What’s Up With Linkin Park’s New Singer?

Photo: Sam Morris/Getty Images

In the end, it wasn’t actually the end for Linkin Park. The rock band is back with new music for the first time in seven years — and a new singer as well. Emily Armstrong joined the band, replacing the late Chester Bennington, who died in 2017. Armstrong has sung in the band Dead Sara since 2005 and makes her Linkin Park debut on new single “The Emptiness Machine,” sharing vocal duties with Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda. (Colin Brittain is also joining Linkin Park as their new drummer with Rob Bourdon not returning.) She joined the band onstage for the first time September 5 and will feature on their new album, From Zero, out November 15. But Armstrong’s addition has already been controversial, as fans scrutinize her history with Scientology and convicted rapist Danny Masterson. She addressed her past support of Masterson in an Instagram Story statement on September 6, but Masterson accuser Chrissie Carnell Bixler responded that Armstrong “has no business replacing Chester Bennington.” Now, Bennington’s son, Jaime, and his mother, Susan Eubanks, have criticized the band for hiring Armstrong and remaining silent on the choice.

Armstrong has been playing music for over 20 years, forming her band Dead Sara with guitarist Siouxsie Medley in the early aughts. The band released its first EP in 2008 but didn’t break out until 2012, when they independently released a self-titled debut album and their single “Weatherman” cracked the rock and alternative charts. Maybe you remember them from Warped Tour 2012 or season four of Vampire Diaries? Dead Sara has since released two more albums: Pleasure to Meet You in 2015 and Ain’t It Tragic in 2021. More recently, they featured on Demi Lovato’s song “Help Me” off Holy Fvck and opened for her corresponding tour.

Armstrong had a lot of respect in the rock world before joining Linkin Park. She sang on Courtney Love’s 2010 album, Nobody’s Daughter, and has been praised by Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick and Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl. And she’s a Linkin Park fan: She told Billboard she especially loved the band’s 2000 album, Hybrid Theory, when it came out and the song “One Step Closer.”

After Bennington’s death in 2017, Linkin Park went on hiatus, only performing publicly for a tribute concert. In the years that followed, Shinoda and the band went back and forth publicly about the future of Linkin Park. “I’m unable to say what will happen with the band,” Shinoda told Vulture in 2018. The band’s members soon started spending time together again afterward but didn’t intend to make another album. “I would float the idea of getting together, [we’d] get together and it was fun, but there wasn’t any creative momentum,” Shinoda told Billboard.

Linkin Park invited Armstrong to Shinoda’s studio for “maybe three” days in 2019, she said, but she hadn’t joined the band. A few years later, Shinoda started working with her again, along with some other singers. Once Linkin Park started booking shows, Shinoda began wondering how to handle vocals. “Am I going to be carrying a bunch of vocals?” he told Apple Music. “Are we going to have another vocalist? Are we going to have multiple vocalists onstage?” He said the band considered making Armstrong a featured artist, before inviting her to be a member. “When I started to hear Emily’s voice on things, my brain, it was like the first time that my brain would accept it as a Linkin Park song,” Shinoda said. And yes, she can scream — the band’s DJ, Joe Hahn, said the first time Shinoda asked Armstrong to scream, “for me, that did it.”

That’s the big question! Armstrong has never publicly identified with the Church of Scientology, though she did attend a gala in 2013. More recently, Armstrong supported actor and prominent Scientologist Danny Masterson at his 2020 rape trial, where he was convicted on two counts.

Without identifying Masterson by name, Armstrong walked back her past support of him in a brief Notes-app statement posted to her Instagram Story in the evening on September 6. The singer, who said she “wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back,” described being asked to support “someone I considered a friend” at a court appearance and attending an early court hearing as an observer. “Soon after, I realized I shouldn’t have,” she said. “I always try to see the good in people, and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since.” Armstrong added that “unimaginable details” emerged, and the person was found guilty. “To say it as clearly as possible: I do not condone abuse or violence against women, and I empathize with the victims of these crimes,” she concluded.

Linkin Park has not made an official statement on the controversy around Armstrong, but Shinoda addressed fans on the band’s Discord on September 8. “Many people will take time to wrap their heads around us with her,” he wrote. “If people are respectfully not there yet, I’m totally fine with that. But disrespect me, and you will lose my respect in return.” He didn’t address Armstrong’s statement or the Scientology allegations, but said the band needs “to give space for everyone who is shocked / processing.”

