More about: Linkin Park

Chester Bennington, who died yesterday in an apparent suicide, was one of the most important names in nu metal, one of only a handful of figures at the very helm of a movement that changed the face of alternative rock in a way none has done since. His band Linkin Park, though divisive in their later days as they shifted more towards pop, and often spurned by critics, were genuine forerunners in their field, thanks in major part to the deeply confessional abilities of Bennington, their frontman, to articulate a life beset by battles with mental health.

Arguably the main reason that Linkin Park held such an intense place in the hearts of a swathe of disaffected youth in the early 2000s was due to Bennington’s ability to channel his intensely struggles into accessible, finely crafted rock songs. He battled, often publicly, with addiction, mental illness and the lasting scars of abuse, and channelled all of these into his work.

"Most of my work has been a reflection of what I've been going through in one way or another," he told Spin magazine in 2009, and the band’s most recent album One More Light, which appeared in May, bore many themes of light at the end of the tunnel, and the joys of overcoming struggle. Tragically, however, it seems Bennington was in the end overcome by his struggles, and was found hanged in his Los Angeles apartment on June 20. His death was confirmed by bandmate Mike Shinoda, who Tweeted: “Shocked and heartbroken, but it’s true.”

Born in Phoenix, Arizona on March 20, 1976, to his mother, a nurse, and a father who worked for the police force as a detective, his childhood was a troubled one. A remarkably frank and honest person in interviews, he has described how he himself was abused at a young age by ‘an older friend’.

“Growing up, for me, was very scary and very lonely,” he told Metal Hammer in 2014. “I started getting molested when I was about seven or eight, I was getting beaten up and being forced to do things I didn't want to do. It destroyed my self-confidence. Like most people, I was too afraid to say anything. I didn't want people to think I was gay or that I was lying. It was a horrible experience.”

His parents divorced at age 11, and his father won custody, although Bennington has in the past described his father as emotionally unstable, and felt he had no one to talk to. The divorce, as well as the traumas he’d suffered so young in life saw the future rockstar turn to drugs, including alcohol, LSD, opium, cocaine and amphetamines, from as young as 13. He was bullied at school, “knocked around like a rag doll at school, for being skinny and looking different,” as he described it, and his only solace came through creative pursuits, with a love of poetry and the music of Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots. After moving back in with his mother at age 17 and briefly holding down a job in Burger King, he started his musical career in the early 90s, singing with a band called Sean Dowdell and His Friends?, who released an eponymous three track cassette in 1993, and three albums over the following five years, before they split. Bennington had become disillusioned with the music industry by 1998, and was about to quit for good before being offered an audition as a singer with the band that would go on to be Linkin Park. Bennington quit his stable office job to audition, and along with Shinoda fought hard to get the band signed.

With the help of music mogul Jeff Blue, an early supporter of the band, they signed to Warner Music, releasing their debut album Hybrid Theory in 2000 to positive reviews. The album has gone down as one of the seminal releases of the nu-metal movement, with Linkin Park’s unique infusion of hip-hop and electronic aesthetics setting them apart from their contemporaries. It was an enormous commercial success, selling almost 5 million copies in its debut year, and along with smash singles Crawling, One Step Closer, Papercut and In The End, garnered them three Grammy nominations, one of which they won.

They capitalised on the success with the record’s follow-up, Meteora, which sold 27 million copies to become the third-biggest selling album of 2003. By this time Bennington’s deeply personal approach to songwriting had started to make itself apparent, with his songs tackling the trauma he’d suffered in his early life in a brave, head-on fashion that garnered the band an intensely loyal following. Meteora featured arguably the band’s most well-known song, Numb, which gained a second lease of life in the form of a smash-hit mash up with Jay-Z’s Encore, as part of their collaborative Collision Course EP.

Having established themselves as one of the biggest bands in the world, four of Linkin Park’s subsequent five albums went to number one in the US, and the band did much to promote the nascent careers of younger bands like My Chemical Romance and HIM by personally inviting them on tour, often the catalyst for enormous success in their own right.

Over their career, Linkin Park sold over 70 million albums in total, and collaborated with a diverse range of artists including Motley Crüe, Santana, Busta Rhymes and Stormzy. Bennington also helmed a number of side projects, most prominently Dead By Sunrise, who released their debut album in 2009. In 2013, he achieved a childhood dream, to sing with Stone Temple Pilots after their lead singer Scott Weiland parted ways with the group. “ I grew up listening to these guys. When this opportunity came up, it was just like a no-brainer,” Bennington said at the time, often saying in interviews that as a troubled teenager he had dreamt of singing with the band, one of his earliest inspirations.

Throughout his musical career, Bennington continued to struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse, and began drinking heavily during the height of Linkin Park’s success in the mid-noughties. in a 2011 interview he admitted that he had at times been a “full-blown, raging alcoholic,” but had managed to get sober. “I don't drink. I choose to be sober now. I have drunk over the last six years, but I just don't want to be that person anymore,” he said.

Linkin Park’s last album, One More Light, was divisive among their fans, and saw the band shift into a full-blown mainstream pop sound, collaborating with the likes of Stormzy, Pusha T and Kiiara, and Bennington often appeared fractious in interviews when accused of ‘selling out’. “I guess I’m like, ‘Why are we still talking about Hybrid Theory?’ It’s fucking years ago. It’s a great record, we love it. Like, move the fuck on,” he told Music Week. “What matters is that you took the chance to do something that you felt was important to you and that’s what being an artist is all about,” he added to Kerrang!.

However different the record’s sound, however, a poppier approach still didn’t detract from the immensely personal, grief-channelling abilities of Bennington’s songwriting. In an interview this March, he told Rock Sound: “I spent a lot of those two years [2015-2016] trying to hold my world together… I feel like it was a legitimate breakdown of me as a human being and then going through all of the effort and hard work it takes to rebuild it and reaping the rewards. A huge part of that is being able to be open and honest and real with the people in my life, and that means my band members and being able to put it down in music and get it out.”

It is this that he will be remembered for, as an uncompromisingly confessional and vulnerable human being, whose words spoke volumes to a generation. Though it seems, in the end, he was unable to overcome his demons, it is no exaggeration to say that he helped thousands to overcome theirs. He is survived by his wife and six children.

If you or someone you know feels suicidal, depressed or a sense of despair, please call The Samaritans for helpful, non-judgemental advice and support on 116 123 (UK)

More about: Linkin Park