The surviving members of Linkin Park are still understandably grieving after the loss of their frontman Chester Bennington, who died last week via suicide.
While the band released an open letter to Chester yesterday, their first official comments since the death, co-vocalist Mike Shinoda was clearly in a reflective mood and posted the first known photo of the band once Chester joined their ranks.
Shinoda posted it with the statement: "1997 or 1998…I think this was the first photo we ever took together. We had just told Chester that we wanted him to join the band. He said he was ready to move out from Arizona to L.A. We went to a pizza place near UCLA to hang out and talk about what to do next. The band was called Xero at the time, and we probably had less than a half a dozen songs. No flame tattoos yet, no red hair yet, most of us were still in college."
The band were searching for a singer for the longest time when Chester came along, and the rest, as they say, is history.
If you or someone you care about is thinking about suicide, please reach out to someone who can help: in the United States, the national Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. International readers can find your country's number here.
