Linkin Park played an integral part in me growing up. I was in middle school when that whole pop punk era started, Good Charlotte, Evanescence, Fall Out Boy, The Calling and Linkin Park were huge, but it was Linkin Park who stood out the most. Their combination of Chester’s voices and Mike’s “rapping” along with the catchy tunes made and kept me a fan since the first time I heard “Crawling”.
Like many others, Chester’s suicide hit me hard. I grew up listening to “In the End”, “Papercut”, “Lying from You” and so many other great tracks and I just couldn’t believe that we lost another uber talented artist. Apparently, he’d been battling depression for a while and he even spoke out about how he was assaulted in the past. I thought he was doing better, especially when he started a family and then started another one. I don’t think any of us saw this coming.
I didn’t necessarily have a teen angst period in my life, but there were times when I needed to channel my frustration into something positive and often times it was writing while listening to my ‘The Edge’ mixed CD. Yes, this was a time when people used to make mixed CDs on a regular basis. In fact, there was a time when I was making at least once a week. I’d swap out my mixes all the time, but I’d always reach back for my ‘Edge’ mix. In fact, I loved it so much that I recreated it on Spotify a few years back and I’ve been adding current songs that I feel fit the genre to it since then. I wanted to share that playlist with you guys today and encourage you to check on your loved ones. People battle their depression different ways and the last thing we need is to lose someone else because of it. I pray that Chester’s loved ones find the peace that they need to get through this time and that his children remember him as the loving father he was.