Linkin Park might have been one of the crucial in style rock bands of the flip of the millennium, however now it’s going through a backlash wedded to the fashionable period, together with a Me Too controversy and allegations about Scientology.
On September 5, after a seven-year hiatus, Linkin Park introduced a comeback and aired a livestreamed efficiency that includes new lead vocalist Emily Armstrong, the lead singer-songwriter of the rock band Useless Sara. But as an alternative of constructing headlines for the daring selection to switch Chester Bennington with a feminine lead singer, the band was promptly beset by backlash — not due to Armstrong’s gender, however due to the corporate she retains.
Although many followers have been vocally supportive of the band and Armstrong’s arrival, the announcement can also be kicking up a wave of anger and backlash, most notably from Jaime Bennington, the son of the band’s former frontman Chester Bennington, who died by suicide in 2017.
Jaime Bennington says Linkin Park “betrayed the belief” of followers by selecting Armstrong due to her friendship with disgraced actor Danny Masterson, who was convicted in 2023 on two counts of rape, and her assist for him throughout his trial. Bennington additionally known as out Armstrong for her alleged affiliation to the Church of Scientology, as did different public figures together with in style musicians and watchdog journalists.
Armstrong has issued an apology for supporting Masterson, who was accused by a number of ladies of rape (although she identifies him solely as “somebody I thought of a buddy”). However the layers of points don’t cease there. Jaime Bennington’s strained relationship along with his father’s former bandmates complicates issues even additional, as does his grief. All of it serves to cloud the query of how far an artist’s actual life ought to permeate their artwork after they have alleged ties to organizations with troubled historical past and troubling affect — and what all this implies for Linkin Park and the legacy of Chester Bennington.
Fan assist for Armstrong shortly soured as information of her alleged ties to Scientology and Masterson unfold
Initially, followers have been enthusiastic and supportive, and the band, which has been rehearsing with Armstrong for over a 12 months, appeared to have scored a success — an essential milestone for a rock group that continues to attract crowds and chart on the Billboard Scorching 100.
Linkin Park’s forthcoming album, From Zero, set to drop in November, would be the first studio album the band has launched since Bennington’s demise. It’s going to even be the primary to function Armstrong alongside longtime co-lead singer Mike Shinoda. The band timed its announcement of Armstrong’s arrival to coincide with hype for the brand new album and the kickoff of this month’s four-week stadium tour, teasing the identification of their new lead singer for weeks main as much as the information.
Musician Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the group Mars Volta is a former Scientologist whose involvement allegedly overlapped with Armstrong’s. His spouse, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, is one in every of a number of ladies who’ve accused Masterson of sexual assault. On September 6, the day after the band’s announcement, Bixler-Zavala posted an open letter to Armstrong and her new bandmates through Instagram, wherein he criticized Armstrong for her alleged ties to Masterson and the controversial faith.
Scientology, a faith shaped off the again of L. Ron Hubbard’s science fiction, is understood for attracting celebrities and elites after which allegedly harassing them intensely after they go away. It has drawn allegations from former members of the whole lot from kidnapping and stalking, to compelled labor and abuse, to brainwashing and excessive anti-medical and anti-psychiatry beliefs. Scientology has over time repeatedly denied these allegations.
“I’m shocked none of you wrote a letter on Danny Masterson’s behalf since your corny ass singer confirmed as much as assist him within the prelims,” Bixler-Zavala wrote, referring to an look Armstrong made at one in every of Masterson’s early courtroom hearings.
Bixler-Zavala’s allegations shortly started circulating amongst Linkin Park followers, with many expressing concern and confusion on social media over Armstrong’s alleged ties to Scientology. Many others targeted on the irony of Chester Bennington, whose psychological well being struggles have been well-known previous to his demise, being changed by somebody who could also be aligned with a bunch that allegedly demonizes psychological well being remedy.
The loudest considerations, although, have been reserved for Armstrong’s friendship with Masterson. Many followers are alarmed that Chester Bennington, who revealed in 2008 that as a toddler he had survived a few years of sexual abuse, would now get replaced by a singer who had supported a serial sexual predator.
On September 6, Armstrong posted an Instagram Story wherein she apologized for her earlier assist of somebody implied to be Masterson and distanced herself absolutely from the actor:
A number of years in the past, I used to be requested to assist somebody I thought of a buddy at a courtroom look, and went to at least one early listening to as an observer. Quickly after, I spotted I shouldn’t have. I all the time attempt to see the great in individuals, and I misjudged him. I’ve by no means spoken with him since.
Unimaginable particulars emerged and he was later discovered responsible.
To say it as clearly as attainable: I don’t condone abuse or violence towards ladies, and I empathize with the victims of those crimes.
Nonetheless, as many have been fast to level out, her assertion mentioned nothing about Scientology, nor did she disavow no matter views she may need shared with the group. Journalist and longtime Scientology watchdog Tony Ortega speculated that Armstrong’s assertion “appears designed to guard” Scientology. In a prolonged thread on Threads, journalist Yashar Ali, who additionally has a historical past of reporting on Scientology, argued that Armstrong’s loyalty to Scientology made her apology unreliable.
