Rising from the ashes: the formation of an iconic personality
Music is something that has always been around Chester, something he loved immensely, something he wanted to do since his childhood. But life happened in such a way that the dream was not destined to come true right away. As a child he had experienced his parents' divorce and the experience of rape when he was molested by his father's friend. Thus, from a child who was engaged in sports and good education, Bennington Jr. turned into a "beaten" teenager, to whom water was replaced by alcohol and bread by drugs. The future vocalist of the now world-famous band went through, as they say, fire, water and brass pipes.
Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington started getting tattoos on his body even before he became a member of the band. The first one appeared at the age of 18 (it will be described below). But Chester was very fond of tattoos and considered them to be an element through which a person could express himself, his "self." Perhaps he didn't get a tattoo sooner because of his father's influence. As a police officer, Bennington Sr. considered body art to be a stigma of criminals and was strongly against it. However, he could not protect his younger son from tattoos.
First tattoos
Chester Bennington got his first tattoo on the day of his majority. Drawing in the form of a fish on the left shoulder symbolized the sign of the zodiac, under which the musician was born. It is noteworthy that the first visit to the tattoo parlor was a kind of "protest action". Front's father, being a police officer, considered body compositions "a stigma for criminals" and was strongly against them, while Chester himself regarded them as a way of self-expression.
After the first tattoo, a second one appeared on the right shoulder. A large Japanese koi carp became the musician's pride, as he designed and drew the sketch himself. In the art of body painting this symbol represents masculinity, strength, grants the owner longevity and financial well-being.
"What's that stuff on your arm?", or Chester's first tattoo
Chester Bennington's tattoos, as the vocalist himself claimed, were not tattooed from nothing or chaotically - each of them has its own meaning and is associated with a certain period of his life. This is probably why one is like a continuation of the other, and all together they are in perfect harmony.
The first tattoo was done at the age of 18 in Arizona. And the phrase "what the hell is that on your arm" characterized it Bennington Sr. The tattoo is on the shoulder of his left arm and represents a fish. This is Chester's zodiac sign, as the vocalist was born on March 20. Soon the pattern appeared on the other shoulder. It was also a fish - a Japanese carp. The tattoo was made by Chester's friend Chewbacca according to the original sketch - Bennington himself drew on paper what he wanted to get. All that remained was to transfer the pattern to the body.
"I wanted every tattoo on my body to match the story of my life. A lot of people have cool tattoos, but they don't understand their meaning. And every tattoo I have is a part of myself."
Skulls and roses
Bennington had a strange tattoo on his leg. It was a combination of a skull and a rose. This style is present in the peoples of Mexico. Here the skull is considered a reference to the dead, a kind of tribute to those who are no longer in this world. Roses are often combined with these images. They are a symbol that life goes on, no matter what.
The rose can also be a reflection of the passionate nature of the musician. This flower as a basis for a tattoo is chosen by people who are in love. Every relationship they perceive as their last, but sooner or later they find a new victim. Also with them there is never a dull moment.
The tattoos of the "Linkin Park" band member are quite unconventional. It is worth noting that some of them as if on purpose emphasizes the complex nature of the celebrity. It can also mean that it is as if he lived two lives, two opposing natures coexisted in him. The symbol of the dragon can also talk about the difficult choice of the celebrity, about his desire to become wiser, but also about temper tantrums and intolerance. Tattoos on the fingers, however, mark his penchant for romantic acts, a belief in horoscopes and fate. In any case, Chester Bennington's tattoos are eye-catching because they are tastefully executed.
All tattoos on the body of the modern rock legend
Pisces on both shoulders is just the beginning, an involvement in the world of tattooing. Chester Bennington racked up about twenty more over the course of 23 years. These are both small and large-scale patterns. When asked "how many in all," Chester himself answered succinctly, "a lot.
- the upper back - six arms reaching upward;
- the loin is Linkin Park;
- above the shin of the left leg, "street soldier";
- right shin - dragon;
- left and right hands - tongues of flame;
- ring finger of right hand - wedding ring;
- the little finger of the left hand - a ring with a stone representing the sign of the Zodiac;
- right and left halves of the back - dragons;
- chest - family crest with the initials of Chester and his second wife, CB TB (Chester Bennington Talinda Bentley); below, a scroll with a rose and the initials of the children;
- on the right elbow is a pirate skull;
- on the left elbow, a whimsical flower.
Many of Chester Bennington's tattoos were originally printed in black paint, and only later he made them in color. Except for the "street soldier. This tattoo is the symbol of the band's first album Hybrid Theory. On its cover there was an image of a soldier with dragonfly wings. Chester had one of those tattoos on his leg. As he admitted, this tattoo is more of a caprice, it's the only one he got aimlessly, but it's no less his favorite. On the other hand, the image itself symbolizes Chester's unique voice: the soldier - powerful vocals, and the wings - light lyrics.
