Chester Bennington was best known for being the lead singer of Linkin Park. For much of his life, he struggled with drug abuse, alcoholism, and deepening depression. This is what the final 12 months of Chester Bennington's life was like.
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00:00Chester Bennington was best known as the lead singer of Linkin Park.
00:04Despite his rock stardom, he struggled with drug abuse, alcoholism,
00:08and deepening depression for many years. This is what the final 12 months of his life were like.
00:14At the start of the 2000s, Linkin Park dominated radio airwaves and had their music videos played
00:19relentlessly on MTV. Their popularity spread worldwide as they became one of the most
00:24significant nu-metal bands of all time. For as much praise as they received, though,
00:28they also faced backlash from metal purists and some critics for certain aspects of their sound.
00:33In a 2016 interview with Metal Hammer, Bennington tried to defend Linkin Park from metal fans who
00:39questioned the integrity of their style and claimed they were nothing more than a boy band
00:42with guitars. He didn't take the criticism lightly, as he said,
00:46"'I think that's really funny. Just those words. The integrity of metal.
00:51In my opinion, we actually kept metal alive.'"
00:54That sentiment predictably angered metal fans. Bennington's bandmate,
00:58Mike Shinoda, tried to clear up what Bennington meant by tweeting,
01:02"'He basically said that pop music was ruling the world,
01:04and we made a case for commercially viable heavy music.'"
01:08The following month, Bennington reportedly suffered a three-day relapse and blacked
01:12out from drinking alcohol, though he did manage to recover.
01:16In December 2017, TMZ reported that Bennington had attempted to kill himself in November 2016.
01:23At the time of the 2016 attempt, he had a change of heart and decided not to go through with it.
01:28Information about this incident was originally redacted from the autopsy report due to
01:32Bennington's widow Talinda wanting to keep the details private. Her lawyer, Ed McPherson,
01:38was able to omit the information due to marital privilege, which was debated as
01:42a suitable reason for redaction until ultimately being agreed on by the coroner's lawyer.
01:47Warning signs about Bennington's mental health would become more prevalent over time,
01:52including his struggles with depression and battles with alcoholism.
01:55With every documented attempt to kill himself,
01:58he consumed large amounts of alcohol while depressed. In a February 2017 interview with
02:03Kiss FM, he discussed the importance of keeping busy and spending time with loved ones. As he put it,
02:09"'If I'm not actively, like, getting out of myself and being with other people,
02:12like being a dad, being a husband, being a bandmate, like being a friend, helping someone
02:17out, like, if I'm out of myself, then I'm great. If I'm inside all the time, I'm horrible. I'm a
02:23mess.'"
02:24"'This place right here, this skull between my ears,
02:28that is a bad neighborhood, and I am, I should not be in there alone.'"
02:33In December 2016, Bennington joined some of his friends from other popular rock bands by
02:38playing shows on the East Coast as the all-star lineup known as Kings of Chaos.
02:43After a series of warm-up shows in Las Vegas, they were scheduled to play in New Jersey and
02:48then finish up in New York. Along with Bennington, the lineup consisted of Guns N' Roses' Matt Sorum,
02:54Cheap Trick's Robin Zander, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, and Stone Temple Pilots' Robert DeLeo.
03:00The band was a source of happiness for Bennington, as it brought him back to the
03:03days when he played music for the joy of it. He told Vegas 7,
03:07"'Being in Kings of Chaos brings me back to my early days in bands when I was doing it for fun.
03:12We don't have any originals, so how about we play covers of songs we love?'
03:17Sorum, who was the creative force behind the band, said,
03:20"'Kings of Chaos' always delivers a badass lineup, and this tour will not disappoint."
03:25Where can you hear some of the most iconic songs in rock history packed into one show,
03:29performed by the actual artists who created them? Every night is a celebration of rock and roll.
03:35After his time with Kings of Chaos, Bennington didn't take long to team up with another band
03:39that brought him back to his early love of music. In February 2017, he reunited with Grey Days,
03:45a grunge band from Arizona he sang for before joining Linkin Park.
03:49He made the announcement on Instagram as he explained how he wanted to revisit and
03:53re-record tracks from their first two albums using better technology and more funding.
03:58After Bennington's passing, the remaining members of Grey Days pushed ahead with the new album.
04:02They also released an open letter that stated,
04:05We all wanted to fulfill Chester's dream of people hearing Grey Days' music as he always
04:11envisioned it. The fact that we got to retrack and rewrite the music around his vocals was an
04:15amazing experience. This is what our good friend wanted. He wanted the music to feel fresh and
04:20relevant, so people who knew his music but not his original band could relate to it.
04:25Bennington was good friends with Chris Cornell, lead singer of the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave,
04:30and in May 2017, Cornell took his own life, and Bennington paid tribute to him by singing at his
04:36memorial service. When Bennington passed away, there ended up being a couple of strange connections
04:41between the two singers' deaths. Both of them hanged themselves, and Bennington took his own
04:46life on what would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday. In an interview with Radio.com,
04:52Mike Shinoda spoke about the impact that Cornell's death had on Bennington. As he put it,
04:57When we were doing a sound check, Chester couldn't even make it through the song. He was
05:01getting halfway through and getting choked up. And even when we did play the whole song,
05:06and it was live on TV or taped for film for TV, he kind of just stopped, like,
05:10towards the end, like he missed the last couple of lines. Just couldn't finish the song.
05:15Fans were crying in the audience, and it was, I think it was cathartic. I think it was good.
05:21Back in September 2016, Bennington showed up in a video to update fans on the progress
05:27of Linkin Park's upcoming seventh studio album, One More Light,
05:30their follow-up to 2014's The Hunting Party.
