Chester Bennington

Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the rock band Linkin Park. He was also the lead vocalist of Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise, and Stone Temple Pilots at various points in his career.

Bennington first gained prominence as a vocalist following the release of Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which was a worldwide commercial success. The album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005, making it the bestselling debut album of the decade. He continued as the band's lead vocalist for their next six studio albums, from Meteora (2003) to One More Light (2017), with each charting within the top three spots of the Billboard 200.

Bennington formed his own band, Dead by Sunrise, as a side project in 2005. The band's debut album, Out of Ashes, was released on October 13, 2009. He became the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 to release the extended play record High Rise on October 8, 2013, via their own record label, Play Pen, but left in 2015 to focus solely on Linkin Park. As an actor, he appeared in films such as Crank (2006), Crank: High Voltage (2009), and Saw 3D (2010).

Bennington struggled with depression and substance abuse for most of his life, starting in his childhood. On July 20, 2017, he was found dead at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California. The coroner concluded that his death was a result of suicide by hanging. Hit Parader magazine placed Bennington at number 46 on their list of the "Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time." Bennington has been ranked by several publications as one of the greatest rock vocalists of his generation. Writing for Billboard, Dan Weiss stated that Bennington "turned nu-metal universal".

Early life

Chester Charles Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 20, 1976, to a mother who worked as a nurse and a father who investigated child sexual abuse cases as a police detective. He had two sisters and an older brother. Bennington took an interest in music at a young age, citing the bands Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as his earliest inspirations. He dreamed of becoming a member of Stone Temple Pilots, and would later become their lead singer for a time. At age seven, an older male friend sexually abused him. Bennington was afraid to ask for help, not wanting people to think he was gay or a liar, and the abuse continued until age 13. Years later, he revealed the abuser's name to his father but chose not to press charges.

Bennington's parents divorced when he was 11 years old. The abuse and his situation at home affected him so much that he felt the urge to "kill everybody and run away". To comfort himself, Bennington drew pictures and wrote poetry and songs. After the divorce, his father gained custody of him. Bennington started using alcohol, marijuana, opium, cocaine, meth, and LSD. He was bullied in high school, stating in an interview that he was "knocked around like a rag doll at school, for being skinny and looking different". In 1993, at the age of 17, Bennington moved in with his mother. He was banned from leaving the house for a time when she discovered his drug use. He worked at a local Burger King before starting his career as a professional musician.

Career

Early acts

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 post-grunge band called Grey Daze. 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.

Linkin Park

Bennington had been frustrated and nearly quit his musical career altogether until Jeff Blue, the vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered him an audition with the future members of Linkin Park (then known as Xero). He 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 and faced numerous rejections. Blue, who had since become vice president of A&R at Warner Records, intervened again to help the band sign with the label.

On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park released their debut album, Hybrid Theory, through Warner 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 was Linkin Park's primary 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 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 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.

Dead by Sunrise

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 lone album, Out of Ashes, on October 13, 2009.

Stone Temple Pilots

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.

Other works

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.

In 2007, he was featured on Young Buck's song "Slow Ya Roll" from his Buck The World album. Bennington recorded a track for Slash's 2010 eponymous debut solo album entitled "Crazy" but it was blocked from release due to his commitments to Linkin Park with Slash stating that the band "wasn't having it". 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.