as "to buzz". Bourdon is also the French word for a type of organ.
Birthdate: January 20th, 1979 (He is currently 23 years old.)
Hometown: Calabasas, California
Ethnicity: Jewish
Family: Mom- Patty; Dad- Gregory; Younger Brother- Dave
Relationship Status: Taken; Has a serious girlfriend, Ashli (Lucky girl, eh?)
High School: Calabasas High School (Rob attended school w/ members of Incubus)
College: Santa Monica College; Majored in Accounting
Previous Job: Waiter, Employee @ a bowling alley
Hobbies: Gambling, Eating, Surfing, Playing the piano (Let's have a duet, Rob!), Writing music
Favorite Types of Food: Italian (pesto....ooo), Mexican (burritos)
Favorite Color: Green
Musical Influences: James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, Sly and The Family Stone, Tower of Power, & Carter Beauford of Dave Matthews Band
Favorite Bands: Deftones, Coldplay, Pete Yorn, Dave Matthews Band, & John Mayer (Woo, props to Rob for DMB and John! I swear, I loved them before I knew Rob did....honest!)
Linkin Park Role: Drummer
Equipment: Gretsch kit, Gibraltar Hardware, Zildjian cymbals, Remo heads, Vater sticks, Rane headphone amp, Alesis DM-5 drum module, Shure E-1 in-ear monitors, D-drum trigger pads
Favorite Video Made: "Papercut" (Because he got to sit around for 16 hours doing nothing.)
Favorite Hybrid Theory Track: "In The End"
Favorite Reanimation Tracks(s): "ENTH E ND", "P5HNG ME A*WY", & "H! VLTG3"
How Rob Discovered Music: Rob was first introduced to music in 2nd grade when his parents forced him to take piano lessons. In 3rd grade, Rob & family attended an Aerosmith concert, where, coincedentally, his mom knows band member, Joey Kramer (Patty was Joey's ex-high school girlfriend). He got to meet most of the band and see what goes on backstage in order to put on a huge concert. According to Rob, "that night changed [his] life forever" because it was then that he knew he wanted to be a musician. Later, after his brother received a drum set for his birthday, Rob taught himself how to play them by listening to CDs of his favorite bands and trying to follow along with the music. Rob took drum lessons for about a year, but quit because it hindered his creativity.
In 6th grade, Rob and three friends of his started their first band. They played Nirvana, Bad Religion, and Suicidal Tendencies covers along with some originals songs. Rob met Brad after a few classmates saw him perform at school. Through one of these classmates, he later met Brad (Rob did NOT know Brad & Mike from high school), and eventually played with him in their old band, Relative Degree. Relative Degree praticed for about a year, fulfilled its goal of playing @ The Roxy, then disbanded. A few years after, Rob got a call from Mike, asking him to join his and Brad's band, Xero. Rob did. And 13 million plus albums, one grammy, and one VMA later, I doubt Rob has any regrets.
Much THANKS to mikeshinoda.net and vater.com's Artist Spotlight Interview for the Rob info!