Skip to content Skip to footer

Music world mourns Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington’s death after suicide

Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington committed suicide on Thursday morning, TMZ reports.

Bennington was 41 years old and had 6 kids by two different wives.

The Linkin Park singer struggled with addiction to alcohol and and drugs for years as well as problems with depression.

As a kid Bennington was abused by an older male and has said this experience caused him to contemplate suicide before.

For awhile in the early 2000s Linkin Park may just have been the biggest band in the world.

Linkin Park’s debut album Hybrid Theory went certified Diamond, selling more than 4.8 million copies in the first year of sales.

Hybrid Theory singles “Papercut”, “In the End”, “One Step Closer”, and “Crawling” were blaring from the radio seemingly 24/7.

After continued domination of pop and rock radio, Linkin Park teamed up with Jay-Z on Collision Course, a collaboration mashup album that further launched Linkin Park onto hip-hop radio.

It really felt like Linkin Park were just everywhere in the early 2000s.

https://twitter.com/AllDefMusic/status/888107262086004736

Bennington was heavily influenced by grunge music, especially the Stone Temple Pilots.

As a kid Bennington dreamed of being a member of Stone Temple Pilots.

After STP frontman Scott Weiland died of an accidental overdose in 2013, Bennington became STP frontman until he left in 2015 to focus on Linkin Park.

It’s been a tough year for rock frontmen. After legendary Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell took his life in May, Chester Bennington posted a heartfelt note to his friend on social media.

This is all a very harsh reminder of the realities of mental illness and depression. Clearly Bennington has suffered with demons for most of his teenage and adult life.

It’s quite simply a tragedy for the music world and beyond.

Rest easy Chester.

https://twitter.com/WAVVES/status/888110373101948929

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWx1hCWDYZX/