Linkin Park are back in the swing of things, and therefore Chester Bennington is back on the interview circuit.
Despite their ‘Heavy’ new single (which sounds like Rihanna or something) being the focal point of most interviews, it was inevitable talk would soon turn to Chester’s recent role as frontman for Stone Temple Pilots, a job he took in May, 2013 – after the band unceremoniously fired Scott Weiland – and quit in November 2015, a mere month before Weiland’s death.
It’s heavy stuff, and he addressed it on Q104.3’s ‘Out Of The Box’, explaining he actually left the job because it was becoming distressing for his kids to have him away for long untethered stretches of time.
“I’ve had the privilege of being not only in Linkin Park and being around a bunch of geniuses,” he explains, “I got to go and be in Stone Temple Pilots and be around a bunch of geniuses, and just kind of sit back and kind of ask myself, ‘How did I get here?’
“But, yeah, I had so much fun. I actually still get to play with those guys every once in awhile. And I have a deep, deep love. And the only reason why I’m not doing it now is because my kids, they would cry every time I’d go on the road with STP.
“When I leave on tour with Linkin Park they’re, like, ‘Okay, we’ll see you when you get back,’ and they understand what I’m doing. But when I would leave with STP, they would cry. And I started realising, I think they thought I was choosing to do that over being at home with them, because I would be done with Linkin Park and coming home. And so, it was just too hard on my family.
“So I basically was, like, ‘You know what? I’ve gotta stop being selfish here, and when I’m not doing Linkin Park, I’ve just gotta be home with my babies.”
