Chester Bennington’s son Jaime Bennington is carrying on his father’s creative spirit by directing the music video for ‘Soul Song’ by Chester’s former band, Grey Daze.
Before Chester had found fame with Linkin Park, he was the singer for Grey Daze from 1992 until 1998 – a gig he landed as a scraggly 15-year-old after reportedly singing Pearl Jam’s ‘Alive’ near-flawlessly for his audition.
“He had this raw talent,” Grey Daze co-founder and drummer Sean Dowdell said to Rolling Stone of a teenage Chester. “He understood the nuances in the music.”
Chester told Kerrang! in 2008 that the relationship he had with the Arizona grunge rock band “was the first time I felt I had a connection with anybody.” He added, “I knew those guys would back me up.”
Speaking of having Jamie involved with his dad’s former group, Dowdell said that having the 24-year-old involved “meant so much” to them, adding, “It was one of those full-circle moments where we remembered meeting Chester at an even younger age than Jaime, and to now be recording with his son… it was a highlight of recording Amends. Jamie is a burgeoning filmmaker so when he offered to do this video, well, we couldn’t think of a better way to present this song.”
Jaime Bennington also opened up about his inspiration for the music video, saying it was ”about my spiritual connection to the other side and my literal experiences with the elusive and, at times, incomprehensible presence of my father after death.”
“’Soul Song’ is about the many ways in which we come to enlightenment, into knowledge, and the many ways we fall away from it. This is my personal experience with that,” Jamie added.
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Grey Daze’s original members have been busy re-recording some old tunes with the help of Korn guitarists Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer, Bush’s Chris Traynor and P.O.D.’s Marcos Curiel. In fact, last year Jamie provided his vocals for some re-recordings, with Grey Daze posting photos of him in the studio, writing:
“Chester would have been so very proud of his son Jaime Bennington. We had Jaime sing along with his father last night at NRG Recording Studios and his voice is great! Sounds a lot like his father and we were all very proud to be a part of it.”
‘Soul Song’ is the fourth single to be released from the forthcoming album Amends, which is set to drop on June 26.
Check out ‘Soul Song’ by Grey Daze:
