Chester Bennington

Chester Bennington

Chester Charles Bennington (born March 20, 1976 ) is an American musician, best known for being the frontman and lead vocalist in the successful rock band Linkin Park. He was included on Hit Parader's Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists, placing at #46.

Early life

Chester Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona. His first instrument was the piano. While Bennington was growing up he was in a number of bands and played various instruments, but mainly was a vocalist. He never settled in a full time band until 1993, when he joined Grey Daze. The band disbanded in 1998 and he moved on to Linkin Park one year later.

His parents divorced in 1987, leaving him with his three half siblings, two sisters and a brother. Bennington was the youngest of four children at eleven years old, and stayed with his father, who was a police officer and detective. His brother introduced him to bands like Loverboy, Foreigner and Rush, as well as The Doors which he claims as his influences.

Before his parents parted, the family frequently moved around Arizona, from cities such as Scottsdale, Tolleson, Tempe, and others. "I was an athletic kid but I just stopped caring about it, and I stopped doing well in school," Bennington states in a Kerrang! article. "I started smoking weed and going to parties. I think I was 11 when I started smoking pot." [1] Bennington attended Centennial High School, Greenway High School, and later graduated from Washington High School. Bennington said that while he was in high school he was bullied and he described himself as a geek. When Bennington was younger he had a day job working as a coffee barista. He said working at Bean Tree Coffee House was what kept him going, and that coffee houses are very understanding and this was the base of his inspiration.

Grey Daze

Bennington became the lead vocalist of a band called Grey Daze from 1993 to 1998, during which he worked part-time at Burger King while practicing with the band in the evening. During this time, he was so poor that couldn't afford a car or even a bike, resorting to a skateboard for transportation. Bennington felt he was not getting enough credit for his writing and had mutual disagreements with other band members, driving him to leave the band. While with Grey Daze, Chester recorded two albums, "Wake Me" in 1994 and "...No Sun Today" in 1997 along with one demo tape "Sean Dowdell and his Friends?" in 1993 while the band was under the same name. After Bennington left, the rest of the band split up.

Bennington was going to reunite with Grey Daze for one last performance in hopes of raising money to help former Grey Daze bandmate Bobby Benish who had a brain tumor. They were scheduled to play at the Dodge Theatre in Arizona along with bands Phunk Junkeez, Pokerface and Gift. Unfortunately, Bennington had to postpone the performance due to Linkin Park's strict recording schedule to finish their sophomore album Meteora. Since then Bobby Benish has died due to his brain tumor.

In 1995, Bennington and former Grey Daze member Sean Dowdell founded Club Tattoo, a tattoo parlor, in Phoenix, Arizona. They now have full partnership and 3 chain locations in Arizona. Many celebrities, such as Hoobastank, David Boston from the Arizona Cardinals, and Bennington himself have gotten their tattoos done there.

Linkin Park

In 1998 Linkin Park (then called Xero) advertised for a vocalist due to trouble with getting signed. A firm that knew Bennington told Xero that he would be good for the job. They sent Bennington a demo and asked him to sing to it. Within three days, he had recorded the demo and played it to Xero over the phone, even skipping his own birthday party in the process; the band was impressed and asked him to fly to Los Angeles from Phoenix to audition. At the audition, several other potential vocalists vying for the position simply left once they heard Bennington sing. One auditioner commented to the band that they'd have to be crazy not to pick Bennington. Xero then changed their name to Hybrid Theory and recorded the Hybrid Theory EP which included the songs "Carousel", "Technique (Short)", "Step Up", "And One", "High Voltage" and "Part Of Me". They attracted some attention from some record labels and eventually decided to sign to Warner Bros. Records.

Due to a copyright issue with the British group Hybrid they were forced to change their name. Bennington suggested Linkin Park because after recording sessions he would drive past Lincoln Park in Santa Monica. They recorded their debut album, Hybrid Theory through 1999 to 2000, and it was released on 2000, October 24. It produced hits like In The End and Crawling. Hybrid Theory has since sold over 20 million copies around the world. In 2002 Linkin Park released the remix album Reanimation, featuring remixes from Hybrid Theory. The band then recorded their next album Meteora featuring hits like Somewhere I Belong. His co-writer and fellow band member Mike Shinoda wrote a on the album song titled "Breaking the Habit," which brought back memories from Bennington's past and in many cases reduced him to tears. There is much speculation behind the meaning of the song, the popular belief that it is about Bennington's drug addiction and childhood issues, although in fact, Shinoda began writing the song before he even met Bennington. It was released as a single in June 2004 and was included on the Meteora album. The band then released the live album Live in Texas and the mashup album with Jay-Z, Collision Course. Linkin Park currently has a new record coming out in early 2007. Bennington has described it as "dark, poppy and melodic," different from their other albums which fused hard rock and hip hop.

