Chester Bennington profile

Biography Chester Bennington 

 Chester was a vocalist in a locally renowned band named Grey Daze and was given a mixtape from a band named Xero by a Zomba Music A&R executive in the latter part of 1998. Xero were searching for a new vocalist in the wake of Xero frontman Mark Wakefield's departure and started giving out demo tapes to try and find a replacement. After listening to the tape and liking what he heard, Chester wrote lyrics and recorded them over the tracks, then sent the tape back to the band. On his 23rd birthday in '99, Chester received a phone call from his Zomba contact saying the band were interested to meet him in person to try out for the lead vocalist spot. Chester flew to Southern California and met the Xero bandmates, then proceeded to completely blow them away in the audition. Not only did he impress the band, his performance also intimidated another vying candidate into leaving before his audition. Chester was a shoe-in for the vocalist spot. The band soon renamed themselves to Hybrid Theory and released their first material recorded with Chester on the Hybrid Theory EP soon afterwards in '99. Hybrid Theory would later change their ]name to Linkin Park.

Bennington is often labeled as the main source of raw emotion found in many of Linkin Park's songs. This stems from a problematic childhood plagued with the divorcing of his parents, sexual molestation, and heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Through writing music, Chester therapeutically released his pent-up frustration and anger. Instead of making the messages of his songs solely about himself, Chester's writing style uses universal emotions and relatable themes instead of situational lyrics to deliver his stories and help others. For this reason, Chester is regarded as a role model for millions of people who can relate to his messages. Chester has also realized his creativity through a number of musical endeavours besides that of Linkin Park. What initially began forming in 2005, ultimately became Chester working alongside Amir Derakh, Brandon Belsky, Elias Andra, and Anthony "Fu" Valcic of Julien-K & Ryan Shuck of Orgy & Julien-K to form the side-project, Dead By Sunrise. The band released their debut album Out Of Ashes on October 13th, 2009, and have played a number of shows in Europe. Chester also performs with his cover band, Bucket of Weenies from time to time too, a band dedicated to performing classic rock hits. B.O.W. is a collaboration of Chester on vocals, Ryan Shuck on guitar, Mike "Cheez" Brown on bass, Mike Rouse on guitar & Sean Dowdell on drums.
Chester has also devoted his talents to other projects outside of music, which include his very own clothing line in Ve' Cel, a label comprised of edgy designs aimed at embracing uniqueness and individuality in fashion. Chester also has a creative outlet in his tattoo business, Club Tattoo, which is a part-owned enterprise with long time friends Sean Dowdell and Thora Dowdell. In 2002, Bennington performed a song called "System" off of Queen of the Damned (soundtrack). He provided vocals with rock bands Cyclefly, Mötley Crüe, Latin rock band Santana, and more.