Chester Bennington Dead At 41: The Linkin Park Singer Commits Suicide
Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington died of an apparent suicide this morning (July 20). He was 41 years old and leaves behind wife, Talinda Bentley, and six children. According to the police report, the two-time Grammy winner hung himself and could not be revived when Firefighters arrived at his Los Angeles home at approximately 9 a.m.. His bandmate, Mike Shinoda, confirmed the tragic news on Twitter. “Shocked and heartbroken, but it’s true,” he wrote. “An official statement will come out as soon as we have one.”
In what may or may not be a coincidence, Chester took his life on Chris Cornell’s birthday. He was close with the Soundgarden frontman, who committed suicide in May. The rocker posted an emotional letter celebrating his friend and colleague’s life and performed “Hallelujah” at his funeral. Linkin Park was one of the most successful rock acts of the millennium, selling 50 million albums worldwide and racking up three top 10 hits with “In The End,” “What I’ve Done” and “New Divide.”
The band recently dropped their 7th LP One More Light, scoring their fifth chart-topper. The opus generated some controversey when fans accused Chester of selling out for experimenting with electro-pop, most notably on Kiiara-assisted lead single “Heavy.” It became the band’s first pop radio hit in years, however, and peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. Watch the video below. This story is developing.
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