The singer of the American band was hanged in a private residence in Los Angeles. His death occurs on the birthday of Chris Cornell, a friend he sang at his funeral last May.
Chester Bennington, the leader of Linkin Park, died Thursday at the age of 41.
US media say the singer hanged himself at his private residence in Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County.
At about 9 am Thursday, police responded to a call about the existence of a body in a house in Palos Verdes States (a suburb south of Los Angeles), which corresponds to Bennington's private residence, reported The police said in a statement.
The case is being investigated by the Los Angeles County Forensic Office.
The band released the album "One More Light" earlier this year, and the same morning this Thursday a music video for the song "Talking to Myself". Bennington had battled alcohol and drug problems all his life.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Bennington had a difficult childhood marked by sexual abuse to which he was subjected by a close friend. He also lived in drug abuse. His parents divorced when he was 11 years old.
He began playing in his teens and in the 1990s met Jeff Blue, executive of Zombie Music Publishing, and several members of the band that would later become Linkin Park. The meeting of the musicians was a success although the group had to strive to obtain a record contract. Blue finally got it with Warner Bros. Records and released their debut album, "Hybrid Theory," in 2000. Soon the group became one of the most successful rock bands of the decade.
"Hybrid Theory" was a diamond record (10 million copies) and the following albums "Meteora" (2003) and "Minutes to Midnight" (2007) also reached multiplatinum sales. In 2004 the group recorded an EP mashup called "Collision Course" with rapper Jay Z.
The combination of heavy riffs, Bennington's alternately melodic and guttural vocals, and Mike Shinoda's rap led them to be bundled into the nu-metal with bands like Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach, but the group disdained to be cataloged And branched out musically through solo productions, remix albums and experimental work on albums like "A Thousand Suns."
The group continued to defy expectations in the following years and became arguably heavier than ever with "The Hunting Party" in 2014, followed by a pop-oriented album, "One More Light," earlier this year. The reaction of the fans and the media to this last change of direction was quite hostile.
Bennington also acted as lead singer for Stone Temple Pilots after original lead singer Scott Weiland left the group for the last time in 2013 and worked on a side project called Dead by Sunrise, which released the album "Out of Ashes" in 2009 .
During an acoustic performance with Linkin Park at Spotify's offices in New York in May, a few days before Cornell's death, Bennington was lively and fun, especially to answer a question about how the group's music had changed along Of the years: "When you ask me 'why do not you write about teen angst anymore?', I answer: 'I'm 41!'"
In his tribute letter to Chris Cornell, Bennington wrote: "You inspired me in ways you could never have imagined. Your talent was pure and unequaled. Your voice was joy and pain, anger and forgiveness, love and anguish, all wrapped in one. I guess that's what we all are. You helped me understand it. "
According to TMZ, the singer of the nü metal band had already publicly said that he had considered committing suicide because he had been abused by an older man during his childhood.
This Thursday was the birthday of Chris Cornell, a singer of Soundgarden and a good friend of Bennington, who also died in a suicide act last May. Bennington wrote a tribute to Cornell, and sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at his friend's funeral.
Bennington leaves a wife and six children from two marriages.
