He was abused as a child
In a 2008 interview with Kerrang!, Bennington revealed that he was molested by an older friend at the age of seven. "I was getting beaten up and being forced to do things I didn't want to do. It destroyed my self-confidence," he told the magazine. "Like most people, I was too afraid to say anything. I didn't want people to think I was gay or that I was lying. It was a horrible experience."
It was a defining moment in Bennington's life that he only revealed after critics cast doubt on the authenticity of the pain in his lyrics, according to The Guardian. Despite succumbing to substance abuse to cope with the childhood trauma, Bennington chose not to pursue retribution against his abuser. After discovering that his abuser had himself been a victim of abuse, Bennington said, "I didn't need revenge."
He struggled with drug addiction at a young age
Bennigton's parents divorced when he was 11. "It was an awful time," he told Kerrang! "I hated everybody in my family: I felt abandoned by my mom, my dad was not very emotionally stable then, and there was no-one I could turn to—at least that's how my young mind felt. The only thing I wanted to do was kill everybody and run away."
Bennington eventually found some solace through drawing and poetry, but the biggest boost to his confidence came when he started his first band, Grey Daze. That creative outlet proved dangerous. "The problem was, I also found a good way to escape the abuse of my past," he told the rock magazine. "Getting high, drinking a lot and having sex with a lot of great girls is a pretty good escape."
Bennington's drug use rapidly escalated to the point where he was abusing meth, opium, and LSD before he'd even hit age 17. In a 2011 interview with The Guardian, he said, "I remember that stuff happening to me at that stage and even thinking about it now makes me want to cry. Oh my God, that was f**king happening to me and I was just that little, much earlier than I'd remembered. My God, no wonder I became a drug addict."
He lived in his car
Before Linkin Park found success, the band—known then as Xero—was rejected by every major label. Warner Bros. passed the group over three times before finally signing it in 1999. At the time, Bennington was essentially homeless and living out of his car. "It wouldn't go over thirty-five miles an hour," he told Rolling Stone. "Two lights were burned out. I had no money to replace them."Despite being a late addition to the tight-knit band, Bennington's dedication motivated the group. "We each made our own sacrifices, but Chester's was unique," guitarist Brad Delson told the magazine. "Because he had so much to risk, he was extremely motivated. He would actually tell us, 'Guys, I don't think we're working hard enough.'"
The band's efforts eventually paid off. Linkin Park's debut, Hybrid Park, became the best-selling album of 2001, but making that record was no easy task, and Bennington's loyalty was tested from the jump.
Warner Bros. wanted him to fire Mike Shinoda
As Linkin Park hustled to record Hybrid Theory, Bennington and co-founder Mike Shinoda worked closely together on the lyrics, which pulled heavily from Bennington's abusive childhood, but Warner Bros. reportedly began requesting some changes that didn't sit well with Bennington. Namely, making Bennington the "star" and relegating Shinoda to either a keyboard player or just firing him.
"I said, 'F**k you guys. Are you serious? I've only just got into the band, and you're telling me to start a coup against the guy who writes all the music? It's his band. If he could sing, I wouldn't have a job. You f**king idiots, what's wrong with you?'" Bennington told Kerrang! "After that, they told Mike to try and rap like Fred Durst. It was like, are we on the same f**king planet here?"
At that point, the band reportedly cut off all communication with Warner Bros. and told the label to the group if it didn't like how the band was doing things. Ultimately, Hybrid Theory became a roaring success, but with fame, came new challenges.
He struggled with Linkin Park's early success
Despite opening up to bandmate Shinoda during the songwriting process, Bennington still felt isolated from the rest of Linkin Park and soon spiraled into addiction. He attributed some of his problems to his first marriage.
"Unfortunately, my ex-wife [Samantha, whom he married when they were so poor he couldn't afford a wedding ring] and I were really toxic for each other, too young to get married," he told The Guardian. "We were volatile personalities, and even though we helped each other, we were not good for each other, and that brought up other feelings."
Touring, with its easy access to drugs, only made things worse. Beddington's bandmates finally staged an intervention. "I had no idea that I had been such a nightmare," he told Team Rock. "I knew that I had a drinking problem, a drug problem and that parts of my personal life were crazy but I didn't realize how much that was affecting the people around me until I got a good dose of 'Here's-what-you're-really-like.' It was a shock. They said that I was two people — Chester and then that f**king guy. I didn't want to be that guy." Bennington got his act together and got a divorce, and Linkin Park grew closer.
R.I.P Chester Bennington
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