Chester Bennington’s Mom Says She Feels ‘Betrayed’ by Linkin Park Over Replacement, Thinks They're 'Trying to Erase the Past'
Bennington's mother and son are offended that the hard rock band have replaces the late artist with new lead singer Emily Armstrong.
While diehard Linkin Park fans are coming to terms with the band's new lead singer, Emily Armstrong, the mother of late member Chester Bennington isn't pleased with the decision.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Bennington's mom, Susan Eubanks, claimed that the remaining Linkin Park members planned to give her a heads up if changes were made to the group.
"I feel betrayed," she told the publication. "They told me if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I [wasn’t] going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it."
Eubanks added that while she's seen Linkin Park musicians Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn in the years since Bennington's death in 2017, there was no mention of a reunion. While Shinoda did tell Eubanks that new Linkin Park material with Bennington's vocals would be released, it was through Google that she found out about Armstrong.
Eubanks added that when the group had a livestream performance to share the announcement, she tuned in, but "not on purpose."
"I thought her singing… I don’t even remember what it is [she was singing], because I didn’t want to hear it," she said. "It was just a moment. But it was her, I’m just going to say it, screeching her way through a very high note. And I got out of there as fast as I could."
Eubanks also recalled Shinoda telling Bennington that a female vocalist would be fitting as a replacement if he were to leave the group, which the late artist would relay to his mother.
"I don’t think that there’s anybody in the world that has the same voice,” she said. “And when I heard that, I was just so repelled that no, they’re trying to do exactly what Chester did, but they’re not succeeding at it."
Having a similar opinion was Eubanks' grandson, Bennington's 28-year-old son Jaime, who said that Linkin Park was "erasing" his father's "life and legacy."
"You have betrayed the trust loaned to you by decades of fans and supporting human beings including myself," Jaime wrote on his Instagram Stories.
