Chester Charles Bennington (born March 20, 1976) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is currently the lead vocalist for the rocks bands Linkin Park and Dead By Sunrise. He was previously associated with the band Grey Daze, among other bands. As of 2008, Chester Bennington released three studio albums with Linkin Park and a debut album with Dead By Sunrise in 2009. Chester Bennington's first release with Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory, was a commercial success. He has released several major albums and singles since then, and he has worked with several bands as well. In 2007, Bennington was placed at 46th on Hit Parader's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists". Chester Bennington was born in Phoenix, Arizona and he took interest in music at a young age. Before joining Linkin Park, Bennington was a vocalist in Grey Dze. He left Grey Daze in 1998 and struggled to find another band to play in. Chester Bennington nearly quit his musical career altogether when Jeff Blue, the vice president of A&R at Zomba Music in Los Angeles, offered Bennington an audition with the future members of Linkin Park. Bennington quit his job at Burger King and left, with his family, to California, where he has a successful audition with Linkin Park, who were called Xero at the time. Linkin Park faced numerous rejections before Jeff Blue, now a vice president of A&R at Warner Bros., intervened again to help the band sign with Warner Bros. Records.