Chester's Rockstar test

Chester took Kerrang's Rockstar Test and made a 84%. You can see the scan here. In it he mentioned that the stupidest thing he ever bought was his divorce...

Being Vulnerable - Samantha's blog

Samantha posted a new blog on her site. Read it here!

After going through a divorce after an almost 10 year marriage, I wanted to be in a stable relationship after taking my time to heal but was still in fear of being hurt, betrayed, & having faith that a relationship could be real with honesty, respect & love. After playing the dating game & pushing everyone away because I was just not ready or had fear, I got to the point where I wanted something real. Read more!

Inside the mind of Chester...

There is a small but honest article about Chester from last weeks Kerrang magazine called "Inside the mind of...". Mike Shinoda Clan has the scan so check it out in their gallery.

ShockHound's interview with Chester

Read more at ShockHound.com...

"Every single one of them is pretty personal, but I think the most important one for me is "Give Me Your Name.” I wrote that one for my [new] wife. We danced to that song at our wedding. I didn't write the song with the idea that it would make the album. I actually wrote it to play at our wedding, but it turned out to be a great song. "In The Darkness" is another one that is very personal for me. It's not necessarily about anything personal, but it's my song about making love and how that feels..."

Revolver Interview with Chester

There is online exclusive interview with Chester at the Revolver magazine website. He talks about the drugs, the divorce and Talinda. You can read it all HERE.

I know I talk a lot about it, but the reality is, I came out on the other side. I made a great record with Linkin Park, made a good record with Dead by Sunrise. I’m good dad, I’m a good husband, I have a lot of friends.

102.1 The Edge interview/review with Chester

Here is a "Out of Ashes" review with interview quotes from 102.1 The Edge:

The debut album from Dead By Sunrise, called Out Of Ashes, features some of the most personal lyrics ever written by singer Chester Bennington. A number of the songs were inspired by Bennington's struggles with his own psychological demons as well as drugs and alcohol. Bennington told us that his addiction to alcohol reached its peak after a divorce from his first wife left him emotionally and financially drained: "I lived on alcohol. It was either beer, or Jack and Coke, or Jack Daniels in a pint glass with ice. And then it got to the point where my wife said to me about seven months after we got together, she goes, 'I don't think there's been a day since I've known you that you haven't drank.' And I was like, 'What are you talking about? That's crazy' -- as I'm drinking a Jack and Coke. That was where my life went."

Bennington told us that during the divorce proceedings, he went from living in a mansion to a 700-square-foot apartment, and that all his money was wiped out.

Thanks again to Sunrise on Fire. ;)

Herald Sun interview with Chester

Sunrise on Fire found a great interview that the Australian Herald Sun did with Chester. Read it all here!

"People will get a little bit more of a personal glimpse into my life and maybe see the kind of songwriter I am," he says.

It's not about being honest for the first time - he's always done that.

"I've always been pretty up front, especially lyrically, with my music. I think that's the one real similarity between LP and Dead By Sunrise."

On this album, Bennington is a cathartic kind of songwriter. The band's name and the album's title refer to his descent into, and his eventual rise out of, a period in which he was doing - as he puts it in PC terms - a lot of partying.

He was self-destructing, he was addicted to booze and various other substances, and his first marriage was falling apart (he divorced in 2005).

"I've seen the devil in a smile, I've found salvation in a vial, my happy ending exists only in my dreams," Bennington sings on My Suffering.

"When I was going through it, I was actually trying to hide it - at least in my mind I was trying to hide it. I don't know if I did a very good job of hiding it," he says. "But I didn't want everyone to know how bad I'd really gotten. So a lot of the more revealing stuff was written afterwards, looking back, like 'OK, I'm cool with this now, I can handle being more open about my experiences over the past couple of years'.

"So that was really freeing for me. It was really interesting to look back and have that kind of perspective."

But some of the songs were written he says "while I was going through all the craziness . . . stuff that had nothing to do with that downfall, the downward spiral kind of thing".

Nowadays, of course, Bennington is happily remarried with a "litter of children".

The four kids in his house not so long ago became five - "One of my nieces moved in with us, which is pretty cool. So I guess I did acquire a 14-year-old girl somewhere along the line . . ."

It makes one wonder what his wife, Talinda, makes of all the darkness on Out of Ashes.

"At first it might have been a little disarming," Bennington says of his wife's reaction. "Like, 'Do you really want everybody to know all this stuff?'

"Honestly, what do I really have to hide?

If I can't be honest about what I'm experiencing and about my life, then what am I going to write about? Make up stuff?

If you do it tastefully and you do it in a way that's not like pornographic, if it doesn't come across as being dirty and kind of creepy, then I think that's OK."

