Chester Bennington’s pre-Linkin Park grunge band Grey Daze were offered festivals and discussed playing shows before his passing.
Sean Dowdell – the group’s drummer – has revealed his late former bandmate had discussed the idea of reuniting for concerts and was determined to re-record their unfinished songs when they spoke in 2016, before he tragically took his own life a year later.
The band have just released the album ‘Amends’, which they finished in his honour, featuring the late rocker’s posthumous vocals.
Sean is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column as saying: "He had just finished recording ‘One More Light’ with Linkin Park.
"He just said: ‘I think it would be great to reunite Grey Daze.
We had 30 great songs, it would be good to re-record them with modern technology.’
"We talked about doing concerts and we had some interesting festival offers.
"We started exchanging ideas, he told me how he wanted to modernise the tracks with a view to releasing the record at the end of 2017."
Following Chester’s death, Sean realised months later: "I need to finish this record. I need to do it for my friend, in his memory."
The group were "guided" through the recording process by the ‘Numb’ hitmaker’s vocals and it was an emotionally "intense" time for them.
He admitted: "I was intense and emotional – I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders."
Sean believes that Chester – who was 41 when he died – felt he had unfinished business with Grey Daze because Linkin Park’s record label allegedly erased their existence.
He added: "The legacy of Grey Daze was literally wiped off by Warner.
"They took all our music off the internet so Linkin Park could become huge.
"I think it’s for that reason he wanted to re-form the group.
He said: ‘These songs deserve a second chance.’"