What Chester Bennington's Final Months Were Like

Chester Bennington was best known as the lead singer of Linkin Park. Despite his rock stardom, he struggled with drug abuse, alcoholism, and deepening depression for many years. This is what the final 12 months of his life were like.

At the start of the 2000s, Linkin Park dominated radio airwaves and had their music videos played relentlessly on MTV. Their popularity spread worldwide as they became one of the most significant nu metal bands of the time. For as much praise as they received, though, they also faced backlash from metal purists and some critics for certain aspects of their sound. In a 2016 interview with Metal Hammer, Bennington tried to defend Linkin Park from metal fans who questioned the integrity of their style and claimed they were nothing more than a boy band with guitars. He didn't take the criticism lightly as he said,

"I think that's really funny - just those words, 'the integrity of metal.' In my opinion we actually kept metal alive."

That sentiment predictably angered metal fans. Bennington's bandmate, Mike Shinoda, tried to clear up what Bennington meant by tweeting,

"He basically said that pop music was ruling the world, and we made a case for (commercially) viable heavy music."

The following month, Bennington reportedly suffered a three-day relapse and blacked out from drinking alcohol, though he did manage to recover.

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Keeping metal alive | 0:00
Attempted suicide | 1:16
Kings of Chaos | 2:33
Reuniting with Grey Daze | 3:35
Mourning Chris Cornell | 4:25
Final Linkin Park album | 5:21
Negative reviews | 6:51
Talking about depression | 8:11
Last show | 9:16
Final days | 10:01

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