According to entertainment site TMZ, Bennington hanged himself at his Palos Verdes residence on Thursday, July 20., 2017. Chester Charles Bennington, born March 20, 1976 was the U.S. singer and songwriter for the rock band Linkin Park. He was has also led the ‘side projects’ Dead by Sunrise and fronted Stone Temple Pilots.
Bennington was with the rock band Linkin Park from the start, appearing on the band’s debut album Hybrid Theory, which was released in 2000, to cosnderable commercial success. Similar success was shown with Linkin Park’s subsequent studio albums, Meteora (2003), Minutes to Midnight (2007), A Thousand Suns (2010), Living Things (2012), and The Hunting Party (2014). The band’s most recent album, One More Light, topped the Billboard 200 earlier this year.
No indication as to Bennington’s apparent suicide has been given. According to Billboard Bennington had struggled for a long period of time with drug and alcohol addictions. The Daily Mail notes that the day of death coincides with the birthday of Bennington’s late friend Chris Cornell. Cornell was lead vocalist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave and he also committed suicide this year.
The singer was married and is survived by six children. The time of his alleged suicide was 9 a.m. (local time). He had been married to his second wife Talinda Ann Bentley, a former Playboy model, for 12 years. Linkin Park was currently on its “One More Light” world tour, which was next scheduled to stop at the Xfinity Center on July 27 in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
