Linkin Park pay touching tribute to Chester Bennington on late singer’s first birthday since suicide
Last year the metal world and wider music scene were left shocked and saddened by the untimely death of Chester Bennington.
The 41-year-old Linkin Park frontman took his own life at his family home, in Los Angeles, on 20 July while his wife and children were away; his body was found by a friend the following morning.
The singer had a long-running battle with mental health and substance abuse, something he had freely talked about. Some of the band’s material was also based on Chester’s own personal experiences.
Earlier on today as the US band woke up on what would have been Chester’s 42nd birthday, they paid a very touching tribute to their iconic frontman.
Mike Shinoda led the tributes to his late bandmate, taking to Instagram and Twitter with a simple and poignant message.
‘Happy birthday buddy,’ he wrote beside a picture of Chester on-stage.
The band’s official Twitter account also posted a message, sharing a snap of the singer on-stage, smiling and gesturing to fans.
The caption read: ‘Wishing a happy birthday to our brother @ChesterBe today. In his honor, we are launching a fundraiser on our Facebook page via @musicforrelief’s ONE MORE LIGHT FUND, benefiting #320ChangesDirection.’
Following Chester’s tragic suicide the band have gone on to set up the One More Light Fund alongside some of Chester’s family, which aims to provide help to those affected by depression and other mental health issues.
In December the singer’s autopsy report was released. In it, the coroner wrote, ‘autopsy findings are characteristic of suicidal hanging. There was a history of suicidal ideation.’
The singer had been candid about his own struggle, and just last year told journalist Will Lavin that he’d been struggling with his illness whilst making his final album with the band, One More Light.
‘One More Light is for us a very personal and very therapeutic kind of record,’ he said. ‘We got into a lot of aspects of our lives that we probably wouldn’t have normally shared with anyone and just dealt with it on our own.’
He continued: ‘For me personally when we first started working on this record I was coming out of the darkest time of my life and it was all s**t that I was doing to myself. It was all stuff that I had control over but even though I felt differently at the time.’
More: Mental health
Speaking bluntly about the bleakness he felt, Chester said: ‘I felt like the world was full of s**t and everybody I knew was full of s**t and life sucks and I was like ‘F***k it.’ All that stuff it was just internal.’
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