Watch Coldplay’s Chris Martin Cover Linkin Park’s ‘Crawling’
Chris Martin paid tribute to the late Chester Bennington during Coldplay‘s tour-opening concert Tuesday at East Rutherford, New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, performing a solo piano rendition of Linkin Park‘s Hybrid Theory hit “Crawling.”
Martin stripped back the nu-metal song to a melancholy core, removing the original’s distorted angst and quiet-loud dynamics. According to Billboard, Martin dedicated the performance to “anyone who’s missing someone” and restarted the song after flubbing the intro, emphasizing that he wanted to nail the performance since it will likely wind up on YouTube.
Bennington died by suicide on July 20th at age 41. The singer was laid to rest at a private service on Saturday at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates, California, with over 500 friends and family members – including his bandmates from Linkin Park and Stone Temple Pilots – in attendance.
Linkin Park bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell reflected on Bennington’s massive influence in a recent series of tweets, writing, “A huge part of Chester’s legacy will be the memories we hold of him in our hearts. He was an enthusiastic, playful father. An honest, and passionate musician, and a loyal friend. I’ve been touched to see memorials that have been held worldwide.”
Coldplay‘s A Head Full of Dreams North American Tour continues Friday in Boston and continues through early fall before concluding October 8th in San Diego.