PARTING SHOT
LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AFTER HIS LINKIN PARK BANDMATE CHESTER Bennington died by suicide last July, an emotionally raw and sleepdeprived Mike Shinoda began jotting down lyrics. “I felt like I needed to do it,” says the songwriter and vocalist for the enormously popular rap-rock band. “I tell people that life was so difficult, and the songs were easy.” These early sketches were expanded into songs, which turned into Shinoda’s new solo album, Post Traumatic, an unflinching glimpse into how he dealt with the shock of his friend’s death. The songs are diaristic and bracingly specific: In “Over Again,” he reflects on his terror at getting onstage for the first time without Bennington and confesses, “I get tackled by the grief at times I least expect.” Shinoda spoke to Newsweek before the recent deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain—two losses that amplified the epidemic of suicide in this country—but his thoughts are applicable to anyone living with mental illness. “I strongly urge people who feel like they don’t quite have things under control to go talk to somebody,” he says.
Illustration by BRITT SPENCER