The album Hybrid Theory can be called a landmark album. Thanks to it, Chester got a Linkin Park tattoo on his waist, embossed in a beautiful old English font. He got it for free, as a prize for winning a dispute, the subject of which was the Hybrid Theory album. Chester claimed it would go platinum. But his friend said otherwise, and if he had been right, Bennington would have paid full price for the tattoo. But Hybrid Theory became a platinum album, more than once.
Love Tattoos
When the musician first got married, he and his beloved didn't even have money for rings. Then the couple decided to get paired tattoos in the form of wedding rings. After his divorce from his first wife, Chester did not get rid of the design. In honor of his second wife, he got a new tattoo on his chest. The inscription "CB TB" is none other than the initials of his beloved Talinda Bentley and Chester himself.
Chester Bennington arm tattoos: tongues of flame
The Hybrid Theory soldier and the Linkin Park inscription are, of course, directly related to the band that has become a second family for Chester. But the real "Linkin Park" for Bennington was another tattoo - tongues of flame on the forearms of both hands. It relates to a time in his life when the band was preparing for its first tour.
Then the band's first big poster went into circulation. It showed Chester, as usual, shouting into a microphone, which he was clutching with both hands. And on them, from wrist to elbow, blue flames. It was the first photo allowing fans to get to know the look of their idol. And the tattoos were so memorable to fans that the tongues became a symbol of Linkin Park.
Chester's tattoo business
The first attempt to realize himself as a vocalist of a rock band was participation in Grey Daze. It was founded by Chester and his acquaintance Sean Dowdell in 1993. In 1998, the band broke up and everyone went their own way. For example, Dowdell and his wife, Thora, started a business, Club Tattoo. By the way, that's where some of Bennington's tattoos were done. The rest were done around the world.
When Chester and Sean met at Club Tattoo, Dowdell offered Bennington a partnership. The rock star was interested in such an offer. And the first thing the Linkin Park frontman did was to take the brand beyond Arizona, giving it worldwide popularity.
Many people, not even knowing what Chester Bennington's tattoos mean, copy them, which the singer himself has a very negative attitude toward. He believes that it is his personal, something that should not affect anyone else. Chester also stayed out of the tattooing process itself, no matter who asked him to do it. "It scares me. They're forever!" - Bennington said.
Chris Cornell's suspicious death and Chester Bennington's suicide 2
Now I want to speak in Chester's defense.
All those years of being associated with this band have meant a lot to me.
This is the music that has helped me through some of the most difficult moments of my life, including some of the worst ones, and it has always coincided that they came with a concert that gave me the strength to get through that time and move on.
I may have been a fan for the first couple of years, but later they became my role models and inspiration and helped me to set my own direction in life, since I had no father and brought up some things on my own and they became my mentors and I just kept listening to their music and seeing where they were going.
But I can say without exaggeration that they gave me a lot of life jolts that defined me as a person, namely:
-to understand all the songs and interviews myself, I started learning English more for myself;
I was actively engaged in drawing and brought up my taste not without Mike's influence, now it is an anti-stress therapy for me, I know where I can throw out my emotions, without resorting to the help of a psychologist;
-The guys opened the world of music for me, including the world of music, for which I also thank them very much;
-I made a lot of good friends in different cities thanks to the forum, with whom I rarely, but happily meet (one friend from St. Petersburg has found a bride, we are happy for a year)));
-It was always a pleasure to know that the guys were devoted to their fans and never refused their attention without being "starry". Even in all the years that LPUnderground existed, there was always a section of the annual online access, which gave the opportunity to get in with the band, not exceeding the cost of 10-15 dollars. The only limitation was the number of people, an average of 100 usually. In the same time at depeche mode it is 100 thousand (and it gets only 10 people), and 30 seconds to mars in general take money for everything that is possible to think up.
-Also, the guys kept me believing in humanity, constantly gave money to charity, held concerts, the proceeds of which went to the needy, in general, were people who cared about what happens beyond the doorstep of their house.
Even though I haven't really followed their latest albums, I haven't really liked Hunting Party, and I haven't even tried to listen to One More Light, but I always warmly remember their goofiness, and I appreciate the power of their songs, which can really pull you out of a swamp of depression.
But that awful day came, and everything described above took on a darker tone for me, and I felt like my youth had simply ended and the last thread separating me from the rigors of adulthood had been broken, and that there would never be any fun or carefree life again.
I think the above will be enough to understand why I can't react calmly to angry comments about Chester, and then I'll give you a chance to get to know this amazing man better and share my thoughts on why I can't make sense of how such a bright and extraordinary person's life ended up in my head.
