50 Fun Facts About Breaking Benjamin

Which fear of Benjamin Burnley kept Breaking Benjamin from touring overseas and inspired the Phobia cover?

Flying is the fear behind the winged man hovering over a runway on the Phobia sleeve. For the band's first European dates, in 2016, Burnley crossed the Atlantic by ship instead.

Breaking Benjamin got its name when Benjamin Burnley broke which borrowed item, to its owner's annoyance?

A microphone he had borrowed broke, and its owner sarcastically thanked Benjamin for breaking it. Burnley revived the name for a later band because he still had the old promotional stickers.

Which Breaking Benjamin song was written for the Halo 2 soundtrack and plays during the game's Gravemind level?

Blow Me Away was gamer Benjamin Burnley's own idea, and the band took no payment for it. Halo 2 plays an instrumental cut as Master Chief fights through a Covenant civil war.

Which Breaking Benjamin single was the fastest-added in its label's history and plays in Step Up 2: The Streets?

The Diary of Jane hit radio playlists faster than any single in the label's history and went four times platinum. Its video follows a woman who cannot find her reflection in any mirror.

The cover of the Breaking Benjamin album Dear Agony shows which medical image of frontman Benjamin Burnley?

A brain scan from an MRI of Burnley's own head fills the sleeve. The same image turns up in the video for one of the album's singles, hanging in a hospital room.

Which album gave Breaking Benjamin a first Billboard 200 number one after a hiatus and a complete lineup change?

Dark Before Dawn opened with 141,000 album-equivalent units, the band's best sales week. Burnley wrote about 95 percent of it alone, with the new members yet to play a note together.

Breaking Benjamin come from which Pennsylvania city, where radio station WBSX championed the band early on?

Wilkes-Barre is where the band formed in 1999, and its rock station WBSX stayed loyal. In 2009 it aired a new single ahead of the label's planned premiere.

Breaking Benjamin frontman Benjamin Burnley has published mods for Fallout 4 and which other role-playing game?

Skyrim mods sit beside his Fallout 4 ones under the username killemloud. Burnley is an avid gamer, and the band's songs have turned up in wrestling and racing titles.

Breaking Benjamin and singer Diamante released a cover of Iris in 2020, a song originally by which rock band?

Goo Goo Dolls had the original hit, and the remake arrived in July 2020 with Burnley and Diamante sharing the vocals. She had toured as the band's support act the year before.

Which rock frontman co-wrote Rain, Forget It and Follow with Benjamin Burnley for a Breaking Benjamin album?

Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins spent six days in December 2003 writing with Burnley for We Are Not Alone. Burnley was nervous going in but called it a highlight of his career.

Which Breaking Benjamin single plays over the end credits of the Bruce Willis film Surrogates?

I Will Not Bow was chosen from a batch of songs Burnley had sent his label, not written for the film. It became the band's first top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which Breaking Benjamin single, inspired by the film 28 Days Later, has a video set in early American history?

So Cold has a video in which a man shackled to a heavy stone is marched to a swamp as punishment for infidelity. The single spent 62 weeks on the Mainstream Rock chart without reaching number one.

Which record label signed Breaking Benjamin after a two-night showcase for more than a dozen companies?

Hollywood Records won out after scouts from over a dozen labels watched the band play two showcase nights in early 2002. It stayed the band's home for six studio albums.

Which founding drummer of Breaking Benjamin sued the band after being let go following a paternity leave?

Jeremy Hummel filed a federal suit claiming wrongful dismissal and unpaid royalties, which the band's manager called frivolous. It was settled for an undisclosed sum in April 2006.

Which band first recorded Enjoy the Silence, covered by Breaking Benjamin for a shelved European release?

Depeche Mode wrote the original, and the cover sat on the shelf once the European edition was scrapped. It finally came out in 2011 on a deluxe greatest-hits set.

Which Phobia single gave Breaking Benjamin a first Mainstream Rock number one, holding it for seven weeks?

Breath reached a summit that the album's bigger pop hit had missed. Its video was cut from footage of a homecoming concert filmed in Pennsylvania in February 2007.

Which problem affecting Benjamin Burnley forced Breaking Benjamin into an extended hiatus from 2010?

