Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington has committed suicide by hanging, TMZ reported Thursday. He was 41 years old.
The singer behind hits like “Numb” and “In The End” allegedly abused alcohol and drugs, and has stated previously that he has considered suicide after sharing that he was abused as a child by an older man.
“I have been able to tap into all the negative things that can happen to me throughout my life by numbing myself to the pain so to speak and kind of being able to vent it through my music,” he told SPIN in 2009.
Perhaps most heartbreaking is the open letter that Bennington shared in the wake of his friend Chris Cornell’s death. Cornell also committed suicide by hanging, as was recently revealed in a police report. “I'd like to think you were saying goodbye in your own way,” Bennington wrote. “I can’t imagine a world without you in it. I pray you find peace in the next life.”
Today would have been Cornell’s 53rd birthday.
Bennington is survived by his six children, from two previous marriages, and his wife Talinda Bennington.
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