Chester Bennington’s mother feels “betrayed” by Linkin Park’s new line-up.
The group recently revealed they were back together but with Emily Armstrong on vocals and Colin Brittain on drums in place of Rob Bourdon, and the news left Susan Eubanks “very upset” as she claimed the band had always promised to keep her informed about anything they planned to do after her son took his own life in 2017.
She wrote in an essay for Rolling Stone magazine: “I feel betrayed. They told me that if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I [wasn’t] going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it.”
Susan accused the band of trying to “erase the past”.
She added: “I feel like they’re trying very hard to erase the past. They’re performing songs that Chester sang. And I don’t know how the fans are taking it, but I know how I take it. And having [Armstrong] singing my son’s songs is hurtful.
“They said they would let the family know if they were going to reunite. They did not. [Chester’s first wife] Samantha and [son] Draven didn’t know until it was told to the world. It was the same for me and it hurt.”
Sarah claimed Mike Shinoda had often wanted to replace Chester with a female vocalist.
She wrote: “Mike told Chester one time that he thought singing these songs would be better with a girl, because he often put Chester down. And Chester called me and said, ‘He thinks that they’re going to replace me with a girl.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said Mike told him at rehearsal that, ‘If you decide you’re leaving, we’re going to replace you with a girl.’ And Chester was dumbfounded and hurt.
“And the fact is that now they did it. So, of course, all that comes right back into my mind. I had a talk with my son about this. I didn’t think they’d probably do it.”
The matriarch insisted she “would’ve been OK” with the group reuniting and having Mike as the only singer.
She added: “But I’m not OK with this, to have somebody replace him and try to do what he did. I don’t think that there’s anybody in the world that has the same voice. And when I heard that, I was just so repelled that no, they’re trying to do exactly what Chester did, but they’re not succeeding at it.”
And Susan urged the band not to use any material left by her son in their new era.
She concluded: “If I could tell the band members anything it’s that I feel betrayed. You made a promise to me that you would let us know and you didn’t. If you were going to do this, this is the wrong way to do it.
“Don’t put [Emily Armstrong] out there to sing Chester’s songs and then act like this was always the way it should have been. It’s like making him go away, erasing the past.
“You don’t have to worry about going through the old songs and finding new ones, new Chester songs to put out. Now you can just put out new songs. But don’t bother to put out Chester’s songs with Emily singing them.”