RIP Chester Bennington

[The Operator]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/co...ington-suicide

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington has reportedly committed suicide at age 41, according to TMZ. TMZ reports Bennington hanged himself at a Palos Verdes Estates residence in L.A. County. Billboard has reached out to reps for the band and authorities for confirmation. Los Angeles County coroner's office confirmed to Billboard there was a death on Bennington's Palos Verdes block on the morning of Thursday, July 20.

41 years old. He was also briefly in Stone Temple Pilots as well.

Very sad.

[bucksfan2]

I don't know if you can say this anymore, but I was shocked to see this. I loved Linkin Park in their early years. Hybrid Theory was one of my favorite albums through college and still have a few Linkin Park songs in my workout/running playlist. Funny story, I saw Linkin Park in college at "The Newport Hall" and they were the opening act to Head PE and Papa Roach.

[Dom Heffner]

One of the few voices where the first time I heard it ai thought "wow."

As well- could not believe it took as long as it did for a band to mix the hard rock with rap and melody.

That guy's voice was gorgeous- truly striking.

[Sea Ray]

My daughter's sure bummed about it. She's been bugging me to get tickets for their upcoming tour. They were scheduled to be in Cincinnati in a few weeks. We couldn't make it to that one but we were looking at other dates. This takes care of that

[bucksfan2]

This story is creepy. He hangs himself on the Birthday of Chris Cornell, who reports say was a good friend of Chester.

I saw where he leaves behind a wife and six kids. I couldn't even imagine. I couldn't imagine feeling that bad with so many people depending on you.

[Dom Heffner]

His voice was so good that I thought he had training- my initial thoughts were suburban white guy, well educated guy who got vocal lessons from mom and dad, went out and got tatted up...

Could not have been more wrong. Broken home, suffersd sexual abuse for years. His dad was a cop who investigated sexual abuse cases, yet he was still afraid to speak up. Worried people would think he was gay or wouldn't believe him.

Fame is tough- you go out onto a stage and everybody loves you; it's a genuine high. Then you go back to a hotel room and sit and it doesn't feel like that anymore. And you want to recreate it and you do drugs.

Not everyone, of course. But some have a hard time with it.

Toss in depression or PTSD from sex abuse or whatever...poor guy.

[fearofpopvol1]

His voice was so good that I thought he had training- my initial thoughts were suburban white guy, well educated guy who got vocal lessons from mom and dad, went out and got tatted up...

Could not have been more wrong. Broken home, suffersd sexual abuse for years. His dad was a cop who investigated sexual abuse cases, yet he was still afraid to speak up. Worried people would think he was gay or wouldn't believe him.

Fame is tough- you go out onto a stage and everybody loves you; it's a genuine high. Then you go back to a hotel room and sit and it doesn't feel like that anymore. And you want to recreate it and you do drugs.

Not everyone, of course. But some have a hard time with it.

Toss in depression or PTSD from sex abuse or whatever...poor guy.

Not only this, but these musicians are emoting the whole night singing too. They got nothing left when they leave the stage.

[fearofpopvol1]

His voice was so good that I thought he had training- my initial thoughts were suburban white guy, well educated guy who got vocal lessons from mom and dad, went out and got tatted up...

Could not have been more wrong. Broken home, suffersd sexual abuse for years. His dad was a cop who investigated sexual abuse cases, yet he was still afraid to speak up. Worried people would think he was gay or wouldn't believe him.

Fame is tough- you go out onto a stage and everybody loves you; it's a genuine high. Then you go back to a hotel room and sit and it doesn't feel like that anymore. And you want to recreate it and you do drugs.

Not everyone, of course. But some have a hard time with it.

Toss in depression or PTSD from sex abuse or whatever...poor guy.

Not only this, but these musicians are emoting the whole night singing too. They got nothing left when they leave the stage.

This one surprised me too. I can't say I was a huge fan or anything. I think I was bothered by the fact that the band existed before him and was "assembled." That's not a knock to him or his talent or even the band. Just something that bugged the purist in me. But he had a defining voice and was super talented.

[marcshoe]

Like Dom, I had assumed he had a fairly affluent background, likely because I was working for United Airlines when they first hit and doing a lot of business with people from the Chicago suburb Lincoln Park. Different place, I found out. I wasn't a huge fan, but I have downloaded their music and thought they were a talented band. I liked them better after they changed things up, but I was always afraid to say this in front of aficionados.

[Larry Schuler]

After show depression can be brutal. Not sure if that was in play here but it is a very real phenomenon that I've experienced before.

[Dom Heffner]

After show depression can be brutal. Not sure if that was in play here but it is a very real phenomenon that I've experienced before.

