LINKIN PARK SHINODA HAS FORT MINOR READY FOR THE ROAD

Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington recalls one of our favorite Christmas stories featuring blood and a dog

Chester Bennington, Linkin Park’s singer, recalls a holiday a few years ago where he and his mother thought it would be a good idea for the singer to bring over his dog.

The only thing is that his dog and his mom’s dog didn’t exactly get along, which precipitated a Christmas day attack.

“Christmas morning my dog is sitting in the hallway sleeping and this other dog just jumps on her and attacks her. We pull ’em apart and I stick my dog in the room for a minute and like an hour later I come in and she’s still really scared and I’m like, ‘OK it’s been an hour, you’d think she’d forget. And I go in and I pet her and my hand is just covered in blood. Well, I couldn’t see that there was any cut or anything, and I was like, ‘OK, great. It’s Christmas morning and there’s blood on my dog. Where did she get bit? And I went and I’m looking and this gash about the length of my finger and about the depth of the canine tooth right across the back of her neck.”

Bennington, with a comment on the goriness of the Christmas story, said the whole scene was right out of a horror film.

“I almost vomited right there. It was so disgusting. It literally looked like her head was going to fall off. You know like when, in the movies, somebody slices somebody’s head and they kind of look around and all of the sudden their head just slides off? That’s what I thought her head was going to do. and so that morning… (Phoenix) “I think I started this off on the wrong foot.” (Bennington) “…I rushed my dog to the emergency vet and she got like twenty stitches across her neck and my mother was guilt ridden the rest of the day. That was a great Christmas (laughs).”

Linkin Park is currently whittling down songs for their forthcoming album, which should be released in early 2007.