Rockapaedia Obituaries
Chester Bennington
Band: Linkin Park
Chester Bennington died aged forty-one on 20th July 201
7 from suicide by hanging at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California. Chester Bennington's death occurred on what would have been Chris Cornell's 53rd birthday. Cornell, who was a close friend of Chester, had also died by suicide when hanging himself two months earlier. Mike Shinoda noted that Chester Bennington was very upset when the band performed "One More Light" in his honor, where he could not finish singing the song, be it in rehearsal or live recording.
Chester Bennington had a child, Jaime, from his relationship with Elka Brand. In 2006, he also adopted Brand's other son, Isaiah. He married his first wife, Samantha Marie Olit in 1996. They had one child together. Chester Bennington's relationship with his first wife declined during his early years with Linkin Park, and they divorced in 2005. In 2006, he married Talinda Ann Bentley, a former Playboy model with whom he had three children.
Chester Bennington was plagued with poor health during the making of the album Meteora, and struggled to attend some of the recording sessions. In the summer of 2003, he began to suffer from extreme abdominal pain and gastrointestinal issues while filming the music video for "Numb" in Prague. He was forced to return to the United States for surgery, and filmed the remainder of the music video in Los Angeles.
Chester Bennington sustained a wrist injury in October 2007 while attempting to jump off a platform during a show in Melbourne at the Rod Laver Arena. Despite the injury, he continued to perform the entire show with a broken wrist, before heading to the emergency room where he received five stitches.
In 2011, Chester Bennington fell ill again, and Linkin Park was forced to cancel three shows and reschedule two from the 'A Thousand Suns World Tour'. Chester injured his shoulder during the band's tour in Asia and was advised by doctors to have immediate surgery, cancelling their final show at Pensacola Beach, Florida and ending their tour.
Chester Bennington injured his ankle in January 2015 during a basketball game. He attempted to cope with the injury and perform with the aid of crutches and a knee scooter. Linkin Park later canceled the remainder of their tour to allow him to undergo surgery and recover.
Chester Charles Bennington was born on March 20th 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. His mother was a nurse, while his father was a police detective who worked with child sex abuse cases. Chester took interest in music at a young age, citing bands Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as his early inspirations and dreamed of becoming a member of Stone Temple Pilots, which he later achieved.
Chester Bennington's parents divorced when he was eleven years old, and his father gained custody of him. After the divorce, Chester began using marijuana, alcohol, opium and cocaine.
At the age of seventeen Chester Bennington moved in with his mother. He worked at a Burger King before starting his career as a professional musician.
Eventually Chester was able to overcome his drug addiction, and went on to denounce drug use in future interviews.
In an interview, Chester Bennington revealed that he had suffered sexual abuse from an older male friend when he was seven years old. He was afraid to ask for help because he did not want people to think he was gay or lying, and the abuse continued until the age of thirteen. The abuse and situation at home affected Chester so much that he felt the urge to kill people and run away. To comfort himself, he drew pictures and wrote poetry and songs. Chester later revealed the abuser's identity to his father, but chose not to continue the legal case after he found that the abuser was a victim himself.
Chester Bennington first began singing with a band called Sean Dowdell and His Friends?. They released an eponymous three-track cassette in 1993. Later, Sean Dowdell and Bennington moved on to form a new band, Grey Daze, a post-grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona. The band recorded three albums; 'Demo' in 1993, 'Wake/Me' in 1994, and ...'No Sun Today' in 1997. Chester Bennington left Grey Daze in 1998.
Chester Bennington was frustrated and almost ready to quit his musical career altogether when Jeff Blue, the vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered him an audition with the future members of Linkin Park. Chester Bennington quit his day job at a digital services firm and took his family to California, where he had a successful audition with Linkin Park, who were then called Xero. He managed to record the song for his audition in a day, missing his own birthday celebration in the process. Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, the band's other vocalist, made significant progress together, but failed to find a record deal. After facing numerous rejections, Jeff Blue, now a vice president of A&R at Warner Bros., intervened again to help the band sign with Warner Bros. Records.