05:33We've done some really great stuff in here. The songs are amazing.
05:37I'm really proud of what we've accomplished in the studio so far. We've got a lot of great material.
05:43One More Light arrived in May 2017, and it would ultimately be the band's last album with
05:49Bennington. It marked a huge departure for them. The Hunting Party had featured contributions from
05:54other rock artists like Helmet's Paige Hamilton, System of a Down's Darren Molokian, and Rage
05:59Against the Machine's Tom Morello. One More Light, however, wasn't as concerned with being a purely
06:05rock album. It instead featured a lineup of collaborators with more of a pop background.
06:10The lyrical content served as an ominous glimpse into Bennington's struggles with depression.
06:15For example, his lyrics for the song Heavy were eerily similar to what he'd been expressing in
06:19interviews during the last year of his life. Notably, the chorus featured the line,
06:24"'If I'd just let go, I'd be set free.'"
06:26In a February 2017 interview with Kiss FM, he revealed,
06:30"'I have a hard time with life, sometimes. Sometimes it's great,
06:34but a lot of times for me it's really hard. Even when it's good, I just am uncomfortable all the
06:39time. The opening line, I don't like my mind right now, like, that is me 24 hours a day.
06:45And if I get stuck in here, like, I just find life really hard. It doesn't have to be.'"
06:51One More Light received mixed reactions from fans and critics. As Kerrang! noted,
06:56"...some relished the chance to dish out pithy takedowns, suggesting the album makes
07:01Ed Sheeran sound like extreme noise terror. Others accused the band of opportunism,
07:06suggesting they were chasing the trend of pop EDM."
07:09Bennington's friend Sean Dowdell, the drummer of Grey Days, told Blabbermouth that the singer
07:14didn't take the reviews well. As he put it,
07:16"'I'm going to say a few things here. It may not be very popular, but it's the truth.
07:20And not that I want to bring the Linkin Park guys into the conversation, but I think they
07:24would agree with this. When they did the One More Light album, it wasn't received the way
07:28they thought it was going to be received, or at least the way Chester thought it was
07:32going to be received. And he got a lot of negativity from fans, and it really bothered him."
07:36He added,
07:37"...and we talked about that a lot. He would just be so bummed out,
07:40and he would blast people on Twitter, and he would get upset. And I would tell him,
07:44dude, don't let these people bring you down. It's not worth it. The music is good, man.
07:48Don't worry about this kind of crap."
07:50In an interview with Music Week, Bennington stood by the band's pop direction, as he said,
07:54"...I don't care. If you like the music, fantastic. If you don't like it,
07:58that's your opinion too. Fantastic."
08:00He added, with a laugh at the end,
08:02"...if you're saying we're doing what we're doing for a commercial or monetary reason,
08:06trying to make success out of some formula, then stab yourself in the face."
08:11Bennington frequently brought up his struggles with depression in interviews
08:15during the final year of his life. While speaking with Build in May 2017, he said,
08:19"...clinical depression is something that you actually can't get out of.
08:23You need to see a doctor. You have to get medicated for it. You need to go to therapy.
08:27There's, like, things you need to do in order to get out of it or else you won't,
08:30and you're just in it. It's not like, aw man, I don't like that, I'm just bummed. It's like,
08:35I don't want to do anything. And I don't feel like doing anything. And I don't like anything.
08:39There's no sunshine."
08:41He also spoke about his mental struggles with Kiss FM in February of that year. As he noted,
08:46"...I don't know if anyone out there can relate, but I have a hard time with life.
08:49When I'm in my head, my whole life gets thrown off. I don't say nice things to myself.
08:54There's another Chester in there that wants to take me down. I drive myself nuts. Like,
09:00actually thinking that, like, all these are real problems. Like,
09:03all the stuff that's going on in here is actually just, I'm doing this to myself."
09:08"...No matter how I'm feeling, like, I always find myself, like, struggling
09:12with certain patterns of behavior. I find myself, like, stuck."
09:16On July 6th, 2017, Linkin Park played their last show with Bennington,
09:21at the Barclay Card Arena in Birmingham, England. They performed 26 songs as thousands of fans
09:26showed up. Hundreds of them recorded footage of the show on their phones, not knowing it would
09:31be Bennington's final performance. He appeared to truly be in the zone and at peace. During the
09:36concert, there was an intimate moment between Bennington and his audience. He got off the stage
09:40and walked up to the thousands of starstruck fans. While singing the song,
09:45One More Light, he even held some fans' hands. Some of them embraced him,
09:49while others watched with glowing eyes. Bennington was noticeably emotional during the song,
09:54which was performed as a tribute to his friend Chris Cornell. At the end of the show,
09:58Bennington was the last to leave the stage.
10:01On July 20th, 2017, Bennington took his own life.
10:04He had been on vacation with his wife Talinda when he told her that he was going back home
10:08to film a TV commercial. Talinda later described how nothing seemed wrong with her husband,
10:13as she told CNN,
10:14"'This was not a time where any of our families suspected this to happen,
10:17which is terrifying, you know? Because it could happen at any moment,' with those thoughts."
10:22"'He was at his best before he passed.'"
10:24Despite his mental health struggles, Bennington appeared to be looking forward to the future
10:28during his final days. For example, he'd sent some positive text messages to Robert DeLeo,
10:34who he'd previously played with in Stone Temple Pilots, and he'd also emailed Matt
10:38Sorum to say that he'd like to perform with Kings of Chaos again. That unfortunately didn't happen,
10:43but the music that Bennington did put out lives on, and hopefully the visibility of his example
10:49will inspire others who are struggling to get help.
10:52If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
10:57Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK, 1-800-273-8255.