Korn guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer says that it has been “really hard” for him and his bandmates to deal with the recent passing of Chester Bennington.
Asked what his reaction was to the news of Bennington’s death, Munky told Loaded Radio: “Shock. Everybody was walking around in this cloud. Just frustration and shock and sadness, and there was all this mixed emotions for… still. It’s still the residual effects of a roller coaster of emotions going around. Because we’ve known him for a long time — all those guys, all the guys in [Linkin Park].
“I can’t imagine what his family and his band must be going through, and my heart sincerely goes out to him and his family,” he continued. “And their families — the whole band’s families. There are so many lives that are affected by this.”
Munky added that he was “really” blindsided by Bennington’s suicide. “I think there’s a statistic on Health.com where it shows musicians are number five in line for the most serious depression and they turn to drugs and alcohol to kind of make that go away, but it only worsens,” he said. “Drugs and alcohol always win; the person always fails.”
“I have to make sure that I’m healthy, that I’m exercising, that I’m eating right, make sure to give myself enough time in the day to clear my head or meditate or get enough sleep,” he explained. “Those things can get off balance and you can into this downward spiral that can just be brutal and just keep hitting you over the head. A lot of it’s just anxiety and listening to your own thoughts. You’ve gotta step out of yourself and realize that’s not the real you. And hearing the news about that really had me… I could feel the gravitation of the depressive sort of… I could feel it pulling me in.”
Munky said that is has been “sad to lose Chris Cornell and Chester all within such a short period. It should have never happened, but it did… It’s been really hard. It’s been hard for the guys in [Korn] to hear [about Chester’s death] and process [it]. And I can’t imagine — I can’t imagine what it’s [like] for him and his family and his band. So, yeah, my deepest, sincere condolences to him and his family and his band.”
