Chester Bennington

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

Bennington rose to fame with his first release with Linkin Park, 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, Meteora and Minutes to Midnight, released in 2003 and 2007 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".

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 post-grunge band from Phoenix, Arizona. He left Grey Daze in 1998, but struggled to find another band to play 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.