Chester Bennington died three years ago today. Look back at our feature tracing the Linkin Park singer's final days
Bennington had always been open about his struggles with addiction and depression, but those close to him were shocked by his suicide. The day after Cornell’s memorial, Bennington tweeted that he was “feeling very creative” and had written six new songs. Around the same time, he told a friend, Rene Mata, “We have to stick together, and we have so much to live for.”when it was released in May, and a single, “Heavy,” was doing well on rock radio.
A few days before his death, Bennington had been texting with Robert DeLeo, his bandmate in Stone Temple Pilots . His messages were “loving, positive, looking-forward-to-the-future, growing-old kinds of things,” DeLeo recalls. And the day before he died, Bennington e-mailed former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, saying he’d like to perform again with their all-star covers band, Kings of Chaos.
Shuck and Dowdell downplay speculation that Cornell’s death inspired Bennington’s. While there are similarities – both artists hanged themselves, and Bennington did so on what would have been Cornell’s 53rd birthday – they believe it was mostly a coincidence. “It could be a part of it, but it’s a small part of it,” Shuck says. “I think that it’s just another horrible event that gets put in your subconscious. It’s kindling, but the fire was already burning.
Bennington poured his experiences into Linkin Park’s songs, which mixed his soul-baring screams with Mike Shinoda’s rapping and the band’s lumbering riffs for a sound that dominated the pop charts for much of the 2000s. “He had a distinct voice, at once delicate and ferocious,” says actor and 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto, who met Bennington on the festival circuit in the 2000s . “It’s the angel and the demon, sitting on both shoulders.
Bennington would sometimes tell bands that opened for Linkin Park, “Next time we might be opening for you guys.” Sorum remembers how he’d asked the Kings of Chaos band members to do a gig shortly before Christmas. Bennington and DeLeo were laid over for 12 hours in Chicago, and the drummer felt horrible for keeping them from home during the holiday season. “I e-mailed those guys and said, ‘I apologize. I’m so sorry. Thank you so much for going the distance,’ ” Sorum says.
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