Recurring illness that doctors could not diagnose stopped Burnley touring in 2010. He eventually gave up chasing an answer and poured his energy into writing the next album.

Which guitarist co-wrote Dear Agony songs with Benjamin Burnley five years before joining Breaking Benjamin?

Jasen Rauch was in another band when he wrote on four of the album's tracks, and Burnley said the pair were like the same person as writers. He became lead guitarist in 2014.

Which debut album by Breaking Benjamin, produced by Ulrich Wild, takes its title from a lyric in Wish I May?

Saturate arrived in August 2002 and climbed no higher than number 136 on the Billboard 200. It still went gold, though the certificate took thirteen years to arrive.

Which dancer and actor sings on the Breaking Benjamin album Ember after covering Ashes of Eden in a dance video?

Derek Hough adds backing vocals to one track after Burnley saw his choreographed cover and got in touch. Hough called the invitation a dream come true.

Which lead single from Breaking Benjamin's 2015 comeback album spent nine weeks atop the Mainstream Rock chart?

Failure ended a five-year silence when it arrived in March 2015, trailed by a teaser only 15 seconds long. It was the band's third chart-topper on rock radio.

Which debut single by Breaking Benjamin took off after DJ Freddie Fabbri put it in rotation on local radio?

Polyamorous became the most requested track on the station, so Fabbri paid for the band's first EP and later managed them. The song went on to feature in several wrestling video games.

Which producer worked with Breaking Benjamin on three straight albums: We Are Not Alone, Phobia and Dear Agony?

David Bendeth produced the band's run of albums from the 2004 breakthrough to 2009. After that Burnley took the producer's credit himself, saying he had always done much of the work.

Which original lead guitarist of Breaking Benjamin was fired by email alongside bassist Mark Klepaski?

Aaron Fink and Klepaski had approved a remix and a greatest-hits album for $100,000 while the band was on hiatus, without telling Burnley. He sued, and kept the sole right to the band name.

Which name, taken from a 1950s sci-fi film, did Benjamin Burnley's trio use before becoming Breaking Benjamin?

Plan 9 nodded to Plan 9 from Outer Space, but people kept calling the trio Planet 9. Burnley gave up and went back to the name of his first band.

Which 2020 Breaking Benjamin album reworks older songs with acoustic guitars and strings and adds one new track?

Aurora gathers guest singers from across rock radio for its remakes, and its one new song was released as the lead single. It was the band's last album for its first label.

Which rock singer guests on Breaking Benjamin's 2020 acoustic remake of Dance with the Devil?

Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace and Burnley go back years: their bands toured together repeatedly and the two singers wrote an unreleased song together. Dance with the Devil first appeared on Phobia.

The first band Benjamin Burnley called Breaking Benjamin played soft covers of Weezer and which British group?

The Beatles and Weezer covers made that 1998 group nothing like the heavy band that followed, Burnley has said. It split when he left for California.

Breaking Benjamin is a Pennsylvania band, but in which New Jersey resort town was founder Benjamin Burnley born?

Atlantic City was his birthplace, and he grew up on the Jersey shore before his family moved to Pennsylvania when he was 12. His own recording studio is back on that coast.

The Breaking Benjamin logo, seen on a heavy stone in one video and a tombstone in another, is which design?

A Celtic knot is the band's emblem, and its videos hide it in plain sight. It marks the stone a condemned man drags through one clip and the grave where another ends.

Which drummer joined Breaking Benjamin after sending the only audition tape that arrived on VHS?

Chad Szeliga's tape sent Burnley next door to borrow a VCR just to watch it. He beat fourteen other hopefuls and played on Phobia and Dear Agony before leaving in 2013.

Breaking Benjamin's first overseas performance was a headline slot at which unusual kind of venue?

A cruise ship gave the band a way to play abroad on its own terms: a four-day voyage in February 2016, with Yngwie Malmsteen and Zakk Wylde also on the bill.

Which Ember single by Breaking Benjamin topped the Mainstream Rock chart with an anti-child-abuse video?

Torn in Two reached number one in September 2018, outperforming the album's lead single. Its video is the middle chapter of a three-part story and nods to several of the band's older clips.

