Late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington’s former Grey Daze bandmate and Club Tattoo business partner Sean Dowdell discussed bonding with Mike Shinoda about Chester’s unpredictable nature at business meetings at Bennington’s funeral in July.
Dowdell said at a recent tribute event, “Chester was a fantastic business partner. Thora and I were truly blessed to have him as a business partner. Fame was almost the thing that didn’t matter, with what he brought to our business partnership. He brought a lot of great creativity, he brought a lot of great ideas. This story I had alluded to earlier, we would take these business meetings, and I was always nervous.
At the funeral I was actually speaking to Mike Shinoda about this, he says, ‘You know, we used to take these business meetings. I never knew what Chester was going to do.’ I started laughing. I said, ‘We had the same experience.’ He was this wild guy, and I used to be so pent up about what he was going to say next, before Thora finally calmed me down, and said, ‘Just let him be himself.’
So the next few business meetings we take, we called him the monkey in the room, he’d be jumping on tables, extremely animated, for those of you who have seen him outside the music world. We just let him do his thing, and used it to our advantage.”
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. If you are dealing with mental health issues, you can call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or enter their live chat.
