Jaime Bennington, son of Chester Bennington, recently spoke about Linkin Park and his father’s passing. During an interview on the Cheap Heat Productions Podcast, Jaime mentioned his confusion over the timeline of Chester’s collaborations with Lamb of God’s Mark Morton.
He explained, “I’m like, ‘Wait a second.’ If this was recorded in 2017 then let me look back here and there’s Chester’s tweets from April of 2017. He said he was with Mark Morton. Who’s Mark Morton? Type in, Mark Morton from Lamb of God. You find out he’s from Lamb of God and then all of a sudden you find cross-off on his ‘Anesthetic’ album from 2019 and you’re like, ‘What? Hold on a second, Chester wrote that in 2017.’ It didn’t come out when he died, it came out two years after.”
“Then ‘Friendly Fire’ was recorded at the same time and that wasn’t released into until 2024 in promotion of the greatest hits album for Linkin Park ‘Paper Cuts,'” Jaime continued. “It’s like, ‘Wait a second, that’s so strange. Now I need to ask questions. Why is it that these two songs that very clearly explain Chester’s situation at the time which very clearly states he was not in a good space that he was not at the best that he could possibly be that he was drowning in his sorrows and then also being manipulated by the industry, he was in at the very end of his tenure?'”
“It’s interesting. Why was that released across such a wide amount of time and why did nobody take accountability for it? Linkin Park still hasn’t, but also I’ve tagged Mark Morton in my observations of this before and he hasn’t even responded to me and I asked, ‘Where’s the accountability?’,” he added.
Mark Morton responded in a past interview, saying, “I got so many messages and so much feedback from Linkin Park fans, thanking me for doing the song and telling me how much it meant to them and what a gift it was to hear his voice again.”
Originally recorded during the ‘One More Light’ sessions, ‘Friendly Fire’ was released on February 23, 2024, as the lead single for Linkin Park’s ‘Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000–2023)’ album. It features vocals recorded by Chester before his passing in 2017 and appears as the 20th and final track on the album.
Guitarist Brad Delson explained that Friendly Fire was one of the band’s favorite songs from the One More Light sessions, but they couldn’t finish it at the time. He said, “There’s a ‘One More Light’ song that we mixed more than the finished album. We mixed a few others to see if any would make the cut or be used as a B-side, and it was ‘Friendly Fire.’ I still love that song.”
When fans suggested releasing the song, Mike Shinoda joked that they would have to wait years to hear it.
