Americans Linkin Park are preparing to release “From Zero”, their first album since the death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017.
Since the announcement of their return with her replacement, Emily Armstrong, the group is already experiencing a real commercial renaissance.
In the long history of rock, other groups have managed to recover from the disappearance of their emblematic voice.
A flagship group of the 2000s, Linkin Park left its mark on an entire generation thanks to its mix of big guitars, hip-hop and electro, carried by the vocal duo formed by rapper Mike Shinoda and singer Chester Bennington. A victim of mental disorders for many years, the latter would kill himself on July 20, 2017, found hanging in his home in California at the age of 41. A tragedy for millions of fans of instant hits like “Numb”, “In The End” and “Crawling”.
Last September, four of the original members announced their return with singer Emily Armstrong. As soon as the single “The Emptiness Machine” was released, it was an immediate success. And even unprecedented, with 79 million streams in one month, his biggest hit in the digital age. After a sold-out concert at the AccorArena in Paris at the beginning of October, this new version could perform next summer at the Stade de France as part of a world tour whose announcement is imminent.
Before Linkin Park, other rock bands managed to overcome the death of their singer, with varying success.
AC/DC
After taking their first steps on stage with singer Dave Evans, the Australian group recruited the intense Bon Scott who appeared on their first seven albums until the legendary Highway to Hell in 1979. On February 19, 1980, this inveterate party animal was found dead of asphyxiation, suffocated by his own vomit after an evening of too much drinking. After considering giving up, guitarist brothers Angus and Malcolm Young decided to find a replacement. They will set their sights on Brian Johnson, the British singer of the group Geordie who was their bus driver a few years earlier.
Back in Blacktheir first record together, is now the second best-selling album of all time behind Thriller by Michael Jackson, with 31.1 million copies. Suffering from serious hearing problems, Brian Johnson left the group in 2016, replaced by Axl Rose of Guns N'Roses on tour, before rejoining them in 2020 to record the album Power Up. A new world tour is in preparation.
Queen
On November 24, 1991, Freddie Mercury died at the age of 45 from pneumonia, just after revealing that he had HIV. The drama shakes up the rock planet and leaves its partners in deep disarray. Initially, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor decided to put the finishing touches to Made in Heavenan album including the last recordings of their flamboyant… and irreplaceable leader?
From 2004 to 2009, Brian May and Roger joined forces with singer Paul Rodgers within Queen + Paul Rodgers, for an album entitled The Cosmos Rocks. In 2011, the two musicians recruited Adam Lambert, a young American singer who failed in the final of the “American Idol” television show. Since then, they have toured all over the world. The latest news is that they are finally considering recording an album together.
INXS
On November 22, 1997, Australian singer Michael Hutchence was found hanged in a Sydney hotel room at the age of 37. Depressive since an accident which made him lose his taste and smell, he disappeared at a time when INXS was in decline, after having triumphed at the end of the years with the album Kick and his hits “Need You Tonight”, “Devil Inside” and “Never Tear Us Apart”. After a period of inactivity, the Farris brothers who founded the group at the end of the 1970s will find a successor in an unprecedented way.
At the end of a twelve-week telecrochet broadcast on CBS, they selected JD Fortune, a Canadian singer completely unknown to the general public. After two albums with mixed success, his beautiful story ends six years later. He was replaced by Irishman Ciaran Gribbin before the group hung up for good in 2012, eternally in the shadow of its charismatic leader, as we can see in the very beautiful documentary Mystify, released in 2019.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
This American group has written the letters of nobility of southern rock with timeless hits like “Freebird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”. On October 20, 1977, some of the musicians flew aboard a rental plane from an airport in North Carolina during a tour that was abruptly interrupted by one of the worst disasters in the history of the music.
Running out of fuel, the plane crashed near a forest, an accident which notably cost the life of singer Ronnie Van Zant, aged 29. Ten years later, his younger brother Johnny took over the microphone and hasn't let go since. The last surviving member of the original lineup, guitarist Gary Rossington, died last year.
Stone Temple Pilots
This quartet from San Diego experienced a rapid rise in the early 1990s when their first album, Core, was sucked into the grunge wave that was sweeping the airwaves around the world. Its fanciful singer Scott Weiland repeatedly jeopardized their careers due to his toxic excesses, leaving them for a few years to form Velvet Revolver with former members of Guns N'Ross. In 2013, he was found dead in his tour bus, the victim of a cocaine and alcohol overdose at the age of 48.
A few months earlier, the singer had been briefly replaced on stage by… Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, one of his biggest fans, before he gave up to devote himself to his main group. Since 2016, Stone Temple Pilot has been touring and recording with Jeff Gutt, a former “X-Factor” talent show contestant who is the perfect vocal double for Scott Weiland.
