Chester Bennington's old band on Linkin Park singer, Glasgow show

Bennington is, of course, better known as the lead vocalist of the multi-platinum selling Linkin Park, whose 2000 debut album Hybrid Theory has sold more than 30million copies over the intervening two decades.

In 2016 he had re-formed Grey Daze, with the band due to perform at Club Tattoo’s anniversary party in September 2017.

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Tragically, however, on July 20 of that year Bennington took his own life.

The remaining members of Grey Daze were left with the bare bones of a planned new album, which would eventually be released in 2020 as Amends.

It went to #1 on the UK rock chart, and was followed by The Phoenix in 2022, with he group now set to embark on their first-ever UK tour in tribute to Bennington.

The late singer's family have been involved with the two posthumous projects, but some fans of Linkin Park have, nonetheless, questioned the taste - hence the drummer's irritation.

Grey Daze in 1998 (Image: Chuff Media)

Dowdell says: "We were treading lightly and trying to ensure we did things respectfully.

“That said – this was our music. I don’t need permission to put out our music, things that we wrote together - things that I know we was proud of - and were working on before he passed away.

“There are always going to be haters out there and people who think they know what they’re talking about, but honestly most of the time you hear that kind of negativity it’s from some little bastard who lives in his parents’ basement and has no clue what he’s talking about, he’s just running his mouth because he can’t get punched in the face over the internet.

“I grew up fighting and when people run their mouth… I grew up in a neighbourhood where if you ran your mouth you’d get smacked in the face.

“You can’t do that now because I’d end up punching a million people and that’s not the way I want to live my life, but at the same time I don’t want to let those remarks go unchecked."

If the criticism gets under Dowdell's skin it's understandable. Bennington was around 15 when the pair former Grey Daze, and they remained close throughout the singer's life.

Grey Daze in 1995 (Image: Chuff Media)

The drummer says: "He was always a very energetic, outgoing, lively guy. He was always the jester of the group, he was always jumping around very animated – what you say on stage was not too far away from how he was in a room with just friends.

“He was very loud, he was very funny. Always telling jokes and trying to have a good time.

“Quite honestly he was one of the most compassionate people I ever knew. He was one of my best friends."

He was also, by acclimation, one of the best voices in contemporary rock music - leaving some big shoes for new frontman Hodges to fill.

He says: "Of course, I’m still nervous about that!

“When I got the studio versions of all the songs I got to isolate Chester’s vocals so I could learn the parts and do them justice.

“It was very surreal, very impactful for me to isolate 15-16-year-old Chester and all of his raw emotion and try to capture that live.

“It’s extremely big shoes to fill, so we had to make sure we were doing this justice and that we’re doing this right."

Though Grey Daze had released two studio albums before their breakup, the success of Linkin Park did not lead to a boost in sales for the singer's previous band.

Plans to re-release second album ... No Sun Today were kiboshed by the band's record label in 2003, with the band's material largely only available on pirate sites.

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Dowdell says: “People don’t realise Warner Bros had stepped on the neck of Grey Daze as soon as Linkin Park blew up.

“They erased us from the internet, they erased us from music stores – they literally burned the history of the band and did not allow our music to get out there other than back channels of dark web stuff where you could kind of sort of find little crappy MP3s of it.

“That always felt unjustified to me – I thought it was bullshit.

“Chester, in the beginning, didn’t care because he was riding the Linkin Park train but in time he started realising that it was bullshit and he started to get upset that it had been erased from the map.

“At that point he said, ‘I’ll handle Warner Bros we’ll just do it on our own’ and we put the stuff back out.

“I was pleased the music was finally able to see the light of day and I think the guys were as well, and when we decided to put it out we just wanted to make sure we did it respectfully."

Following Bennington's death, Grey Daze did not expect to perform live again.

However, they'll hit the road later this year for their first ever UK tour - entitled For You Chester, which comes to Glasgow's Cathouse on May 15.

Hodges says: "I remember asking Sean if the band would ever want to play this music live because Grey Daze had a good following.

“He said ‘absolutely not, we’re never going to do this live’ so it was a shock to get that call

"When we first started this we said we wouldn’t do anything the fans don’t want.

“The fans wanted a few shows in the US, we did and they were very well received and the UK started knocking on the door.

“We just put some feelers out there and all of a sudden we’d booked this whole tour, it’s really about what the people want – if they want to hear this music live we’re going to give it to them.

“Over in the UK it was a resounding yes and so we’re over here in rehearsals working our asses off to provide a really good show for you guys over there.

“It’ll be my first time playing in the UK, I’ve performed in places like Amsterdam and Russia before that got shut down but I haven’t been over to the UK – I’m excited to meet you guys.”