Linkin Park may have been one of the most popular rock bands of the turn of the millennium, but now it’s facing a backlash wedded to the modern era, including a Me Too controversy and allegations about Scientology.
On September 5, after a seven-year hiatus, Linkin Park announced a comeback and aired a livestreamed performance featuring new lead vocalist Emily Armstrong, the lead singer-songwriter of the rock band Dead Sara. Yet instead of making headlines for the bold choice to replace Chester Bennington with a female lead singer, the band was promptly beset by backlash — not because of Armstrong’s gender, but because of the company she keeps.
Though many fans have been vocally supportive of the band and Armstrong’s arrival, the announcement is also kicking up a wave of anger and backlash, most notably from Jaime Bennington, the son of the band’s former frontman Chester Bennington, who died by suicide in 2017.
Jaime Bennington says Linkin Park “betrayed the trust” of fans by choosing Armstrong because of her friendship with disgraced actor Danny Masterson, who was convicted in 2023 on two counts of rape, and her support for him during his trial. Bennington also called out Armstrong for her alleged affiliation to the Church of Scientology, as did other public figures including popular musicians and watchdog journalists.
Armstrong has issued an apology for supporting Masterson, who was accused by multiple women of rape (though she identifies him only as “someone I considered a friend”). But the layers of issues don’t stop there. Jaime Bennington’s strained relationship with his father’s former bandmates complicates matters even further, as does his grief. It all serves to cloud the question of how far an artist’s real life should permeate their art when they have alleged ties to organizations with troubled history and troubling influence — and what all this means for Linkin Park and the legacy of Chester Bennington.
Fan support for Armstrong quickly soured as news of her alleged ties to Scientology and Masterson spread
Initially, fans were enthusiastic and supportive, and the band, which has been rehearsing with Armstrong for over a year, seemed to have scored a hit — an important milestone for a rock group that continues to draw crowds and chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
Linkin Park’s forthcoming album, From Zero, set to drop in November, will be the first studio album the band has released since Bennington’s death. It will also be the first to feature Armstrong alongside longtime co-lead singer Mike Shinoda. The band timed its announcement of Armstrong’s arrival to coincide with hype for the new album and the kickoff of this month’s four-week stadium tour, teasing the identity of their new lead singer for weeks leading up to the news.
Musician Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the group Mars Volta is a former Scientologist whose involvement allegedly overlapped with Armstrong’s. His wife, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, is one of several women who have accused Masterson of sexual assault. On September 6, the day after the band’s announcement, Bixler-Zavala posted an open letter to Armstrong and her new bandmates via Instagram, in which he criticized Armstrong for her alleged ties to Masterson and the controversial religion.
Scientology, a religion formed off the back of L. Ron Hubbard’s science fiction, is known for attracting celebrities and elites and then allegedly harassing them intensely when they leave. It has drawn allegations from former members of everything from kidnapping and stalking, to forced labor and abuse, to brainwashing and extreme anti-medical and anti-psychiatry beliefs. Scientology has over the years repeatedly denied these allegations.
“I’m surprised none of you wrote a letter on Danny Masterson’s behalf since your corny ass singer showed up to support him in the prelims,” Bixler-Zavala wrote, referring to an appearance Armstrong made at one of Masterson’s early court hearings.
Bixler-Zavala’s allegations quickly began circulating among Linkin Park fans, with many expressing concern and confusion on social media over Armstrong’s alleged ties to Scientology. Many others focused on the irony of Chester Bennington, whose mental health struggles were well known prior to his death, being replaced by someone who may be aligned with a group that allegedly demonizes mental health treatment.
The loudest concerns, though, were reserved for Armstrong’s friendship with Masterson. Many fans are alarmed that Chester Bennington, who revealed in 2008 that as a child he had survived many years of sexual abuse, would now be replaced by a singer who had supported a serial sexual predator.
On September 6, Armstrong posted an Instagram Story in which she apologized for her previous support of someone implied to be Masterson and distanced herself fully from the actor:
Several years ago, I was asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance, and went to one early hearing as an observer. Soon after, I realized I shouldn’t have. I always try to see the good in people, and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since.
Unimaginable details emerged and he was later 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.
Still, as many were quick to point out, her statement said nothing about Scientology, nor did she disavow whatever views she might have shared with the organization. Journalist and longtime Scientology watchdog Tony Ortega speculated that Armstrong’s statement “seems designed to protect” Scientology. In a lengthy thread on Threads, journalist Yashar Ali, who also has a history of reporting on Scientology, argued that Armstrong’s loyalty to Scientology made her apology unreliable.