Bennington has fallen ill numerous times on various band tours. On August 8, 2001 during Ozzfest, he was bitten by a recluse spider at a hotel in the Boston area, an injury that would normally require hospitalization. But although a portion of Bennington's leg swelled and he ran a fever, he finished the whole tour. Bennington continues to struggle with a hiatal hernia, an ailment that forced Linkin Park to cancel their show in Evansville, Indiana. In 2003, LP was forced to cancel their European tour in June due to a viral infection Bennington developed. He was sent to intensive care at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California when he lost feeling in his body and collapsed. A few days before performing at the second Club Tattoo Anniversary Party in April 22, 2006, Bennington, after losing his key and attempting to climb through a window in his father's house, fell and cut his arm, an injury that required stitches to repair it. The next day, he had an anxiety attack, causing him to have a seizure and arm spasms.

Bennington had been wearing glasses most of his life. During live shows, he would remove them, although claiming he couldn't even see the front row of the audience without them. However, in March 2004, he went through laser eye surgery and no longer wears his signature thick-rimmed glasses.

In the Summer Sonic 2006, Bennington joined his long-time friend and bandmate Mike Shinoda during a Fort Minor show in the performance of Linkin Park's Enth E Nd (reinterpretted by producer Kutmasta Kurt) and Shinoda's Fort Minor hit, Where'd You Go.

In 2007 he's set to release a solo album under the name Snow White Tan, produced by Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck of Orgy. There are currently two confirmed tracks: 'The Morning After' and 'Walking In Circles'. 'Let Down' is also rumoured to appear on the album. Bennington will sing, play guitar, play keyboard, and program on the record. Influences for the album include The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Bauhaus, and Chester has described it as "fuckin' driving beats and walls of guitars." One of his friends also likened one track to T-Rex. The album is due for release sometime in 2008, after Linkin Park's new record. Bennington is also playing with "Bucket Of Weenies," a small garage band who perform cover songs. Bucket of Weenies have covered such songs as Snow White Tan's The Morning After. Also, Bennington recently played with Mötley Crüe at ReAct Now: Music & Relief, a Hurricane Katrina relief concert, helping them onstage performing 'Home Sweet Home'. It was that same show he performed the unreleased song 'Let Down' with Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck.

Bennington recently made his film debut when he played a small one-line cameo appearance in the movie "Crank", and attended a premiere in Los Angeles. He's listed as the "Pharmacy Stoner".

Personal life

While he was a member of Grey Daze and working at Burger King, Bennington met his first wife, Samantha. They got married on October 31, 1996, when Chester was 20, and because he was too poor to afford actual wedding or engagement rings, the two of them had rings tattooed on their ring fingers. The couple were in the local real estate market, and to learn more about the business world, Chester would sneak into classes at Arizona State University without paying the required tuition fees. To this day, he is the only member of Linkin Park who does not have a college diploma. [2] Bennington and Samantha had one child, a boy named Draven Sebastian Bennington, born April 19, 2002 at 1 p.m. Their website states: "He's happy, healthy, and cute as can be. The baby and parents are doing great. They thank you for being so interested and they love you guys! The whole family will be on the road during the next Linkin tour!". Draven is supposedly named after the lead character in the movie "The Crow". On May 2, 2005 the couple divorced after nine years of marriage. Samantha had initially been granted full custody rights of their child, but Chester, after months of battling, obtained joint custody.

On December 31, 2005, Bennington married his 29-year-old girlfriend Talinda Bently who had posed for Playboy during her college years in California Institute of Technology. Bennington's wife, Talinda, gave birth in Los Angeles on Thursday March 16, 2006, to a 9-pound, 3-ounce boy named Tyler Lee, according to a statement from their publicist. This statement also alleged that Bennington has a ten year old son named Jaime, though there is speculation as to whether he is Bennington's biological son or stepson. In a recent interview on the Kevin and Bean show, Bennington revealed that he has also adopted Jaime's brother: "I do have three sons, and I adopted my oldest son, his brother, I adopted him as my own, so I guess I have four."

Independent songs

Solo

1. "Let Down" - Written by himself for his solo project (Release in 2007-2008)
2. "Walking In Circles" - on his solo album/written by himself? (Coming out in 2007-2008)
3. "Morning After" - Written by himself (Release in 2003)

Featured

1. "Slow Ya Roll" - Young Buck (Off his new album Buck the World released March 27)
2. "Home Sweet Home" - Mötley Crüe performed at ReAct Now (Release in 2005)
3. "State of the Art" - DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit (Release in 2001)
4. "Karma Killer" - Cyclefly (Release in 2002)
5. "System" - Written by Jonathan Davis of Korn (Release in 2000)
6. "Walking Dead - DJ Z-Trip (Release in 2005)
7. "Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip-Hop Like This) Part 2"-Handsome Boy Modeling School (Release in 2004)

Work Outside of Music

Appearance in the movie Crank.

See also

• Dead By Sunrise
• Grey Daze

External links

• Linkin Park official website