Six days before his death, Chester Bennington gave his all in an emotional carpool karaoke session on Linkin Park anthem “Numb”. Chester was laughing and having fun with his boys at points. However, fans observed that he soon got lost in the lyrics and was really singing his heart out, channeling the emotions of the song. Ten million fans tuned in to see Chester’s final performance, although it was a bittersweet watch to see the legend singing with his friends given what was to come.
The performance shows everything we love about Chester. His vocals are powerful and touching, and he really gives his all. He would have sung “Numb” a thousand times by that point, but he still makes it feel like he just wrote it yesterday and the emotions are running hot. The Music Man has to say that Chester was truly one of a kind.
Chester filmed the carpool karaoke session on July 14, 2017, six days before his death on July 20. Fans added comments like “You can see he wasn’t singing for the camera anymore, he was singing for himself and was lost in his own lyrics. Crazy to watch this back” and “The fact that this was taped only six days before his passing makes it unreal… the smiles on his face, the company he enjoyed. He was literally in the moment and I can only hope that in this little amount of time, he was free from his demons.”
Another memorable performance of “Numb” came when Linkin Park performed the hit at Rock am Ring in June 2004. The band delivered this searing cut of “Numb” not long after the song’s release in September 2003. Chester and Mike Shinoda’s dual vocals really sound gorgeous here. Chester also shines on the big vocal melodies in the bridge at 2:30, which is real goosebumps territory. His high note at the close of the song is also a big moment.
Linkin Park issued “Numb” as the third single from their second studio album, Meteora. It was an instant critical and commercial success, topping the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks for 12 weeks. “Numb” has since become one of Linkin Park’s signature songs and gets played at just about every Linkin Park show. The song has continued to be a firm fan favorite over the years. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear “Numb” is one of only two Linkin Park songs to surpass two billion streams on Spotify, alongside “In the End,” which recently hit three billion streams.
