On July 20th 2017, Linkin
Park lead singer Chester
Bennington committed
suicide in his home at the
age of 41.
up to California for the
occasion, there were two
other vocalists auditioning
alongside Chester. After
hearing him sing, one of
Chester Charles Bennington them just got up and left.
The other said the members
was born and raised in
would be insane not to hire
Phoenix, Arizona. Abused
him.
as a child and broken up
by his parents’ divorce at
The recording of Linkin
the age of 11, Bennington
Park’s debut Hybrid
struggled with bullying
Theory would not be easy.
and drug addiction before
Executives at Warner Bros
pursuing music as a career, Records wanted to either
always finding comfort in
fire or demote emcee Mike
songs and poetry. The first
Shinoda, wanting Chester to
band he remembered liking be the sole frontman. Even
was Depeche Mode.
at this early stage of the
band’s career, Bennington
Bennington achieved his
remained loyal to his
first success through local
bandmates and refused.
Arizona rock band Grey
Shinoda was Linkin Park’s
Daze, releasing three
primary songwriter and
albums with the group.
Sadly, its success would not producer, and Bennington
last and Bennington would knew if the label fired him,
the rest of the band would
leave the group in 1998. It
be walking out with him.
would sporadically reunite
publications called them
an overnight success, even
calling them a manufactured
act (something Shinoda
greatly resented because
of the label interference),
but Bennington knew it was
all thanks to hard work and
dedication. “For my part,
I’ve been doing this for 12
years,” he quipped. “That’s
one long night.”
Bennington received high
praise for his vocals, able to
effortlessly go from tender
balladry to pitch-perfect
screaming, which would
complement Shinoda’s
rapping, making the two
an effective vocal tag-
team on stage. Both based
their lyrics off universal
experiences and emotions,
moments of doubt and
anger that everyone goes
through. “It’s easy to fall
into that thing—‘poor, poor
though, with shows even
The band’s convictions paid me’,” said Chester. “That’s
where songs like ‘Crawling’
planned in 2017 before
off, with Hybrid Theory
Chester’s passing.
achieving the rare Diamond come from: I can’t take
myself. But that song is
certification
in
America
for
After leaving Grey Daze,
about taking responsibility
ten
million
copies
sold.
The
Bennington was considering
for your actions. I don’t
album
also
boasted
four
quitting music altogether
say ‘you’ at any point. It’s
successful
singles
with
“One
and going into real estate
about how I’m the reason
Step
Closer,”
“Crawling,”
before he was offered an
that I feel this way. There’s
“Papercut,”
and
“In
the
audition with Linkin Park
something inside me that
End,”
the
latter
of
which
(then known by its original
pulls me down.”
went
as
high
as
number
two
name, Xero). Heading
on the Hot 100 chart. Music
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TONE TALK //
R.I.P. Chester Bennington, 1976–2017
ToneReport.com
15