Chester Bennington

At 41 years old, Chester Bennington has this physical status:

Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976-2017) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor.

He was best known as the lead vocalist for Linkin Park and was also the lead vocalist for the bands Dead By Sunrise, Stone Temple Pilots, and Grey Daze.

Following the release of Linkin Park's debut album Hybrid Theory (2000), which was a worldwide commercial success, he appeared in films including Crank, Crank: High Voltage, and Saw 3D.

The album was rated Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005, making it the best-selling debut album of the decade, as well as one of the few albums to achieve that many sales.

Linkin Park's following studio albums, from Meteora (2003) to One More Light (2017), continued the band's success. In 2005, Bennington formed Dead by Sunrise, a side project.

Out of Ashes, the band's debut album, was released on October 13, 2009.

He joined Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 to debut the extended play record High Rise on October 8, 2013, with their own record company, Play Pen, but the team switched to focus solely on Linkin Park in 2015.

Bennington was discovered dead at his Palos Verdes Estates, California, on July 20, 2017.

His death was declared a suicide by hanging. Multiple publications have rated Bennington as one of the best rock vocalists of his generation.

Bennington number 46 was placed on the "100 Metal Vocalists of All Time" list by Hit Parader magazine.

Bennington "turned nu-metal universal," Dan Weiss wrote for Billboard.

Early life

Chester Charles Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 20, 1976. His mother was a nurse, while his father was a police detective who specialized in child sexual abuse cases. At a young age, Bennington took an interest in music, quoting the bands Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as his first inspirations, and he aspired to be a member of Stone Temple Pilots, which he later achieved when he became the group's lead singer. When Bennington was seven years old, he was the victim of sexual assault from an older male friend. He was afraid to ask for assistance because he did not want people to believe he was gay or lying, and the bullying continued until he was 13 years old. He revealed the perpetrator's identity to his father years ago, but did not press charges.

When he was 11 years old, Bennington's parents divorced. He was so sick and miserable at home that he felt the urge to "kill everybody and run away" that he could not. He drew pictures and wrote poetry and songs to console himself. Bennington's father took custody of him following the divorce. Bennington began using alcohol, nicotine, opium, cocaine, methamphetamine, and LSD. In high school, he was physically bullied. In an interview, he said he was "knocked around like a rag doll at school, for being skinny and looking different." Bennington and his mother moved in at the age of 17. When his mother discovered his drug use, he was barred from leaving the house for a time. He worked at a Burger King factory before embarking on his career as a professional musician.

Personal life

Jaime, Bennington's son, was born on May 12, 1996), during his time with Elka Brand. Isaiah, Brand's other son, was adopted in 2006 by the brand in 2006 (born November 8, 1997). Samantha Marie Olit, his first wife, married him on October 31, 1996. Draven Sebastian, a single child born April 19, 2002, they had one child together. Bennington's first marriage struggled during his early years with Linkin Park, and the couple divorced in 2005.

Tyler Lee Bennington (born March 16, 2006) and twins Lily and Lila were married in 2006. A cyberstalker who was later found guilty of tampering with the couple's emails and other personal details, as well as sending threats, both threatening emails, both abused Chester and Talinda Bennington and was sentenced to two years in jail.

Bennington was a tattoo enthusiast. Club Tattoo, a tattoo parlor in Tempe, Arizona, had done work and promotions. Sean Dowdell, Bennington's friend, who played in two bands, is the owner of Tattooed.

Bennington was a fan of the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Arizona Coyotes.

"There's a non-violent way to express yourself and get your message across in a January 2011 interview," Bennington said in reaction to the 2011 Tucson shooting, regardless of what you're saying or what your point is. People have the right to believe whatever they want to believe in a democratic world. It's their company, and they're allowed to speak out. However, no one in a democratic society has the right to murder another individual. Ever. We really need to get past that."

Bennington was a critic of US President Donald Trump. Trump was "worse than terrorism" on January 29, 2017. This tweet resurfaced in July 2020 after Linkin Park gave Trump a cease-and-desist order for using "In the End" in an ad for his re-election bid that year.

During Meteora's making, Bennington was plagued with poor health and he had trouble attending any of the album's recording sessions. When filming the music video for "Numb" in Prague in 2003, he began suffering from extreme abdominal pains and gastrointestinal disorders. He was forced to return to the United States for surgery, and he shot the majority of the music video in Los Angeles.

During a display in Melbourne at the Rod Laver Arena, Bennington sustained a wrist injury while attempting to jump off a platform. Despite the injury, he continued to perform the entire show with a fractured wrist before heading to the hospital, where he received five stitches.

Bennington became sick again in 2011 and Linkin Park was forced to cancel three shows and reschedule two from the A Thousand Suns World Tour. He hurt his shoulder during the band's Asia tour and doctors recommended urgent surgery, canceling their final show in Pensacola Beach, Florida, and ending their tour.

Bennington was struggling with depression and heroin use. In future interviews, he overcame his heroin use and will continue to ban opioid use. He suffered with alcoholism during his time with Linkin Park, which he beat after his bandmates intervened. "I just don't want to be the person anymore," he said in 2011.

Bennington sustained an ankle injury in January 2015 while playing basketball. He tried to recover from the accident and continued with crutches and a knee scooter. Linkin Park halted the remainder of their tour to encourage Bennington to recover and recover from surgery.

