Chester Bennington‘s widow Talinda has shared her approval of Linkin Park‘s new singer Emily Armstrong.
Writing in an Instagram comment underneath a post from Armstrong, Talinda left a series of fire emojis seemingly as an endorsement of the new vocalist. It follows last Thursday’s (September 5) announcement that the band were making their comeback during a live-streamed event.
Armstrong joined the line-up as a replacement for former frontman Bennington, who died by suicide in 2017, and in the post that Talinda commented under she thanked fans for the “love and support” she’s received since news broke.
Although the initial response to the new configuration of Linkin Park was largely positive among fellow artists and fans alike, controversy soon arose after it emerged that Armstrong seemingly had ties to Scientology and convicted rapist Danny Masterson.
This was brought to light after a message sent to the singer by The Mars Volta and former At The Drive-In frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala was reshared on social media.
Chester Bennington’s son Jamie would go on to say that Linkin Park fans had been “aggressive” towards him since he shared criticism of band, and hit out at comments made by Mike Shinoda, who he accused of “quietly eras[ing] my father’s life and legacy in real time […] during international suicide prevention month”.
Since Chester’s suicide, Talinda has become a mental health advocate who uses her platform to speak out about the warning signs she saw before the musicians death. “I am now more educated about those signs, but they were definitely there: the hopelessness, the change of behaviour, isolation,” she told CNN in 2018.
“That was all part of our daily life. Sometimes, some signs were there more than others. Sometimes, they weren’t there at all,” she continued.
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