Musicians and singers in the city and across the world are struggling to cope with the loss of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, who ended his life with suicide due to his battle with depression, alcohol and drugs on Thursday.
Iconic tracks like In the End, Numb, and many more are trending on social media, widely shared as fan tributes. 41-year-old Chester, who has been an influential lyricist and singer for many teens, in India, has now opened up a serious discussion on celebs dealing with depression.
Linkin Park band members
Tenma, the music producer/bass artist of the popular Tamil rock band Kurungan, vents out his frustration — “Many keep saying that people having problems should open up —they also add that there are many out there who have got worse problems, and many do open out and seek out for help. But there is no one to listen. If no one cares when an artist is alive, they don’t have the rights to say ‘he/she should have spoken out’ when that person is dead. What happened to the last album of Linkin Park? It got trashed and was abused. This is a generation of people who don’t listen to each other anymore.”
Tenma
Another Chennai-based musician, Mridula Sekhar, “This death is too close to the heart. People say that the first rock band you listen to becomes your favourite band. Chester took his life because of depression, I think we all realise it by now. The problem is real and we don’t know what the depressed person is really going through. We don’t actually hear them out, we don’t tell them it is okay to cry and share what they think and not judge them for it. It is more important not to judge people for what the say because they then realise they are not being accepted for what they have said which hurts them a lot more.”
Ritika Singh
Even actress Hansika Motwani expressed her grief by tweeting a couple of lines about the singer. But Irudhi Suttru fame Ritika Singh, took to Facebook to share an emotional post about the untimely demise of the iconic musician. She wrote, “When I was in school, I used to listen to only Bollywood music and the first English song I ever heard was by #LinkinPark. It was One Step Closer. I enjoyed it so much that I heard everything they ever came out with and I’ve been in love with their music ever since! #ChesterBennington I used to listen to your music while getting ready for my fights and they’ve helped me get through so much in life! It’s so hard for me to believe that you are no more with us! Breaks my heart. You will always be one of my most beautiful childhood memories! RIP Chester! You will be missed! I will never forget you.” (sic)
