Background information
Birth name : Chester Charles Bennington
Born : March 20, 1976 (1976-03-20) (age 33)
Origin : Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Genres : Nu metal, alternative rock, alternative metal, rap rock, post-grunge
Occupations : Singer-songwriter
Instruments : Vocals, guitar, keyboard
Years active : 1993-present
Associated acts : Linkin Park, Dead by Sunrise, Julien-K, Z-Trip, Camp Freddy, Church (TV Personality), Hellflower
Chester Bennington
Chester Charles Bennington (born March 20, 1976) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist and songwriter in the rock band Linkin Park.
Bennington rose to fame with his first release with Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory, in 2000, which was a massive commercial success. The album was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005, making it the best-selling debut album of the decade.Linkin Park's following studio albums, Meteora and Minutes to Midnight, released in 2003 and 2007 respectively, continued the band's success. Bennington formed his own band, Dead By Sunrise as a side-project in 2005. The band's debut album, Out of Ashes was released on October 13, 2009.
In 2007, Bennington was placed at #46 on Hit Parader's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists".[2]
Early life
Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona.He took interest in music at a young age, citing Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as early inspirations. Bennington's parents separated in the late 1980s. He later struggled with cocaine and methamphetamine addictions.Bennington eventually overcame his drug addiction, and would go on to denounce drug use in future interviews.He worked at a Burger King restaurant before starting his career as a professional musician.
Before joining Linkin Park, Bennington was a vocalist in Grey Daze, a post-grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona.He left Grey Daze in 1998, but struggled to find another band to play in.After nearly quitting his musical career altogether, Jeff Blue, the vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered Bennington an audition with the future members of Linkin Park.Bennington quit his day job, and took his family to California, where he had a successful audition with Linkin Park, who were then called "Xero".Bennington and Mike Shinoda, the band’s other vocalist, made significant progress together, but failed to find a record deal.After facing numerous rejections, Jeff Blue, now a vice president of A&R at Warner Bros., intervened again to help the band sign with Warner Bros. Records.
Main article: Linkin Park
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On October 24, 2000 Linkin Park released their debut album through Warner Bros. Records. Bennington and Shinoda wrote the lyrics to Hybrid Theory based on some early material.Shinoda characterized the lyrics as interpretations of universal feelings, emotions, and experiences, and as “everyday emotions you talk about and think about.”Bennington later described the songwriting experience to Rolling Stone magazine in early 2002:
It's easy to fall into that thing — 'poor, poor me', that's where songs like 'Crawling' come from: I can't take myself. But that song is about taking responsibility for your actions. I don't say 'you' at any point. It's about how I'm the reason that I feel this way. There's something inside me that pulls me down
Chester Bennington, Rolling Stone Magazine, 2002
Hybrid Theory was released in the United States on October 24, 2000 following the debut of "One Step Closer" on the radio.It entered the U.S. Billboard 200 charts at #16 in late 2000, and was certified gold by the RIAA five weeks after its release.In 2001, Hybrid Theory sold 4.8 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling album of the year, and it was estimated that the album continued selling 100, 000 copies per week in early 2002.Throughout the following years, the album continued to sell at a fast pace and was certified diamond by the RIAA in 2005 for selling 10 million copies in the U.S.It has sold 24 million copies worldwide as of 2009,including over 10 million in the U.S. which makes it the band's best-selling album and the best-selling debut album of the 21st century.
The follow up to Hybrid Theory would ultimately become Meteora.The band began to work on new material amidst their saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio.The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks.Meteora featured a mixture of the band's previous nu metal and rapcore styles with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments.Linkin Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide recognition, going to #1 in the US and UK, and #2 in Australia.
Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut sometime in 2006, the album was delayed until 2007.The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway completed.Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from their previous nu metal sound.Warner Bros. Records officially announced that the band’s third studio album, entitled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States.After spending fourteen months working on the album, the band opted to further refine their album by removing five of the original seventeen tracks. The album’s title, a reference to the Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes.Minutes to Midnight sold over 600,000 copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years. The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts.
In an interview with Q101's Kevin Manno at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, Bennington stated Linkin Park will be returning to the studio sometime in November to begin recording for their next album, In May the band released New Divide for the new Transformers film and a music video in June. Bennington recently announced that the band are now working on their fourth studio album that will be released in early 2010.