On October 24th 2000, Linkin Park released their debut album, Hybrid Theory, through Warner Bros. Records. Chester Bennington and Shinoda wrote the lyrics to Hybrid Theory based on some early material. Shinoda characterized the lyrics as interpretations of universal feelings, emotions, and experiences, and as "everyday emotions you talk about and think about."
Chester Bennington primarily served as Linkin Park's lead vocalist, but occasionally shared the role with Shinoda. All Music Guide described Chester Bennington's vocals as "higher-pitched" and "emotional", in contrast to Shinoda's hip-hop-style delivery. Both members also worked together to write lyrics for the band's songs.
Chester Bennington co-founded Dead by Sunrise in 2005 with Orgy and Julien-K members Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck. Dead by Sunrise made their live debut in May 2008, performing four songs at the 13th anniversary party for Club Tattoo in Tempe, Arizona.
The band released their debut album 'Out of Ashes' on October 13th 2009.
In February 2013, Stone Temple Pilots parted ways with long-time lead singer Scott Weiland. The band recruited Chester Bennington to replace Weiland in May 2013. On May 18th 2013, Chester Bennington took the stage at KROQ's Weenie Roast with the band. The set-list included original Stone Temple Pilots songs, as well as their first single with Chester Bennington on vocals called "Out of Time", which debuted on May 19th and was available for free download. It was later announced by Chester and the band in an exclusive KROQ interview that he was officially the new frontman of Stone Temple Pilots and discussed the possibility of a new album and tour. On May 19th 2013, the band released a free download of their first single, "Out of Time" that features Chester Bennington via their 
official website. The song "Out of Time" is featured on their EP High Rise, which was released on October 8th 2013. Chester Bennington reflected on joining Stone Temple Pilots, stating, "Every band has its own kind of vibe. Stone Temple Pilots has this sexier, more classic rock feel to it. Linkin Park is a very modern, very tech-heavy type of band. I grew up listening to these guys. When this opportunity came up, it was just like a no-brainer." Chester Bennington stated in interviews that singing lead vocals in Stone Temple Pilots was his lifelong dream. He left the band on good terms due to his commitments with Linkin Park in 2015.
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Rockapaedia Obituaries
Chris Cornell
Bands: Soundgarden and Audioslave
Chris Cornell died aged fifty-two on 18th May 2017 b
efore he was found dead by his bodyguard in the bathroom of a room at the MGM Grand Hotel in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.. He had performed at a show with Soundgarden at the nearby Fox Theatre during the night before. He was found lying on the floor with an exercise band around his neck. Paramedics arrived and tried to resuscitate him but he was pronounced dead and the cause of death was determined to be suicide by hanging. .
Michigan's Wayne County Medical Examiner released the autopsy and toxicology report on the death of Chris Cornell on 2nd June 2017, with the coroner confirming that the manner of death was suicide and that drugs did not directly contribute to the cause of death . His funeral was at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Noteable celebrity guests included Nile Rodgers, Courtney Love, Joe Walsh, Christian Bale and Brad Pitt. Chester Bennington performed the Leonard Cohen song 'Hallelujah' at the memorial; just months before his own death by suicide.
Chris Cornell was born Christopher John Boyle on 20th July 1964 in Seattle, Washington, USA where he was raised. Chris attended a Catholic elementary school, where he performed for the first time in front of a crowd, singing the 1960s anti-war song "One Tin Soldier", and later he went to Shorewood High School.
In the early nineteen eighties Chris Cornell was a member of a cover band called The Shemps, which featured bassist Hiro Yamamoto and performed around Seattle. After Yamamoto left The Shemps, the band recruited guitarist Kim Thayil. Cornell and Yamamoto stayed in contact, and after The Shemps broke up, the pair started jamming together, eventually bringing Kim Thayil in to join them.
Soundgarden was formed in 1984 by Chris Cornell, Thayil and Yamamoto with Chris originally on drums and vocals. In 1985, the band enlisted Scott Sundquist as the drummer to allow Chris to concentrate on vocals. The band's first recordings were three songs that appeared on a compilation for C/Z Records called Deep Six. In 1986, Sundquist, quit and was replaced by Matt Cameron, the drummer for Skin Yard, who then became Soundgarden's permanent drummer but the band eventually broke up.
