Age: 28
Occupation: rock band
Last Seen: London
Bee-otched For: throwing away their legacy
The year was 1980.
Saturday Night Live was becoming a reason to avoid the bars. Its cast members—especially Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who left a year earlier to film hit movies such as "1941" and "The Blues Brothers"—graduated to bigger roles in movies and TV. Hollywood knew that those three letters, SNL, led to box office triumphs.
At the same time, show boss Lorne Michaels was fighting a war with his bosses at NBC. The network was a distant third place in the ratings, and the show was constantly poking fun at the network and its president, Fred Silverman. The network and Michaels went into loggerheads over a Weekend Update story by Al Franken called "Limo for the Lame-O," where he attacked them for giving Silverman a limo to ride to and from work despite the network's troubles. The bullying from the network caused Michaels to burn out, so he left the show, with the show's cast members and writers following him out the door.
Since NBC owned SNL, one of the few shows they had with good ratings, they simply hired a new producer, Jean Doumanian, a new cast, and a new writing staff led by comedy veteran Mason Williams, best known for his work on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (which Michaels himself wrote for) and the 1968 hit song "Classical Gas." The results were disastrous. The ratings plummeted, and the show truly jumped the shark when cast member Charles Rocket uttered the F-word at the end of an episode. NBC fired most of the show's cast and writers mid-season, but it was too late. A writers' strike shortened the already horrific 1980-81 season.
Some say that NBC should have canceled SNL, but they still had faith in the franchise. They hired Dick Ebersol to run the show, and they retained two cast members from that dreadful season: Joe Piscopo and a mid-season addition named Eddie Murphy. For the next several years, many fans felt that it was Murphy who carried the weight of the show on his shoulders. He was SNL's breakout star, with characters such as Mr. Robinson, a parody of Mr. Rogers. As a matter of fact, Fred Rogers himself loved Murphy's impersonation of him. Of course, there was Gumby, Buckwheat, and yes, James Brown and his hot tub.
However, Murphy was so good on SNL that Hollywood wanted him ASAP. "'48 Hrs'," "Trading Places," and "Beverly Hills Cop" were box office smashes. In 1984, Murphy left SNL to pursue a full-time career in movies. The 1984-85 season of SNL was so bad that in reruns of the show, poorly reviewed sketches were replaced with earlier sketches featuring Murphy. In 1985, NBC announced that SNL was canceled. Lorne Michaels decided to return to the show, to the delight of NBC, now #1 in the ratings thanks to President Brandon Tartikoff and hits like Cheers and, suffice it to say, The Cosby Show.
Now, SNL is celebrating its 50th season. It's had its good years, and some years it would love to forget. It has launched the careers of many legends, while sadly, there were a few people who left this earth too soon due to the price of fame. Granted, every episode is loaded with hilarious moments and belly-busting laughs, but there are always a few sketches that end up being about as funny as watching grass grow.
Lorne's response? "The show doesn't go on because it's ready; it goes on because it's 11:30."
So, what does Linkin Park have to do with a 50-year-old TV variety show? Some critics exclaim that when Michaels first left SNL in 1980, it should have remained canceled, period. In the world of Linkin Park, some wished that the group would have disbanded on July 20, 2017.
It was on that date that lead singer Chester Bennington took his own life at age 41 by hanging himself in his own home. Bennington struggled with substance abuse and depression most of his life which started at age seven when he started doing sexual favors for a teenage boy in his neighborhood. The abuse continued until he turned 12 when his parents divorced. He was bullied continuously throughout high school and had few friends. He fell into the dark world of drugs, which followed him shortly before his untimely death.
Bennington joined Linkin Park in 1999, replacing the original lead singer, Mark Wakefield. A year later, the group released its debut album, "Hybrid Theory," which sold 32 million copies worldwide and featured the band's biggest hit, "In the End," which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Many of Linkin Park's songs reflected Bennington's personal life, such as "Runaway," "One Step Closer," and "Somewhere I Belong." In all, the band sold over 100 million albums worldwide and was one of the most successful rock bands of the 21st century.
When Chester Bennington died, Linkin Park decided to go on hiatus. Co-lead singer Mike Shinoda released several solo albums and produced for other artists. There were rumors that the band would reform with a new lead singer, though another rumor was that the group would simply tour with a rotating list of singers.
