Pennywise’s Fletcher Dragge discussed late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington and late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell in a new Hysteria Mag interview.
“Obviously we just recently lost Chester and Chris Cornell to this problem. It’s a real tragedy. I saw Chester a couple weeks before. He was happy as could be, you know. Super cool dude. Always really liked him and respected him. And you would’ve never known … I mean, looking back on his songs, just like Jason [Thirsk]’s songs, you see a pattern of a cry for help. A lot of times the fans don’t equate it that it’s coming from the singer himself. They figure he’s writing a song about someone else or another topic that he’s seen, but when you look back it’s pretty shocking.”
He later said, “The whole thing is, people don’t understand [depression]. You’re so deep in it, you’re not trying to hurt people. You’re trying to stop hurting yourself. But the pain’s gotten so bad where you’re willing to do anything to stop it. So I don’t really agree when people say it’s a selfish act to take your own life. It’s kind of selfish for us to not recognise how hurting this person is, and understand how far gone you have to be to check out. To take your family, friends, and everything and just put it aside and go, “I’m out of here” and have no remorse or understanding of what you’re gonna do when they’re gone.
Your brain is broken. So people have just gotta watch for the signs and stuff. But I think there’s a lot of awareness these days and these two deaths are gonna be even more of a warning for people out there. I think people are gonna be more open with what they need. Hopefully.
Bands that have experienced it are gonna talk about it and they’re gonna try to raise awareness. It’s a painful subject but at the same time I’m super bummed because Chester had my phone number and we knew each other. We didn’t hang out all the time but when we saw each other we always had a great time together.
I respect his music. You know he lived a mile away from me, and I’ve just been thinking, ‘Fuck, why didn’t he call me?’ You know, why didn’t he just fucking call me and say ‘Hey let’s get dinner’ or something. He didn’t call me because he was hurting and he couldn’t take the pain anymore. That’s why he didn’t call anybody. So I don’t know, I think bands being out there speaking on it, actors raising awareness and trying to keep people understanding that there’s help out there no matter what, to just make that fucking call … we’re gonna keep talking about it when it’s necessary, you know?”