In January 2011, Chris Cornell announced his solo acoustic "Songbook" tour, continuing a series of acclaimed solo acoustic shows in Los Angeles during 2009 and 2010. The first leg of the sold-out tour began on 1st April 2011 and continued through the U.S. and Canada until May, resuming in October and visiting New Zealand, Australia, South America and the U.S. again before ending in December. The tour received universally positive reviews.
In August 2011, Chris Cornell released "The Keeper", an original song written for the Marc Forster-directed 2011 film Machine Gun Preacher and nominated in 2012 for a Golden Globe Award. For the first twenty-four hours after its release, the song was exclusively available as part of the "Donate to Download" campaign for Sam Childers' Angels of East Africa children's charity. The song is also the lead track on the film's soundtrack album.
In November 2011 Chris Cornell, released Songbook, an acoustic live album featuring songs recorded during Chris' "Songbook" tour in North America. It was his first live album as a solo artist and includes stripped-down solo performances of songs from Chris Cornell's whole career as a solo artist as well as with Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Temple of the Dog, plus covers of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" and John Lennon's "Imagine". The album received largely positive reviews, with AllMusic calling it Chris Cornell's "best solo offering to date". Chris Cornell continued his "Songbook" tour in Europe and the U.S. during 2012 and 2013 to further acclaim.
In 2013, Chris Cornell wrote the song "Misery Chain", for the soundtrack to the film 12 Years a Slave, in which he performed a duet with Joy Williams.
In January 2015, Chris Cornell announced via his Twitter account that he was in the studio recording a new solo album. Chris Cornell's new studio album, 'Higher Truth', was released on September 18th 2015. In 2016, Chris Cornell covered the song "Stay With Me Baby" for the soundtrack of the HBO TV series Vinyl. Chris Cornell said about recording the song that he was very honored to be asked to record a version of 'Stay With Me Baby' for Vinyl. The last solo release prior to his death, was the charity single "The Promise", written for the ending credits for the movie of the same name about the Armenian Genocide.
All of Audioslave's lyrics were written by Chris Cornell, whilst all four members were credited with writing the music. Their songwriting process was described by Wilk as "more collaborative" and "satisfying" than Rage Against the Machine's, which was "a battle creatively". Chris Cornell, for his part, saw Soundgarden's songwriting method as inferior to Audioslave's. Chris Cornell's lyrics were mostly apolitical; Audioslave's Morello referred to them as "haunted, existential poetry." They were characterized by his cryptic approach, often dealing with themes of existentialism, love, hedonism, spirituality and Christianity. Chris Cornell's battle with addiction to prescription drugs and alcoholism was a defining factor in the writing and recording process. Even though Chris admitted that he was never able to write effectively while drinking, and attended rehab aft
er recording the debut album, Morello stated that 'Revelations' was the first record that Chris Cornell didn't smoke, drink or take drugs through the recording.
In January 2017, it was announced that Audioslave would reunite for their first show in twelve years at Prophets of Rage's Anti-Inaugural Ball, protesting President Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. The event took place on January 20th 2017.
Asked in February 2017 if there would be more Audioslave reunion shows in the future Chris Cornell replied that It's always a possibility.
While still in Soundgarden, Chris Cornell recorded an album with members of what would become Pearl Jam.
During a 2003 Pearl Jam show at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Chris Cornell had appeared as a surprise guest. After playing a short acoustic set, Chris joined Vedder and the rest of the band to perform "Hunger Strike" and "Reach Down".
Chris Cornell had a multi-octave range. He was a baritone with an ability to sing extremely high in the tenor range, as well as in the lower register of a baritone voice. He showcased this in various songs, most notably the studio and the demo versions of "Beyond the Wheel", where he can be heard spanning three octaves. He also experimented with various different vocal styles, ranging from light falsetto to brutal screams and chants. In addition to singing rock and metal mainly with Soundgarden and Audioslave, Chris also sang the blues, neo-soul and stripped-down acoustic numbers.
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Music: 'Black Hole Sun' by Sound Garden
song: 'By Myself' by Chester Bennington & Linkin Park