Chester Bennington

Musician

March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017

Chester Bennington, the American singer and songwriter, best known as the frontman for the rock band Linkin Park has passed away at the age of 41 according to multiple reports.

Bennington was a talented musician and helped propel Linkin Park to one of the most popular and commercially successful rock bands of the early 2000s. He was also a member of several other groups over the years, most notably as the lead vocalist for Stone Temple Pilots from 2013-2015.

Bennington joined Linkin Park in 1999 as the new lead vocalist and helped the band release their debut album “Hybrid Theory” in 2000. The album was a major success selling more than 4.8 million copies in its debut year and being named the best album of 2001. It also was nominated for 3 Grammy Awards and won for Best Hardrock Performance.

Following the release of Hybrid Theory, Bennington and Linkin Park would go on to release six more studio albums. Each of which achieved commercial and critical success and led to the band being featured at number 19 on Billboards “Best Artists of the Decade” list. To date, Linkin Park has sold over 70 million albums worldwide, won 2 Grammy Awards, and was the first rock band to achieve more than 1 billion views on YouTube.

In 2005, Bennington formed Dead by Sunrise as a side project while writing songs for Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight (2007) album. Bennington has said the motivation for the new band came while writing songs he knew would be great songs, but not successful for Linkin Park.

“I came up with a few songs that felt and sounded really good, but I knew they weren’t right stylistically for Linkin Park. They were darker and moodier than anything I’d come up with for the band. So I decided to work on them on my own rather than turn them over and have them transformed into Linkin Park tracks.”

Dead by Sunrise released one studio album and toured sporadically alongside Linkin Park, often performing at some point in the middle of the show.

In 2013 when Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland passed away, Bennington was brought on as his replacement. Bennington performed with the band for two years between 2013 and 2015 before leaving on good terms to rejoin Linkin Park. During his time with Stone Temple Pilots, they released one song, “Out of Time” in 2013.

Bennington was married twice during his lifetime and leaves behind his current wife Talinda Ann Bentley and a total of 6 children from different relationships.

Bennington had long suffered from depression and was extremely saddened early this year following the death of close friend Chris Cornell. His death comes on what would have been Cornell’s 53rd birthday today.

Following the news of his death, celebrities have been expressing their condolences on social media.

Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one.

— Mike Shinoda (@mikeshinoda) July 20, 2017

The news about Chester Bennington is devastating. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and @linkinpark. Such a tragic loss

— Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) July 20, 2017

Oh dear God. Massive R.I.P to Chester Bennington of @linkinpark this BREAKS OUR HEART. Suicide is the devil on earth walking amongst us ?

— OneRepublic (@OneRepublic) July 20, 2017

Oh dear God. Massive R.I.P to Chester Bennington of @linkinpark this BREAKS OUR HEART. Suicide is the devil on earth walking amongst us ?

— OneRepublic (@OneRepublic) July 20, 2017