“Lost” by Linkin Park

What Linkin Park’s “Lost” is speaking to, most simply put, is the vocalist (Chester Bennington) being traumatized. Perhaps we can say that most of the time when a person is in a state of trauma, such is not actually perceivable to the outside world.

That is the type of character that Chester portrays in this instance, someone with “a scar somewhere deep down inside” that “cannot [be] repaired” and “will always be”, even though he tries to “pretend it isn’t there”. Or put otherwise, he’s “trapped in yesterday”. Being trapped in yesterday is simply put some type of less-than-ideal experience having transpired some unspecified amount of time ago, which up until this day he has not been able to get over.

Under Chester’s estimation, it does not look like he will ever recover from it internally in the foreseeable future.

And this isn’t a case of Chester solely noting that reality but more the sentimental point lamenting it.

Using some very-powerful language, the chorus points to the notion of the vocalist suppressing his trauma as having a profoundly-negative effect on his self-esteem and overall mental health. Yet and still, he’s apparently compelled to perpetuate such a modus operandi nonetheless.

Living behind my own illusion
Lost all my dignity
Living inside my own confusion”

At the end of the day, the song ends along that vein, with Chester, being “lost in (the) memories” of a past event. And these memories continue to cause him a significant amount of unshakeable distress.

Are the Lyrics of “Lost” Autobiographical?

There is a high likelihood that these lyrics are based on reality. For example, throughout his life, Chester battled greatly with depression. His depression actually got so bad that he felt the only way out of it was to end his life. On July 20th, 2017, Chester sadly took his own life. He was only 41 years old at the time of his shocking death.

Credits

All members of Linkin Park (including the late Chester) are credited as writers on “Lost”. So for this track, we have a writing credit that looks like this:

• Rob Bourdon
• Brad Delson
• Mike Shinoda
• Dave Farrell
• Chester Bennington

All the names above with the exception of Chester are also acknowledged as producers of “Lost”.

Release of “Lost”

“Lost” came out on the 10th of February, 2023 as the lead single from the 20th anniversary version of the band’s “Meteora” album. “Meteora”, which was released in 2003, was Linkin Park’s second studio album. It contained a number of hits, including “Numb” and “Breaking the Habit“.