Personal life
Bennington married his first wife, Samantha, on October 31, 1996.They had one child, named Draven Sebastian, who was born on April 19, 2002.Bennington’s relationship with his first wife declined during his years with Linkin Park, leading to their divorce in 2005.After divorcing his first wife, Bennington married Talinda Bentley, a former Playboy model,with whom he has had one child, Tyler Lee, and has two children from a previous relationship, Jamie and Isaiah.Bennington and his family live in a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) house in Newport Beach Orange County when he is not on tour.He is also a tattoo enthusiast.Bennington has done work and promotions with Club Tattoo, a recognized tattoo parlor in Tempe, Arizona.Bennington and his second wife were harassed by a cyberstalker, Devon Townsend, for almost a year. Townsend was found guilty of tampering with the couple's email, as well as making threatening messages, and was sentenced to two years in prison.Bennington also made a cameo in the 2006 film Crank as a customer in a pharmacy.He later appeared as a horsetrack spectator in the film's 2009 sequel, Crank: High Voltage.
Health
Despite having prodigious success in the early 2000s, Bennington has had medical issues outside of the limelight. He suffered a severe bite from a recluse spider while touring with the OzzFest in 2001. Bennington was plagued with poor health during the making of Meteora, and struggled to attend some of the album’s recording sessions.He fell ill during the summer of 2003, and eventually underwent surgery.Bennington sustained a wrist injury in October 2007 while attempting to jump off a platform during a show in Melbourne, Australia at the Rod Laver Arena. Despite the injury, he continued to perform the entire show with a broken wrist, before heading to the emergency room.During a concert when Linkin Park performed Papercut, Chester jumped and his foot got stuck to the stairs on the stage where they performed, so when he jumped he fell and broke his wrist.
Bands
* Grey Daze - Lead Vocals, Guitar (1993-1998)
* Linkin Park - Lead Vocals (1999-Present)
* Dead by Sunrise - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard (2005-Present)
* Julien-K - Production (2005-Present)
Solo work
Bennington joined Z-Trip in 2005 for the single Walking Dead, released on Z-Trip's major label album Shifting Gears. "Walking Dead" was a Top Ten Single in the US. Bennington also made a surprise appearance during Z-Trip's performance at Coachella 2005.
Bennington teamed up with original Orgy guitarists Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh, who perform together as Julien-K, for a solo project. Chester's band is called Dead By Sunrise, formerly known as Snow White Tan. Dead By Sunrise has since released their debut album "Out of Ashes" in October 2009."Both bands are the same. The one where Chester sings and writes is Dead By Sunrise, but when I sing, and Amir and I are the primary writers, it becomes Julien-K and it's more electro and much darker...Julien-K and Dead by Sunrise are basically a creative collective, we're sort of a Warhol-style factory in that sense," explains Ryan Shuck. "Dead by Sunrise is Chester's Julien-K if that makes any sense."
He has also played minor roles in the movies Crank and Crank: High Voltage and sang for a couple of gigs with "Camp Freddy".[citation needed]
Dead by Sunrise's first album was released October 13, 2009.
Singles
* "Walking Dead" - with Z-Trip on the album Shifting Gears (2005) - US Top Ten Single
Featured vocal
* "Karma Killer" - Cyclefly on the album Crave (2002)
* "System" - Written by Jonathan Davis of Korn (2002), 'Queen of the Damned' Soundtrack
* "Wonderful" (The Family Values 2001 Tour album)- Stone Temple Pilots (2001)
* "State of the Art" - DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit (2002)
* "Rock 'N' Roll (Could Never Hip-Hop Like This) Part 2" - Handsome Boy Modeling School on the album White People (2004)
* "Walking Dead" - DJ Z-Trip on the album Shifting Gears (2005)
* "Home Sweet Home" (remake) - Mötley Crüe (2005)
* "Slow Ya Roll" - Young Buck (2007)
* "We Made It" - Busta Rhymes (2008)
* "Head Like A Hole (Nine Inch Nails cover)" - Korn (TBA)
* "Highway To Hell (AC/DC cover)" - with Camp Freddy & Slash
* "Mountain Song (Jane's Addiction cover)" - with Camp Freddy
* "Ace Of Spades (Motörhead cover)" - with Camp Freddy
* "Paradise City (Guns N' Roses cover)" - with Camp Freddy
* "Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover)"- with Camp Freddy
* "Let Down" Dead By Sunrise "ReAct Now: Music & Relief," September 10, 2005
* "Wonderwall"([Oasis] cover)
Music Producer
Chester Bennington executive produced the E.P for Los Angeles, Tripduster band Hellflower, which is fronted by his long time friend and Director of Activties (D.O.A), Church (TV Personality)
Television
Chester Bennington is currently working with his long time friend and Director of Activities (D.O.A), Church (TV Personality), on developing an upcoming television show titled Mayor of the World, with executive producers Trip Taylor.
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