A lot of Linkin Park fans credit Chester Bennington with saving their lives through the power of his music, but it turns out the nu-metal icon was a literal life-saver for The Used‘s Bert McCracken.
Opening up about his band’s emotionally raw new record The Canyon, McCracken reveals that many of his lyrics were inspired by Chester’s loss.
“There’s a lot of stigma surrounding depression, we know there’s no cure. And to speak of suicide with any connotations to selfishness makes me sick and so angry that I end conversations immediately,” the recently-minted Aussie citizen tells Forbes.
“Chester was there for me at a time where I was deadly suicidal and he saved my life in 2004. The fact that nobody was able to be there for him in those moments is something we all should think about.”
And because of Chester’s death — and the deaths of some of his other close friends — McCracken says he finds himself approaching the whole issue of death in a totally different way now.
“How I’ve chosen to deal with the death of Chester and my friend Traegan is to try to deal it with the opposite way I dealt with death in the past and that’s not internalise anything and maybe speak about it all the time, put it out there to fans, strangers even,” he says.
“And in that way I kind of feel more connected to what depression might be, more a problem of humanity, a problem with American entitlement and boredom.
“I lost someone so close to me and what that felt like and understanding that pain was love, it helped me and I hope it helps other people because that’s the only reason I can find for this whole fucking thing,” he continues.
“‘Why am I here?’ Maybe I’m here for an opportunity to help someone else through their same thing that I go through and then they’ll go through.”
McCracken’s comments come after Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes credited Bennington with being his sole inspiration for becoming a musician, after taking part in Linkin Park’s recent tribute concert to Chester.
During the show, Mike Shinoda also debuted an emotional new song he wrote in honour of his fallen bandmate.
Meanwhile, The Used’s new album The Canyon is out now. The band have yet to announce any Aussie tour dates, but we’ll keep you posted if that changes.
