Chester Bennington’s Mother Tells His Onetime Bandmates About Him Singing at 2 Years Old
One of Chester Bennington’s former bandmates from Dead by Sunrise recently shared an incredible moment with Chester’s mother, Susan. Over dinner, the Linkin Park vocalist's mother told guitarist Ryan Shuck about when her son was beginning to sing at just 2 years old.
The Bennington tribute show was held Sept. 2 at the Saxe Theater in Las Vegas, featuring performances from members of Grey Daze and Dead by Sunrise. Ryan Shuck spoke before the set, delivering a touching story.
“[We] all took Susan to dinner, I f—king love that we did that, because I was going downhill,” Shuck recalls. “So we went to dinner and we started talking. Susan was super grateful, she was like, ‘Thank you so much. I didn’t know that I needed to get out, but I did. I’m so grateful that we’re having dinner together, and grateful.’ That’s a concept, grateful. I started feeling happy as Susan started telling us stories about Chester when he was a 2-year-old.”
Shuck adds, “She was telling me that he learned the entire Popeye movie at like 2 or 3 years old. He would sing and act out all the parts for everyone that came over to the house, the whole thing, and he would make them listen to the whole thing, he would make them sit. This is like little Chester, he probably weighed like 4 pounds, probably as big as a chihuahua. He was a little guy for a long time before he became [a big rock star].”
Shuck continues, “We were all laughing at dinner, and we discovered something, that whenever we started talking about Chester, we couldn’t help but start laughing and having a good time. You can probably tell, I was pretty emotional when I came up, but as you start talking about him, you can’t help but start smiling. That’s what happened, and that gave me the direction to start writing something for his actual eulogy.” [via Alternative Nation]
Watch Ryan Shuck’s speech and the Grey Daze/Dead by Sunrise performance in the clip above.
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