Jaime Bennington, son of late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, has recently been critical of the band and their decision to move forward with new singer Emily Armstrong. Among the many claims he has made in the past two months, Jaime alleges that the band’s co-lead singer Mike Shinoda has been lying about his intentions to replace his late father with Armstrong.
Despite Shinoda stating in multiple interviews that Linkin Park only recently decided to reunite and hire Armstrong in Chester’s place, Jaime believes they have been planning it since his father’s death.
In several recent posts on his Instagram stories, Jaime went as far as to claim Shinoda is a pathological liar, writing in part:
“So this debate of whether or not Emily met members of Linkin Park in 2017 or 2019 seemed relatively settled because whether their stories were similar or different, they both seemed to agree, Mike and Emily, seem to agree that they met sometime around a week before the October 2017 Hollywood Bowl Show.
“But I told people to look out because I was like, Guys, look I broke down the ‘From Zero’ album, gave my interpretation of it and whether my interpretation is personal or not, Mike Shinoda literally says in the last song on the album that he is a liar, who lies on purpose, is a lying liar who lies. And sometimes, his lies are designed to put out fires but all of the time, the people in his life who see him lying are fed up with it.
“On top of this, admission of guilt, Mike Shinoda, plain-faced, told at the minimum two interviewers, both of which interviewed him last year in 2023, early in the year that he lied to their f*cking faces about Linkin Park and the Linkin Park comeback. Okay. Remember that interview where Mike says, ‘I think we met in 2017. Oh 2019.’
“If my memory serves me correctly, in that interview he said that he was on a sound stage with them last year. Well, if you go to The Zach Sang Show interview which was on the same day as the album, he says to Zach, ‘Yeah, I did lie to you.’ Zach says, ‘Why did you keep that secret, man? Were you guys really in it like in that interview in 2023?’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we met a couple of times.’
“Okay, so in circling back to the Women’s March, it is important to remember that Emily Armstrong has not acknowledged her mother, and her mother’s place in Scientology, Scientology and her place in Scientology, Chester Bennington, or offered an appropriate apology for her alleged behavior during the Danny Masterson trial.
“And Mike Shinoda, on this album, self-professed that he is a pathological liar that it is affecting his real life, has in real life lies pathologically about things, got caught in his own lies. It is such a fever pitch that someone as high-profile as Jimmy Fallon had to take down the interview he did with Mike, only to leave the performance that follows directly after.”
