Oli Sykes on Chester Bennington's death: "A part of my childhood died."

Oli Sykes , from Bring Me The Horizon , recently spoke about the feeling of grief regarding the death of Chester Bennington .

Oli was one of the artists who participated in the tribute concert for Chester in October 2017. Titled " Linkin Park And Friends Celebrate Life In Honor Of Chester Bennington ," the 3-hour performance marked the first time Linkin Park had taken the stage since the death of their lead singer.

In an interview for the radio program Meltdown , Oli Sykes spoke about his participation in the event (transcript via Blabbermouth ): “I think the best word to describe [the feeling] would be bittersweet. Obviously, it was a surreal experience for me, but under the worst possible circumstances. It’s hard to process things like that,” he reflects.

Oli also spoke about his own feelings of grief regarding Chester Bennington's death. According to the singer, he doesn't like to comment much on the deaths of famous people he doesn't know because he feels he "doesn't have that right," even if the artist means a lot to him.

“I think it’s kind of an imposter syndrome. I feel like a piece of me has died, but also like I don’t really know this person. It’s something very difficult to process,” she says.

Regarding Chester specifically, Oli says: “I definitely felt like a part of my childhood and my innocence died when he died. But I didn't cry because I didn't know him as a person. I guess I couldn't believe it. And participating in the show was the same.”

“It’s almost like you’re not doing what you’re doing; you don’t think about what it really is. Like, ‘I’m standing here… It’s basically his funeral. I’m playing at his funeral.’ You don’t think like that. You just go there and do it. Grief is a strange thing.”

During his participation in the event honoring and celebrating Chester Bennington's life, Oli Sykes joined Linkin Park on stage to perform "Crawling." Other artists who participated in the show included Jonathan Davis , M. Shadows , Machine Gun Kelly , members of Blink-182 , and all members of System of a Down except Serj Tankian .