Former Scientologist Mike Rinder, as soon as a member on the group’s highest tier, got here ahead to inform Ortega about Armstrong’s mom, Gail Armstrong, and her years of devoted service to the group, in claims that former Scientologist Aaron Smith-Levin additionally made on his YouTube channel, Rising Up in Scientology. Armstrong’s mother and father have been allegedly Scientologists and high-ranking members of SEA Org, the group’s highest secretive internal circle.
Gail Armstrong’s alleged function, in keeping with Rinder, was PR for the group, and for a time she labored as a speechwriter for the group’s chief, David Miscavige. One unearthed 2006 video shared with Ortega reveals Gail Armstrong giving a speech to an enormous physique of assembled Scientologists. In 2015, in response to the exposé documentary Going Clear, which prominently featured Rinder detailing abuses by Scientology, the group launched a collection of movies seemingly meant to discredit Rinder. A minimum of two of those movies function Gail Armstrong disparaging Rinder.
In accordance with former Scientologist Serge del Mar, he knew Emily Armstrong as a Scientologist in his childhood. She will be seen in images attending Scientology occasions way back to 2013, and he or she allegedly attended Masterson’s trial within the firm of Scientologists.
Emily Armstrong’s defenders have identified that we are able to’t know the extent to which she believes in Scientology’s theology, regardless of her lengthy historical past of affiliation, given her normal reticence to talk publicly concerning the group. Armstrong additionally identifies as queer regardless of Scientology’s alleged institutional homophobia.
On September 9, Jaime Bennington posted a collection of screenshotted messages to his Instagram Story feed, which have been themselves screencapped and shared across the web. The publish, addressed to his father’s former co-lead singer, Mike Shinoda, accused Linkin Park of “quietly eras[ing] my father’s life and legacy … throughout INTERNATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH.” Bennington additionally accused Shinoda of nepotism in hiring Armstrong regardless of allegedly realizing of her ties to Scientology and Masterson. He additional accused Shinoda of “groom[ing] you[r] fan base” and refusing to acknowledge Masterson’s victims.
Regardless of his strained relationship along with his father’s former bandmates and regardless of what he described as “merciless, uncommon and aggressive” harassment in current days from Linkin Park followers who believed he was interfering with the band, Bennington attended the band’s September 11 present in Los Angeles. He posted that he could be attending “for closure. For acknowledgment.”
“Whereas attending the present please don’t harass me or my companion,” he wrote. “Respectfully, we’re attending for closure … I’M GRIEVING.”
Whereas Bennington’s assertion has gotten traction on-line and within the media, what few individuals are acknowledging is the psychological anguish Bennington has undergone for the reason that demise of his father. He has acknowledged repeatedly, together with in his Instagram bio as of publication, that he doesn’t imagine Chester Bennington died by suicide and has a historical past of spreading conspiracy theories relating to his demise. Additional deepening the rabbit gap is a longstanding QAnon conspiracy principle that Chester Bennington was murdered by a hoop of pedophiles as a result of he was on the cusp of exposing them. That is false, however Jamie Bennington has accused Linkin Park of “grooming” its fan base, a standard QAnon chorus that has coloured how some followers have learn his complaints.
Can any of this lead to good artwork?
If certainly Armstrong is a Scientology loyalist, what precisely does that imply for followers? It wouldn’t be the primary time the general public continued to assist and luxuriate in artwork made by artists related to Scientology — actors like John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Elisabeth Moss all nonetheless have loads of Hollywood endurance regardless of a long time of Scientology affiliation. The band has but to touch upon the scandal, although a spokesperson redirected Selection to Armstrong’s apology. Vox has reached out to Armstrong for remark.
What appears to be getting misplaced within the dialog is the impression that selecting Armstrong may have on Bennington’s legacy, in addition to on his followers who battle with their psychological well being.
If Armstrong believes the tenets of Scientology, it means she’ll need to carry out artwork made by somebody who struggled with psychological well being points regardless of subscribing to an orthodoxy that allegedly casts doubt on these points. Can she, as a former supporter of a convicted rapist, compellingly ship songs by a survivor of intensive sexual abuse? Does this matter if the songs weren’t written by her?
All of this publicity does appear to have revved up curiosity within the band’s comeback. The brand new album’s lead single, “The Vacancy Machine,” has already racked up over 58 million Spotify streams and 21 million YouTube views as of Monday.
Many followers are dismissing Jaime Bennington’s complaints because the screed of somebody whose points with the band lengthy pre-date Armstrong’s arrival.
The backlash is a lesson in affect — the affect that artwork can have over listeners in addition to the affect a strong establishment can wield over its alleged members.
And if Armstrong is a Scientologist, then her new function within the band may give her affect over a complete fanbase; that’s, in any case, how Scientology continues to unfold and develop regardless of a long time of allegations of abuse and manipulation. Then once more, it may merely be one in every of innumerable examples the place followers select to separate the artwork from the artist — nevertheless a lot the artist would possibly profit.
Linkin Park’s continued silence on the controversy might very properly outlive the backlash, suggesting that, ultimately, maybe it doesn’t even matter.