Touching note Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington's son wrote him weeks before suspected suicide
The son of Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington wrote a touching note urging his father to "love life" just weeks before the performer took his own life.
Chester Bennington 41, was found dead in his southern California home on Thursday night in a suspected suicide.
Just weeks earlier, Bennington's 11-year-old son Tyler left a post-it note on his father's coffee mug, telling him to enjoy his day.
"Dad, enjoy your rehersal or whatever your doing today," Tyler wrote.
"Love life because it's a 'Casltel of Glass'."
Tyler is one of Chester's six children. Castle of Glass is a popular song from the band's 2012 album, Living Things.
The revelation comes as shocked fans realised Bennington's final Instagram photo was at Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena earlier this month.
The image was of the frontman shirtless with his arms up in front of the adoring crowd.
"Birmingham, UK," he posted with an emoji of the Union Jack.
Bennington overcame a troubled childhood to top the charts with an angry but melodic brand of metal.
"Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true," Linkin Park's guitarist and main songwriter Mike Shinoda wrote on Twitter.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office said it received a call just after 9am (1600 GMT) that Bennington had been found dead at his home in the luxurious Palos Verdes Estate area.
"It is being handled as a possible suicide," said Brian Elias, chief of operations at the coroner's office.
Bennington's apparent suicide came on the day his late friend Chris Cornell would have turned 53. The Soundgarden front man to his own life in May, and Bennington wrote an open letter at the time.
Bennington - who was married twice and had six children - had wrestled all of his life with substance addiction and poor self-image.
Born and raised in Arizona, Bennington said that a family friend abused him starting at the age of seven.
"I was getting beaten up and being forced to do things I didn't want to do. It destroyed my self-confidence," he told the British music site Team Rock in 2014.
"Like most people, I was too afraid to say anything. I didn't want people to think I was gay or that I was lying," he said.
Bennington's parents divorced several years later and, while still a child, the future star said he turned heavily to alcohol and drugs.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78.
