Chester Charles Bennington

Chester Charles Bennington (born March 20, 1976) is an American musician, best known for being the lead vocalist in the nu metal band Linkin Park.

Chester Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona. His first instrument was the piano. While Bennington was growing up he was in a number of bands and played various instruments, but mainly was a vocalist. He never settled in a full time band until 1993, when he joined Grey Daze. The band disbanded in 1998 and he moved on to Linkin Park one year later.

Bennington had an unpleasant life through adolescence. He was sexually abused as a child, by a close family friend. A few of his friends committed suicide, and one of his friends died in a skateboarding accident.

His parents divorced in 1987, leaving him with his two half sisters and a half brother. Bennington was the youngest of four children at eleven years old, and stayed with his father, who was a police officer and detective. His brother introduced him to bands like Loverboy, Foreigner and Rush, as well as The Doors which he claims as his influences.

Before his parents parted, the family frequently moved around Arizona, from cities such as Scottsdale, Tolleson, Tempe, and others. "I was an athletic kid but I just stopped caring about it, and I stopped doing well in school," Bennington states in a Kerrang! article. "I started smoking weed and going to parties. I think I was 11 when I started smoking pot." Bennington attended Centennial High School, Greenway High School, and later graduated from Washington High School. Bennington said that while he was in high school he was bullied and he described himself as a geek. When Bennington was younger he had a day job working as a coffee barista. He said working at Bean Tree Coffee House was what kept him going, and that coffee houses are very understanding and this was the base of his inspiration. Through his late teens and early twenties Bennington battled addictions to crystal meth, and cocaine; however, he managed to overcome his addictions and is currently clean.

Bennington became the lead vocalist of a band called Grey Daze from 1993 to 1998. Chester thought he was not getting enough credit for his writing and had mutual disagreements with other band members, causing him to leave the band. While with Grey Daze, Chester recorded two albums, "Wake Me" in 1994 and "...no sun today" in 1997 along with one demo tape "Sean Dowdell and his Friends?" in 1993 while the band was under the same name. After Chester left, they split up and guitarist, Sean Dowdell joined a new band with a new female singer, Jodi Wendt, called Waterface and have recorded one album, "Seven Days".

While Chester was still a member in Grey Daze, he was working part time at Burger King so he could practice with the band in the evenings. At this point, he was so poor he couldn't afford a car or even a bike so he used a skateboard as his form of transportation.

While at Burger King, Chester met his first wife, Samantha. They got married on October 31, 1996, when Chester was 20, and because he was too poor to afford actual wedding or engagement rings, the two of them have rings tattooed on their ring fingers. The couple were in the local real estate market, and to learn more about the business world, Chester would sneak into classes at Arizona State University without paying the required tuition fees (unlike the rest of Linkin Park, Bennington does not have a college diploma). Chester and Samantha had one child, a boy named Draven Sebastian Bennington, born April 19, 2002 at 1 p.m. Their website states: "He's happy, healthy, and cute as can be. The baby and parents are doing great. They thank you for being so interested and they love you guys! The whole family will be on the road during the next Linkin tour!". Draven is supposedly named after the lead character in the movie "The Crow". On May 2, 2005 the couple divorced after eight years of marriage. Samantha had been granted full custody rights of their child, but Chester, after months of battling, obtained joint custody.

On December 31, 2005, Chester married his 29-year-old girlfriend Talinda Bentley, who had posed for Playboy during her college years in California Institute of Technology. Bennington's wife, Talinda, gave birth in Los Angeles on Thursday March 16, 2006, to a 9-pound, 3-ounce boy named Tyler Lee, according to a statement from their publicist. This statement also alleged that Chester has a ten year old son named Jaime, though there is speculation as to whether he is Chester's biological son or stepson. In a recent interview on the Kevin and Bean show, Chester revealed that he has also adopted Jaime's brother: "I do have three sons, and I adopted my oldest son, his brother, I adopted him as my own, so I guess I have four."

Chester was going to reunite with Grey Daze for one last performance in hopes of raising money to help former Grey Daze bandmate Bobby Benish who had a brain tumor. They were scheduled to play at the Dodge Theatre in Arizona along with bands Phunk Junkeez, Pokerface and Gift. Unfortunately, Chester had to postpone the performance due to Linkin Park's strict recording schedule to finish their sophomore album Meteora. Since then Bobby Benish has died due to his brain tumor.

In 1995, Bennington and former Grey Daze member Sean Dowdell founded Club Tattoo, a tattoo parlor, in Phoenix, Arizona. They now have full partnership and 3 chain locations in Arizona. Many celebrities, such as Hoobastank, David Boston from the Arizona Cardinals, and Chester himself have gotten their tattoos done there.