Had it when I was 12. The world was going to end.

[dougdirt]

Had it when I was 12. The world was going to end.

People are weird.

And I don't mean that as an insult. We are truly weird in how we react to scenarios and situations. You and I could have the same experience and react in vastly different ways. Our response, our feelings - just completely different, maybe even completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

I've got a friend who is 34-years-old who has literally never known someone that has died. Her grandparents aren't doing well and shes been talking to me lately about how she just doesn't think she can handle it when they actually die. Like, to the point where she doesn't think she'll be able to function. She keeps bringing up how I dealt with my fathers death. To me, losing a father is way, way worse than losing a grandparent (been through both of those), and to her it's probably worse, too. But her grandparents are 90. My dad was a week beyond his 49th birthday. In my mind I just keep thinking how can you not be able to handle losing someone at 90? That's longer than most people get and it's not like you just lost them in some unexpected way. At the same time, I'm not her. We've got completely different makeups and backgrounds. We deal with situations very, very differently. And it's just weird to really think about. Why is it that I'm able to deal with something so much differently than someone else is when it comes to the mental and emotional side of things? But then I think about how stupid it is of me to even say that. Why am I not the athlete that Ken Griffey Jr was? We're not all the same. We were built differently. We were wired differently. But when it comes to mental aspects of things, we all kind of grow up with this idea that it's not like the physical stuff - we should all be the same. As adults we know better, but yet I think that we all generally have those kinds of thoughts at first that "why is that person acting that way?", even when if we sat back and thought about it, we'd know that it's not all that simple.

Like I said, we are weird.

/end me typing out my thoughts

[RedTeamGo!]

People are weird.

And I don't mean that as an insult. We are truly weird in how we react to scenarios and situations. You and I could have the same experience and react in vastly different ways. Our response, our feelings - just completely different, maybe even completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

I've got a friend who is 34-years-old who has literally never known someone that has died. Her grandparents aren't doing well and shes been talking to me lately about how she just doesn't think she can handle it when they actually die. Like, to the point where she doesn't think she'll be able to function. She keeps bringing up how I dealt with my fathers death. To me, losing a father is way, way worse than losing a grandparent (been through both of those), and to her it's probably worse, too. But her grandparents are 90. My dad was a week beyond his 49th birthday. In my mind I just keep thinking how can you not be able to handle losing someone at 90? That's longer than most people get and it's not like you just lost them in some unexpected way. At the same time, I'm not her. We've got completely different makeups and backgrounds. We deal with situations very, very differently. And it's just weird to really think about. Why is it that I'm able to deal with something so much differently than someone else is when it comes to the mental and emotional side of things? But then I think about how stupid it is of me to even say that. Why am I not the athlete that Ken Griffey Jr was? We're not all the same. We were built differently. We were wired differently. But when it comes to mental aspects of things, we all kind of grow up with this idea that it's not like the physical stuff - we should all be the same. As adults we know better, but yet I think that we all generally have those kinds of thoughts at first that "why is that person acting that way?", even when if we sat back and thought about it, we'd know that it's not all that simple.

Like I said, we are weird.

/end me typing out my thoughts

I've never heard anything like that. 34 years old?!

I can kind of see how it would be tough on her because she's never had to go through mourning a family member.

I don't cry at funerals. That's not a boast. I hate that I don't cry. I think it's because I am so desensitized. I found my grandmother's body when I was 11 years old and ever since I have just been very desensitized with regard to death.

[marcshoe]

Same thing here on the not crying. My grandmother, who raised me along with my mother until I was seven, was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was 14, and after crying forever then, I couldn't cry afterward, not even when she died. Now that I'm old I find myself crying for no reason (depression related), but not when it's a normal thing to cry.

[bounty37h]

Same thing here on the not crying. My grandmother, who raised me along with my mother until I was seven, was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was 14, and after crying forever then, I couldn't cry afterward, not even when she died. Now that I'm old I find myself crying for no reason (depression related), but not when it's a normal thing to cry.

I think that goes back to Doug's post, we are all different and even then we ourselves change. I always seemed to know more death than any others I had been around. My best friend from growing up was murdered, and 2 of my closest friends in college committed suicide. Count in a couple handfuls of other friends in car wrecks, etc as well as grandparents and others in my life by 25 I had seen more death than my parents said they had experienced at their current age a the time. I used to not cry much and felt kind of desensitized as you all said. That has changed and I can cry easily now, to the point I am embarrassed. I had to go to a funeral with my wife a couple years back for a client of hers- never met him or his family-and I had to go to the car and cry harder than I did at my friends funerals. Over someone I had never met.