page_title: Chester Bennington
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Chester Bennington / Death
caption_attribution_description: Linkin Park, Brixton Academy, London
context_page_description: Chester Charles Bennington was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He was best known as the lead vocalist for Linkin Park and was also lead vocalist for the bands Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise and, between 2013 and 2015, Stone Temple Pilots. Bennington has been credited by several publications as one of the greatest rock vocalists of his generation.
  Bennington first gained prominence as a vocalist following the release of Linkin Park's debut album Hybrid Theory, which was a worldwide commercial success. The album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005, making it the best-selling debut album of the decade, as well as one of the few albums ever to achieve that many sales. Linkin Park's following studio albums, from Meteora to One More Light, continued the band's success.
  Bennington formed his own band, Dead by Sunrise, as a side project in 2005. The band's debut album, Out of Ashes, was released on October 13, 2009. He became the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 to release the extended play record High Rise on October 8, 2013, via their own record label, Play Pen, but left in 2015 to focus solely on Linkin Park.
context_section_description: At around 9:00 a.m. PDT on July 20, 2017, Bennington was found dead by his housekeeper at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Bandmate Mike Shinoda confirmed his death on Twitter, writing, "Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one." On July 21, Brian Elias, the chief of operations for the office of the medical examiner-coroner, confirmed that a half-empty bottle of alcohol was found at the scene, but no other drugs were present. A toxicology report released in December reported "a trace amount" of alcohol in Bennington's system at the time of death. The band canceled the rest of their One More Light Tour and refunded tickets. Following his death, Linkin Park took to a hiatus period until April 2020, when Dave Farrell revealed the band was working on new music.
  Bennington's funeral was held on July 29 at South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes, California. In addition to his family members and close friends, many musicians who toured or played with Linkin Park were also in attendance. The service also included a full stage for musical tributes.
  Bennington's death occurred on what would have been Chris Cornell's 53rd birthday. Cornell's death was also ruled as suicide by hanging two months earlier. Bennington was a close friend of Cornell's. Bennington had commented on Cornell's death on Instagram, "I can't imagine a world without you in it." Shinoda noted that Bennington was very emotional when the band performed "One More Light" in his honor on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and could not finish singing the song because he started getting choked up during both the rehearsal and the live performance. The band was due to record a live performance of their single "Heavy" on the show, but decided instead to play "One More Light" after hearing the news about Cornell's death because the song is about the loss of a friend. Bennington sang Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" at Cornell's funeral. He was also the godfather of Cornell's son Christopher.
caption: Bennington performing in July 2017, two weeks before his death
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