By Cameron Adams, News Corp Australia Network
Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington discussed drug relapses and dark thoughts in his final Australian interview.
Bennington died last night aged 41.
According to reports, it was a suspected suicide and his body was found by a housekeeper in the bedroom of his Los Angeles home.
Talking to News Corp in March, Bennington said Linkin Park's One More Light album followed bleak times personally but insisted he'd come through the other side.
"If you read a lot of the lyrics it seems pretty depressing," Bennington said then.
"For me I went through a lot of sh** in the last few years. I f***ing hated 2015. 2016 was better but there was a lot of anger and resentment on my end I had to work through. All this was going on while we were making this record."
Bennington hinted at relapsing into the drug addiction he'd fought his entire adult life.
The frontman said he enjoyed being open about his battles in the hope it would help others and insisted he was in a good headspace.
"I'm coming from a real place. I've been active in sh**, in my disease thinking I'm hiding it from everybody as opposed to being honest. You have be honest without fearing what people will see.
"In the process of making this record I went from being torn down in the last few years and full of fear to taking my life back. I deserve to be happy. I deserve to be free. There's nothing I'm afraid of right now."
"Being in that place opens up the doors for other people to be in that place. When you're authentic and you're real with your friends magical sh** happens."
"Then you can start being that way with perfect strangers, magical sh** happens. When there's no fear and you open up to people all the walls come down when you're around other people.
"The person I am today at the end of making this record and I the person I was at the start of making it are two totally different people. I have such a lust for life now, such a positive outlook."
One new song, Halfway Right, saw Bennington write about a drug-fuelled brush with death from his past.
"I was strung out on some really f***ing heavy drugs and I was really young and I was driving my car and I blacked out. I woke up driving in a field, down a dirt road, in the middle of a farm. I didn't know how I got there. It was crazy. I was remembering this constant f***ing battle I have with myself, this constant cycle I couldn't see at that time where these choices and these behaviours and where this journey would take me in my life.
"But when I was a guy in my 20s getting out of it, I didn't realise I'd have these problems for my whole life. I didn't think I'd be in one of the biggest bands in the world with a beautiful family at 41 going 'F***, I could have easily have blacked out driving my car again two months ago'. It's a dark song, it's a reality check for me. The chorus is the insanity of my situation - 'I scream at myself when there's nobody else to fight". It's f***ing crazy."
For a band known for dark, turbulent music, One More Light was unexpectedly poppy.
The band worked with a guest female vocalist for the first time and wrote songs with the teams behind hits for the likes of Justin Bieber, Adele and Jason Derulo.
Upon release, it scored mixed reviews, with some fans accusing the band of selling out and some critics savaging them. It had also been ripped apart on social media.
The album, their seventh, topped the US chart and made No. 3 in Australia and No. 4 in the UK but had yet to spawn a major hit single or show the chart stamina previous releases had.
The band were in the midst of a US tour for the new album, with their next show scheduled for next Thursday.
No Australian dates had been announced.
Bennington had already braced for the flack when News Corp spoke to him, having weathered mixed reaction to the first single Heavy.
"I saw people saying 'This isn't Linkin Park' or 'Linkin Park suck now'," Bennington says. "Whatever. We know what we're doing. One of the first reviews of Linkin Park called me the antichrist and pretty much said I was the sole reason for all the problems we have in the world. Here we are almost 20 years later.
"If I took everything every person said to heart I would have quit when I was 15 when some jock dudes were making fun of me at high school. Whether you love what we're doing and you want to talk about it, that's great, whether you hate it so much all you can do is talk about it, both of those are acceptable responses to me. When your music goes through someone like air, if there's no emotional reaction, that would really bother me."
Bennington also said the album deliberately showed his singing voice, as opposed to his trademark shouting.
"I don't just want to yell at everybody," Bennington says.
"There's more in the music than just anger, even though I tap into that pretty well. I wasn't always a screamer. I've always been a singer. If I never scream on another record again I'll be the happiest guy on earth. That only shows one side. As fun as it is, as much as I enjoy getting that out, I also like the challenge of singing in a way that's emotional on another level. You hear a different element of us on this record. These songs aren't just 'My life sucks', it's 'Dude, life is hard, but it can get better'. The music is the sound of hope on this record, the lyrics are the question and the problem, the music is uplifting and shows you how to deal with the problem."
Linkin Park's last Australian tour was in 2013 on the back of the Living Things album.
On their 2007 tour of Australia Bennington broke his wrist jumping off a stage at a show at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena - he performed the concert with the injury, getting five stitches after the gig.
The band have sold close to one million albums in Australia alone.
During a hiatus with Linkin Park, Bennington joined Stone Temple Pilots, one of his favourite bands, replacing singer Scott Weiland in 2013.
Weiland eventually overdosed in December 2015, when Bennington had already returned to work with Linkin Park.
Fans have already sent Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory back to No. 5 in the iTunes chart today, with Meteora at No. 10 and One More Light at No. 14.
Where to get help:
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
• Youthline: 0800 376 633
• Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7)
• Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm)
• Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7)
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• Samaritans 0800 726 666
• If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
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