I'll start with Chester's own words
"I started using drugs when I was 11 years old. A lot of things happened to me at a young age that were hard to deal with. And often I found myself all alone. I was beaten up and forced to do things I didn't want to do. It killed the confidence in me. I shudder when I think back to my younger years, when I was abused, when all these horrible things happened to me. Like most people, I was scared to talk about it. I didn't want people to think I was gay or lying. My parents' divorce was a terrible time for me. I hated everyone in my family. I felt abandoned by my own mother; my father was emotionally unstable at the time-so I had no one to turn to. At least, that's what I thought at the time. There was a time when I was taking 11 servings of acid a day. I was using it in such quantities - it's amazing that I'm still able to talk. I could smoke crack and then some meth and just sit around getting high. I'm like that. A nice, friendly guy stuck inside a monster who's really a traumatized kid. Music has kept me alive, perhaps even more so than the love of loved ones or friends. Perhaps music is the reason I'm still here. Before I was a rock star, I hung out a lot more. I always say you don't have to be a rock star to act like one. You don't have to be special to be an asshole. The idea that success equals happiness annoys me. It's ridiculous to seriously think that because you're successful, you're immune to the full spectrum of human experience. Someone asked me why I don't sing about teenage fears anymore. I answered: because I'm 41. When it comes to the lyrical component of the songs, we can't go back to being those angry kids. We need to talk about what matters to us today. One of those topics is what's worth fighting for? It's not cool to be an alcoholic. It's not cool to drink and be an asshole. I came to a point in my life where I could either give up and die or I could fight for what I needed. I decided to fight. I wanted a good relationship. I wanted to love the people around me. I wanted to enjoy my work. I wanted to enjoy fatherhood and friendship and waking up in the morning. Because even that was a challenge for me. It seemed to me that the world was full of shit and that all the people I knew were full of shit too and that life sucked. And I thought, "Fuck it all. Sometimes life hands you a shit sandwich on a platter and you have to eat it. Hate, pride, revenge and fear are the plague of the earth. Love, kindness, compassion, empathy and helping others is the cure."
The following is a great insightful interview
And a great Rolling Stones article from the words of his entourage:
Chester Bennington's performance on the afternoon of May 26, 2021, was unlike any other in his life. It was the day his close friend Chris Cornell was buried in Los Angeles' Hollywood Cemetery. "My name is Chester," Bennington told those in attendance. "I'm incredibly honored to be a friend of Chris's and a member of his family." He then performed "Hallelujah," accompanied by his friend Brad Delson. Bennington has become known as the most powerful, wistful screaming voice of one of the major rock bands of the noughties, but on this day his singing was sorrowful and brittle. He also saluted Cornell in a tweet : "Your voice was soaked with pleasure and pain, anger and generosity, love and heartache, all blended together. I believe it epitomized each of us, you helped me understand that." In less than two months, Chester himself will be mourned. He would kill himself a week before Linkin Park's North American tour. He was on vacation with his family in Arizona, but returned home alone under the excuse that he needed to work (the band had a photo shoot scheduled for this morning). According to TMZ, a partially empty bottle of alcohol was found in Bennington's bedroom. Bennington has always spoken openly about his struggles with depression and addiction, but his loved ones were shocked by what happened. The day after Cornell's funeral he left a tweet about feeling inspired and writing six songs, around the same time he told his friend Renee Mate: "We need to stick together, we have a lot of things to live for." Bennington had reason to rejoice: the new album "One More Light" topped the charts, and the single "Heavy" was doing well on radio stations. In addition to his Linkin Park appearances, he planned to revive his former band, Grey Daze. "He was over the moon," says band drummer and childhood friend Chester Sean Dovell, who spoke with him two days before his death. Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens recalls Chester greeting everyone with a puppy in his hands backstage at Rock to Recovery last October, an organization that helps musicians fight addictions. "He was sure everyone had to meet this dog. It was so nice and so Chester-like." During Linkin Park's European tour in June and July, Chester seemed to be in peak form. "In my 15 1/2 years, I've never seen Chester more alive and open," says longtime concert director Jim Digby. "He was in probably the best physical condition of his life." In the days before his death, Bennington corresponded with his Stone Temple Pilots bandmate Robert DeLio. "His messages were loving, positive, filled with plans for the future and things about growing up." And the day before he died, Bennington wrote Guns'n'Roses drummer Matt Sorum that he wanted to be a part of a Kings of Chaos performance again. However, Chester's other friends now realize that they missed the signs that Chester's dark side, which he called "the dark sidekick" thanks to the television series Dexter, was coming back into his life. Bennington went to rehab in 2006 and seemed completely free of addiction for years afterward. But friends say he experienced a three-day relapse last August, during which his mind was clouded by alcohol, the same thing happened then in October. A month before his death, Chester told his friend Ryan Schuck (guitarist for Dead By Sunrise) that he hadn't consumed alcohol in six months. But besides that, Bennington also sent Shaq several messages