Chester Bennington’s son Jaime Bennington has shared a new video about his theories about Linkin Park.
In the 4-hour video, Jaime watches an interview of Mike Shinoda and Zane Lowe, and he criticizes Shinoda’s ‘lies’ about the band’s secret plans.
“Mike goes, ‘We never just said let’s get the band back together.’ Lies, that is a flat-faced lie. You said from the moment that Chester died that you guys had intentions to be on stage,” Jaime explained. “That’s why you hadn’t given Japan your clarification on what you were going to do for the tour because they were still thinking about possibly going out on the road and they had that part of their tour lined up in Japan. So they literally were talking about potentially going on the road.”
He also claimed that Shinoda has been writing music since the death of the late frontman. “Mike was writing music the second Chester died for the Hollywood Bowl show. He played his first ‘Post Traumatic’ song by January of 2018 the EP for post-traumatic came out by June of 2018. ‘Post Traumatic’ was out and then he did a full-ass world tour and he tweeted the whole time.” Jaime added, “‘We have every intention to be in Linkin Park, Linkin Park has every intention of continuing.’ You can’t say things like that and then seven years later, be like, ‘We never said we wanted to get the band back together.’”
His comments came only a short time after he accused Shinoda of lying to fans about Linkin Park’s comeback with new singer Emily Armstrong on Instagram. He shared his thoughts about the matter on his stories, and claimed that Shinoda had been planning the reunion since Chester’s death in 2017. “During the Zach Sang Show interview, Mike Shinoda revealed that, as of April 2023, he was lying about the Linkin Park comeback,” he wrote. “That, as of the ‘Already Over’ release in October 2023, Linkin Park was doing photoshoots and finalizing their album rollout. That Emily Armstrong made contact with Linkin Park in October of 2017, the week before the Hollywood Bowl Show. That, in 2019, he and Colin Brittain were looking for a new Linkin Park vocalist, and THAT is when he reached out to Emily Armstrong on his own.”
He added, “Linkin Park reincorporated the same month I had my falling out with Anna Shinoda. THEY KNEW I WAS COMING. And they got ahead of it.”
Jaime added Armstrong had contacted the band just before their tribute performance for Chester at the Hollywood Bowl, hoping to be allowed to perform.
Jaime Bennington and Chester’s mother Susan publicly opposed a Linkin Park reunion, claiming that Mike Shinoda has been running the band behind the scenes since their hiatus to erase Chester’s legacy. Shinoda has denied these accusations, stating that the band is simply beginning a new chapter focused on the future.
Linkin Park is now preparing for a world tour to support their latest release, ‘From Zero.’ The tour will begin in Mexico City on January 31, 2025.