Through Rolling Stone, Bennington’s mother, Susan Eubanks, expresses her discontent with how the revival of Linkin Park has gone forward. She claims that the band had promised to let her know if there’s any “inkling” of going forward without Bennington. “I feel betrayed. They told me that if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I wouldn’t going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it,” Eubanks shared. “I feel like they’re trying very hard to erase the past. They’re performing songs that Chester sang. And I don’t know how the fans are taking it, but I know how I take it. And having [Armstrong] singing my son’s songs is hurtful.”

In the same statement, Eubanks claims that Shinoda and Bennington’s ex-wife, Samantha Bennington, have remained close since Chester’s death, but Samantha refuted those claims, writing, “I have not spoken with Mike Shinoda since I was married to Chester. I have not seen him since prior to my divorce in 2005. I believe my mother-in-law is mixing up bands between Linkin Park and Grey Daze. Grief and sadness messes with your memory.”

Bennington’s oldest son, Jaime, criticized Shinoda’s comments about “disrespect” on Instagram. He claimed Shinoda “quietly erased my father’s life and legacy” and has “refused to acknowledge the impact of hiring someone like Emily.” (Jaime also implied he was “restricted” from interacting with Shinoda or his wife, Anna.) “You have betrayed the trust loaned to you by decades of fans and supporting human beings including myself,” Jaime continued. “We trusted you to be the bigger better person. To be the change. Because you promised us that was your intention. Now you’re just senile and tone deaf. Insane.”

Masterson accuser Chrissie Carnell Bixler and her husband, Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala — both former Scientologists — each spoke out against Armstrong after she joined the band and criticized Armstrong again after her statement on September 6. Carnell Bixler said Armstrong has “no right to fill the shoes of Chester Bennington, a true advocate” on Instagram. “I don’t give a fuck that you are very close to the serial rapist. I don’t give a fuck that you lied in your ‘apology’ instagram story,” Carnell Bixler wrote. “I do care that you participated, after being asked, in the cruel intimidation of Jane Doe 1 with your cult pals at court. I do care that you didn’t once mention that you are a member of a child and human trafficking cult that covers up the abuses and rapes of CHILDREN and adults. I do care that your parents work for OSA (the office of special affairs) of the cult of Scientology which have been ordering attacks on me and my family which includes murdering my dogs in the most inhumane and evil ways. I do care that they have been attacking and harassing my fellow sister survivors.”

Bixler-Zavala, meanwhile, reposted his wife’s statement with a comment of his own. He also criticized Armstrong for her alleged behavior during Masterson’s trial and for remaining close with Masterson’s ex-wife Bijou Phillips, who is also involved in Scientology. “Today is the one year anniversary of having put that shit bag you thought was a ‘good guy’ in jail,” Bixler-Zavala wrote. “You can’t even say sorry to the Jane does properly huh? Your apology is worded as if you hired some PR crisis team to help you.” He went on to attack Linkin Park for hiring Armstrong and asked them to no longer play music from his band, At the Drive-In, before shows.

“You should fire your entire team for not thoroughly vetting your choice,” he added. “You’re a Disney level brand trying to make a comeback and you didn’t think to spend a little money on looking into her?”

Before Armstrong’s statement, Carnell Bixler called her “a hardcore Scientologist who supported convicted serial rapist both in and out of court” on her Instagram Story. (Carnell Bixler’s specific accusation resulted in a hung jury.) “Emily Armstrong is a true believer of the Scientology cult/criminal organization that engages in human and child trafficking, child and elder abuse, the cover ups of countless SAs [sexual assaults] on children and adults,” she continued. Bixler-Zavala, meanwhile, reposted a comment he’d previously left on Dead Sara’s Instagram about Armstrong’s support of Masterson. “Remember Emily? Remember how your fellow scientologist goon squad surrounded one of the Jane Doe’s when she was trying to leave the elevators?” he wrote. “The court sheriffs had to escort her away from your awful cult …” He also called Armstrong “a born in Scientologist” and called her “corny ass” multiple times. Bixler-Zavala since deleted the Instagram Story, but Carnell Bixler still has his comment up.

Meanwhile, many Linkin Park fans online quickly expressed dismay at Armstrong’s Scientology associations. “Growing up really is just your favorite bands disappointing you,” one wrote.