Chester Bennington

• 1. Introduction

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  Chester Bennington left his own birthday party early to record an audition. That audition opened the way to Linkin Park, and with it a place among the most recognizable rock voices of the 2000s. Yet the same singer fought a pain that he rarely hid from his songs. How did a discouraged young singer from Arizona become the voice that millions turned to? What did he build outside the band that made him famous? And what became of the music and the people he left behind?

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• 2. Phoenix Childhood

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  Chester Charles Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on the 20th of March 1976. His mother worked as a nurse. His father was a police detective who investigated cases of child sexual abuse. He grew up with two sisters and an older brother.

  Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots were the bands that first sparked his love of music. He dreamed of belonging to Stone Temple Pilots someday.

  At the age of seven, Bennington was sexually abused by an older male friend. The abuse lasted until he was 13. He was afraid to ask for help, worried that people would call him a liar or assume he was gay. Years later he told his father the abuser's name, but chose not to press charges.

  Bennington's parents divorced when he was 11 years old, and his father gained custody. Between the abuse and the upheaval at home, he turned to drawing pictures and writing poetry and songs for comfort. He also began using alcohol, marijuana, opium, cocaine, meth, and LSD.

  The phrase "knocked around like a rag doll at school, for being skinny and looking different" is how Bennington remembered high school. He said it in an interview, and it shows how little relief school offered.

  In 1993, at the age of 17, he moved in with his mother. She discovered his drug use and banned him from leaving the house for a time. He then took a job at a local Burger King, which was where he worked just before music became his profession.

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• 3. Joining Linkin Park

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  Bennington first sang with a band called Sean Dowdell and His Friends?, which released an eponymous three-track cassette in 1993. Dowdell and Bennington then formed a post-grunge group called Grey Daze. It recorded a demo in 1993, followed by the albums Wake Me in 1994 and ...No Sun Today in 1997. Bennington left in 1998. Grey Daze later released Amends in 2020 and The Phoenix in 2022.

  Jeff Blue, a vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, arrived at a low point in the singer's life. Bennington had grown so frustrated that he nearly quit music altogether. A&R is the part of a record label that scouts and develops artists. Blue offered him an audition with the future members of Linkin Park, who were then called Xero.

  Bennington quit his day job at a digital services firm and traveled to California. The audition won him a place in the band.

  Mike Shinoda, the band's other vocalist, made significant progress with Bennington, yet the two found no record deal. Rejections piled up. Blue, who had since become a vice president of A&R at Warner Records, stepped in a second time. His help got the band signed to that label, and the debut album followed.

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• 4. Songs and Success

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  Linkin Park's first album, Hybrid Theory, came out on the 24th of October 2000. Bennington and Shinoda wrote its lyrics, building on some early material. Shinoda described the words as interpretations of universal feelings and experiences, the "everyday emotions you talk about and think about".

  Early in 2002, Bennington explained the song "Crawling" to Rolling Stone. He said the song is about "taking responsibility for your actions." He also pointed to a detail in the lyrics: "I don't say 'you' at any point. It's about how I'm the reason that I feel this way."

  All Music Guide described Bennington's vocals as "higher-pitched" and "emotional". Shinoda's delivery, by contrast, was in the style of hip-hop. Bennington was the primary lead vocalist, though he sometimes shared the role with Shinoda. The two also wrote lyrics together.

  The Recording Industry Association of America certified Hybrid Theory Diamond in 2005. That made it the bestselling debut album of the decade. The second album, Meteora, reached number one on the Billboard 200 in 2003, and Minutes to Midnight did the same in 2007. Every album from Meteora to One More Light landed in the top three of that chart. Linkin Park has sold more than 70 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide.

  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 the band number 19 on its Best Artists of the Decade chart. In 2012, VH1 viewers voted it the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll.

  Rolling Stone's Althea Legaspi wrote about the "fury and catharsis found in his belted screams". Others described Bennington as a "warm tenor" whose voice showed "tremendous durability" across his career.

  Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails and A Tribe Called Quest were among the acts he named as influences. Hit Parader placed him at number 46 on its list of the "Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time". He also called himself "a huge Madonna fan", crediting her for making him want to be a musician.

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• 5. Beyond the Band

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  Dead by Sunrise began in 2005 as a side project. Bennington co-founded the electronic rock band, based in Los Angeles, with Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck of Orgy and Julien-K.

  The band made its live debut in May 2008 at the 13th anniversary party for Club Tattoo in Tempe, Arizona. Club Tattoo is owned by Sean Dowdell, Bennington's friend since high school and his bandmate in two groups. Bennington was a tattoo enthusiast who did work and promotions with the parlor. Dead by Sunrise released its only album, Out of Ashes, on the 13th of October 2009.

