Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington left six kids, a family, and millions of fans behind. Korn’s Brian ‘Head’ Welch doesn’t call that sad, he calls it cowardice.
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It might be what a lot of people are thinking. Now, Korn guitarist and Bennington peer Brian ‘Head’ Welch is saying it out loud.
Here’s what Welch wrote on Facebook in the hours following Bennington’s suicide death.
“Honestly, Chester’s an old friend who we’ve hung with many times, and I have friends who are extremely close to him. But this is truly pissing me off! How can these guys send this message to their kids and fans?! I’m sick of this suicide shit! I’ve battled depression/mental illness, and I’m trying to be sympathetic. But it’s hard when you’re pissed! Enough is enough!”
“Giving up on your kids, fans, and life is the cowardly way out!!!”
The reaction was met with a chorus of boos, though Welch defended his comments against the Linkin Park frontman. “I didn’t mean to sound insensitive about Chester,” the guitarist continued. “Just dealing with a range of emotions today.”
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Despite the harsh words, Welch conceded that drugs and/or alcohol may have triggered the suicide. That was also suggested in the recent suicide hanging by Chris Cornell, though experts note that drugs rarely lead to intentional suicides.
Regardless, the theory that medication leads to extreme actions like suicide remains pervasive. “Love you, Chester. I’m pissed that you did this, but I know this could have been me back in the day after getting wasted one night.”
Welch experienced his own battles with drugs and alcohol in the past, especially during Korn’s heyday.
Accordingly, the guitarist described a pit of depression at the height of the group’s fame, all of which coincided with intensifying personal problems.
Ultimately, Welch gained custody of his daughter after his drug-addled wife proved incapable of raising their child. “I promised I was going to get my life right for my daughter, and that lasted four months,” Welch relayed. “But I just couldn’t stay sober.”
Perhaps a similar struggle against depression, self-hatred, and drug abuse is shaping Welch’s unsympathetic viewpoint. “I didn’t like to look in the mirror. I didn’t like the person staring back at me. And that self-hatred root grew in me when I was in junior high, and it never left. No matter if I made millions of dollars or bought my BMW.”
I wouldn’t be too hard on Brian. It’s his way of dealing with the grief. It’s easy to say suicide is the coward’s way out from the outside looking in. But when you’re in the thick of it with depression, it’s hard to realize that.
What a fucking loser. He had the position to give hope and he had to be a selfish fuck and not realize he could have made a difference. Loser Loser Loser.
Anyone can take the easy way out. Just b/c he had talent doesn’t mean it’s a tragedy, another example of a selfish prick
I see you cant deal with the truth. Truth hurts.
Hopefully you’re just venting your confused and angry/sad thoughts and you don’t truly believe what you just wrote. If you only knew of a fraction of the circumstances involving this case you would have reason to pause. Hopefully *soon* it will be safe to release more information, more truth. Until then don’t think too harshly of people who could very well be the true victims.
Sorry Brian’s 100% dead-on. Unless you’re in extreme pain or locked in a cage suicide is a bitch move for losers. Bennington left 6 kids + wife behind all fucked for life. Always wondering what they could have done different.
Before I started DMN I was at an internet company that did pretty well. I guess after the company sold and the company basically got dismantled under the new owners, one of the top executives got pretty depressed. I remember he was helping me conceptualize DMN, but he seemed a little off. I didn’t hear from him for a year, until someone else called me to tell me he killed himself. I was completely shocked. But the worst part was that he left a two year old son behind (who’s probably now a young man entering his teens). I have to say: I never really forgave the guy for that — it was a shitty move against his kid and wife, even though they were having marital problems. Just seemed like the completely wrong and selfish act that people close to this guy are still dealing with 10+ years later.
My guess he wanted to come out as a WOMAN and couldn’t face the music, so offing himself he thought was his only way out.
Nothing else would make sense in 2017 ..
I think the hate being shown to Brian is unfair. He’s grieving like everyone else. It’s s tragic thing. But I think it’s right to remind people that all suicide does is hurt those closest to you.
I don’t think Brian is minimizing the struggle of depression but it doesn’t matter how bad it is, having people who need you (wife and kids fir example) is what life is about. When you take your eyes off that and focus on yourself – this stuff happens.
Thanks for sharing this point of view. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the grief and not look at the situation from a brutally realistic side. I look up to Brian Head quite a bit and I’m glad he is speaking truth, just like he has been the over the past six or seven years.
Wow, never expected such a horridly ignorant comment coming from someone that is a professed follower of Christ. What a self-righteous prick.
This guys a pedo then
Every one of You are Judgemental “PRICKS”…Where in the Hell did You get Your Psych Degree ??? I have PTSD, I live with Contemplating Suicide day in and day out. I Go to the VA and see Doctors, Groups and Enough Med’s to Knock out a whole 1st grade Class !!!, and still I think about it. It IS a Disease, NOT as You say… “COWARDLY ACT”…….ASSHOLES !!!!!
Jobi – you say you contemplate suicide… but you are still here. You said it’s a disease. Really? Cancer is a disease that no one chooses and it claims a life and devastates everyone. Suicide is purely preventable. You know you’re sick – what do you
do for treatment? Purportedly shocked and unaware of his “disease”, Bennington’s kids and wife will forever face these words “Well, I decided on cancer instead of my life, including you”. So rage on with the vitriol. There was more at state and in play than Chester’s disease.
Goddamn you are a utter moron. Depression is a disease. It’s a well documented disease. It’s well documented that people who seek treatment for it have committed suicide while on the treatment. It’s well documented that people who are depressed have trouble seeking treatment. It wouldn’t be surprising if Chester had a backwoods Hillbilly Son of a bitch like you in his life that struggles to understand cancer and depression. If anyone is going to rage its because your type are complete and uneducated douche bags. Just because you have a right to an opinion doesn’t mean you have to share your scientifically invalid hog wash with the world motherfucker.
Here’s another talking head for you. He needs to be smacked right in his Gob
Go listen to some Linkin Puke and cry about Chester.
Linkin Park was garbage music and Chester was a garbage singer. How do any people think that music was good?
All the hate towards Brian are from butthurt fans who cant handle the truth.