Linkin Park Frontman Chester Bennington 1976 – 2017
By Scott Bernstein Jul 20, 2017 • 11:52 am PDT
Vocalist Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and the Stone Temple Pilots has committed suicide according to a report from TMZ. Law enforcement sources told TMZ Bennington hung himself at a house in Los Angeles County, where his body was discovered this morning. Chester Bennington was 41.
Chester Charles Bennington was born on March 20, 1976 in Phoenix. Bennington joined Linkin Park in 1999 and the next year the band released Hybrid Theory, an album that went on to become the best-selling album of 2001. Both Hybrid Theory singles “Crawling” and “One Step Closer” scored as huge hits for the group. The LP’s October 2001 single, “In The End,” went on to become Billboard’s second most played of the decade and was purportedly Linkin Park’s most frequently played song live in concert.
The nu-metal band issued Meteora in 2003 and the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart as did 2007’s Minutes To Midnight. Linkin Park released a total of seven studio albums including One More Light which came out this past May. In 2004 LP teamed with rapper Jay-Z for a collaborative EP titled Collision Course. Bennington’s career also included stints in Dead By Sunrise, Bucket Of Weenies and a three-year run as lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots.
In a sad twist, Bennington was close friends with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden who committed suicide in May. Chester performed at Cornell’s funeral and wrote an open letter to his pal upon hearing of his passing. The Soundgarden frontman would have turned 53 today.
Chester Bennington is survived by his wife and six children.
