Chester Bennington performs on stage with Linkin Park at Sleep Train Amphitheatre on September 16, 2014 in Chula Vista, California.Daniel Knighton/FilmMagic
Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington died of an apparent suicide by hanging Thursday morning, according to AP. Police in Palos Verdes Estates, in Los Angeles County told TMZ that the singer’s body had been discovered just before 9 a.m. The singer was 41. A representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Bennington’s screamed and emotional vocals provided a gritty counterpoint to co-frontman Mike Shinoda’s raps on the group’s nu-metal hits like “In the End” and “One Step Closer.” He sang the poppy melodies on the band’s recent hit “Heavy,” which featured singer Kiiara and reached Number Two on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart and Number 11 on the Top 40. In addition to working with Linkin Park, he also fronted Stone Temple Pilots between 2013 and 2015 and the supergroups Dead by Sunday and Kings of Chaos.
The singer was born March 20th, 1976 in Phoenix, the son of a police officer. He had a rough childhood and was molested and beaten up by an older friend beginning at age seven or eight. “It destroyed my self-confidence,” he told Metal Hammer. “Like most people, I was too afraid to say anything. I didn’t want people to think I was gay or that I was lying. It was a horrible experience.” When he was 11, his parents divorced and he was forced to live with his father. He eventually discovered drugs, taking opium, amphetamines, pot and cocaine, as well as drinking. After a gang broke into a friend’s house where he was getting high and pistol-whipped his friends, he decided to ditch drugs in 1992, though addiction would creep back into his life later. He subsequently moved to L.A., where he auditioned for the band that would become Linkin Park.Bennington was married and had six children from two marriages.
This story is developing and will be updated.