Chester Bennington: Songs that Started it All

The first time I had heard Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park it was on a borrowed CD on a cheap portable CD player that skipped songs at the slightest nudge. This was 2002, with the album being everywhere for the past two years I wasn’t allowed to listen to it because my mum knew that one of the songs had a swear word in it. I was 12.

Thankfully, due to Kerrang becoming a fully-fledged music channel, and the bands huge popularity, I could still get my fix through singles like “One Step Close”, “In the End”, “Papercut” (which was my favourite), and “Crawling”. I liked the Linkin Park well enough: being 12 I didn’t yet understand the real power of music, so I was familiar with their sound when someone from my art class let me borrow Hybrid Theory for the night. It’s a night I have never forgotten. Starting with “Papercut” and “One Step Closer” I felt I was on safe ground. Then I heard “With You”. “With You” sparked my obsession with the band, and music itself. Through this weird song that mixes rock, rap, pop, and electronica, anchored by Mike, then blown to pieces by Chester, I had completed a rite of passage that every teenager must do.

Every time I listen to “With You” I am instantly transported to that borrowed CD, that moment when everything changed. Even though I have been a huge fan of the band since then, it’s that moment that I want to thank Chester Bennington for. Thank you for the music Chester, thank you for that moment. Rest in peace.