The sudden passing of Chester Bennington cast a dark shadow over Hollywood and awakened many people to the dangers of an increasingly common disease in the entertainment world, which is depression and loneliness.
Depression, addiction, and being stuck with one’s own life are what famous stars around the world are facing. This disease is causing many artists around the world to commit suicide even though they are at the peak of their careers and the leader of Linkin Park is the latest victim of this disease.
Chester Bennington has faced loneliness and depression since he was 7 years old.
When he was alive, Chester mentioned his own depression and past addiction. Over the years, the 41-year-old star has struggled with health problems. “I’m really done with this life and I keep thinking, ‘I don’t want to fall into these emotions.’ I want to be a person with antisocial personality disorder. I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to care what people think. I don’t want to feel anything,” Chester confided to Rock Sound in 2015.
In 2011, he talked about his childhood of being sexually abused when he was 7 years old. “When I think about my childhood, I just think about being abused, and about the terrible things that happened around me, and it makes me tremble.”
Chester was sexually abused and beaten by his best friend for more than 4 years. “At first it was just small touches and then gradually turned into a series of crazy invasive actions. I was beaten and forced to do things I didn’t want to do. That destroyed all my confidence in myself,” he shared.
Chester’s parents divorced when he was 11 years old. He lived with his biological father after his mother refused to raise him. Chester lived alone because his father was almost never home. “I hate my whole family. I always feel like I’m abandoned. I don’t know who to rely on. The only thing I wanted to do was kill everyone and run away,” Chester Bennington said about his childhood years. Little Chester turned to drugs when he was just 11 years old.
Chester Bennington joined the group Linkin Park in 1999 and with his brothers, they had a commercially successful debut album called Hybrid Theory in 2000. Songs like “Crawling,” “ In the End,” “One Step Closer” and “Faint” have made Linkin Park one of the most famous rock bands in the world since 2000.
Chester is the one who wrote the lyrics for most of Linkin Park’s songs and he once admitted that it was his addiction that helped him gain boundless inspiration for composing. In 2009, in a conversation with Noisecreep, Chester Bennington said that the song “Crawling” was his own confession about the feeling of “no longer feeling any control when using alcohol and alcohol.” drug. I wrote down and sang that feeling. It sold millions of copies around the world and won me a Grammy. I made a lot of money.”
Even so, Chester still tried to become sober and stay away from drugs and alcohol. “Really, being an alcoholic is not cool at all. It’s no fun just drinking and being an addict. Overcoming alcoholism is also great. Now, I am like that, and I also write down these feelings, what I do and most of my works reflect my own life and thoughts in one way or another.”
“Crawling” is not just a song about depression and a person’s struggle to regain life. In March 2017, when interviewed by Rock Sound, Chester Bennington also revealed that the song “Heavy” is a confession about letting go and releasing negative feelings: “I don’t feel I feel unsafe if I can’t do the things I want to do like take care of myself, live authentically, release my emotions, do everything that makes me feel most comfortable.
Chester Bennington felt lonely and lost when he broke up with his first wife, Samantha Marie Olit. The two have a son together after nearly 10 years of marriage. Chester once confessed about his fear of his first divorce in an interview: “Divorce for me is one of the worst things in life. All trust or feelings of happiness disappeared when the two of us broke up. It’s difficult to let it all go. I was exhausted and immersed in loss.”
And Chester’s heart only became happy again when he found love in Talinda Ann Bentley, his second wife. Talinda Ann Bentley is 1 year younger than Chester and was once a model for Playboy magazine. The two got married in 2005 and have three children together. Talinda also adopted her husband’s three children and considered them as her own children. Talinda and Chester’s marriage lasted 12 years before further tragedy struck the Linkin Park leader.
Chester once said about his second wife, the woman who saved his soul: “I fell in love again. Talinda was brave enough to face my demons. The moment we met, I immediately understood that she was the woman of my life.”
Chester Bennington was discovered hanging at his home by an employee on July 20 (US time). Police concluded that he committed suicide on the evening of July 19 or the morning of July 20 while at home alone. The news of Chester’s suicide was announced just a few hours after Linkin Park’s latest MV “Talk to myself” was released. The sudden departure of the group’s main vocalist greatly affected the group’s tour plans in the next few weeks.
Currently, the group has not yet made an official decision on whether or not to carry out the “One More Light” tour, scheduled to kick off next week in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The group’s representative said that the members are all confused about Chester’s absence so they do not want to make any decisions at this time.
Chester’s confessions while alive still haunt fans.
Fans came to place flowers and gifts in memory of the leader of Linkin Park at his home area.