in which one could see an omen of doom: "He was describing an hour-long battle with addiction. I look at those messages now and they are horrifying. He described in great detail how he felt in the first hour when he wanted a drink. And it happened to him every hour of every day." Bennington talked about his problems in a February interview with Music Choice: "I'm having a hard time in my life. Even when things are good, I'm constantly uncomfortable. The line in "Heavy" I don't like my mind right now describes my constant state. And if I'm stuck in it, it's really hard, it shouldn't happen." Shaq believes Bennington was drinking right before he died. "We don't know how much, but when you're addicted to the degree he described to me and you're in a constant struggle, it doesn't take much to lose your mind for a minute." Schuck and Dovell do not share the view that Cornell's death "inspired" Chester, despite similar circumstances and date. "It may have played a role, but not a defining one." - says Schuck. "I think that's another horrible thing that lodged itself in the subconscious. It helped the fire get going, but it was already burning by then." Bennington's problems stem from a terrifying childhood. He was the youngest child in a family of a nurse and a police officer who handled cases involving child sex crimes. His parents divorced when he was 11, he felt abandoned by his mother, and his father was "psychologically unstable" during those years. Between the ages of 7/8 and 13, Chester was sexually abused by an older boy. "I was beaten and forced to do things I didn't want to do. He destroyed my self-confidence," Chester once said. The story goes on to say all the things everyone knows about how these problems led Chester to alcohol and drugs, and his struggles with addiction are reflected in the early Linkin Park songs. There's no point in translating this section in detail. Those who knew Bennington say he never let his problems define his character. He could be adolescent joking one moment (he was a fan of dirty pornographic humor) and deeply sensitive the next. Shaq recalls Chester kicking himself endlessly for making lung cancer jokes from the stage. In late July, Shaq read a eulogy at Chester's funeral, as did his bandmates Mike Shinoda and Joe Khan. (Linkin Park members and Talinda Bennington declined to participate in the making of this material.) At home, Chester found solace in his six children. He first became a father at 20 and married in 1996. That relationship ended in a violent divorce superimposed on a relapse into alcohol addiction. "I got so drunk I couldn't leave the house and function normally. I wanted to kill myself." In 2005, Bennington married Talinda. The couple had a son and two daughters. Jared Leto recalls visiting the Benningtons for dinner one night : "I walked into the living room, which was just packed with the biggest family on earth. I couldn't believe he had such a beautiful thriving family life at his age. I didn't notice that about him." "He always had great stories about his kids, which he always remembered with a smile, no matter what the parenting issues were." - says guitarist Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who toured with Chester last year as part of Kings of Chaos. "The other such thing was his tattoo parlor business. He had me come up with the design for the decorations for the salon in Vegas when we were shorting hours talking about the store. He was fascinating." Bennington's death came as a shock to his fan community. The number of calls to the National Suicide Prevention Service jumped 14 percent the day after the tragic event. Ten days after Bennington's death, his house was surrounded by a six-foot fence. A police car was parked nearby, and fans left flowers, drawings, picks and crosses around the perimeter. "I found a real museum there, I just cried my eyes out. It was as if a part of my childhood had disappeared. The little girl in me wanted to come back and honor the memory." - says 19-year-old Brianna O-Diaz. One of the notes near the house reads, "Fly safe! Love from Texas!" and another reads, "Dear Chester Bennington, we're all so hurt that you saved our lives and we couldn't save yours..."
Transcript by Linkin Park Russia
Here's more about the struggle with your dark side (for some reason it's not inserted directly, here's a link)
https://youtu.be/brSFmxfVEx
I can't understand the fact that he made every interview on a positive note anyway, that he had to move forward, make plans and enjoy life despite his cockroaches, lived with a busy schedule and suddenly snapped...well, it doesn't make sense in my head. So I'm moving on to the strange.
There was news of death on the 18th and I agree with the guy.
And the girl.
Especially incomprehensible is how Talinda let him go alone on such a difficult day (he left under the pretext of "work to do"), why did he choose such a harsh way, even though he had suffered in life? Repeating after Chris is completely ridiculous and vulgar. And why do it in a house that was bought two months before it happened so the kids would be closer to school, well that's not like him, he couldn't do that to his kids. He was too positive for such a deed, and usually those who are going to end their lives do it quietly, and do not tell every corner about their depression, and so openly, personally I do not remember his complaints before the last album in such quantity.
And if they wanted to kill him, it was the perfect moment. At the same time it is confusing that people at the funeral were painfully cheerful, and in general on the fifth day there was a cremation, well, there's little need to double-check something, and not of what. Well, it all looks very strange to me, especially after the story with Chris.
Anyway, I hope he's well now, wherever he is.
I haven't dug into the conspiracy with Podesta and the Clintons yet - I haven't had time.
But again, the man has overcome all his destructive habits and got his life together, but he has not curbed his demons, which is very scary and shocking to everyone.
