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She said he was recently in an outpatient treatment program and that to her knowledge he hadn’t taken antidepressants in a year.Įarlier this year, friends of Bennington told Rolling Stonethat the singer had been struggling to maintain his sobriety over the past year. Fingernails were found underneath his iPhone, and Talinda said this was a habit he had when he was anxious. TMZ reports that Bennington’s wife, Talinda, had informed the authorities of the singer’s previous attempt at death by suicide, including one time in 2006 when he left the house with a gun after drinking heavily. There was a history of suicidal ideation.” In the report, the coroner wrote, “autopsy findings are characteristic of suicidal hanging. There was no suicide note.Īfter his death, his wife Talinda Bennington launched a campaign called 320 Changes Direction in honor of her husband to help break the stigma surrounding mental health.Related Chester Bennington's Last Days: Linkin Park Singer's Mix of Hope, Heaviness Also present was a journal with a biography that was handwritten but not dated. The officer also wrote that there was a glass of Corona less than half full, as well as an empty bottle of Stella Artois. During this time Bennington had been open about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.īrian Elias, the chief of operations for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, confirmed the death, in Palos Verdes Estates, and said it was being investigated as a possible suicide after law enforcement authorities responded to a call.Īn autopsy revealed the police officer that found the singer’s body reported a dresser in the room contained a prescription for generic Ambien with one pill broken in half. Within 15 years Linkin Park had sold over 70m records worldwide releasing seven albums of which five peaked at number one on the US charts.īennington also performed in a side project, Dead by Sunrise, and joined Stone Temple Pilots as its lead singer after the band split with the vocalist Scott Weiland in 2013. Linkin Park were on the way to international fame. Records on 24 October 2000, and the album’s raw emotion and radio-ready hooks found a mass audience as part of the growing nu-metal boom led by acts like Korn and Limp Bizkit. Hybrid Theory was released by Warner Bros. 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), and eventually with support from Jeff Blue the band signed a deal with Warner Bros. Jeff Blue, the vice president of artists and repertoire at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered him an audition with the future members of Linkin Park.
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The band had recorded three albums by the time Bennington left Grey Daze in 1998. Later, Dowdell and Bennington moved on to form a new band, Grey Daze, a post-grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona. He was banned from leaving the house for a time when his mother discovered his drug use.īennington first began singing with a band called Sean Dowdell and His Friends? They released an eponymous three-track cassette in 1993. In an interview, he said that he was “knocked around like a rag doll at school, for being skinny and looking different.”Īs a teenager Bennington started abusing alcohol, marijuana, opium, cocaine, meth, and LSD and at the age of 17, he moved in with his mother. To comfort himself, he drew pictures and wrote poetry and songs. His parents divorced when he was 11 years old resulting in his father gaining custody, but along with the abuse and his situation at home he was badly affected and felt the urge to kill people and run away. Years later, he revealed the abuser’s identity to his father, but chose not to pursue him after he realised the abuser was a victim himself.
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At just 7 years-old Bennington suffered sexual abuse from an older male friend, he didn’t ask for help because he did not want people to think he was gay or making the whole thing up – the abuse continued until he was 13 years old.
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