chester bennington profile

Early life

Chester Charles Bennington (born March 20, 1976) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor. He is best known as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Linkin Park.

Bennington became known as a vocalist with Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000, which was a massive commercial success. The album was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005, making it the best-selling debut album of the decade. Linkin Park's following studio albums, Reanimation, Meteora, Minutes to Midnight, and A Thousand Suns, released in 2002, 2003, 2007, and 2010 respectively, continued the band's success. Bennington formed his own band, Dead by Sunrise as a side-project in 2005. The band's debut album, Out of Ashes was released on October 13, 2009.In 2007, Bennington was placed at #46 on Hit Parader's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists".Chester Bennington executive produced the E.P for Los Angeles, Tripduster band Hellflower, which is fronted by his long time friend and Director of Activities (D.O.A), Church

Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Bennington attended the Ironwood High School. He took interest in music at a young age, citing Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots as early inspirations. Bennington's parents separated in the late 1980s. He later struggled with cocaine and methamphetamine addictions. Bennington eventually overcame his drug addiction, and would go on to denounce drug use in future interviews. He worked at a Burger King restaurant before starting his career as a professional musician.

Before joining Linkin Park, Bennington was a vocalist in Grey Daze, a grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona. He left Grey Daze in 1998, but struggled to find another band to sing in. After nearly quitting his musical career altogether, Jeff Blue, the vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered Bennington an audition with the future members of Linkin Park. Bennington quit his day job, and took his family to California, where he had a successful audition with Linkin Park, who were then called "Xero". 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.

  

Personal life

Bennington married his first wife, Samantha, on October 31, 1996. They had one child, named Draven Sebastian, who was born on April 19, 2002. Bennington’s relationship with his first wife declined during his years with Linkin Park, leading to their divorce in 2005. After divorcing his first wife, Bennington married Talinda Bentley, a former Playboy model,, with whom he has had one child, Tyler Lee; Chester Bennington has two children from a previous relationship with Elka, Jamie and Isaiah. The wedding ceremony was custom designed and performed by Mary Jean Valente of "A Ceremony of the Heart". Bennington and his family live in a house in Gilbert, Arizona when he is not on tour. He is also a tattoo enthusiast. Bennington has done work and promotions with Club Tattoo, a recognized tattoo parlor in Tempe, Arizona. Bennington and his second wife were harassed by a cyberstalker, Devon Townsend, for almost a year. Townsend was found guilty of tampering with the couple's email, as well as sending threatening messages, and was sentenced to two years in prison.

 Bands

* Grey Daze – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1993–1998)   

    * Dead by Sunrise – lead vocals, guitar, keyboard (2005–present

   

 

* Julien-K – production (2003–present)