But now, LP is back. And they're doing something rare in the music industry: replacing a male lead singer with a woman.
A few weeks ago, the group’s website posted a strange countdown that was mysteriously taken down. Meanwhile, on her social media, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale posted a video of herself playing “Numb” on the piano.
Now, the mystery has been solved. LP's new lead singer is Emily Armstrong, who is also the lead singer of Dead Sara, best known for songs such as "Weatherman" and "Heroes." Many critics have lauded Armstrong, who considers Iggy Pop and Janis Joplin as influences. One huge fan of Armstrong is Grace Slick, the legendary lead singer of Jefferson Airplane/Starship.
The band also parted ways with founding drummer Rob Bourdon, who left the band during its hiatus. He was replaced with Colin Brittain, a songwriter and producer who has worked with Papa Roach, Dashboard Confessional, and Avicii.
They announced that they have recorded a new album, "From Zero," which will be released on November 15. The first single from the album, "The Emptiness Machine," has gotten mixed reviews from critics and fans. Some applaud the fact that it has maintained much of the old LP sound and mixed it with something new: a duet between a woman and the group’s rapper, who actually sings on the track. However, the haters are complaining about the fact that a woman has taken Chester's spot and that she is not a great singer.
But only a few hours later, LP fans had a new reason to hate Armstrong.
As it turns out, Armstrong is a devout member of the Church of Scientology, the religious cult founded in 1953 by former pulp comic writer L. Ron Hubbard. Many celebrities, like Armstrong, are members of Scientology, including John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Bart Simpson's voice actress, Nancy Cartwright. Armstrong was also friends with fellow Scientologist Danny Masterson, the actor from That '70s Show who is now serving 30 years in prison for raping multiple women.
One of Masterson's alleged victims was Chrissie Carnell Bixler, the wife of Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the lead singer of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta. Both are former Scientologists. According to Chrissie, Armstrong and a "goon squad" of fellow Scientologists confronted one of Masterson's victims in front of an elevator, and a bailiff had to come to her rescue.
Bixler also labeled Armstrong as a homophobe because she was a true believer in Hubbard and his book "Dianetics." Bixler also pointed out that she left Scientology because of the fact that they, like other religious groups, have swept multiple sexual assaults under the rug.
But now, the plot thickens.
Chester's 28-year-old son, Jaime, attacked the band for betraying their fans' trust. On Instagram, he berated co-lead singer Mike Shinoda, saying that he "quietly erased my father's life and legacy" during International Suicide Prevention Month. The post also mentioned that neither he nor Chester's family was involved in choosing a new lead singer for LP and that he and Shinoda's wife are not even on speaking terms. Jaime even believes that Shinoda might have hired Armstrong as far back as 2019 or even 2017 when his father died.
Also recently, Chester's mother, Susan Eubanks, told Rolling Stone that she was also betrayed by the band's decision. She claimed that the band would notify her about any plans to reunite, but did not. She did approve the release of two shelved Linkin Park songs, "Lost" and "Friendly Fire", both recent hits for the group. Eubanks said that she did speak briefly to Shinoda and Joe Hahn, the group's turntablist, but nothing about reuniting came about. She claimed that she was not a fan of Armstrong's "screeching" and ran out of the venue as fast as she could. She also mentioned that Shinoda often made fun of him, and Bennington even threatened to leave Linkin Park several times.
A day after the younger Bennington attacked the band, he claimed that he was pelted with death threats from fans of the new Linkin Park. He also said that he would attend the band's 9/11 concert, which was given to him by a fan, and asked everyone to give him and his partner privacy.
In an Instagram post, without mentioning Masterson’s name, Armstrong acknowledged that he was her friend. However, as the trial escalated, her opinion of him changed drastically. She stated that she does not condone violence against women and empathizes with Masterson’s victims. Her excuse was that she always looked for the good in people.
Since the announcement of Armstrong joining the band, lead guitarist Brad Delson announced that he would not be with the group on its current tour, citing personal and family reasons.
