Chester Bennington’s son Jaime Bennington is back with another comment about Linkin Park and his father’s passing.
During a new chat with Cheap Heat Productions Podcast, Jaime targeted Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton while discussing Linkin Park’s previously unreleased track ‘Friendly Fire,’ a collaboration with the band and Morton.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a second.’ If this was recorded in 2017 then let me look back here and there’s Chester’s tweets from April of 2017. He said he was with Mark Morton. Who’s Mark Morton? Type in, Mark Morton from Lamb of God,” he explained. “You find out he’s from Lamb of God and then all of a sudden you find cross-off on his ‘Anesthetic’ album from 2019 and you’re like, ‘What? Hold on a second, Chester wrote that in 2017.’ It didn’t come out when he died, it came out two years after.”
“Then ‘Friendly Fire’ was recorded at the same time and that wasn’t released into until 2024 in promotion of the greatest hits album for Linkin Park ‘Paper Cuts,'” Jaime continued. “It’s like, ‘Wait a second, that’s so strange. Now I need to ask questions. Why is it that these two songs that very clearly explain Chester’s situation at the time which very clearly states he was not in a good space that he was not at the best that he could possibly be that he was drowning in his sorrows and then also being manipulated by the industry, he was in at the very end of his tenure?'”
“It’s interesting. Why was that released across such a wide amount of time and why did nobody take accountability for it? Linkin Park still hasn’t, but also I’ve tagged Mark Morton in my observations of this before and he hasn’t even responded to me and I asked, ‘Where’s the accountability?’,” he added.
Linkin Park appeared on Morton’s solo album, and it appears that the rocker received so many messages from LP fans. “I got so many messages and so much feedback from Linkin Park fans, thanking me for doing the song and telling me how much it meant to them and what a gift it was to hear his voice again,” he explained during an interview.
“Such an iconic voice – really, the voice of a generation in a lot of ways, ’cause he was so unique and so prolific and just such an amazing talent. I could go on and on. Chester was just a really genuine, loving, compassionate, creative, brilliant dude, and I’m just really fortunate to have had the opportunity to write and record a song with him. So when it came out, it was just mind-blowing, man,” he added.
Originally recorded during the sessions for their seventh studio album, ‘One More Light,’ ‘Friendly Fire’ was officially released on February 23, 2024, as the lead single from the greatest hits album ‘Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000–2023).’ It features vocals from Chester, recorded before his death in 2017, and appears as the 20th and final track on the album.
Guitarist Brad Delson mentioned that ‘Friendly Fire’ was one of the band’s favorite tracks from the ‘One More Light’ recording sessions, but they couldn’t finish it in time for the album.
“When we started looking for an unreleased track to include on our greatest hits collection, I was blown away by the power of the song, the power of the storytelling, the power of the vocal, the sonic landscape, and I actually thought that it was closer than maybe we had realized at the time,” Delson said. “We got together to work on it and connect some of the missing pieces that for whatever reason hadn’t revealed themselves during the recording of ‘One More Light.'”
In June 2020, Mike Shinoda discussed ‘Friendly Fire’ on his Twitch channel. He shared, “There’s a ‘One More Light’ song that we mixed more than the finished album. We mixed a few others to see if any would make the cut or be used as a B-side, and it was ‘Friendly Fire.’ I still love that song.”
When fans suggested releasing it, Shinoda joked that they would ‘literally have to wait years to hear it.’
