Several years ago, singer Chester Bennington revealed that one of his favorite Linkin Park songs was also one of the band’s most poignant.
When creating the Nu Metal band’s second album, Meteora, LP rapper Mike Shinoda contributed a ten-minute instrumental track.
The other members liked it so much that they convinced him to make it into a full song, which became Breaking The Habit.
Later speaking to MTV (via Distant magazine), Chester spoke at length about his love of the song: “This song touched my heart. Mike finished composing it and handed me a sheet of lyrics, I read them and burst into tears. It seemed to me that he was talking about my life ”.
“This song was very difficult for me to record. I still get excited thinking about it now. I had to stop and pull myself together several times. I’d crack a joke, start crying, walk out of the room, then come back. I was like, ‘I’m not going to make it.'”
The song was a huge hit, telling a compelling story about struggling with your thoughts and trying to find some sort of stability.
To date, Shinoda considers it one of Chester’s “best performances”.
You can (re)listen to this iconic song from the early 2000s below.