It's no secret that there are a plethora of bands that have lost a lead singer due to death and still remained successful after their loss. AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Alice in Chains all come to mind. It's rare in rock for a group to trade in their successful and beloved vocalist for a female, and some, like Against Me! and K's Choice (best known for their 1996 hit "Not an Addict"), have lead singers who decided to become transgender.
When LP announced their reunion, I was ecstatic until I heard about what Armstrong did. The fact that she would stand up for a monster like Danny Masterson just because they were siblings in a fake cult shows how sick she really is. Let's remember that the true voice of LP, Chester Bennington, was a SA victim himself. Replacing him with an enabler like Emily Armstrong was like Bush I replacing Thurgood Marshall with Clarence Thomas and Drumpf replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Amy Cunty Barrett on the Supreme Court.
I know. There's a world of rockers out there that have their reasons to be canceled. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. During a concert in his homeland of England, Eric Clapton told all the immigrants in attendance to go home. In his 30s, Ted Nugent had a relationship with a teenage girl. Scott Stapp of Creed made a video where he announced that he was going to kill President Obama. Ditto with Nugent, who hinted that he wanted to kill Obama by saying, "I'll be dead or in jail" if the 44th President was reelected in 2012. Let's not forget Chris Brown putting the smackdown on Rihanna.
And guess what? Right now, there’s a radio station playing the acts that I just mentioned.
Other countries have the tendency to cancel artists who engage in illicit sexual assaults. Gary Glitter is in prison for years of SAs on underage girls. Here in America, you'll still hear "Rock 'n Roll Part 2" at many stadiums and arenas. Hell, the cable network TV One still airs The Cosby Show even though Bill Cosby drugged and SA'd many women.
Even with the controversy surrounding Emily Armstrong, "The Emptiness Machine" is now a top 10 hit on active rock and alternative radio. What's interesting is that many rock fans couldn't care less about Armstrong's connections to a cult or the insensitivity toward Chester Bennington or his family. For some, it's a banger and that's all that matters.
Rock music has always been a big tent in terms of politics and even religion. After all, it's well-known that leftist guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine is best friends with the aforementioned Nugent. According to Morello, he and Nugent only talk about music, not politics. Bear in mind that it was the right that tried to kill rock music in the 1950s by linking it to juvenile delinquency. Some even resorted to tearing down radio towers, and some stations tried to avoid playing Black music by playing the Pat Boone versions of popular R&B tunes. One TV station, KTEN in Ada, Oklahoma—which shoehorned all three major networks onto its schedule—threatened to pull American Bandstand from its schedule in the late 1950s. Allegedly, Ada is a very conservative town. Host Dick Clark told his viewers about KTEN's plan, and within days, the station had received more letters than the population of Ada itself, which was about 16,000.
Yes, conservatives cried when John Lennon proclaimed that The Beatles were "bigger than Jesus," so they burned their albums. They wanted to stop MTV and heavy metal acts and even tried to link them to Satan and suicide. In the 90s, Pearl Jam stopped making music videos because MTV censored the ending of their video for "Jeremy," where the protagonist, a young boy, put a gun in his mouth. One reason for MTV's absurd amount of censorship over the decades was that one of the largest cable operators during the 80s and 90s, TCI, was operated by an ultra-right-winger named John Malone. When he ran TCI, Malone threatened to pull MTV off his systems if they aired content he found offensive.
And yes, this is the same John Malone who now owns most of SiriusXM, Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Formula One, and until recently, the Atlanta Braves baseball team, which his Liberty Media spun off in a stock trade. Now 83, he's worth an estimated $9 billion.
It's worth noting that in the late '90s here in Grand Rapids, TCI pulled MTV and Comedy Central from its lineup. Allegedly, the local head of operations for TCI was unhappy with the content both channels—owned by Viacom—were pushing onto young people. I remember hearing that the deeply missed rock station 94.5 KLQ rented kiosks at local malls and put TVs in them so people could watch MTV. I would imagine that people bought DirecTV and Dish Network systems and canceled TCI in protest.
So yes, this is part of the reason why I don't vote Republican. Plus, I refuse to shop at Walmart in part because they refuse to sell any recording with the "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" sticker. What's insane is when I hear a conservative cry about liberals pushing cancel culture when in fact, it was they who started it centuries ago.
