Chester Bennington, lead singer of the group Linkin Park, is my favorite singer. Chester was born on March 20, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona. When he was two years old, Chester's brother taught him to sing "Hot Blooded" and taped it. From this early age, Chester's fascination with music started. When he was young, Chester used to pretend he was the fifth member of the band Depeche Mode and sing along with them. His brother, who is 13 years older than him, got him into liking bands like Loverboy, Foreigner, and Rush. The first album that had an impact on him was the Misfits and the first instrument he ever played was the piano ("Chester Bennington"). .

             When he was thirteen, Chester began to practice singing; he used to practice until his throat hurt. When he was fifteen, Chester joined a band called "Sean Dowdell and Friends" which he was the lead singer of. With this band he recorded three songs whose titles were, "Painted Pictures", "Kill the Flies", and "God's Afraid" ("Random Facts"). In 1993, Chester joined his first official band called Grey Daze. This band had slowly become popular in Phoenix, Arizona but never got signed. Chester left that band after he felt that other band members were taking credits for lyrics, which he wrote himself ("Chester Bennington"). In 1999 Chester was invited by Jeff Blue, vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in LA, to join a band called Xero. A few days later he auditioned for the band in Hollywood. After he joined the band changed its name first to Hybrid Theory and finally to Linkin Park. Three years later the group achieved phenomenal success with their debut album Hybrid Theory (Fricke, March 14, 2002).

             The band Stone Temple Pilots influenced Chester's career the most; he first went to their concert when he was 14. His musical role models are Scott Weiland and Robert Plant. His favorite albums include Black Celebration, Purple, and Zeppelin #4. The albums he rates as being his top five favorites include: 1).