Music world mourns loss of PV’s Bennington
Chester Bennington performing with Stone Temple Pilots at 2016 From Classic to Rock concert at the Norris Theater. Photo by Cynthia Halverson (CynthiaHalverson.com)
2016 From Classic to Rock performers and organizers (left to right) Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, Stone Temple Pilots’ Dean DeLeo, musician and composer Gary Wright, Schools Superintendent Donald Austin, Ed Foundation Development Director Cheryl Ward, Ed Foundation Board President Roma Mistry, PTSA Council President Beth Myerhoff, School Board member Malcolm Sharp, Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo, Lizzy Borden’s Marten Andersson, PYT singer Lauren Mayhew and event co-producer Amy Friedman. Photo by Cynthia Halverson (CynthiaHalverson.com)
Chester Bennington wrote music to ‘numb’ his personal demons. It wasn’t enough
A private service was held July 29 at the South Coast Botanical Garden for Peninsula resident and international rock star Chester Bennington. An estimated 500 fellow musicians, friends and family members were handed yellow “Chester Bennington” wristbands and memorial cards that looked like backstage passes, according to a story written by Jon Wiederhorn for Radio.com.
Barrington’s Stone Temple Pilots bandmates sang “Amazing Grace.”
In March 2016, Chester Bennington told Peninsula parents who filled the Norris Theater, “The schools here are so great because the parents are so involved in their kids’ lives.”
Bennington’s remarks came during a break in the music at the From Classic to Rock concert, organized by Marten Andersson, of the band Lizzy Borden. The concert raised over $50,000 for Peninsula school music programs. Bennington and his wife Talinda had several children in Peninsula schools.
Bennington’s principal band Linkin Park had won multiple Grammys. Their 2001, breakthrough album “Hybrid Theory” sold over 10 million copies. During From Classic to Rock, Bennington and Andersson performed with fellow South Bay music stars Stone Temple Pilots, Gary Wright (“Dream Weaver”), Chas West (Bonham and Foreigner), Monte Pittman (Madonna), LA Philharmonic violinist Yutong and Long Beach Symphony cellist Stan Sharp
The evening closed with the musicians singing Bob Dylan’s elegiac “Knock Knock Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” The Peninsula High School choir sang backup.
On Thursday, July 20, while he was family vacationing in Arizona, Bennington was found dead in his Palos Verdes Estates home, of an apparent suicide.
Bennington struggled with mental demons throughout his life. He traced them to having been sexually abused in his youth.
“I have been able to tap into all the negative things that can happen to me by numbing myself to the pain, so to speak, and kind of being able to vent it through my music,” he said in a 2009 interview with the website Noisecreep.
That year he declared himself free of drugs. But if his music offers any insight, he was not free of his demons. His last single “Heavy,” released in February, includes the lyrics:
You say that I’m paranoid
But I’m pretty sure the world is out to get me
It’s not like I make the choice
To let my mind stay so f….ing messy
Following his death, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified Superintendent Don Austin told the Daily Breeze, “All day I’ve been receiving calls and texts from people expressing their sadness for the loss of someone whom, anyone who knows him would describe as a great guy, and our interactions together were the same. It was very clear that being a dad was more important to him than anything else. Our thoughts are with his family.”
Bennington’s wife Talinda released a statement on behalf of herself and six children, that read, in part, “We had a fairytale life and now it has turned into some sick Shakespearean tragedy… I want to let my community and the fans worldwide know that we feel your love… He was a bright, loving soul with an angel’s voice. And now he is pain-free singing his songs in all of our hearts.”