Singer, songwriter Chester Bennington – best known as the frontman for Linkin Park – committed suicide on July 20, 2017. He was 41 years old. Band member Mike Shinoda confirmed the news of Bennington's death on Twitte.: “Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one,” Shinoda wrote.
Chester Bennington was born on March 20, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona. At an early age, Bennington expressed an interest in a music career. He often cited bands like Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as his early inspirations. In 1993, Bennington began singing with a band called Sean Dowdell and His Friends?, and they released an eponymous three-track cassette. Later, Bennington and Dowdell formed a new post-grunge band called Grey Daze. The band recorded three albums – Demo, Wake/ Me, and ...no sun today – until Bennington left in 1998.
Eventually, Bennington and Shinoda formed the rock band Linkin Park. This band currently consists of Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson, Dave Farrell, and Joe Hahn. In 2000, Linkin Park released their debut album, Hybrid Theory, through Warner Bros. Records. This album rocketed the band to international fame, and was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-Platinum in several other countries. Linkin Park continued this success with Meteora, which topped the Billboard 200 album chart in 2003. The band explored wider variations of music with their following albums – Minutes to Midnight, A Thousand Suns, Living Things, The Hunting Party, and most recently One More Light. Over the years, Linkin Park has sold over 70 million albums worldwide and has won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Hard Rock Performance.
In 2013, Stone Temple Pilots was in need of a new lead singer and recruited Bennington. Bennigton released a new single with the band called “Out of Time,” which was featured on the bands EP High Rise in 2013. Due to prior commitments with Linkin Park, Bennigton left the Stone Temple Pilots in 2015. In addition to working in music, Bennington also had a brief acting career. He made a cameo in Crank as a customer in 2006, and later appeared as a horse-track spectator in the film’s sequel Crank: High Voltage. His role as an ill-fated racist in Saw 3D: The Final Chapter was easily one of the most intense scenes in the franchise’s history.
Bennington’s first marriage to Samantha Olit produced one child, Draven. His second marriage to Talinda Bentley produced three children: Tyler, Lilly, and Lila. He also had one child, Jamie, from a previous relationship and one adopted son, Isaiah. He is survived by all of them.