Saturday, July 22, 2017
On Thursday,Chester Bennington, lead singer ofUS rock bandLinkin Park, died in his home inLos Angeles at the age of 41. The Los Angeles county coroner confirmed Bennington's death; reportedly it was being investigated as a possible suicide.
A two-timeGrammy award winner with the band, Chester Bennington joined Linkin Park when he was 23. Also featuring rapperMike Shinoda, Linkin Park released their first album,Hybrid Theory, in 2000. The band went on to release six more albums featuring Bennington's voice, includingOne More Light, which was released this year. The band was scheduled to go on a tour forOne More Light, but it has been canceled.
Their songCrawling, fromHybrid Theory, won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. The band was also nominated for Best Rock Album and Best New Artist. A year after releasingMeteora, Linkin Park collaborated with rapperJay-Z for theCollision Course EP in 2004 whose singleNumb/Encore won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.Meteora has sold more than 27 million copies, which featured the hit songNumb.
In his statement,Warner Bros. Records CEOCameron Strang said, "Chester Bennington was an artist of extraordinary talent and charisma, and a human being with a huge heart and a caring soul."The Recording Academy PresidentNeil Portnow said, "We have lost a truly dynamic member of the music community".
In 2013, Bennington performed at theMusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert, whose aim was to aid addiction treatment. Born on March 20, 1976 inPhoenix,Arizona, to a nurse and a police detective, Bennington recounted being abused in his childhood, molested by an older friend over the course of several years starting when he was seven or eight. In a 2008 interview withKerrang!, he said, "It destroyed my self-confidence [...] Like most people, I was too afraid to say anything. I didn't want people to think I wasgay or that I was lying. It was a horrible experience."
In an interview withNoisecreep in 2009, he said, "I don't have a problem with people knowing that I had a drinking problem. That's who I am, and I'm kind of lucky in a lot of ways because I get to do something about it." Of the band's Grammy-winning songCrawling, Bennington said the song was "about feeling like I had no control over myself in terms ofdrugs and alcohol."
His first marriage ended in a divorce, and he said, "I knew that I had a drinking problem, a drug problem, and that parts of my personal life were crazy, but I didn't realise how much that was affecting the people around me until I got a good dose of 'Here's-what-you're-really-like.'" In 2011, he toldThe Guardian, "When I was young, getting beaten up and pretty much raped was no fun. No one wants that to happen to you and honestly, I don't remember when it started [...] My God, no wonder I became a drug addict. No wonder I just went completely insane for a little while."
Bennington died on the day his singer friendChris Cornell would have turned 53. Cornell hanged himself earlier this year. After Cornell's death, Bennington said, "I can't imagine a world without you in it."
Bennington is survived by his six children and his wife, Talinda Bentley, whom he married in 2006.
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