Linkin Park recently announced Emily Armstrong as their new vocalist and it hasn't been going super well from a PR standpoint. Armstrong recently had to address the fact that she defended fellow Scientologist Danny Masterson during his trials for raping women, while Linkin Park themselves have remained quiet on the issue.
Now Chester Bennington's son Jaime has come out against the Linkin Park reunion with plenty of harsh accusations. In a series of Instagram stories, Jamie criticized Linkin Park's decision to hire Armstrong despite allegedly knowing her involvement with Scientology.
He later accused Linkin Park of "quietly erased my father’s life and legacy in real time not only during a band interview meant to clear the air about certain aspects of Linkin Park's history and future, but during international suicide prevention month." Jamie ended his stories by calling Linkin Park "senile and tone deaf" while pointing out that he feels Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda always intended to carry on the band post-Bennington.
Jamie later noted in a series of separate stories captured by TMZ that he'll be attending Linkin Park's show on September 11, but that Linkin Park's management has not acknowledged him. "While attending the show please do not harass me or my partner," Jamie later added. "Respectfully, we are attending for closure. For acknowledgement."
Shinoda recently clarified his decision of carrying on the Linkin Park name in an interview with Q101, it just felt right to come back as Linkin Park.
"In the middle of the process, we were open to, like, maybe the lineup is like a moving lineup, maybe there's multiple vocalists, maybe it's a different name, stuff like that," said Shinoda. "And then as the music came into focus, we were, like, 'This is as Linkin Park an album as we could make. It's so Linkin Park that if we call it something else, then we are idiots.' Because it would be like misrepresentation. It'd be silly. And when people hear more of the album, they will understand that."
