Chester Bennington biography, wife and children, age and cause of death

Biography of Chester Bennington

Chester Charles Bennington was an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist of Linkin Park. He won two Grammy Awards.

Linkin Park Lead Singer Chester Bennington

Childhood

The future musician was born on March 20, 1976, in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. His father was a police officer who investigated cases of child sexual abuse, and his mother was a nurse. Chester's passion for music started at an early age; his first idols were Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots.

The boy's parents divorced shortly after he turned 11. Chester took the news very hard, started attending school less frequently, and became involved with drugs. In a somewhat eerie coincidence, Bennington's story closely mirrors the biography of musician Chris Cornell, his close friend, who also struggled with his parents' divorce and became addicted to cocaine, eventually taking his own life in 2017.

Before his parents' divorce, Chester Bennington was a very ordinary child

While attending an ordinary middle school (first in Phoenix, then in Washington, where he moved with his mother after the divorce), Chester abused marijuana, alcohol, and LSD. Seen as thin and strange by his peers, he was often physically bullied: “They beat me up like a rag doll because I was skinny and different.”

In one interview, the musician admitted that at age 7, he was raped by a friend who was several years older. This continued until he was 13. Chester didn't seek help because he feared being labeled as gay or, even worse, not being believed. Later, he revealed the abuser's name to his father but insisted on keeping it quiet.

A tense home environment and constant bullying drove him crazy. He felt that he was close to killing someone and running away. To cope with his emotions, he began drawing and writing poetry. Many of these poems later became the foundation for songs by his world-famous band.

A puny teenager with glasses was mercilessly bullied

When Bennington turned seventeen, his mother caught him using drugs, and he left home. To pay rent for his new place, he got a job at the fast-food restaurant "Burger King."

Chester graduated from high school in 1994 (photo from the graduation album)

First Steps

Despite his struggles with drugs, Bennington never forgot his childhood dream of becoming a rock star. In 1993, he became the lead singer of Gray Daze, which soon gained popularity in Phoenix. However, Bennington felt out of place and decided to leave the band in the late '90s due to creative differences.

Young Chester Bennington as part of Gray Daze

In 1996, Chester moved to Los Angeles, where he joined the rock band Xero, founded by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson. Shortly after Bennington became the lead vocalist, the band was renamed Hybrid Theory. However, they faced issues with another band named Hybrid, which accused them of plagiarism.

Chester came up with a new name — Lincoln Park (after a park in Santa Monica he often visited), but because the domain was taken, the band became known as Linkin Park.

Linkin Park

After multiple rejections from various studios and the emergence of a substantial fan base, the musicians of Linkin Park managed to sign a contract with Warner Bros and release their debut album "Hybrid Theory" in 2000. It achieved colossal success and earned the status of a multi-platinum record, as well as the title of the best-selling debut album of the decade.

The band's unique style, which blended rock, rap, and electronic music, made Linkin Park one of the most popular groups at the start of the new millennium. Chester Bennington's piercing vocals became the band's signature.

Linkin Park – Numb

Outside Linkin Park, Bennington worked on a side project, Dead by Sunrise (founded in 2005), together with musicians Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck. The group's first album, "Out Of Ashes," was released in 2009.

In 2013, the vocalist of Stone Temple Pilots, a band Chester had been a fan of since childhood, left. The musicians invited Bennington to take his place. He performed with his idols for six months, singing their old songs in his signature style. He also participated in recording their new album "High Rise."

Movies

In 2006, the musician made a cameo (playing himself) in the movie "Crank" with Jason Statham, and in 2009 in its sequel. In the first part, he played a pharmacy customer, and in the second, you can spot him among the spectators at the racetrack.

Chester Bennington Crank cameo

In the horror film "Saw 3D" (2010), he played an unfortunate racist, Evan, who, along with his friend and girlfriend, faced death at a scrap yard.

Chester Bennington's Personal Life

From 1994 to 1995, Chester Bennington, a recent high school graduate, dated a girl named Elka Brand. After their breakup, she gave birth to his son, Jamie (born in 1996). In 2006, he adopted her younger son, Isaiah.

In October 1996, he married Samantha Olit. This was during the unfortunate period when Chester worked at Burger King and survived on meager wages. The newlyweds couldn't afford wedding rings and had to tattoo them on their ring fingers.

Chester Bennington and Samantha were married for almost 10 years

In 2002, the couple had a son named Draven. Three years later, the relationship, which had endured poverty and Chester's drug addiction, couldn't withstand the fame that suddenly overwhelmed the musician. The couple constantly argued, but the final straw was Bennington's relationship with Playboy model Talinda Bentley. After meeting her, he approached Samantha and directly asked for a divorce.

Pictured: Chester Bennington with his second wife, Talinda Bentley

In 2005, six months after the divorce, the musician married Talinda, who gave birth to three children: son Tyler (born in 2006) and twins Lily and Lila (born in 2011).

Although the musician overcame his drug addiction, another destructive habit replaced it—he began to abuse alcohol. In 2011, he quit, stating that he couldn't stand the person he had become.

Chester Bennington's Death

On July 20, 2017, it became known that Chester Bennington hanged himself on the 53rd birthday of his friend Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden, who had taken his own life two months earlier. They found Chester in his Los Angeles home. "It's shocking, heartbreaking, but it's true," Mike Shinoda tweeted. Nine days later, they buried the musician in California at the South Coast Botanic Garden.

On July 20, 2017, Chester Bennington passed away

In January 2019, Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton released the song "Cross Off," which he had worked on with Chester a few months before the Linkin Park frontman's suicide.

Mark Morton - Cross Off ft. Chester Bennington