The front man and vocalist of rock band ONE OK ROCK Taka posted heart warming messages on his official Instagram account in memory of Chester Bennington, lead singer of the American band Linkin Park. Yesterday on July 20th it was tragically revealed that Chester Bennington had committed suicide. He hung himself inside his California home where his body was discovered in the morning by a housekeeper.

Both bands have a history together. Taka was joined by Chester and fellow Linkin Park member Mike Shinoda, who all sat down for a chat together for a special program that was aired on Space Shower TV. Furthermore, ONE OK ROCK was supposed to appear at select dates as a special guest for Linkin Park’s now canceled tour.

In Taka’s Instagram post he shared “No words to express what I’m feeling right now. Cant believe we were supposed to meet in just a few days… You were a inspiration to me and so many others…and the reason we started our band. My thoughts go out to your family, friends, bandmates and loved ones. You will truly be missed. RIP. […] You will always be here in my heart. Thank you for everything Chester.”

Taka has stated that his greatest influences are Linkin Park, Good Charlotte, Issues, and Simple Plan. In particular Taka has also cited Chester Bennington from Linkin Park and Kellin Quinn from Sleeping With Sirens as his inspirations to switch from pop music to rock music.

Earlier this month, Linkin Park finished a European and U.K. leg of an international tour in support of their latest album, “One More Light”, with guest artists Machine Gun Kelly, One OK Rock and Snoop Dogg; the band’s next scheduled tour date was July 27th in Massachusetts.

Linkin Park and One Ok Rock planned to appear to shake Japan in November this year for three days from 2nd, 4th and 5th November 2017 at Makuhari Messe, Chiba prefecture “One More Light World Tour “.

(via Oricon)