MusicThe emotional impact of the loss of Chester Bennington, narrated by Mike ShinodaVocalist left us in 2017 and his main partner in the band admits that he felt “anger” about everything that happened: “natural, one of the stages of grief”By Editorial Staff

The news that Chester Bennington had taken his own life, in 2017, at the age of 41, it fell like a bomb not only on fans of LinkinPark. His bandmates also felt the loss strongly — no wonder, it took them 7 years to announce the group’s revival with a new vocalist, Emily Armstrongin the place of my late colleague.

In February 2023, about a year and a half before Linkin Park completed their reunion, the multi-instrumentalist and singer Mike Shinoda gave an interview to radio host Howard Stern (via Blabbermouth). At the time, he vented about his feelings after losing Bennington.

The musician admitted that one of his initial reactions was anger — a feeling that ends up returning from time to time. He said:

“There are times when I feel this way. I’m sure for other people, it was the same. Even the fans too, by the way. And this is natural, one of the stages of grief.”

Still during the conversation, Mike said that Chester’s problems – who had a turbulent childhood and was a victim of abuse – were not a complicating factor for their friendship or working relationship. The two got along well precisely because they felt like two fish out of water, even if for different reasons.

“When I met Chester, I didn’t know his stories. When I found out about them, I found myself saying: ‘I never knew of such a crazy creation’. Running loose on the streets, doing hard drugs on the school roof, barely managing to escape arrest. And that’s what made our dynamic what it was: I didn’t grow up like that. I felt like an outsider as a mixed-race kid who didn’t have a community to belong to. Half Japanese, but I didn’t speak Japanese, I don’t look Japanese. The white kids thought I was obviously not white, the Latino kids were trying to talk to me in Spanish… I was always floating, I had no home.”

Was Chester Bennington difficult to deal with?

Another point addressed by Mike Shinoda in the 2023 interview was how to deal with Chester Bennington. The musician said that his late colleague “wasn’t a difficult guy all the time”.

“In the first few days, it was more difficult because we didn’t know what it would be like. We were still starting out, we would have a victory here, a defeat there… it was difficult. In the middle of all this, there was a guy who would sneak out, disappear and come back destroyed. I couldn’t even talk to him, he was so stoned. But it was also kind of funny. Sometimes it was really fun when he was like that. But then, the next day, he would become obscure. Super hungover, mad at everyone, yelling at everyone, and you’re kind of like, ‘Let’s just get through this day’.”

No “replacement” on Linkin Park

In addition to Chester Bennington, the current Linkin Park does not have drummer Rob Bourdon, who chose not to get involved with the activities. His place is taken by Colin Brittain. Along with Mike Shinoda and the two new members are Joe Hahn (DJ), Dave “Phoenix” Farrell (bass) and Brad Delson (guitar) — the latter works only in the studio and is represented on tour by Alex Feder.

In an interview with Radio 1’s New Music Show (via Igor Miranda website), Shinoda highlighted that the new lineup is not intended to be “an imitation of Linkin Park” in its classic phase. Furthermore, no member is being completely replaced. He points out:

“It’s supposed to be a new chapter for Linkin Park. The previous chapter was great and we loved it. We followed our path and now we are faced with the challenge of: ‘what if we started from scratch with another voice, what would we do?’. We were slowly getting back together and then things started to fall into place with Emily and Colin. We talked about putting her voice on things we had already written that only had my vocals. After we did that, we thought, ‘that sounds great, we should try that on even more songs’.”

He adds:

“When Emily sings, it’s with passion, she’s being 100% herself and that’s the best part. She’s not trying to be Chester, she’s not trying to be someone else. She shows who she is — and that’s why it works.”

The resumption of Linkin Park has already yielded an album, From Zero, and a series of shows around the world, including two dates at Allianz Parque, in São Paulo, last November. The group returns this year, also in November, for four performances (details such as locations and ticket sales are yet to be announced):

• 11/08/2025: Rio de Janeiro
• 11/10/2025: São Paulo
• 11/13/2025: Brasilia
• 11/15/2025: Porto Alegre

*In Brazil, the Centro de Valorização da Vida (CVV) offers free emotional support and suicide prevention, serving all people who want and need to talk. Contact available by phone 188 or online (email, chat, Skype) with data available on the website https://www.cvv.org.br/.