Chester Bennington’s son Jaime has criticised Mike Shinoda following the Linkin Park comeback with new vocalist Emily Armstrong, accusing him of “betraying trust” of fans.
The comments follow Linkin Park announcing their comeback through a livestream event last Thursday (September 5) – debuting Emily Armstrong, formerly of Dead Sara, as their new singer.
The reveal followed weeks of speculation after the band shared a mysterious countdown with fans. Their surprise return saw them perform a new song called ‘The Emptiness Machine’ and a few Linkin Park classics, announce a new album ‘From Zero’ and share details of a short world tour.
Armstrong joins the line-up in place of late vocalist Chester Bennington, who died in 2017. Initially, the reception was largely positive among fellow artists and fans, but controversy soon arose after it emerged that the singer seemingly had ties to Scientology and convicted rapist Danny Masterson. This was brought to light after a message sent to Armstrong by The Mars Volta and former At The Drive-In frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala recirculated over the weekend.
In another post shared by Bixler-Zavala over the weekend, he wrote: “I fucking told you.”
His wife, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, had accused Masterson of raping her while they were in a relationship, having testified in 2022. She previously issued a separate civil lawsuit against him, and took to Instagram on September 7 to share screenshots highlighting Armstrong’s ties to Masterson.
In response, Armstrong issued a statement on her Instagram Stories. “I wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back. Several years ago, I was asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance, and went to one early hearing as an observer. Soon after, I realised I shouldn’t have,” she wrote.
“I always try to see the good in people, and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since. Unimaginable details emerged and he was later found guilty. To say it as clearly as possible: I do not condone abuse or violence against women, and I empathise with the victims of these crimes.”
Now, Jaime Bennington – the son of the late frontman – has taken to social media to share his thoughts on the reformation with Armstrong, and criticise Shinoda for “betraying” Linkin Park fans with the decision.
Taking to his Instagram Stories last night (September 8), Bennington shared a screenshot of recent comments made by Shinoda in which the founding member addressed how fans may need “time to wrap their heads around” the band reforming with Armstrong. In the comments, Shinoda also said that those who “disrespect” him due to the decision will “lose my respect in return”.
“Hey Mike! People aren’t having a difficult time wrapping their head around the prospect of Linkin Park reinventing itself,” wrote Bennington. “They are having a hard time wrapping their head around how you: Hired your friend of many years @emilyarmstrong to replace @chesterbe knowing Emily’s history in the church and her history as an ally to @dannymasterson.”
He continued, also accusing Shinoda of “Quietly eras[ing] my father’s life and legacy in real time […] during international suicide prevention month” and “refus[ing] to acknowledge the impact of hiring someone like Emily, without so much as a clarifying statement on the variety of victims that make up your core fan base”.
In a follow-up post, Bennington said that the decision isn’t as straightforward as being “a shock that people are just going to have to take time [to] process and understand”, but instead something that “betrayed the trust loaned to you by decades of fans and supporting human beings including myself.”
“We trusted you to be the bigger better person. To be the change. Because you promised us that was your intention. Now you’re just senile and tone deaf,” he added, also alleging that it may have been a lie that Shinoda met Armstrong in 2019.
This, he claimed, was due to a mistake that Shinoda made during an interview with Zane Lowe, in which he said that he met the vocalist in 2017, before correcting himself and saying that they actually met in 2019.
“I know sometimes people make mistakes. Misquote information or remember it differently in the moment […] but still. It’s interesting to me that Mike accidentally said he met Emily in 2017 before correcting himself. I wonder which friend introduced the two of them?” Bennington added.
He also shared what appears to be a tweet Shinoda shared in 2018, telling a fan that he had “every intention of continuing with LP”, and asked his followers if they could find a way to see if the post was authentic.
“My perspective on the matter is that… I’ve never seen the band allow for ‘Respectful’ resistance. I’ve never seen the band allow third-party perspective in the conversation,” Bennington wrote in another post.
“The pattern says that historically, people who express alternative views to the mainstream narrative are marginalised and shut down…I DO NOT SUPPORT,” he added, as well as sharing that he had reached out to both Linkin Park’s team and Shinoda himself requesting tickets to “observe” the band’s upcoming show in Los Angeles.
Neither Linkin Park nor Mike Shinoda have publicly responded to the comments made by Jaime Bennington. NME has reached out to representatives of Linkin Park for comment.
Recently, Armstrong spoke about the process of joining the band and what it means to follow in the footsteps of Bennington. “I took myself out of the equation and I just looked at it as what could be a good fit? And I held onto that question for a bit as I was going in and singing and stuff,” she said.
“That’s when the thoughts would trickle being like, ‘I mean, this would be really fun. This could work’. And then it’s like, oh my God, holy shit. When you start to have that moment, it’s like, whoa…”
It was also announced in Friday’s livestream that drummer Colin Brittain would be joining the line-up, following the departure of founding member Rob Bourdon.
Later, founding guitarist Brad Delson also shared that he wouldn’t be joining the band on their upcoming world tour, but will continue to work with them on a behind-the-scenes basis, including participating in the creation of new music.
