projects and bands, including Dead by
Sunrise with longtime friends featuring
members of Julien K and Orgy, as well as
the legendary Grey Daze. In 2013, Chester
gratefully accepted the position as the lead
vocalist for Stone Temple Pilots (STP). The
American rockband was a major musical
influence for Chester and singing for STP
was a lifelong dream of his.
Music isn’t Chester’s only passion. He has a
great love for tattoo culture. A rebel at heart,
tattoos represent the rebellion that resides
within him. Tattoos, like music, helped him
through difficult times while enabling him to
express himself in a meaningful way. “The
beauty of tattooing is that it’s yours, and only
yours. Some things in life are just meant to
be experienced and let go, not documented
or recorded. Tattooing is a cool, artistic form
of that,” Chester believes.
Longtime friends and former bandmates,
Sean Dowdell and Chester Bennington
played together in a few bands, including
Grey Daze and thus, the rock ’n’ roll tattoo
connection was born. In 1995, he partnered
with Sean and Thora Dowdell to create what
would become the industry leading Club
Tattoo, arguably one of the most high profile
and dynamic tattoo and piercing collectives
in the United States. With several locations
in Las Vegas, Arizona, and San Francisco,
these studios host world famous tattoo
art ists, body piercers, men’s and women’s
fashion, and high-end jewelry, including
gold, platinum, and diamonds. With patented interactive tattoo touch screens to create
your custom tattoo design, Club Tattoo has
quickly become known as a sexy and cutting-edge playground for the body modification enthusiast. “What’s special about Club
Tattoo is the culture and the experience.
Everything about it has evolved to make the
experience less scary and more fun, more
artistically driven and emphasizes appreciation of the lifestyle choice,” Chester says.
Not only are they setting the standard in the
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tattoo industry, they are revolutionizing the
concept as the ultimate studio.
In addition to fronting Linkin Park, touring,
side music projects, and his involvement
with Club Tattoo, Chester is also an active
participant in several charitable organizations, initiatives, and fundraisers, such as
the annual Stars of the Season event. He
is on the board to facilitate fundraising with
other artists for Cardon Children’s Medical
Center in his home state, Arizona. Linkin
Park also founded Music for Relief, originally created in response to the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami. Since then, the organization has raised over seven million dollars
for survivors of other natural disasters,
such as Hurricane Katrina, the Wenchuan
earthquake in China, a cholera outbreak in
Zimbabwe, earthquakes in Haiti and Japan,
and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. It
is a collective of musicians, music industry professionals, and fans on a mission
to bring the music community together to
generate awareness and funds for those
in need. Furthermore, they seek to support
disaster relief, and reduce the negative
effects of climate change, as well as energy
poverty. “With low administrative costs, the
money that is donated by people go directly
to the specific cause and efforts they are
seeking to support,” Chester says. For more
information, visit: www.MusicForRelief.org.
The Phoenix born singer is getting ready
for the next Linkin Park record, further
rehabilitation of his foot, and looking forward
to touring with Stone Temple Pilots in the
future. True to form, Bennington has several
other epic projects in the works to keep an
eye out for.