Breaking Benjamin joined which band on the 2022 song Waiting on the Sky to Change?

Starset supported the band on its 2015 comeback tour. The collaboration reworks a song from Downplay, the previous group of Starset frontman Dustin Bates.

Which video game did Breaking Benjamin parody in an online game made to promote Dear Agony?

Altered Beast became Altered Benjamin, a three-level Flash game in which the player controls Burnley and each of his bandmates turns up as a boss.

What set Dear Agony apart from earlier Breaking Benjamin albums, according to songwriter Benjamin Burnley?

He wrote it sober, the first album he had made without alcohol after quitting in 2007. Burnley credits the change for lyrics that are more thought out and coherent.

Which Dear Agony single by Breaking Benjamin has a hospital video full of nods to the band's earlier album covers?

Give Me a Sign has patients whose rooms echo each record sleeve, and the video premiered on Burnley's 32nd birthday. It was the last clip to feature the band's 2000s lineup.

Which Breaking Benjamin single was the only song on the 2015 comeback album written with input from every member?

Never Again grew out of a late session with the new lineup, and it went so well that the whole band wrote the following album together. Its video imagines a tree that yields a drug to stop ageing.

Breaking Benjamin recorded a cover of Who Wants to Live Forever, a song first released by which British band?

Queen guitarist Brian May wrote the original. The cover appears on the deluxe edition of the band's 2011 greatest-hits set, among B-sides and rarities.

Which guitarist and backing singer joined Breaking Benjamin after four years with Las Vegas band Adelitas Way?

Keith Wallen was hired partly for his voice: he and the new bassist sing every backing part, where the old lineup leaned on pre-recorded tracks on stage. Wallen has also released solo albums.

Which Breaking Benjamin single has a video of shipwreck survivors in 19th-century dress fighting on an island?

Angels Fall followed the comeback single by three weeks in April 2015. In its video the band plays by a beach bonfire while the islanders appear to be ghosts from the wreck.

Which Phobia single became the first Breaking Benjamin song certified by the RIAA when it went gold in 2014?

Until the End was the album's third single and missed the Hot 100 altogether, yet it collected a gold disc ahead of every bigger hit in the catalogue.

Which Pennsylvania band, once called Strangers with Candy, gave Breaking Benjamin a guitarist and a bassist?

Lifer was a familiar name to Burnley: his trio sometimes opened its home shows, and its guitarist had played in his very first band. Both recruits arrived in time for the debut album.

Which female rock singer guests on Breaking Benjamin's 2020 acoustic remake of the song Dear Agony?

Lacey Sturm, formerly of Flyleaf, is one of five guest singers on the collection. Her old band had shared a tour with Breaking Benjamin early in 2010, months after the original came out.

Benjamin Burnley of Breaking Benjamin co-wrote the song Shadows for which Christian rock band's second album?

Red released Shadows on Innocence & Instinct in 2009. The band's guitarist at the time shares the writing credit, and in 2014 he became Burnley's bandmate.

Breaking Benjamin filmed the 2007 concert released as The Homecoming at Stabler Arena in which Pennsylvania city?

Bethlehem hosted the show in February 2007, first aired as a one-hour television special. The full concert was added to a collector's edition of Phobia that April.

Breaking Benjamin's hiatus began in 2010 on a tour with Shinedown, Sick Puppies and which headlining band?

Nickelback's tour was almost over when Burnley announced, just ahead of the final show, that he could no longer perform. Rumours of a split followed, which he publicly denied.

Breaking Benjamin left their longtime label in 2024 and signed with which company to release the single Awaken?

BMG signed the band in October 2024 after over twenty years with its first label, and Awaken came out the very next day.

Breaking Benjamin co-headlined a tour with Seether, Three Days Grace and which band during the We Are Not Alone era?

Evanescence shared the bill as the album was heading for platinum status. Three Days Grace went on to become regular touring partners over the next two decades.

The Breaking Benjamin song Wish I May plays in The Apparition and which 2003 slasher film?

Wrong Turn used the track a year after it opened the band's debut album. The debut's title is taken from one of the song's lines.