Linkin Park co-frontman Chester Bennington opened up about his long battle with drugs and alcohol in a new interview with Noisecreep, and admits that his experience with addiction influenced many of the songs on Out of Ashes, his upcoming album with his side project Dead by Sunrise.

Bennington told Noisecreep, “My life was falling apart in many ways that I was writing about on this record in terms of getting divorced, in terms of diving very hard into alcohol and drugs throughout this process.”

He describes “My Suffering” as a song about how his addiction helped him creatively. “I have been able to tap into all the negative things that can happen to me throughout my life by numbing myself to the pain, so to speak, and kind of being able to vent it through my music,” he said.

Bennington explained that Linkin Park’s 2000 hit “Crawling” is about feeling like he “had no control over (himself) in terms of drugs and alcohol.” “That feeling, being able to write about it, sing about it, that song, those words sold millions of records, I won a Grammy, I made a lot of money. I don’t think I could’ve been inspired to create something like that by watching someone else go through it,” he said. “So in a lot of ways that’s been very constructive for me.”

He also explained that he doesn’t mind being frank about his addiction. “I’m not one of those guys who thinks being anonymous is all that great. I don’t have a problem with people knowing that I had a drinking problem. That’s who I am and I’m kind of lucky in a lot of ways ‘cause I get to do something about it. I get to grow as a person through it,” he said.

“It’s not cool to be an alcoholic, meaning it’s not cool to go drink and be a dumbass. It’s cool to be a part of recovery. This is just who I am, this is what I write about, what I do, and most of my work has been a reflection of what I’ve been going through in one way or another.”