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Name: Chester Charles Bennington
Nickname: Chazy Chaz
Instrument: Vocals
Date of Birth: March 20, 1976
Place of Birth: Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, now lives in L.A, Califronia
Marital Status: Married to Samantha on October 31, 1996 (they divorced in 2005, Chester married his new wife Talinda on December 31, 2005)
Children: Three sons, Jamie (11), Isiah, Draven Sebastian (5, born on April 19, 2002) and Tyler Lee (1, born on March 17, 2006)
Siblings: Older brother, Brian and two half sisters
Education: Greenway High School then moved to Washington High School and graduated in 1994
Some Interesting Facts about Chester
Chester has a tattoo on his left calf muscle of the soldier with wings from the "Hybrid Theory" CD cover. The flames on his arms represent the Aries part of his fire sign. His left shoulder has a Piscean symbol and a Japanese Koi carp on his right. His back piece is six arms spread out and was done by his friend who said it was a visual representation of how Chester reaches out and grabs the audience. All of Chester's tattoos symbolize something. His left hand has his engagement finger tattooed and his ex-wife, Samantha, has the same tattoo. And they did it before Pamela and Tommy Lee. They got tattoos because Chester couldn't afford a ring and his friend (Sean from Grey Daze) had a tattoo shop and did them for free.
When Chester was young, he'd sing around the house, dreaming he was the fifth member of Depeche Mode.
Thanks to his brother (who's 13 yrs older) Chester was influenced by bands like Loverboy, Foreigner and Rush.
Chester's career highlight so far is making the "One Step Closer" video.
Chester is the only member that needs a carrying-kit cargo case for his wardrobe. He's got shoes that go with every outfit, his underwear has to match his outfits, his socks have to match his shoes and his pants. Everything is a very big deal to him.
In airports Chester has to take off all his metal spike, bracelets, etc. and he has a little bag or something that he arranges them all on. They must be in the same place every time.
Chester's first band was called Grey Daze in 1993. Grey Daze was actually pretty popular and getting airplay in the Phoenix, AZ area but they never got signed. Eventually Chester got tired and had to move on. Chester was also upset that he was writing the lyrics by himself while all the band members took credit.
Famous Quotes
When Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington sings lines like "a scene I kept locked away/ No one can ever see the wounds so deep that they never show", obviously about the time he was sexually molested as a kid, does he still get upset? "They affect me a lot," he told Christie Eliezer of Australia's Beat magazine. "You want the original emotion that inspired the song to come across. I had wondered how we'd do 'Breaking The Habit' onstage because each time I did that song, I'd get very emotional. I can't break down and cry onstage, it's not going to work. Eventually I had to take control of those emotions."
Sometimes, when I'm alone, I think about ketchup, because I know that the truth is that its just sitting there in a bottle, by itself. Im pretty sure its real. Sometimes when I'm ketchup, I think about sitting alone, in a bottle. Standing next to the mustard all day.
I tried never to listen to what people were saying about us- either good or bad. I never wanted to sit down before a show and read about how many copies we had sold that day, or how many rotations our video was getting on MTV. That was all way too distracting for me.
My hand doesn't matter, you can cut it off for all I care. As long as my voice works. If I lost all feeling from my neck down, if you could string me up and I could sing, I'd be there doing the shows. The fans come first and the shows come first too and that's all that matters to us. We really don't care about anything else except for the music and the kids.
What I enjoy most about being in the band is having the opportunity to create and perform music with amazing musicians who have also become closest of friends. I would like to thank all who support us and make all of this possible.
I was an ambivalent kid. I floated around, coasted through. I have two sisters and a brother and we're all half sisters and brothers from my parents' first marriages. It's interesting because none of us look alike. We have blonde hair, red hair, brown hair and we come in all shapes and sizes. We were a real good family until my parents split when I was 11. It really traumatized me only I didn't realize that until way after. By the time I was 14, I was into heavy drugs. At the same time, I discovered I wanted to be a musician.
I don't come from a musical family, it's just something I've always been interested in. I started singing for fun, I just went around the house trying to mimic my favorite band. I always dreamt about being the fifth member of Depeche Mode. I dreamt that they flew their plane out to my grade school, picked me up and took me on tour with them.