Bennington was a close friend of Chris Cornell. They became friends on a tour in the mid-2000s. During the 2007–2008 Projekt Revolution Tour, Bennington performed Temple of the Dogs "Hunger Strike," and then Cornell joined Linkin Park to perform "Crawling." He was also the godfather of Cornell's son Christopher.

On Instagram, Bennington posted a remark on Cornell's death, saying that he could not imagine a world without Cornell. Bennington was extremely emotional during the band's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Bennington could not finish singing the song during rehearsal because he was getting tense. The band had intended to record "Heavy" on the show, but Bennington opted for "One More Light" after learning about Cornell's death, because the song is about the loss of a friend. Throughout the performance, Bennington maintained his energy throughout the show, with only marginally falling short of the end due to his emotional affiliation with Cornell.

Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at Cornell's funeral in Los Angeles on May 26, 2017, a week after his Kimmel appearance.

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Career

Bennington first began singing with a band called Sean Dowdell and His Friends? and together they released an eponymous three-track cassette in 1993. Later, Dowdell and Bennington moved on to form a new band, Grey Daze, a post-grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona. The band recorded a demo in 1993 and two albums: Wake Me in 1994, and ...No Sun Today in 1997. Bennington left Grey Daze in 1998.

Bennington had been frustrated and nearly quit his musical career altogether when Jeff Blue, the vice president of artists and repertoire at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered him an audition with the future members of Linkin Park (then 'Xero'). Bennington quit his day job at a digital services firm and traveled to California, for the audition, in which he successfully won a place in the band. He left his own birthday party early to record his audition.

Bennington and Mike Shinoda, the band's other vocalist, made significant progress together, but failed to find a record deal. After the band had faced numerous rejections, Blue, now a vice president of artists and repertoire at Warner Bros. Records, intervened again to help the band sign with Warner.

On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park released their debut album, Hybrid Theory, through Warner Bros. Records. Bennington and Shinoda wrote the lyrics to Hybrid Theory based on some early material. Shinoda characterized the lyrics as interpretations of universal feelings, emotions, and experiences, and as "everyday emotions you talk about and think about." Bennington later described the songwriting experience to Rolling Stone magazine in early 2002, "It's easy to fall into that thing – 'poor, poor me', that's where songs like 'Crawling' come from: I can't take myself. But that song is about taking responsibility for your actions. I don't say 'you' at any point. It's about how I'm the reason that I feel this way. There's something inside me that pulls me down."

Bennington primarily served as Linkin Park's lead vocalist, but he occasionally shared the role with Shinoda. All Music Guide described Bennington's vocals as "higher-pitched" and "emotional", in contrast to Shinoda's hip-hop-style delivery. Both members also worked together to write lyrics for the band's songs.

Hybrid Theory (2000) was certified diamond by the RIAA in 2005. The band's second album, Meteora (2003), reached number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, as did its third album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). Linkin Park has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. The band has won two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards and three World Music Awards. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1.

In 2005, Bennington co-founded Dead by Sunrise, an electronic rock band from Los Angeles, California, with Orgy and Julien-K members Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck. Dead by Sunrise made their live debut in May 2008, performing at the 13th anniversary party for Club Tattoo in Tempe, Arizona.

The band released their debut album, Out of Ashes, on October 13, 2009.

In February 2013, Stone Temple Pilots parted ways with long-time lead singer Scott Weiland. The band recruited Bennington to replace Weiland in May 2013. On May 18, 2013, Bennington took the stage at KROQ's Weenie Roast with the band. The setlist included original Stone Temple Pilots songs, as well as their first single with Bennington on vocals called "Out of Time", which debuted on May 19 and was available for free download via their official website. It was later announced by Bennington and the band in an exclusive KROQ interview that he was officially the new frontman of Stone Temple Pilots and discussed the possibility of a new album and tour. The song "Out of Time" is featured on their EP High Rise, which was released on October 8, 2013.

Bennington reflected on joining Stone Temple Pilots, stating, "Every band has its own kind of vibe. Stone Temple Pilots has this sexier, more classic rock feel to it. Linkin Park is a very modern, very tech-heavy type of band. I grew up listening to these guys. When this opportunity came up, it was just like a no-brainer." Bennington stated in interviews that singing lead vocals in Stone Temple Pilots was his lifelong dream. He left the band on good terms due to his commitments with Linkin Park in 2015 and was replaced two years later by Jeff Gutt.

In 2005, Bennington appeared on "Walking Dead", the lead single from turntablist Z-Trip's debut album Shifting Gears. Bennington also made a surprise guest appearance during Z-Trip's performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2005. Bennington re-recorded the Mötley Crüe song "Home Sweet Home" as a duet with the band as a charity single for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005. He also joined Alice in Chains and performed the song "Man in the Box" at KROQ's Inland Invasion Festival in 2006. Bennington performed with Kings of Chaos during their six-show 2016 concert tour.

Bennington recorded a track for Slash's 2010 eponymous debut solo album entitled "Crazy" but it was blocked from release. Slash rerecorded it with Lemmy on vocals and the retitled "Doctor Alibi" was added instead. In May 2021, a snippet of the original Bennington track was finally released.

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