Fred Durst has paid a touching tribute to his caring friend Chester Bennington.
The Limp Bizkit frontman spoke movingly about how his late pal – who took his own life last week after battling with depression – could always making him feel good with their "real and transparent" conversations and recalled how the Linkin Park singer always tried to keep his "pain and torture" away from other people.
He wrote in a piece for Variety: "I can say so many wonderful things about the Chester I knew. He had a way of making anyone he spoke to feel heard, understood and significant.
"His aura and spirit were contagious and empowering. Often those types of people have so much pain and torture inside that the last thing they want is to contaminate or break the spirit of others.
"He would go out of his way to make sure you knew he truly cares. As real and transparent as our conversations would be, he was always the one projecting light on the shadows. In my last conversation with him, he was holding his two cute puppies and giving me the most selfless and motivational compliments in regards to Limp Bizkit and myself and thanking me for paving the path for bands like Linkin Park."
The 46-year-old rocker also spoke of his sadness that he won’t ever be able to "hug" his friend or be there to support him through his struggles.
He wrote: ""I told him if it weren’t for him and his voice and his words, this genre would never have reached the masses and affected so many lives. I thanked him for being so courageous and humble and for always being such a gentleman. We laughed and hugged and told jokes as if there would always be a tomorrow for us to meet again.
"I want to hug him now and let him know that we all experience our own pain and deal with it our own ways. I know his torture is unique to him, but I would always be here to listen and help in any way I can. But I won’t get that hug and that moment now, which makes me so sad."
Fred Durst’s tribute to Chester Bennington