But was it ever coming across as being dirty or creepy?

"No," Bennington says with a laugh. "I'm totally 100 per cent pure, never done anything wrong or weird in my life."

Though tearing out his heart in his Dead By Sunrise songs unburdened him, Bennington says it wasn't what saved him.

"The biggest epiphany for me during this period was realising how much value I had put into the stuff I had. That was the hardest part for me, discovering I had actually associated my success with the things I had accumulated, like money and cars and houses, things like that.

"When that's all gone, when that all disappeared, I kinda felt like maybe I was no longer successful, and I felt like a failure. And that was really tough to feel that way.

"That was really the beginning of the cascading downfall of my mental state for a little while. Then I got my s--- together and pulled myself out of it, with the help of my friends and my family and my beautiful wife."

These days, Bennington counts success as just living. "Success is if you can make it through life - you've figured something out, you know what I mean?" he says with a laugh.

"I'm still doing what I love to do, I get to be with my family as much as I want to be, I get to work whenever I feel like working, and I get to stop working when I'm over it.

"I don't have to get up and go to a job I hate every day, like a lot of people have to do to pay the bills. So I'm totally fine with that."

"I'm just starting to put all this stuff together and figure out how I can work on Linkin Park and tour with Dead By Sunrise and manage to be home enough to spend time with my kids so they don't feel like I'm a big jerk who always leaves the house."

'Out Of Ashes' Fan Reviews

Here are bits from fan reviews that DBS posted here.

5. Let Down
I finally get to hear the studio version of this song, after the 2005 acoustic version. I love the synth lead. The chorus delivers so well, naturally. Very rocky but keeping the mellow touch. Amir plays an amazing, seemingly complex solo. Once again, amazing harmonies and backing vocals.
9.5/10

6. Give Me Your Name
Acoustic mixed with overdrive in the intro. Sounds like an obvious love song, but so different from your typical love song. The bass fills the hole, it feels satisfying. It's like your expecting it, and it fills that gap with a little something extra adding in. Acoustic ending is brilliant.
7/10

12. In The Darkness
Sounds like there's some "beatboxing" in this song, or humming, as part of the drum beat. This makes the drums feel somewhat "tribal" VERY briefly. A nice end to the album, relaxing but with fitting energy. A Julien-K styled ending with drowning echos makes this album have a happy ending.
8/10

Track five -' Let Down' - is a little slower in comparison with the previous tracks, with a softer vocal from Bennington. This perfectly matches the nature of the song which speaks of love and the hardship of being let down – referring to Bennington's painful divorce. Speaking of the fear of going down the 'same old road' again in a new relationship, it offers an insight into Bennington's past and the difficult decisions which are made from broken trust and broken hearts. You may have to listen to this track a few times to completely take it in, in order to fully appreciate its beauty

.

One of my personal favorites from the album is the beautiful 'Give me your name', a song about being in love. Something about Chester's soft voice as he begins 'Give me a smile/Give me your name girl' seems to completely emulate the dreamlike quality of meeting somebody 'perfect' for the first time; the feeling of butterflies and the strong urge to smile constantly. It continues in this way throughout and is almost like a lullaby that entices you to join this fantasy world, to feel this same wonderful emotion that he is feeling. It's a track which is rather different to other songs on the album both lyrically (the majority of other songs are darker) and musically and I think it's perfectly placed delicately in the middle, almost like a ray of sunshine after a storm. Hopefully this is a song that'll be played acoustic sometime in the future too.

“In the Darkness” brings us to the last track on 'Out Of Ashes' which ends with as much power as it began. Deciding to end on a lighter note the track opens up with an acoustic guitar and a slower tempo ready to document the very personal “act of making love with someone you feel deep love for” - as described by the man himself. He speaks of 'aching at the sight' of the one he loves in a beautiful display of affection and you can't help but smile at Bennington's frank lyrics. I really couldn't think of a more perfect song to end the album on; after a 12-track journey through the highs and lows of Bennington's recent years it really does make you glad to see the last track echo the album title as Bennington rises from the ashes with his new love.

Sad News - Joe and Karen Divorce

I'm very saddened to report that Joe filed for divorce from Karen earlier this year. They've been separated since October of 2008... I and the rest of the LinkinLady.net staff wish them both the best.

Important site note: I have disabled the saybox until I can be online to monitor it. I do not want any rumors, speculations or mean things said about the divorce and I don't want any links posted to the divorce papers or anything like that. Please respect their privacy. Thank you.

Special credit goes to our Dominika for researching this and finding all the information. I actually wouldn't have found out about it now if not for her.