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Name: Chester Bennington
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Date of Birth:
March 20, 1976
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Place of Birth:
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Mini-bio:
Best known for being the lead vocalist for Linkin Park.Bennington had an unpleasant life through adolescence. He was sexuallyabused as a child, by a close family friend. A few of his friendscommitted ... read moresuicide, and one of his friends died in a skateboarding accident.His parents divorced in 1987, leaving him with his two half sisters and ahalf brother. Bennington was the youngest of four children at eleven yearsold, and stayed with his father, who was a police officer and detective. Hisbrother introduced him to bands like Loverboy, Foreigner and Rush, as wellas The Doors which he claims as his influences.While at Burger King, Chester met his first wife, Samantha. They got marriedon October 31, 1996, when Chester was 20, and because he was too poor toafford actual wedding or engagement rings, the two of them have ringstattooed on their ring fingersChester and Samantha had one child, a boy named Draven Sebastian Bennington,born April 19, 2002 at 1 p.m.In 1998 Linkin Park (then called Xero) advertised for a vocalist due totrouble with getting signed. A firm which knew Chester Bennington told Xerothat he would be good for the job. They sent Chester a demo and asked him tosing to it. Within three days, one of which was his birthday (apparently hedidn't show up for his birthday party because he was working on the demo) hehad recorded the demo and played it to Xero over the phone; they were blownaway and asked him to fly to Los Angeles from Phoenix to audition. At theaudition, several other potential vocalists vying for the position simplyleft once they heard Bennington sing. One auditioner commented to the bandthat they'd have to be crazy not to pick Chester. Xero then changed theirname to Hybrid Theory and recorded the Hybrid Theory EP which included thesongs "Carousel", "Technique (Short)", "Step Up", "And One", "High Voltage"and "Part Of Me". They attracted some attention from some record labels andeventually decided to sign to Warner Bros. Records.