Chester Bennington’s Mom Says ‘I Feel Betrayed’ by Linkin Park: ‘They’re Trying Very Hard to Erase the Past’
After Chester Bennington’s son criticized Linkin Park for bringing in Emily Armstrong as the new vocalist, the late singer’s mother has spoken out against the band, claiming that she feels “betrayed” and that they’re “trying very hard to erase the past.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bennington’s mother Susan Eubanks explained that the band had promised to notify her if there were any plans to continue as a group. “I feel betrayed,” she said. “They told me if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I [wasn’t] going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it.”
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Eubanks explained that she had bumped into Linkin Park members Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn over the years, but neither mentioned a reunion. She said that at one point, Shinoda did reach out when they were going to release new songs that had Bennington’s vocals, but that she was blindsided by the announcement of Armstrong joining the group.
“I found out about Emily Armstrong joining the band on Google,” she said. “When I go to Google to look for something, the first thing that often pops up is Linkin Park. And I saw that whole thing of, ‘We have an announcement.’ That whole week, they were at the top if you go enter anything into Google.”
She says she turned on the group’s livestream performance when they announced Armstrong as Bennington’s replacement earlier this month “not on purpose. I thought her singing… I don’t even remember what it is [she was singing], because I didn’t want to hear it. It was just a moment. But it was her, I’m just going to say it, screeching her way through a very high note. And I got out of there as fast as I could.”
Eubanks recalled that Shinoda once told Bennington that Linkin Park songs would sound better with a female vocalist, and that Bennington told her that if he were to leave the group, they would follow through on hiring a woman to sing in the band. “I don’t think that there’s anybody in the world that has the same voice,” she said. “And when I heard that, I was just so repelled that no, they’re trying to do exactly what Chester did, but they’re not succeeding at it.”
Her comments regarding Linkin Park follow mixed reactions to Armstrong joining the band. Bennington’s son criticized the decision to bring in the Dead Sara frontwoman, stating that Shinoda had “quietly erased my father’s life and legacy in real time… during international suicide prevention month.” Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and his wife Chrissie Carnell-Bixler brought up Armstrong’s support of Danny Masterson during his rape trial.
Linkin Park announced the next chapter in its career on Sept. 5, revealing Armstrong as its singer and plotting its new album “From Zero.” The band made its public debut at Los Angeles’ Forum a week later, giving fans a firsthand look at the new lineup. Variety‘s Chris Willman praised the concert, describing the group’s fresh iteration as a “shrewd move.” “Whatever controversies have been attendant with this all-important new addition — and there have been multiple headlines to make it clear not everyone is on board with her — when it comes to the actual matter of the music, you would’ve been hard-pressed to find a soul in the galvanized Forum crowd who would have told you this risky gambit wasn’t paying off.”
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