Chester Bennington‘s best childhood friend Chet shared several emotional messages via Reddit, saying:

“I don’t really know what to do since I found out about his death. We weren’t close as adults though we did reconnect a few times over the years.

“But, as kids, for a few years we were best friends.

“Though we didn’t talk about it with each other at the time, we were both going through horrible abuse as I learned later.

“I looked to Chester as a beacon of light and hope for me that one of us made it out of that. One of us had our dreams come true. I was so very proud of him, always.

“I hope to formulate my thoughts and memories about Chester into something coherent at a later date. Right now, it just hurts. Very bad.

“For the moment, I wanted to share this with people that might care in a similar way for him that I did. The kid you see in that picture wanted to be a rock star even then. That kid is the one that got hurt and the one that left us so suddenly. I will miss him terribly.”

“I’ve been going over my time with him in my head since hearing of his death. It’s a bit foggy as I’m the same age as him and that was a long time ago. I think the one memory that keeps coming back the most was when he would sleep over at my house. We used to have this ugly, burnt orange sectional type sofa that you could move the pieces around and create a big square with.

“Once the parents had went to bed, we would make that big, soft square and bounce around on it and share stories, watch movies and just be kids. We’d sleep there when we couldn’t stay awake any longer as much as we tried.

“Chester made me laugh. That is what stands out the most to me. I laughed harder with him than anyone I remember. I made him laugh too. I like to think we gave each other a rest from the horrible things that happened outside of that sofa.

“It meant a lot to me. I’m not the kind of person that has had a lot of ‘best’ friends. People I really connected with on a deep level but, Chester was one of them. I’m pretty sure, due to the amazing life he lived, he was more important to me than I was to him.

“However, that never stopped him from giving me the biggest hug and being so genuinely excited to see me in our twenties when I showed up at a concert in Germany.

“This was when they were opening for Deftones and before they hit the rock star stratosphere. That was the last time I saw him face to face and I wish it could have been longer.

“We were Chet and Chester for awhile once again and it was wonderful even if it was just in a stinky backstage area.

“He recognized me right away. What happened was Rob (drummer) was at the barrier after the show signing and I approached him because he is friends with my cousin. Chester and the others were still toweling off, getting some water etc.

“As I was talking to Rob to ask if I could see Chester, Chester came out and saw me and was like, ‘Holy shit! Chet!’ and it went from there.

“It was pretty cool because this was in Germany, I was in the army at the time, so I’m sure he really didn’t expect to see me there. I had hoped to surprise him and it all worked out so that was great.

“To be honest, I was surprised by his reaction and thought I may need to remind him. But no, he knew immediately and surprised me with the huge hug and insistence that I come backstage and catch up.

“Honestly, I didn’t want to be a bother and just thought I would say hello and tell him how happy I was for him and be on my way. The entire band were very nice and welcoming. Dudes from Taproot were there too and all very cool. We were both probably 24 years old or so at the time and they were touring on the ‘Hybrid Theory’ album.

“At that point, he was still the Chester I knew for the most part. He was married with kids already though so that was a change for sure. This was early on when they were still opening for other people. I was not in touch with him directly after that when they got huge.

“Funny thing is, I ended up working at the same place as his Mom around the time ‘Meteora’ came out. I had a job in a hospital cleaning post surgery stuff. A very gross job but you get to play music loud while cleaning up the goop.

“Anyways, I was playing ‘Meteora’ loudly in there and this lady pops her head in and says, ‘That’s my son’s band!’ I was like, ‘Who is your son?’ I about fell out when she said it was Chester and she about did too when I told her my name because she remembered me.

“Very cool moment and a very gracious woman. She had told me Chester loved to read on the road so I bought him a couple of my favorite books and wrote him a letter that she delivered to him for me.

“That is the last sort of attempt at contact I made. I always held this little hope that if we both made it to 60 and his fame finally faded a bit, we might get back together on a big, soft square and talk about the wild ride.”