Former Scientologist Mike Rinder, once a member at the group’s highest tier, came forward to tell Ortega about Armstrong’s mother, Gail Armstrong, and her years of devoted service to the organization, in claims that former Scientologist Aaron Smith-Levin also made on his YouTube channel, Growing Up in Scientology. Armstrong’s parents were allegedly Scientologists and high-ranking members of SEA Org, the group’s highest secretive inner circle.
Gail Armstrong’s alleged role, according to Rinder, was PR for the organization, and for a time she worked as a speechwriter for the organization’s leader, David Miscavige. One unearthed 2006 video shared with Ortega shows Gail Armstrong giving a speech to a huge body of assembled Scientologists. In 2015, in response to the exposé documentary Going Clear, which prominently featured Rinder detailing abuses by Scientology, the group released a series of videos seemingly intended to discredit Rinder. At least two of these videos feature Gail Armstrong disparaging Rinder.
According to former Scientologist Serge del Mar, he knew Emily Armstrong as a Scientologist in his childhood. She can be seen in photos attending Scientology events as far back as 2013, and she allegedly attended Masterson’s trial in the company of Scientologists.
Emily Armstrong’s defenders have pointed out that we can’t know the extent to which she believes in Scientology’s theology, despite her long history of association, given her general reticence to speak publicly about the group. Armstrong also identifies as queer despite Scientology’s alleged institutional homophobia.
On September 9, Jaime Bennington posted a series of screenshotted messages to his Instagram Story feed, which were themselves screencapped and shared around the internet. The post, addressed to his father’s former co-lead singer, Mike Shinoda, accused Linkin Park of “quietly eras[ing] my father’s life and legacy … during INTERNATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION MONTH.” Bennington also accused Shinoda of nepotism in hiring Armstrong despite allegedly knowing of her ties to Scientology and Masterson. He further accused Shinoda of “groom[ing] you[r] fan base” and refusing to acknowledge Masterson’s victims.
Despite his strained relationship with his father’s former bandmates and despite what he described as “cruel, unusual and aggressive” harassment in recent days from Linkin Park fans who believed he was interfering with the band, Bennington attended the band’s September 11 show in Los Angeles. He posted that he would be attending “for closure. For acknowledgment.”
“While attending the show please do not harass me or my partner,” he wrote. “Respectfully, we are attending for closure … I’M GRIEVING.”
While Bennington’s statement has gotten traction online and in the media, what few people are acknowledging is the mental anguish Bennington has undergone since the death of his father. He has stated repeatedly, including in his Instagram bio as of publication, that he does not believe Chester Bennington died by suicide and has a history of spreading conspiracy theories regarding his death. Further deepening the rabbit hole is a longstanding QAnon conspiracy theory that Chester Bennington was murdered by a ring of pedophiles because he was on the cusp of exposing them. This is false, but Jamie Bennington has accused Linkin Park of “grooming” its fan base, a common QAnon refrain that has colored how some fans have read his complaints.
Can any of this result in good art?
If indeed Armstrong is a Scientology loyalist, what exactly does that mean for fans? It wouldn’t be the first time the public continued to support and enjoy art made by artists associated with Scientology — actors like John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Elisabeth Moss all still have plenty of Hollywood staying power despite decades of Scientology affiliation. The band has yet to comment on the scandal, though a spokesperson redirected Variety to Armstrong’s apology. Vox has reached out to Armstrong for comment.
What seems to be getting lost in the conversation is the impact that choosing Armstrong could have on Bennington’s legacy, as well as on his fans who struggle with their mental health.
If Armstrong believes the tenets of Scientology, it means she’ll have to perform art made by someone who struggled with mental health issues despite subscribing to an orthodoxy that allegedly casts doubt on those issues. Can she, as a former supporter of a convicted rapist, compellingly deliver songs by a survivor of extensive sexual abuse? Does this matter if the songs weren’t written by her?
All of this publicity does seem to have revved up interest in the band’s comeback. The new album’s lead single, “The Emptiness Machine,” has already racked up over 58 million Spotify streams and 21 million YouTube views as of Monday.
Many fans are dismissing Jaime Bennington’s complaints as the screed of someone whose issues with the band long pre-date Armstrong’s arrival.
The backlash is a lesson in influence — the influence that art can have over listeners as well as the influence a powerful institution can wield over its alleged members.
And if Armstrong is a Scientologist, then her new role in the band could give her influence over an entire fanbase; that is, after all, how Scientology continues to spread and grow despite decades of allegations of abuse and manipulation. Then again, it could simply be one of innumerable examples where fans choose to separate the art from the artist — however much the artist might benefit.
Linkin Park’s continued silence on the controversy may very well outlive the backlash, suggesting that, in the end, perhaps it doesn’t even matter.