Mike made mention at the Chicago Summit to how recording at Abbey Road would be cool because of all of the history that was made there.
I'd be shocked if they weren't Beatles fans, quite frankly. I know Chester's said he specifically had the Beatles in mind when he was doing his vocals on Waiting For the End.
Yeah I certain they all (if not most) are. At least from a songwritting stand point, I think i remember Mike mentioning John & Paul being a huge influence/inspirtation. Plus they all where pretty starstruck when they performed with Macca during the Performance of Numb/Encore/Yesterday at the grammies or whatever it was.
Dave has said that Paul McCartney is one of his favorite bass players, Mike has said that A Day In The Life is his favorite Beatles song, and Chester has said that he got into the Beatles during the MTM recording sessions.
There's an interview from 2010 where Chester says something along the lines of ''If you asked me when I was 20 years old if I liked The Beatles, I would have told you I fucking hated them. But if you asked me now if I liked The Beatles, I would tell you I love and appreciate them''. I think the band all likes them to some point. They performed a small part 'Yesterday' at the Grammy's in 2006 with Paul McCartney and Jay-Z and I remember Brad, Mike and Chester all saying it was a highlight of their career.
Mike has also stated before how he found it incredible that the beatles changed their sound, four times over four records (within...hilariously a 4 year period) and he said he'd love if LP could follow a similar path. So yes, most if not *all* of the band is influenced by The Beatles. You can even hear it clearly on WFTE.
Yeah, I definitely hear their influence on "A Thousand Suns" - particularly in the vocal harmonies on "Roboy Boy" and "Waiting For The End".