The Used vocalist Bert McCracken has spoken out on Chester Bennington in a new interview. While speaking with Forbes, McCracken revealed Chester had saved his life in 2004 during a time when Bert was “deadly suicidal.”

McCracken made it through a difficult upbringing as a kid, being raised in a strict Mormon household before turning to methamphetamine in his teenage years. He was homeless for some time before finally finding his live’s purpose with The Used. Sadly, this wouldn’t be the end of Bert’s tribulations. In 2004, McCracken’s high school sweetheart, Kate, died suddenly while carrying the couple’s unborn child.

During this horrific time, Chester Bennington helped give McCracken the strength to carry on. “There’s a lot of stigma surrounding depression, we know there’s no cure. And to speak of suicide with any connotations to selfishness makes me sick and so angry that I end conversations immediately,” McCracken says. “Chester was there for me at a time where I was deadly suicidal and he saved my life in 2004. The fact that nobody was able to be there for him in those moments is something we all should think about.”

McCracken continues, “How I’ve chosen to deal with the death of Chester [is] the opposite way I dealt with death in the past and that’s not internalize anything and maybe speak about it all the time, put it out there to fans, strangers even. And in that way I kind of feel more connected to what depression might be, more a problem of humanity, a problem with American entitlement and boredom.”

The Used’s seventh studio album, The Canyon, is available now through Hopeless Records. The band is currently on a U.S. tour with Glassjaw, so click here to check out those dates.

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