Hope nothing happens to him
Painful things happen to the lead singer of Linkin Park. He's become allergic to his own sweat. He needed plastic surgery for a tennis injury. And years ago, he ripped off one of his nipples accidentally.
Chester Bennington -- who sings Saturday at Planet Hollywood after pulling a stunt with illusionist Steve Wyrick -- says the nipple thing sucked.
"I was getting in the shower," he says, "and I gave myself just enough room to squeeze in. And as I walked through, the barbell just caught the edge of the sliding glass door and ripped it right out ... which made me feel like I got lit on fire.
"I heard this little tinkling on the floor, and I picked up the barbell, and my nipple was still on it," he says.
He took every piercing out of his body that day.
"I would have preferred a girl ripping it out in some crazy episode."
After that, he got bitten by a nasty spider on his belt line, "right above my ass," causing a welt that raised up half-an-inch with a black hole in the center, swelling the glands of his armpits and groin to half the size of golf balls.
"Finally, about day five, I had no depth perception, and I was dizzy, and I couldn't think. I couldn't put thoughts together," he says.
Antibiotics cured the bite.
Then, a few years ago, he hit himself in the face so hard with a tennis racket, while playing in Singapore, the racket "went right through my lip -- all the way through."
"I had to have a plastic surgeon sew my lip back together again. He did a great job. You can't even tell.
"And that was two weeks after I broke my wrist onstage.
"And at one point, I became allergic to my own sweat," he says. "My body was attacking my armpits. I had these huge swollen red hives that were very painful ... for like a month, and it went away."
Bennington's got a solution for his brushes with pain:
"I need to be in a bubble. Just put me in a bubble."
Bennington, 33, goes wild Saturday at Planet Hollywood:
• From 2 to 4 p.m., he signs autographs in the hotel's new Club Tattoo (he co-owns it).
• At 10:30 p.m., his solo band, Dead By Sunrise, plays a half-hour acoustic set at Wyrick's theater (get free tickets at the autograph signing). Then he and the band roll into club Prive.
• And at 8:30 p.m. near Hawaiian Tropic Zone, he locks Wyrick inside an amp or drum case, to dangle him 80 feet above tall spikes on fire.
"If he doesn't get out of there, it will be the end of Steve Wyrick," he says.
WEEKEND PLANNER
Check out today's NEON for the scoop on Jamie Foxx today and Saturday at the Hard Rock (he talks to Jason Bracelin) ... Jay-Z and Ciara today and Saturday at the Palms ... Jeff Dunham today and Saturday at Caesars ... All-American Rejects today at Mandalay Bay Beach ... the new Woody Allen movie ... and naked men at the Onyx theater.
QUOTE
"All the demographics are moving toward the Democrats -- young people, Hispanics, octuplets." -- Bill Maher tells me in an interview in today's Neon. He performs today-Sunday at The Orleans.
E-mail delfman@reviewjournal.com. Write on the blog at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
