{"id":287,"date":"2017-07-21T13:44:17","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T13:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?p=287"},"modified":"2017-07-21T13:44:17","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T13:44:17","slug":"linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html","title":{"rendered":"Chester Bennington, Lead Singer of Linkin Park, Dies by Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe title=\"In The End [Official HD Music Video] - Linkin Park\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eVTXPUF4Oz4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, committed suicide at his private Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County on Thursday. His body was found by his housekeeper around 9 am.<\/p>\n<p>He was 41.<\/p>\n<p>Bennington\u2019s interest in music began at a young age, with bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Depeche Mode being his early inspirations. Unfortunately, a troublesome problem with drug abuse also began early, and after experiencing his parents\u2019 divorce at age 11, he began abusing cocaine, meth, LSD, alcohol, and marijuana\u2014a problem which would come to periodically haunt him.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview later in life, Bennington revealed that he had been sexually abused by an older male friend from the age of seven to thirteen, but was afraid to ask for help.<\/p>\n<p>His difficulties weren\u2019t confined to the home. Bennington was also bullied at school, and was \u201cknocked around like a rag doll\u2026for being skinny and looking different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was young, getting beaten up and raped was no fun,\u201d he said, in a 2011 interview with The Guardian. &#8220;I remember that stuff happening to me at that stage and even thinking about it now makes me want to cry. My God, no wonder I became a drug addict. No wonder I just went completely insane for a little while.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He found solace, however, in art, poetry, and songwriting\u2014outlets which would later serve him well.<\/p>\n<p>After a frustrating experience singing in a band called Sean Dowell and His Friends?, everything changed for Bennington when vice president of A&amp;R at Zomba Music offered him an audition with the other future members of Linkin Park. Sensing an opportunity, Bennington immediately quit his job at a digital services firm and moved with his family to California.<\/p>\n<p>After a successful audition, Linkin Park\u2014called Xero for a time\u2014was born.<\/p>\n<p>Bennington\u2019s first musical triumph came in October of 2000, when Linkin Park released their debut album, \u201cHybrid Theory,\u201d singing songs that dealt with \u201ceveryday emotions you talk about and think about,\u201d according to an interview with BBC Radio.<\/p>\n<p>It was the band\u2019s album, \u201cMeteora,\u201d that cemented Linkin Park\u2019s place in history, becoming the most successful alternative album of all time, selling over 27 million copies worldwide as of 2013. \u201cMeteora\u201d is also ranked 36 on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s <em>Top 200 Albums of the Decade<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Linkin Park\u2019s propensity to combine alternative metal, nu metal and rap rock with alternative rock and electronica gave them a unique sound that has been described by <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> as \u201crisky, beautiful art.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennington poured the very real pain of his childhood into his music, distilling those emotions into an unmistakable sound, creating signature, fan-favorite songs like \u201cCrawling\u201d and \u201cNumb,\u201d tapping into the angst of millions of youths.<\/p>\n<p>But his music didn\u2019t just inflame angst\u2014it soothed it. In a 2002 interview with <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>, Bennington said that &#8220;It&#8217;s easy to fall into that thing \u2013 &#8216;poor, poor me&#8217;, that&#8217;s where songs like &#8216;Crawling&#8217; come from: I can&#8217;t take myself. But that song is about taking responsibility for your actions. I don&#8217;t say &#8216;you&#8217; at any point. It&#8217;s about how I&#8217;m the reason that I feel this way. There&#8217;s something inside me that pulls me down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bennington\u2019s unique vocal style, which traded the roar of traditional metal for clear vocals made his music \u201csocially valuable,\u201d according to Ben Beaumont-Thomas of <em>The Guardian<\/em>. Althea Legaspi of <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> expounded on this, writing that &#8220;Bennington&#8217;s voice embodied the anguish and wide-ranging emotions of the lyrics, from capturing life&#8217;s vulnerable moments to the fury and catharsis found in his belted screams, which he would often move between at the turn of a dime.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With Bennington\u2019s help, Linkin Park sold more than 70 million records, won two Grammy Awards, became one of the greatest bands of the 2000s and became the first rock band to exceed a billion YouTube views.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s no small feat.<\/p>\n<p>While Bennington\u2019s personal legacy is immense, his personal legacy carries just as much weight. On Twitter, Jimmy Kimmel wrote that &#8220;Chester was one of the kindest men I&#8217;ve had on my show. My heart breaks for his family and friends. He will be missed terribly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bennington\u2019s bandmate, Mike Shinoda, also Tweeted about the lead singer\u2019s death, writing that he is \u201cShocked and heartbroken.\u201d Governor John Kasich, a fan of Linkin Park, wrote that he \u201cMet Chester in Columbus &amp; he was kind enough to call my daughters on the phone. This is a sad day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennington\u2019s death came mere days before the band was scheduled to start a new world tour after the release of their latest album, \u201cOne More Light.\u201d The singer was reportedly grieving for musician Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden, and had trouble finishing the song, \u201cOne More Light\u201d in rehearsal and live recording.<\/p>\n<p>Bennington leaves behind six children from two wives\u2014Elka Brand and Talinda Ann Bentley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, committed suicide at his private Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County on Thursday. His body was found by his housekeeper around 9 am. He was 41. Bennington\u2019s interest in music began at a young age, with bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Depeche Mode being his early&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[102,103,63],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chester-bennington","tag-linkin-park","tag-music"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chester Bennington, Lead Singer of Linkin Park, Dies by Suicide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chester Bennington, Lead Singer of Linkin Park, Dies by Suicide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, committed suicide at his private Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles County on Thursday. 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His body was found by his housekeeper around 9 am. He was 41. Bennington\u2019s interest in music began at a young age, with bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Depeche Mode being his early&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html","og_site_name":"Where Hope Lives","article_published_time":"2017-07-21T13:44:17+00:00","author":"Wesley Baines","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html","name":"Chester Bennington, Lead Singer of Linkin Park, Dies by Suicide","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-07-21T13:44:17+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-21T13:44:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/a73d65fbed41cccc5f85a830c49fe296"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/2017\/07\/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chester Bennington, Lead Singer of Linkin Park, Dies by Suicide"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/","name":"Where Hope Lives","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Tributes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/#\/schema\/person\/a73d65fbed41cccc5f85a830c49fe296","name":"Wesley Baines","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/authors\/w\/wesley-baines.aspx"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/author\/wbaines"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/foreverinourhearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}