The most moving musical tributes to Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington

Coldplay and more cover the nu-metal band's biggest hits

The outpouring of grief following the tragic death of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington last month extended not only to the metal scene but the music community as a whole.

Stormzy, who collaborated with Linkin Park on their 2017 single ‘Good Goodbye’, reacted to Bennington’s death by tweeting that he was “heartbroken” and “so upset”.

Rihanna, Steve Aoki, Chance The Rapper, Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne, Run The Jewels and Paramore’s Hayley Williams were also among a diverse list of stars paying tribute.

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In the weeks since the sad news broke, an equally eclectic selection of artists have been paying tribute to Bennington and his music by covering his band’s work, demonstrating just how wide his group’s influence stretched.

Earlier this week saw Coldplay‘s Chris Martin turn Linkin Park’s breakthrough hit ‘Crawling’ (from their 2000 nu-metal staple ‘Hybrid Theory’) into a piano ballad during a show in New Jersey. Bennington’s LP co-frontman Mike Shinoda was at the gig and described the cover as “beautiful” on Instagram.

Machine Gun Kelly, who was set to support Linkin Park on tour this summer, recently paid tribute to his hero with a stripped-back cover of ‘Numb’. On Twitter, he wrote: “Love you Chester. love you more than you know. music will never be the same without u… I’m honored to have shared these moments.”

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Performing LP’s first ever single ‘One Step Closer’ live at a show in Texas, Motionless In White frontman introduced the rendition by saying: “This is usually the part of the show where we like to play a cover song by a band that we really love,” adding: “Linkin Park has meant a lot to a lot of us in this band. One of the first bands in this genre that I ever heard that got me into a lot of the bands that came after. I owe a lot to the album ‘Hybrid Theory’ as a person, and I know it means a lot to these guys in this band.”

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy paid tribute to his metal predecessor by delivering an acoustic homage, covering ‘One More Light’ from Linkin Park’s most recent album of the same name. It’s poignant, with the chorus including the refrain: “Who cares if one more light goes out? / Well I do.”

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