  In February 2013, Stone Temple Pilots parted ways with their long-time singer Scott Weiland. They recruited Bennington that May. On the 18th of May 2013 he took the stage with them at KROQ's Weenie Roast. The next day the band debuted its first single with him, "Out of Time", as a free download on its website. The song appears on the EP High Rise, released on the 8th of October 2013 through the band's own label, Play Pen.

  Bennington compared his two bands in an interview. "Linkin Park is a very modern, very tech-heavy type of band," he said, while Stone Temple Pilots had "a sexier, more classic rock feel". He called the offer "a no-brainer". He left in 2015 on good terms to focus on Linkin Park, and Jeff Gutt replaced him two years later.

  Turntablist Z-Trip's debut album Shifting Gears featured Bennington on its lead single, "Walking Dead", in 2005. He also made a surprise appearance during Z-Trip's set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that year. In the fall of 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, he re-recorded the Mötley Crüe song "Home Sweet Home" as a duet with the band. It was a charity single for the hurricane's victims. In 2006 he joined Alice in Chains to perform "Man in the Box" at KROQ's Inland Invasion Festival. In 2007 he appeared on Young Buck's song "Slow Ya Roll". In 2016 he performed with Kings of Chaos during their six-show tour.

  Slash's 2010 solo debut was meant to include a Bennington track called "Crazy". Slash said Linkin Park "wasn't having it", and the song was blocked from release. Slash rerecorded it with Lemmy on vocals under the new title "Doctor Alibi", which took its place on the album. A snippet of the original Bennington version was finally released in May 2021.

  In 2009, Bennington served as executive producer on Julien-K's debut album, Death to Analog. In 2012 he executive-produced Us-You, the debut EP of the Los Angeles hard rock band Hellflower, which is fronted by his long-time friend Church.

  The 2006 film Crank gave him a cameo as a customer in a pharmacy. In its 2009 sequel, Crank: High Voltage, he appeared as a horse-track spectator. In the 2010 film Saw 3D he played Evan, an ill-fated racist. He was also one of several rock musicians who spoke about the music industry in Jared Leto's 2012 documentary, Artifact.

  He also appeared in the pilot episode of My Dad Rocks, a series featuring rockstar fathers. At the time of his death he was developing a television show called Mayor of the World with Church and executive producer Trip Taylor.

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• 6. Family and Health

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  In 1996, Bennington had a son with Elka Brand. In 2006 he adopted Brand's other son, who was born in 1997.

  On the 31st of October 1996, he married Samantha Marie Olit. They had one child together, born in 2002, who came out as transgender in 2024. The marriage declined during his early years with Linkin Park, and they divorced in 2005.

  Later in 2005 he married Talinda Ann Bentley, a former Playboy model. They had three children: the first was born in 2006, followed by twins in 2011. A cyberstalker harassed Chester and Talinda Bennington. In 2008 the stalker was found guilty of tampering with the couple's email and personal information and of sending threatening messages. The sentence was two years in prison.

  The Phoenix Suns, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Arizona Coyotes all had his loyalty as a sports fan. So did the English football team Ipswich Town.

  In a January 2011 interview about the Tucson shooting, Bennington said people have a right to believe what they like. But "nobody, even in a free society, has the right to take another person's life. Ever." On the 29th of January 2017, he tweeted that Donald Trump was "a greater threat to the USA than terrorism". The tweet resurfaced in July 2020, after Linkin Park sent Trump's campaign a cease and desist order over the use of "In the End" in a re-election ad.

  The summer of 2003 brought the first of several physical crises. While filming the music video for "Numb" in Prague, Bennington suffered extreme abdominal pain and gastrointestinal problems. He returned to the United States for surgery and filmed the rest of the video in Los Angeles. His health had already been poor during the making of Meteora, and he struggled to attend some recording sessions.

  In October 2007, he broke his wrist leaping from a platform at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. He performed the entire show anyway and went to an emergency department afterward. In late February 2008 he fell ill on the U.S. Arena Tour for Minutes to Midnight, and a couple of shows were canceled.

  In 2011 illness forced Linkin Park to cancel three shows and reschedule two on the A Thousand Suns World Tour. During the band's tour in Asia that year, he injured his shoulder, and doctors advised immediate surgery. The final show at Pensacola Beach, Florida, was canceled, ending the tour. In January 2015 he hurt his ankle in a basketball game and tried to perform with crutches and a knee scooter. The band canceled the rest of that tour so he could have surgery.

  Bennington struggled with depression, anxiety and substance abuse. He overcame his drug addiction and denounced drug use in later interviews. His alcoholism during the Linkin Park years ended after an intervention from his bandmates. In July 2006 he said he had quit drinking, adding, "I just don't want to be that person anymore." He relapsed once in 2007 and again in 2008. In late 2015 he started drinking again and went back to treatment. In the summer of 2016 he suffered a three-day relapse.

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• 7. Cornell and the Final Weeks

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  Chris Cornell became Bennington's close friend on a tour the two shared in the mid-2000s. Their chemistry grew during the 2007-2008 Projekt Revolution Tour. Bennington joined Cornell on stage to sing Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike", and Cornell later joined Linkin Park to sing "Crawling". Bennington became the godfather of Cornell's son Christopher.

  Cornell died by suicide in May 2017. Bennington wrote an open letter to him on Instagram, saying he could not imagine a world without Cornell in it.

  On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Linkin Park had planned to perform their single "Heavy". After hearing the news, Bennington chose to sing "One More Light" instead. Shinoda noted how emotional he was during the performance. During rehearsal Bennington could not finish the song.

  On the 26th of May 2017, a week after the Kimmel appearance, Bennington sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at Cornell's funeral in Los Angeles. Brad Delson accompanied him on guitar.

  Bennington filmed an episode of Carpool Karaoke: The Series six days before his death. On the 20th of July 2017, at the age of 41, he was found dead at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California. The Los Angeles County Coroner concluded that he died by suicide. No note was left, and toxicology reports found only a trace amount of alcohol.

  Linkin Park canceled the rest of the One More Light World Tour and refunded tickets. His funeral took place on the 29th of July at South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes. Family members, close friends and many musicians who had toured or played with Linkin Park attended. The service included a full stage for musical tributes.

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• 8. Tributes and Legacy

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  The Carpool Karaoke episode aired on the 12th of October 2017, with the permission of Bennington's family. Earlier, on the 27th of August, Jared Leto drew media attention at the MTV Video Music Awards with a tribute to Bennington and Chris Cornell. On the 2nd of September, former bandmates from Dead by Sunrise and Grey Daze united for a tribute at a concert in Las Vegas.

  On the 27th of October, Linkin Park hosted a public tribute in Los Angeles titled Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington. It featured the band's first performance since his death. Blink-182, members of System of a Down, Korn, Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me the Horizon, Sum 41, Yellowcard and the singer Kiiara also performed.

  Jay-Z paid tribute on several occasions by performing "Numb/Encore", the song he made with Bennington and Linkin Park. At MetLife Stadium, Coldplay's Chris Martin played an acoustic version of "Crawling" on piano. Muse, Imagine Dragons, Machine Gun Kelly, Billy Talent, Godsmack and Yellowcard's Ryan Key also covered Linkin Park songs or played their own as tributes.

  At the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, Logic performed "1-800-273-8255" with Alessia Cara and Khalid in honor of Cornell and Bennington. The song's title was then the phone number of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Producer Markus Schulz debuted a trance remix of "In the End" at Tomorrowland, and Disturbed honored Bennington and other late musicians in the video for "Hold on to Memories".

  Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit said Bennington "had a way of making anyone he spoke to feel heard, understood and significant." Durst also said that without Bennington's voice and words, nu metal "would never have reached the masses".

  Billboard's Dan Weiss wrote that Bennington "turned nu-metal universal". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times praised his ability to "pair serrated rawness with sleek melody" and called him "a rock music polymath". Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times argued that his real legacy was "the reassurance he offered from the dark."

  The BBC's Steve Holden called him the "voice of a generation". The Guardian's Ben Beaumont-Thomas said his decision to sing clearly and openly was "more radical than he is given credit for". Kerrang!'s James Hingle called him one of the most honest vocalists about his mental health. The Straits Times reported that he inspired many artists in the Singapore music scene.

  Talinda Bennington launched a campaign called 320 Changes Direction to help break the stigma surrounding mental illness. Linkin Park went on hiatus, released no new music, and issued anniversary reissues of Hybrid Theory in 2020 and Meteora in 2023. A greatest hits album, Papercuts, followed in 2024.

  Mike Shinoda confirmed in 2020 that an unreleased song called "Friendly Fire" existed, built on vocals Bennington recorded during the One More Light sessions. It was released on the 23rd of February 2024. Bennington also finished a collaboration called "Cross Off" with Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton, for Morton's solo album Anesthetic. Morton said Bennington was "very, very excited about the idea of screaming and doing something heavier". The video features an empty microphone as a tribute.

  On the 5th of September 2024, Linkin Park announced it would reunite after a seven-year hiatus. The new album, From Zero, was released on the 15th of November 2024 and was supported by a six-date international tour. The band introduced Emily Armstrong as a new co-lead vocalist, succeeding Bennington, and Colin Brittain as drummer in place of Rob Bourdon, who declined to return.

  Armstrong told Zane Lowe that Bennington's performance in "One Step Closer" is what made her want to sing. "I was like, 'I want to sing and scream'," she said. Her closing wish was simple: "I would love to do him proud."

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