On the afternoon of May 26th, Linkin Park

[00:00.39] On the afternoon of May 26th,

[00:02.15] Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington

[00:04.41] gave a performance unlike any in his career.

[00:06.65] His close friend, Soundgarden frontman

[00:10.40] Chris Cornell, was being laid to

[00:11.91] rest at the Hollywood Forever

[00:14.15] Cemetery in Los Angeles.

[00:15.90] He died of suicide by hanging

[00:18.15] and was found on the morning

[00:19.65] of July 20th in his Palos Verdes

[00:21.89] Estates home in Los Angeles County,

[00:23.89] a week before Linkin Park were

[00:26.15] to set out on a 29-date North American tour.

[00:28.91] The singer, 41, had been on vacation

[00:33.15] in Arizona with his wife,

[00:34.41] Talinda, and his family,

[00:36.90] but came home alone,

[00:38.40] saying he needed to work.

[00:39.91] TMZ reported that police had

[00:42.15] found a partially empty bottle

[00:43.91] of alcohol in the bedroom where he had died.

[00:45.66] Bennington had always been open

[00:48.65] about his struggles with addiction

[00:51.65] and depression, but those close

[00:52.55] to him were shocked by his suicide.

[00:54.30] In addition to the Linkin Park tour,

[00:56.57] he was planning a reunion with his

[00:59.06] pre-fame grunge band, Grey Daze, for September.

[01:02.05] Steve Stevens, who plays guitar

[01:05.31] with Billy Idol, remembers

[01:07.82] Bennington holding a new puppy

[01:09.06] while greeting everyone who came

[01:10.57] backstage at an event last

[01:11.81] October for Rock to Recovery,

[01:13.81] an organization for sober musicians.

[01:16.05] The day before he died, Bennington

[01:19.24] e-mailed former Guns N' Roses

[01:21.22] drummer Matt Sorum, saying

[01:22.98] he'd like to perform again with

[01:24.48] their all-star covers band, Kings of Chaos.

[01:27.21] Bennington had gone to rehab

[01:29.96] around 2006 and appeared

[01:31.72] to be sober in the years after.

[01:33.47] Friends say he suffered a

[01:35.47] three-day relapse last August,

[01:37.22] during which he blacked out

[01:39.48] from alcohol, and had been

[01:41.21] drinking as recently as October.

[01:42.48] A month before his death,

[01:45.48] Bennington told longtime f

[01:47.72] riend Ryan Shuck, who played

[01:48.72] guitar in Bennington's side

[01:50.48] project Dead by Sunrise,

[01:51.98] that he was six months sober.

[01:53.73] He was telling me, down to

[01:56.22] the detail, what he would do

[01:58.48] in the first hour he wanted

[01:59.72] to drink: 'I basically just

[02:01.48] take it hour-by-hour every day.

[02:02.96] The opening line, 'I don't

[02:05.71] like my mind right now' -

[02:07.74] like, that is me 24 hours a day.

[02:09.73] If I get stuck in here, like,

[02:11.97] I just find life really hard.

[02:14.97] You don't need much to lose

[02:17.48] your mind for a minute.

[02:19.98] While there are similarities -

[02:21.22] both artists hanged themselves,

[02:22.98] and Bennington did so on what

[02:24.73] would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday -

[02:26.73] they believe it was mostly a coincidence.

[02:28.97] It's kindling, but the fire was already burning.

[02:32.23] He was born on March 20th, 1976,

[02:36.22] in Phoenix, the youngest of four children.

[02:39.98] From the time Chester was seven

[02:42.21] or eight until he was 13, he was

[02:44.96] sexually abused by an older male friend.

[02:47.23] Bennington claimed to have kicked

[02:50.22] substance abuse the first time in 1992,

[02:52.47] when a local gang burst into a place

[02:53.98] where he was getting high with his

[02:55.73] friends and beat and robbed them.

[02:58.21] Bennington poured his experiences

[03:00.97] into Linkin Park's songs, which mixed

[03:02.48] his soul-baring screams with Mike

[03:05.98] Shinoda's rapping and the band's

[03:07.73] lumbering riffs for a sound that

[03:08.98] dominated the pop charts for much of the 2000s.

[03:10.22] You could feel the tension between

[03:13.21] the two when he sang, and I think

[03:14.73] the reason so many people connected

[03:16.72] to his music was because of that

[03:18.97] balance he achieved between the two.

[03:21.22] He could be funny in a juvenile

[03:23.46] way one minute and deeply sensitive

[03:24.97] the next: Shuck recalls Bennington

[03:27.21] kicking himself endlessly after

[03:28.97] making a joke about lung cancer onstage.

[03:32.23] Bennington and DeLeo were laid over

[03:34.48] for 12 hours in Chicago, and the

[03:36.12] drummer felt horrible for keeping

[03:38.12] them from home during the holiday season.

[03:40.36] Leto remembers going to Bennington's

[03:42.61] house for dinner one night.

[03:44.86] Bennington's death is still resonating

[03:46.61] among his fans, who experienced a

[03:48.85] shock wave when the news reached the public.

[03:50.85] The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

[03:53.87] says it received a 14 percent spike

[03:56.87] in calls on the day after the news broke.

[03:58.62] Ten days after Bennington's death,

[04:02.10] the singer's home was encircled

[04:03.61] with a temporary six-foot fence.

[04:06.12] A police cruiser sat outside as

[04:08.12] fans left flowers, drawings, signs,

[04:10.60] guitar picks and crosses on its perimeter.