I've always been a good student and a person who grasps new things easily so homework was pointless because I understood it already. So I failed classes but they couldn't throw me out because my tests were perfect. The teachers actually hated me.
I got on the bus and went straight to Arizona State University. I never enrolled because I couldn't afford it but since classes were held with 200-500 people in there - except for advanced philosophy, where there were 10 people - I got away with it. I think the philosophy guy knew, but he turned a blind eye because he enjoyed my presence.
(on Samantha) I'm a pain in the ass and she's perfect.
I've signed enough boobies in my life to be done with boobies... to sign, I mean.
The best thing I'd ever done to my parents was learning to use the toilet.
You live, you die... and somewhere in between you'll have children.
Oh, my God. I hate spiders. Squish! Kill! Die! Eww!
I don't think you should ever be ashamed or afraid of who you are, or anything that's happened to you. Life is good, man. You can either feel like a victim all the time, or you can get off your ass and do what you want to do.
People who see me perform have one view. The thing I am on stage is all the elements that I don't like about myself. I'm angry, aggressive, and surly and I wouldn't give a second thought about spitting in your face on stage, but in the real world I wouldn't even dream of that. If I don't get an applause then I'm crushed.
I love to hear the crowd sing along. I get the biggest hard-on from that. Of course, it means I have an erection for a whole hour every night. (talking to Phoenix) I hit your bass with my dick last night. I still got the bruise.
I chew my fingernails a lot, I think that's my little nervous habit. That's one of my ways to relieve stress. If you see me chew my nails, I'm probably nervous about something.
Everyone died at 4:20 man!
I'm a fashion bitch!
Family values means to us that Mike can wear a dress on the bus and we'll still love him!!
There's a Lincoln Park in every city in America. There's no real meaning behind our name. We just changed the spelling so that we could afford to buy the web domain name.
Q: "First question is, how did you get the name Linkin Park?"
A: "Are you kidding me?" (laughs) "Shove it up your ass"
Chester: Brad has stinky feet! It smells like a skunk died in both his shoes!
Mike: Yeah Chester likes to smell people's shoes.
Chester: My shoes smell spiffy! Wanna sniff?
MTV: Yes. Two frontmen, it's not something that's common.
Chester: I think one of the ideas behind it is, in my opinion, bands up to this point that have tried to mix different styles, especially in hip-hop and rock and stuff, there's either a guy who can rap but isn't a very good singer, or it's the opposite: He's a good singer but not necessary that talented as a rapper. Our idea was basically not to even worry about that. We have a really good rapper.
Mike: And we have a very good singer. From my point of view, the thing we saw in Chester right away was he's someone that's been singing his whole life, and I'm somebody that's been rapping my entire life, so it just seemed natural. We've spent a lot of time working on what we do.
Chester: And for some reason we like each other.
Mike: He likes me a lot, and I can't stand him.
Chester: Oh. I guess not, then
Chester: I don't even get on the Internet any more, I don't mess around with computers.
Mike: I'm the opposite. Rob and I are both really, really bad.
Chester: I'm sending him to Computers Anonymous!
Chester: We're sooo boy bandish, aren't we? I think it's because of my strikingly good looks.
Mike: I think it's because of your strikingly bad looks.
Chester: I totally disagree. I think I'm the most important person...ever.
Mike: I think Chester's full of himself and I think that's really hot!
Chester: Yeah sometimes at night you're full of me too.
MTV: Let's talk about your success. You've sold over a million records...
Mike: We've sold a million records?
Chester: We did?
MTV: Have you?
Mike: Whoa!"
Mike: Chester, why do you have to wear all those spikes? You're gonna poke someone's eyes out. That's all he does is pull that thing up because it's always slipping down his wrist.
Chester: (starts punching Mike in the arm) It's art! It's f***ing art!
Interviewer: Who has the worst habits in the band?
Chester: I would say that I'm probably the most annoying. There's a reason for it.
Mike: NO!
Brad: C'mon Chester!
Chester: I'm always touching them in their privates!
Brad: Yeah, Chester the molester!
Chester: Oh man...I think I disconnected or something.
Interviewer: What type of machine are you using?
Chester: It's called a computer.
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