LINKIN PARK have announced that the special guests for their October 27 LA concert in Honor of Chester Bennington will feature the following special guests:
- A7X‘s M. Shadows and Synyster Gates
- KORN‘s Jonathan Davis
- SOAD‘s Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan
- BLINK-182
- BRING ME THE HORIZON‘s Oli Sykes
- YELLOWCARD‘s Ryan Key
- MACHINE GUN KELLY
- Kiiara
As reported, this will be the first time the band’s surviving five members grace the stage since Chester‘s death.
The press release adds that “the individual band members intend to contribute their fees from the event to Music For Relief’s One More Light Fund in memory of Chester.”
Additionally, the group premiered a video for “One More Light” in honor of Bennington.
Mike Shinoda told KROQ about the decision to organize the event (via Blabbermouth):
“I had gone to Rick Rubin as a source of guidance.
“He had said, ‘I think you guys need to get on stage. I think that’ll be the thing that’ll feel good. It’ll be super, super hard.’
“We haven’t gone out together in public, we haven’t played – we haven’t gone on stage. He said, ‘The fans want to see you. Not because they want to see a show, but there’s a cathartic experience that needs to happen and it’ll inform what you guys are doing.’
“And I thought it over – and I know that for some of the guys in the band, getting on stage [without Chester] is more scary than for other guys in the band, but I will say that for all of us, it’s definitely the thing that we want to do.
“It feels like the right way to celebrate Chester.”
Discussing Chester‘s death, Mike added:
“With something like this, and it was the same at his funeral…
“I know that the circumstances of his passing were really dark, and as we said at the time, the darkness that he had was always there and was kind of part of the package, but what was so unique and special about this guy is that he used it as fuel to do so many positive things.
“His overall, the way he was, he was such a happy guy, he was such a fun guy. When he’d walk in the room, there was such a positive, funny, upbeat energy, and that’s what we wanna get out of this show.
“I know it’s gonna be a roller coaster of emotion. But when we talk about this and when we’re focusing on the show, it’s really about, like we say, celebrating life.”
You can watch the “One More Light” video below.
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