In 1998 Linkin Park (then called Xero) advertised for a vocalist due to trouble with getting signed. A firm which knew Chester Bennington told Xero that he would be good for the job. They sent Chester a demo and asked him to sing to it. Within three days, one of which was his birthday (apparently he didn't show up for his birthday party because he was working on the demo) he had recorded the demo and played it to Xero over the phone; they were blown away and asked him to fly to Los Angeles from Phoenix to audition. At the audition, several other potential vocalists vying for the position simply left once they heard Bennington sing. One auditioner commented to the band that they'd have to be crazy not to pick Chester. Xero then changed their name to Hybrid Theory and recorded the Hybrid Theory EP which included the songs "Carousel", "Technique (Short)", "Step Up", "And One", "High Voltage" and "Part Of Me". They attracted some attention from some record labels and eventually decided to sign to Warner Bros. Records.

Due to a copyright issue with the British group Hybrid they had to change their name. Chester suggested Linkin Park because after recording sessions he would drive past Lincoln Park in Santa Monica. They recorded their debut album, Hybrid Theory through 1999-2000 and it was released on October 24 2000. It produced hits like In The End and Crawling. Hybrid Theory has since sold over 19 million copies around the world. Then in 2002 Linkin Park released the remix album Reanimation, featuring remixes from Hybrid Theory. Chester and Linkin Park then recorded their next album Meteora featuring hits like Somewhere I Belong. They released the live album Live in Texas and the "mash-up" album with Jay-Z, Collision Course. His co-writer and fellow band member Mike Shinoda wrote a song, which until recently could not be performed live. The song, called "Breaking the Habit," brought back memories from the past which in many cases reduced Bennington to tears. There is much speculation behind the meaning of the song, including Bennington's drug addiction and childhood issues. The song took Mike Shinoda six years to write. It was released as a single in June 2004 and was included on the Meteora album. Linkin Park has a new record coming out in early 2007, Chester has described it as "dark, poppy and melodic" different from their other albums which fused hard rock and hip hop.

Bennington seems to have rather bad luck with getting sick on tour. On August 8, 2001 during Ozzfest he was bitten by a recluse spider at a hotel in the Boston area. A portion of Bennington's leg swelled and he ran a fever, but he finished the whole tour. Most people require hospitalization after a recluse spider bite. Bennington continues to struggle with a hiatal hernia, an ailment that forced LP to cancel their show in Evansville, Indiana. (April 11, 2003). In 2003, LP was forced to cancel their European tour in June due to a viral infection Chester developed. He was sent to intensive care at LA's Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when he lost feeling in his body and collapsed. Bennington had been wearing glasses most of his life. During live shows, he would remove them, although claiming he couldn't even see the front row of the audience without them. Then in March 2004, he went through laser eye surgery and no longer wears his signature thick-rimmed glasses. A few days before performing at the second Club Tattoo Anniversary Party in April 22, 2006, Bennington got his arm stitched, which was cut after falling through a window of his father's house. He was drunk and had lost the key to the house. The next day, he had an anxiety attack, causing him to have a seizure and arm spasms.

In the Summer Sonic 2006, Bennington joined his long-time friend and bandmate Mike Shinoda during a Fort Minor show in the performance of Linkin Park's Enth E Nd (reinterpretted by producer Kutmasta Kurt) and Shinoda's Fort Minor hit, Where'd You Go.

In 2007 he's set to release a solo album under the name Snow White Tan, produced by Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck of Orgy. There are currently two confirmed tracks: 'The Morning After' and 'Walking In Circles'. 'Let Down' is also rumoured to appear on the album. Chester will sing, play guitar, play keyboard and does the programming on the record. Influences for the album include The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Bauhaus, and Chester has described it as "fuckin' driving beats and walls of guitars." One of his friends also likened one track to T-Rex. The album is due for release sometime in 2008, after Linkin Park's new record. Chester is also playing with "Bucket Of Weenies" a small garage band who perform cover songs, Bucket of Weenies have covered such songs as Snow White Tan's The Morning After. Also, Chester recently played with Mötley Crüe at ReAct Now: Music & Relief, a Hurricane Katrina relief concert, helping them onstage performing 'Home Sweet Home'. It was that same show he performed the unreleased song 'Let Down' with Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck.

Chester Bennington recently made his film debut when he played a small cameo appearance in the movie "Crank", and attended a premiere in Los Angeles. He's listed as the "Pharmacy Stoner". The role only has one line in the whole film.