What's sad is that rock fans sure do like to fight one another. In one post regarding the LP fiasco, a man posted about how angry he was with Armstrong. But another man replied about how hypocritical he was because he wore a Pantera shirt on his Facebook profile. (For the record, Pantera lead singer Phil Anselmo has long been under fire for showing a Nazi salute during a concert honoring his former guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott and screaming "White Power!"). One person even attacked me by saying that I looked like I "drank the Kool-Aid." Ummm, they drank Flavor-Aid in Jonestown, Dumbass.
One of the most-damning comments towards Jaime Bennington was from a douchebag who proclaimed that his father was a loser for abandoning him by committing suicide. It reminded me of when Kurt Cobain died and my mother and her now ex-husband joked about his death. They would say things like, "Cocoa Bean! He's a dead Cocoa Bean!" And stupid jokes like, "What was Kurt Cobain's last hit? The floor." Like Cobain and Bennington, my mom's ex's daughter has dealt with depression for years and even tried to commit suicide multiple times. As a matter of fact, when her grandfather died, she couldn't attend his funeral because she was in the hospital after a suicide attempt. When she posted what happened on Facebook, her own father rudely responded with "See you on the other side."
Folks, mental illness is no laughing matter. Nobody should ever be shamed because they didn't have a happy childhood. In my ex-stepsister's case, her mother was a drunk, white trash loser who couldn't keep a job while her father was a homewrecker. She's dealt with health issues all her life, including asthma. She's never had a good relationship and like her mother, can't keep a job.
Chester Bennington was proof that you can be a millionaire multiple times over, have a wonderful wife and loving children and it won't cure the trauma of your past. Harvey Weinstein was a successful Oscar-winning film producer. Yet, he went to prison for SAing dozens of women. One of his triggers involved his mother emotionally abusing him as a child for being overweight. Vince McMahon didn't have a happy childhood, either. He was abandoned by his father as an infant and lived in a rotting old trailer with his single mother, who married an abusive drunk. In the years ahead, he screwed over his father by buying him and his competitors out (which he warned him not to) and almost had the wrestling business to himself. For years, he SA'd many women and paid them hush money.
You see, this is what happens when parents aren't positive role models in their lives. They fuck up and others get hurt. In a future BOTD, I will explain some of the shit that happened to me when I was young and the effect it had on me in my 40s.
Look, I'm not against Linkin Park reuniting. To me, it's like SNL in 1980. Now, don't get me wrong. There were highlights that season. After all, people like Gilbert Gottfried, Eddie Murphy, and Denny Dillon all went on to become respected stars. Emily Armstrong is a decent singer and an attractive woman. But deep down, she's someone who hurt others all in the name of a false prophet like Hubbard.
Funny how Grace Slick loves Armstrong. After all, she was the lead singer of a band that had three different names. There's a huge contrast between Jefferson Airplane and Starship. "White Rabbit"—which Slick wrote—was an attack on parents who criticized rock music for being pro-drugs, yet read stories like "Alice in Wonderland" to their children. But "We Built This City" was a steaming pile of horse shit. True, there's substance in the song. After all, it was inspired by the onslaught of live music venues that closed in Los Angeles in the 1980s. But the song's corporate rock vibe simply ruined its message.
As for Linkin Park, I agree with many fans that they should not have kept the name when they reformed. How about "Linkin Garden" or "Linkin Field"? If Starship had released "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" as Jefferson Airplane, I think the world would have laughed.
When I hear about Emily Armstrong, it takes me back to the story I told last year about Della Reese. My late uncle worked in the music industry, and one story that had been circulating for decades was that Reese, then an up-and-coming R&B singer, was in Detroit for a radio promotion. She looked at the playlists of the stations in town and was angered that none of her records were being played, despite being a Detroiter herself.
Her alleged response? "Whose cock do I need to suck to get played in this city?" One of the station programmers took her to his office and locked the door. Within a week, one of her singles was getting good airplay in The Motor City.
If I owned a radio station, I would not play anything from Emily Armstrong unless she came to me and pulled a Della Reese on me. However, it wouldn't shock me if she did the same thing to the other LP members and others in the industry to get to where she is now. Aside from the brainwashing she received from Scientology, she probably has a few creepy crawlers to boot.
When it comes to the world of rock, in the end, credibility does matter.
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