Chester Bennington's mom 'repelled' by Linkin Park performing with new singer
Susan Eubanks, the mother of the late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, is speaking out against the band.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published Thursday, Eubanks claimed the nu-metal band — specifically co-founder Mike Shinoda and DJ Joe Hahn — didn't warn her they'd be recording and touring with a new performer, Emily Armstrong, who is filling in for Bennington's vocals.
"I found out about Emily Armstrong joining the band on Google," Eubanks told the outlet. "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."
USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for Linkin Park for comment.
Linkin Park has been performing with Shinoda and Armstrong's joint vocal powers on the band's From Zero World Tour, which kicked off at Los Angeles' Kia Forum on Sept. 11. Brad Delson, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell and new drummer Colin Brittain round out the California-born group, which took a break after Bennington's death in 2017.
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Emily Armstrong singing Chester Bennington's songs 'is hurtful,' his mom says
Armstrong, whose hiring was announced Sept. 5, was "owning every inch of the stage" during the two-hour, 27-song show, USA TODAY's Bryan Alexander wrote in his review of the LA show. Armstrong led the vocals in Linkin Park classics "Crawling" and "Lying from You," and in "Burn It Down," she "smiled as if she had been performing the 2012 song forever."
"I feel like they're trying very hard to erase the past. They're performing songs that Chester sang," Eubanks told Rolling Stone. "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."
During the first show of the tour, Shinoda told the crowd that performing again is "not about erasing the past. It's about starting this new chapter into the future. We love playing for you guys and are very excited about our new record."
"You already know that you guys are singing for Chester tonight, right?" Shinoda said before starting a "Points of Authority" crowd sing-along.
Tour kickoff review, setlist:Emily Armstrong explodes in Los Angeles concert
Chester Bennington's mom says she felt 'so repelled' by Linkin Park revival
Eubanks said she'd suspected Linkin Park might tour again, but she'd expected Shinoda to lead the vocals.
"I thought Mike would go out and sing the songs, and they just wouldn't sound the same," she said. "And I would've been OK with that, 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."
She described the negative reaction she had to their Sept. 5 livestreamed performance that introduced Armstrong: "It was her, I'm just going to say it, screeching her way through a very high note. And I got out of there as fast as I could."
Eubanks' grandson, Jaime Bennington, has also spoken out against Linkin Park's new direction on social media.
"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," Eubanks said.
"Don't put her 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."
For her part, Armstrong opened up about her mindset when it comes to singing Bennington's music in an interview with Billboard published Sept. 5.
"Going into these (older) songs, by a singular voice that's beloved by so many people — it's like, 'How do I be myself in this, but also carry on the emotion and what he brought in this band?' That was the work that I had to do," she said. "It's Chester’s voice, and it's mine, but I want it to still feel the way I feel when I listen to the song because that's what the fans love. There is a passion to it that I'm hoping I can fill."
This is the band's first tour since 2017's One More Light World Tour, which was cut short when Bennington died by suicide that July. Their first album since Bennington's death, "From Zero," releases Nov. 15.
Contributing: Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY