Original subtitles

As soon as those lights go off before we come out, the switch gets turned on.

We come out, we're like, I change.

It's kind of like the inner demons come out, and then offstage, like, you're

completely different.

You guys ready?

Yeah. All right, I'm going to go shut the stage lights, and then I'm going to

there.

This was kind of like therapy for us when we started, and it still is. If I

wasn't in the band with these four other guys, I definitely wouldn't do it. This

band has a way of saving lives, and it keeps us alive.

We're definitely a band that wants to save your life.

What does your shirt say, dude?

MCR saved my life.

That's the fucking real point of all this.

First time it saved my life was when I was super depressed.

I had a lot of antidepressants, and I wasn't going to do anything with my

The second time it saved my life was when...

as an alcoholic and depressed suicidal.

I never said I'd lie in wait

forever.

So it saved my life, and it's there to save other people's lives. I wanted to

make music that impacted people's lives.

I think what we get to do together, the music that we create together, is one of

a kind, and it's just really special.

We all love to play, but that's really not why we all started this. It wasn't

because we love to play.

It's because we had a purpose.

The message, we've always been pretty adamant or vocal about our message. Just

to know that it's okay to be messed up because there's five dudes that are just

as messed up as you. And we've overcome that in order to do what we do.

The strengths of this band are what...

To me, the combination of what Gerard does against what the guitars are doing

and the vision that they have for their music and the fact that every time they

do a video or they did the record, it has a coherent vision.

The band definitely has a lot of, you know, five distinct personalities.

Dude. Mikey.

I remember when he was a baby. We've always been really close.

I think Mikey keeps us from losing our minds. Mikey!

Mikey! Mikey!

In having him out, it's kind of like he's everybody's kid brother.

I try to be the spiritual advisor for the band. He inspires me

in so many ways.

He is so talented. I think sometimes he doesn't quite realize how special or

talented he is.

Frank, you know, he really plays with all his heart. You know, when he plays,

really looks like, you know, he's putting every single ounce of his body

soul into that performance.

I get hurt every fucking day. I'm an idiot.

The worst was when I broke my toe. Did you get kicked in the balls by someone

named Frankie?

It just hurt.

I didn't care, but I was wondering what he was doing over there.

In the first place, I was like, whoa, he's playing over here.

And then when he kicked me in the balls, I was like, what did I do?

Well, how would you consider me? I'm just going to put that.

The quiet genius.

Yeah, mastermind.

Mastermind. The man with the plan. The man with the plan.

It's an honor. I think he's truly like a genius. He cares.

So much about music and not about being famous or being a rock star.

I'm kind of bummed that I didn't hang out more with people because I was too

busy being a complete and utter hermit in the back. A man obsessed is what I

think.

Bob is such an amazing person. Him and Toro are the hardest working people I've

ever met.

Bob is multiple.

The muscle.

Bob, ow.

Bob, my head. Are you going to get out?

Are you going to get out? Bob will tell you when you're wrong.

Stop. Just come on in. Stop. Bob is about to take no shit. He doesn't take

shit from anybody.

And he teaches us all never to take any shit. I've fallen into him and almost

killed him a few times, and he doesn't ever get mad at me. It's so hard not to

push off his roster.

You know, if there's a God, I thank him every day for having me. Bring him in,

Bob.

So he's been my older brother. And not only that, he's also my best friend.

Gerard is sort of the, you know, slightly off -center, you know, leader,

guess. I don't know, he's like a genius, you know. He's now, like, looked up to

by hundreds of thousands of kids as, like, a cult icon.

I'm really proud of him. Are you guys from New Jersey?

I'm very proud of Will.

How long have you guys been together?

Three years.

Yeah?

The band is based in New Jersey.

Jersey is like a mecca for music because

you have millions of people living in this tiny state and a lot of them make

music. I'm the only one that's not from New Jersey. I'm there a lot though.

So I can deal with these guys.

Where we're from is very different from most Jersey bands, which is important to

know about us because it's not like a money area. It's a very dangerous area.

It's a very crime -ridden area. Your parents wouldn't let you go outside of

house after a certain hour because, you know, a week before they found a dead

body.

You know, the local park that kids go to play in. My mom was just really

apprehensive about me and Gerard going out and playing.

There's a lot of, you know, shootings, drug -related crimes, murders, things

like that, mafia -related crimes.

And there's a park called West Hudson Park that's, like, right around the

from my house where they found, I think, at least, like, four or five dead

bodies in the ponds, like, over the last couple of years. So as kids, you know,

you couldn't really go out and play.

I think that's why we're so into, like, horror movies.

Yeah, that's the only beam of sunlight that comes into my room.

Mom, come on, be in my video.

I'm so into this thing.

That's freaky that bad.

Yeah, that's my grandfather's paperweight. Oh, you got it? Like, wait,

you the shit you have to shoot in here. This is like Jersey.

What I had to do, and my brother had to do, was really just create our own kind

of space in our heads. That's why there's such a fantasy element to My

Romance. Like, I drew pictures, I wrote stories, I made stories up, I lied a

lot. I kind of lived in my head. It's because as children, we had to develop.

these kind of things to live in, because you couldn't really live in the real

world as a child. You couldn't go outside and play. I definitely feel like

matter where we go or we tour or stuff like that, I'm not scared of the places

or the people there, unless we're in Detroit. I think the only place that

actually scared the shit out of me is the Tenderloin.

That's because we walked out in San Francisco, walked off the bus in my

and costume, and this dude across the street in front of a crack house just

goes... Better stay on that side of the street, motherfucker.

I'll knock you out.

Come on, New Jersey!

When

I

was growing up, my dad worked at the post office.

I think he worked in the shipping department.

The real story behind me singing is my grandma had a lot to do with it. He was

kind of a shy kid when he was really young, and he had all these talents that

was afraid to dwell on because he was afraid he didn't get made fun of, or he

was afraid that he wasn't good enough at them. One of the abilities was singing,

and at a young age,

he started to explore this voice that he had. I changed schools when I was a

kid. Me and Mikey went to a different public school. It was fourth grade. It

kind of like a new slate.

It was really weird, you know?

And so I thought maybe I'll try things. Like I drew a lot more. I got involved

in art programs and stuff.

And there was like this...

drama club they had, and I said, well, let me just try this. One of the

memories of that was we had a school play.

They had the production of Peter Pan, which is usually played by a girl, so I

don't know how cool it is that I got the part, but I just kind of opened my

mouth and was able to sing.

And then my grandma was really excited about it. I wasn't so

excited about it. I just kind of, I guess I just wanted to prove to myself

I could do it.

Then after I got the part, I kind of was stuck into doing it.

And he sang, and he was Peter Pan.

And he nailed it.

The song was called I Don't Want to Grow Up.

And the lyrics are like, I don't want to grow up.

I don't want to grow up.

Not a penny will I pinch.

I will never wear a mustache or never grow a mustache over a fraction of an

inch. It's just a song. It's like a descendant song. Yeah, yeah, it kind of

does. And she made me this outfit.

And it's green tights. Everything I had built, I had ruined.

Because I kind of wanted to escape my old elementary school. So, of course,

a great idea to play fucking Peter Pan your first year, right? In a new school.

So, after that experience, the drama teacher was...

really into my voice and she would always get me to sing stuff for school

functions and stuff and then as soon as i hit middle school middle school is

kind of the point where you're like wait a minute i used to hang out with like

all these kids and we used to all be friends and now it's all about

he kind of shied away from it for a long time because it's like you know just

like awkwardness of growing up i was like well i don't want to be this weird

singer kid

And I was into a lot of other stuff. I was into comic books and Iron Maiden.

It just wasn't my thing. So I kind of turned my back on it.

And then I thought I was going to be in a rock band and play guitar.

He plays like a little bit. I wasn't very good. I mean, he's not good enough

play live, I think. But he's good enough where he can come up with really

interesting riffs. I joined this band I was really psyched on.

I couldn't play Sweet Home Alabama on guitar.

And I got kicked out.

In the middle of a gunfight, in the center of a restaurant, they say, come

with your arms raised high.

Heaven, heaven, come and get me.

When I can pull it through, back it comes.

Some of the bands and artists that have had a big effect on our music, pretty

varied.

At least from my end.

I was kind of introduced into, you know, introduced to music from my older

brother.

You know, he was listening to Zeppelin, The Doors, and The Who, and tons of

stuff like that. He was also into, you know, metal, which was cool.

And, you know, he got me listening to Metallica, Megadeth, Flair,

Molly Hatchet.

Growing up, me and Gerard had always traded.

At the time, it was taped of bands that we'd both been really into.

It was for me first. It was Iron Maiden.

I got into Iron Maiden. That changed everything.

Me and him were both obsessed with Iron Maiden. It gave me that theater

influence. Then another theater -esque band, but the first punk band I was ever

into was Misfits.

You know, it was a lot of punk band.

The Misfits. The Misfits are so important in New Jersey because, like,

from Lodi, which is near us.

But they were legends in Jersey. And, like, you still felt it to this day. You

could still feel it if you're in Jersey. Like, the Misfits owned New Jersey.

So in liking punk rock and loving it, I found Black Flag.

Of course, Black Flag. Like, just listening to Greg Gant play. Growing up,

I didn't want to be Van Halen. I wanted to be Greg Gant. Black Flag was...

the band that got me obsessed for some reason with the concept of revenge. And

think that I was obsessed with revenge because in high school I was such an

outcast. I was always fantasizing. I had these, like, revenge fantasies. There

was a feeling behind it. There was this noise and this angst, and you felt that.

So there was always going to be an element of punk in my cabinet.

Just this fast, aggressive, beautiful stuff.

And early on, me and Gerard had this crazy fascination with two people, Glenn

Danzig and Morris.

Then came the Smiths, and that was a huge, impactful band on us.

And his storytelling, his lyrics, how bleak it was in contrast to how pop it

was.

We were talking about starting a band, like, what would be, like, an ideal band

that we'd want to listen to, and we always said, like, wouldn't a band be

if it was, like, Morrissey or in the Misfits? And I was like, man, that'd be

such a kick -ass band, and we should really try it someday.

Incredible!

Are you ready?

I can't even fucking hear you. Are you ready?

As far as how we all met, I met Mikey.

And Gerard.

Just a couple of years after I graduated high school, I met them through a

mutual friend of mine, Sean.

He went to school with some guy named Sean Dillon. I met Ray Toro through a

friend in art school.

I met him, and we were all just kind of all into the same stuff, like comic

books, horror movies, and music.

Did you guys hit it off right away?

Yeah, yeah, we all became friends. It was a... But, you know, it was a very

quick friendship with everybody. I remember the first time I think I met

at this diner. I just remember the one thing I remembered about the first time

met him was the way he wore his glasses. They were at the end of my nose. Yeah,

he wore them at the very end of his nose and kept his head up like this. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. And would look through his glasses like this.

The most bizarre thing. And I just thought I was just this really weird

was actually a little closer to Mikey than Gerard. Yeah, and Gerard was, you

know, kind of this sort of introverted...

Artists never really left the house. Gerard kind of like, over the years me

knowing him, I rarely saw him. I just knew him as a kid who would draw comic

books. I really didn't see him anywhere except for either in his house or later

on at the practice studio.

As years went by, we jammed a couple times in various bands. When I was in

school, I decided, let me try being in some punk bands because it would be fun.

I still wasn't really singing.

I played bass in a band called Nancy Drew that he had gotten together. It was

this pop -punk band kind of thing.

They just played one show. As far as I know, it was at a skate park kind of

thing.

I mean, it was nothing special. It was just like a pop -punk band.

Did you and Mikey always play together in the band? Yeah, we played in a band a

long time ago. We had a band together called Raygun Jones, me and him. It was

when I was in art school.

Like, we were in this one band a long time ago called Raygun Jones, and he was

the vocalist and I was the bass player. And then later on, like, we kind of both

pursued other projects, sort of. We kind of kept in touch. We were, I guess, I

mean, we were friends, but not like, you know, we didn't hang out all the time

or anything. Yeah, we were very casual friends, but we still kept in touch.

So basically I just did this. I went back to doing art and gave up again and

wasn't really, still not singing. I didn't know how I sang.

So then after art school, when I wanted to start the band, after kind of failing

at being able to make a career in comics, I said, let me just try it

started the band?

I picked up the phone and pretty much called everybody.

The response I got from a lot of people, like, you sure you want to do this? All

right, you sure that's what you want to do? I thought you were going to be an

artist. And I was like, I got a good feeling about it. You know, not too long

after 9 -11 happened, Gerard had given me a call and told me that he was, you

know, I hadn't heard from him in a long time.

So what brought all you guys together?

Basically the telephone, picking it up, calling people you haven't seen in years

going.

You know, are you kind of happy with what you're doing in your life? And then

having to say no and me saying I'm not happy either, let's try and maybe do a

jam again and see what happens. And it was kind of a last -ditch effort for

everybody. Realistically, I called up Matt right after September 11th. I guess

it was more like October.

Gerard was on a ferry going to work as a comic book artist. He was drawing,

I think, for the Cartoon Network and witnessed the Trade Center Towers going

down.

Pretty sure that he saw the bodies falling from the building. That's when

said, what am I doing with my life?

I'm slaving away, drawing pictures for corporations and not helping anybody and

not making anything in life meaningful for anybody else. He went home, and I

believe he wrote Skylines and Turnstiles.

You know, I had that song about the 10 or 11, kind of my way of getting over

This was kind of like therapy for us when we started.

It still is.

And I said, just, you know, just listen to it.

And so I played it for him and sang it. We played it together and we just loved

the way it sounded.

And we're

like, all right, well, we need a guitar player because I can't sing and play

guitar at all. Save my life.

You know, we got him and he came to the first practice.

And, you know, he had just given me a call and was like, hey, I got, you know,

I'm working on some new stuff and I want you to check it out.

I brought my guitar over.

Yeah, it was awesome because I hadn't been playing guitar for, I don't know,

like a year and a half. I was playing drums in a crappy, I mean, you know,

like a fun, like punk rock band. I never played drums before and I always wanted

to play drums, so I sucked at it.

They say they played, like, a lot of punk. I was really into the scene, and I

never saw or heard of their band.

And when I found out he was playing drums in a band, it just bummed me out.

Because I thought, like, he's the greatest guitar player I know.

Like, hands down.

And I've met a lot at that point. I've been around. I've been to art school.

I've seen a lot of bands.

To me, like, in Jersey, there's nobody that could beat him. I thought he was

best.

And they finished Skylines and Hairstyles, which was the first song I

was ever written by My Chemical Romance.

I guess the rest is history.

In the beginning, when the band was starting out, did things click right

Did you know that it was still happening, or did you start out sucking?

away. Our first practice, the one thing that I noticed most was how much he gave

his vocals, his performance.

He just really went for it.

It was really the first time I had really sang since I was a little kid. It

nice to find out I was still able to do that.

And I was able to do it well.

He came to me.

with the demo that became My Chemical Romance. Have you ever heard the attic

demos? Because that's all I heard when I joined the band. The what? The attic

demos. It's not together, nothing's in tune, but there was just something about

it where you could already imagine what it would sound like put together.

And it was really good.

And my band would listen to that demo to and from shows.

They would get us psyched up to go play.

And I heard it, and I was like, wow.

He fucking got it, you know, like, his voice has just made leaps and bounds.

Kind of felt like I had a little bit of a gift, and I was like, all right, cool,

like, I can use this, you know?

Like, this will really enhance the band.

Dude, you look fucking freaky and exciting.

Do I?

Are you guys going to help me check? I'm going to say check, and then you guys

say check.

Check! Check!

There's something about having a really good band name. Yeah. Like, you know,

just right off the bat. We are My Chemical!

I remember when, you know, they first came up with that, people were like, oh,

so we're going to call it. And they were like, my form was, you know, just like,

wow, that's good.

Yeah, yeah, that was the vibe in Jersey. People were just like, damn, I didn't

think of that.

Let me hear you, New Jersey!

Give me your jump!

Give me your jump!

The name of the band. Me and Mikey were working at a Barnes & Noble together.

Clinton, New Jersey.

He actually got me the job because I was a college graduate that couldn't get a

job at a bookstore.

And it was actually the best shitty job we ever had.

He worked in music. I worked in books.

My good friend Brian Malloy was the manager at the time. Me and him would

talk about, like, British music.

All sorts of, like, culture from there and whatnot.

And we got on to talking about Irvine Welsh one day.

Scottish guy who wrote Trainspotting. That movie's whole vibe, we were kind of

into, you know, Acid House, stuff like that. Such a good movie.

He'd grabbed a stack of Irvine Welsh books and brought them in the back, and

were just talking about, you know, all the different ones and whatnot.

And Mikey had saw this little blurb. It was either on the inside or the back

cover. It said, like, Five Tales of Chemical Romance by Irvine Welsh.

Like, the phrase chemical romance caught my eye for some reason. Like, I was,

like, flipping through the back, like, reading what each book was about.

I don't know. The term just kind of shocked me. I was, like, really shocked

nobody had used that in some sort of a band name before.

Wow. He was like, it would have been kind of cool if...

You put a my in front of that, made it my chemical roadmap.

I kind of threw the my on to kind of give it a little twist.

And it was awesome because there was no band.

It was just the band name.

Ever since he came up with that band name, it just felt like you needed to

of start a band just so you could use that name.

And then when he joined the band,

He was actually a little hesitant about giving us the name. It was that good.

He's like that with Ben. Yeah. He just came up with another one called the New

London Fire.

No. And somebody has that.

And he's just a good bandnamer.

So he was always saying, like, oh, it's cool if you made a band called My

Chemical Romance. So then I started the band.

We didn't have any names.

When Mikey joined the band, we were like, oh, Mikey.

we have this band name because it pretty much fits. I was on Will Beecher at the

time, so it made a lot of sense for me. That's why I wanted the band name so

much. It meant so much more than drug addiction.

For me, it meant antidepressants. Later on, it obviously would turn into drug

addiction.

I was in another band, and they started, and I became a huge fan of them.

What's funny is Frank and Penty Prep really kind of discovered us in a way. I

met Frank because his band gave us our first practice bass. His old band, Penty

Prep. Is that how you knew them? Because you guys were in the same studio?

Well, I knew them actually just going to parties at the Eyeball Records house,

because I was on Eyeball Records.

And it was like... Being a fan of your best friend's band, you know? So it

wasn't like, oh, you've got to have your autograph.

It was like, all right, I'll watch you guys practice every day because you

practice in the same studio as us.

And I got MC on their first 11 shows because my cousin put on shows.

And I remember getting up on a chair and watching

the first My Camp show.

We were terrified.

We were drunk.

We were drunk. Mikey was really drunk. Yeah.

Me and Mikey had to go pound a bunch of beer in their van.

We couldn't believe we were about to do it. We were just terrified, you know. We

knew something potentially special was about to happen, but we weren't sure. We

weren't so well received upon just the first song.

You know, I don't know what happened. I remember we played Skylines and

Turnstiles, and the place blew up.

I mean, there was only like 60, 70 kids there, but they were mad into it. And I

was just like, wow, I think we got something. And I think, I know I looked

Toro and we were kind of like, all right, we were right about this. And

have it go from, it's something I would do twice a week.

He's something that is my life and just took off really fast.

If they get me and the sun goes down

into the ground. I had a t -shirt on.

That's it. Thank you for the Venom. At that show. I made it myself.

That's how far in advance I would plan things.

And if they get me and the sun goes

down. I figured out what's up with the camera.

Sneaky way of spying on us. No, wait till you meet Brian, dude.

He's an intimidating dude.

He's a little scrappy.

I was a tour manager, and I would tour nonstop and get demos. And so I heard My

Chemical Romance and knew they were the band that I would get off the road for,

that I would invest all my time and life savings in. And I flew to see them four

days after I heard it.

And maybe right then that I wanted to manage them. They were playing at

Maxwell's in Hoboken. I saw them August 15th or 16th, 2002.

How soon did they become really close with those guys?

Took a long time. Like February 17th of 2003 is when they hired me.

And if the sun comes up, will it tear the skin right up?

Were you guys running eyeball?

Yeah, we were on eyeball record.

Oh, you're still on. Oh, no, we were. More of the first record. What was that

experience like? Good, bad? It was fine. The first record was made to kind of

capture a moment in time and also have something to tour with.

We kind of captured really the genesis of the band on the CD.

We were only a band three months before we made that record, and all the songs

that were on that record are the only ones we had.

Things were all very new. Frank had just joined the band.

Yeah, it was just join the band and run into the studio. Yeah, it was like two

days before.

We decided that we needed another guitar player to join the band, and it was

kind of scary for me. What was your other label? My other band, sorry. It

called Pussy Prep.

Okay. And then that ended,

and I formed a band called Diamond Graveyard, and then that ended, too.

We asked Frank to join the band.

They were like, hey, we're looking for another guitarist. Do you want to join?

was like...

Yeah, that's my favorite band.

And I was kind of skeptical because

I'd never played with anybody else before.

Me and Ray's styles are two styles that shouldn't work together, but Ray grew up

learning Metallica records.

And I know Frankie, he's more of the punk rock kid.

We had a couple of practices.

And, you know, I just knew that it would work.

Like he, you know, he had a different approach to guitar than me and was able

write parts that my ear would never hear.

Some of the stuff he could never do, I could never do.

And some of the stuff he does, I never would want to do.

The shit that he does just fucking blows my mind, you know? So I got to join my

favorite band and record a record, which was the first one, Party My Bulls. And

Frank played on two of the tracks off the first record. One of them is Early

Sunsets Over Monroeville.

He just plays some great, great parts.

When we were doing Monroeville, Ray was laying down his parts, and as soon as he

was done, I took the parts.

that they had recorded into a van that had no heat outside the studio and wrote

what I was going to play.

A lot of the melody that he plays during the verses and the choruses is just

absolutely beautiful and I think really makes those songs work.

Making the first record was a really...

Amazing experience. The band was together maybe like six months. A few

yeah, not even a year we were a band.

The experience was we worked with a dude named John Aclario, who was awesome.

He recorded, I think, every band in Jersey, New York, any band that

kind of had their shit together.

He had built himself this...

The studio in his mother's basement.

Not a studio.

Yeah, John. John Aclaria's basement.

That had started to really thrive.

One of the funnier things was us having to stop recording every once in a while

because his mother was upstairs vacuuming. Alex from Eyeball put us in

And he, you know, he was awesome at what he did.

It was great.

Just great. It was just great fun working with him. He had a great ear for

harmonies. Then Jeff came in to produce it from Thursday.

We were able to work with Jeff Rickley, which was great.

He's another one of those guys who has a great ear for melody. I

love that band. My chemical romance.

He taught

Gerard a lot about... you know

delivery it was like kind of like hanging out with one of your really good

friends and making something together making a record with all your friends

know as small and whatnot as the studio seemed like it seemed like when we were

doing it it seemed like we were making like the biggest record unfortunately

that's a problem where tooth

I went to like six or seven hospitals during the making of that record.

Didn't he have like a rotted tooth or something?

Yeah, Gerard went through a lot of shit.

Because I had a tooth that had an abscess in it and nobody could figure it

He was in tremendous pain when doing vocals for the last couple tracks.

There's this work pain I felt in my life, so it was really difficult to

the vocals.

On that record, we didn't have a lot of time. We didn't have a lot of money.

I

wrote

the lyrics

for This Is The Best Day Ever, The Morning Of.

And I remember hopping in a car.

getting Dunkin' Donuts, still having not finished them. We really had no, like,

identity.

To me, at least, you know, every song on that first record sounds very different

from the next.

And that's one of the, I think that's one of my favorite things about our

There's not one style.

No, I click.

pinpoint the most important songs on that record.

The most important song is Head for Halo.

Why it's important is that it's a song that kind of started as a joke.

But it's the song that I had said to the guys that we can pull

this song off.

We can accomplish this and do it believably. If we believe in the song to

for this band,

we won't ever be pigeonholed.

I think Vampires is also important because it really

locked in that darkness.

The aesthetic of the band seems to come largely from Gerard and his sort of

interest in...

you know, dark imagery.

Oh, that's awesome.

Is that something that you vibe with as well?

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, like, he tells me I have to wear these clothes

the time.

I mean, we all grew up, like, you know, like, from Jersey. It was dark to begin

with. So, you know, it was, I don't know if we were really ready for it, but we

were ready to tour. So that's what mattered, and we were ready to really

the world.

Touring is the most important thing in this band.

I think playing as a live band is the most important thing. I think if we

have that, we would have never got off the ground so quickly. When I met Gerard

and Mike Hamm, there were two booking agents that were after them.

And booking agents are kind of like managers, which are kind of like record

companies, where they kind of court the band and say, hey.

You know, we're going to do this for you. We played a show in Boston. Yeah.

Which is, what was it? Skate Fest.

Skate Fest.

What an amazing show that was, too. It was.

First time kids sang along.

And then after that, Matt Kelly booked us. Matt Kelly called us up and was

hey, I like your band. And we were like, wow, we like you.

Yeah, we like you, man.

You know, without exaggeration, we basically had about a two -and -a -half

run. He became our booking agent. He put us on tour with, first of all, it was a

band called Northstar.

Northstar.

And we toured with them for,

well, maybe two weeks. Two weeks. We were like, oh, my God, two -week tour.

hard. Well, we broke down four times.

So I got in the van and I left.

And on my second tour with this band, I got a scorpion tattooed on my neck as

high as I possibly could so that I couldn't get a job.

And my dad called me up and said, oh, he freaked out.

And it's not like we made money, but you can kind of self -sustain on the road.

In the beginning, all we got was water and occasionally a bag of chips and

and occasionally bio -soap.

You can live off that, in a way.

I don't know, it's just one of those things that I dreamed about it from the

time I was seven years old on. I wanted to be in a band.

I wanted to...

To play live in front of people.

You know, I was like, I'll give up anything in the world if I could

be able to do this. And I have, you know. Have your parents been real

supportive? Yeah, I mean, they always wanted me to play. Because my dad and my

grandfather played. My mom, since I was 11, let me practice in my basement, you

know, with fans.

to the point where she couldn't even sleep.

I've lost friends.

I've lost, uh,

scholastic careers.

Uh, Frank and Mikey are college dropouts. Ray finished college, I

he's still, he's pretty close, I think.

When I quit college, they were very, very upset about that.

They wanted me to, you know, have something to fall back on.

And I totally agree. I should, you know. I still should.

And, uh...

It's not that I didn't want to get my education, but I felt that opportunity

calling me at that moment. And I was in the right band, and we were touring.

And I felt that college had nothing for me at that point, because this is all I

ever wanted to do.

We never got that far.

This helped me to take off through the night.

So really, I don't have to work. I didn't have to work. I didn't have

bills. I had a student loan.

I didn't have a cell phone at the time. There's a lot of elements to it, so it

was cool. It was kind of like you're poor and you're starving all the time,

you're kind of roughing it, and it's really cool, you know? They had a great

time doing that, and it really made them grow up as people.

There's been a couple times where I've been left at truck stops, and the band's

kind of driven a couple miles down the road, and I'd have to call them on my

cell phone.

It's like, hey.

What's up?

And they're like, hey, how's it going, man?

I'm like, you notice something's missing from the van?

They kind of look around and they're like, ah, shit. And then I have to turn

around. Just so you know, we ran out of guys.

Just so you know.

At least we're in a populated area and there's stuff to do.

Then we did a tour with a fan called Hope's Fall. And then came Under Oath.

Yeah. And Under Oath was, they were big.

Yeah. They were a big band. To us, yeah.

They had a trailer.

And a lot of merch.

Yeah.

Every day we'd go up and ask for t -shirts because we didn't have any

Yeah, I remember that.

And they were so nice to us. They were like, yo, if you need anything, let us

know. We'd eat their food.

They were so nice to us. Took all their t -shirts and then taking back Sunday.

Took them on a tour. It was Take a Mic Sunday, From Autumn to Ashes, Recover,

and My Chemical Romance.

And it was just this instant friendship form between Take a Mic Sunday and My

Chemical Romance.

And they had fun touring. And then they went straight from the Take a Mic Sunday

tour into a used tour.

I'll kiss your lips again.

I was tour managing a band called Vendetta Red, and I had become friends

the youth because they were touring together.

And Bert was just like my little brother, and I loved him and his band so

And then Gerard was this new kind of friend I had, and I really wanted them

get together.

And so I introduced Gerard to Bert. He introduced me to Bert from the youth.

And I met P3. I think he was, like, really strange.

I thought, yeah, he was a really weird guy when I first met him. Who's your

favorite member of My Chemical Romance?

Um, the singer.

And then

I became the used tour manager.

What's his name again?

Jared. I said, why don't you take this band on tour? Bert said, let's take this

band on tour.

And so the youth took Mike Hem on tour.

He heard the record, brought us on tour, and we kind of all became friends, like

great friends, just from touring. So Mike Hem, who was this little band from

Jersey that had been used to playing basements, would

travel around in their little van and trailer and slug it out and get there.

Killed it every night.

Yeah, so my whole family is very supportive. I don't think they

good the things were going until we made the Trenton local paper. And that's

what they read, so I freaked out.

We made the Trentonian.

They just went in and slowly started winning new fans.

And selling more merch, and that's really how you could put it in a

seeing what was working. We are extremely involved in every creative

this band, down to the t -shirts.

It's a packed house in here, man.

It's not too bad.

Oh, we caught everybody at the museum with all this merch. Oh, right, right.

Merch got killed today. The more merch they sold, the bigger their band was

because nobody could find the record because it just wasn't in store. The

distribution for it wasn't really well.

what it was about this band you know it was the way the guitars and vocals

worked and just you had this really magical genesis happening where you're

touching on something you knew never existed before and it was very special

you felt it in your heart and you're like wow this is a great band like if we

don't fuck this up this could be legendary and

at that point is when I stepped in and said,

okay, you're now going to go tour Europe, which they had never done, and

never even left the United States. They went to Europe, and they did it in a

van. They did it the same way that they did it in the U .S., and it was hell.

And I spent all of my life savings paying for it because I didn't have the

to do it.

They were blown away because they went and played.

in Germany as this little band from New Jersey, and then they showed up in

Spain, and they show up, and there's kids with homemade T -shirts, homemade

Chemical Romance T -shirts, in Spain.

And we all just kind of grew as people, and I grew as a manager. The band grew

as a band.

That was definitely a challenge to this band, to bring it to the next level,

because we were very... When we started, it was a totally...

aggro, cathartic experience where it was just violent and messy and just nuts

and half the shit wasn't even working.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter. It was awesome. And then, you know, stuff

started to happen and then stuff needed to work.

Tell me that this is not ridiculous.

Mike and the Romance got phone calls from major labels

in the practice studio before they even played the show.

Is that right?

Yeah. Maybe the second week I was in the band, we went out for drinks with a

major label. Yeah, just because they were...

From Jersey.

Like, you couldn't walk down the street without a major label, like, coming out

from an alley and trying to buy you a drink or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jersey. And we're signing to Ivo Records.

There was such a signing frenzy going on. There was just major labels

everywhere. Like, we planned a show in a basement in Philly.

Five people.

One of which was a homeless person who had, like, yeah, bootlegged our set and

then tried to sell us the tape afterwards.

And another one, one of the people there was an A &R from a major label.

And then kind of began the process of talking and meeting a lot of A &R

which we basically kindly told them, leave us all alone.

And basically we were like, this is ridiculous, please let us just be a

we waited about like a year before we even signed.

motherfucker's going to try to use you for their doomsday device.

You know what you say to them?

You say, you cannot destroy me!

You cannot destroy me!

This song's for you, it's called Give Him Hell, Ken!

So, uh, who's your, who's your... I got it.

Craig Aronson. So how did My Chemical Romance end up on a reprise record from

bar record? I think, uh, it's just that you're, you know...

typical story of how this stuff happens. And it's what I love to see the most

from a band. They were on an indie label, Eyeball Records, and they had put

a record on their own. They'd been touring a lot behind that and building a

based on their own. How did you guys come to meet? He flew out to CMJ in New

York. We had long meetings and conversations, you know, me and the

long period of time. I think it took nine months.

And was the reason not with Craig for any specific reason?

He signed Les and Jake two times and tried to find Jimmy a little quick, all

from moving to different labels. So when he loves a band, there's nothing well

-placed from him on that band, you know? And we saw that.

No, they spent a lot of time thinking about it, and, you know, they were very

careful. They wanted to do it at the right pace.

And then eventually...

After a lot of, you know, of really analyzing and seeing if this was the

home for them, we were fortunate enough to, you know, to win their hearts and

they signed with us. We just got so sick of seeing bands rip off our friends and

get huge.

Just completely mutilating our friends' band sound.

And, you know, and just turning it into something, exploiting it, and then...

Getting large off it. We were just like, we don't want to be that band. Like, we

don't want that to happen to us. We don't want to not take the chance to

somebody just do a watered -down version of us and then get big. And then, like,

who's going to get our message then? Like, who's going to get the point of

you know?

So we said, fuck it, let's do it. As soon as they were on Warner Brothers,

you know, went in and started talking about making the record. Went in and

the record, and here it is, Armored Freeze. It's, again, simple.

starting out and building in a very natural way.

Revenge is really the band.

Bullets is the band trying to find itself. By the time we hit Revenge, we

really become like Chemical Romance.

When we made Revenge, it was a completely different ballgame. You know,

this phase called pre -production.

It was different. You showed up to this big studio.

You know, it was a lot of money and crazy equipment they had and microphones

that cost more than your first car.

What was your first car, Gerard? It was a Subaru XT. It was silver.

Never had to wash it. You know, it was very strange going from the first

you know, changing your own guitar strings.

We had a lot of tools at our disposal this time. To being, you know, playing

a major studio and being able to play, like, vintage guitars. And then we met

this dude who came in in a sweatpants.

Oh, man. And a hockey jersey. And his name was Howard Benson.

The first time I saw the band was in rehearsal. They played a few songs for

I remember when he pulled up, I was just like, somebody order pizza or

something?

Yeah, he's notorious for his sweatpants. Some company was supposed to make them

his own signature brand. Are you serious? All honesty, yeah.

He had made four Motorhead records, and that's what got us interested about him.

He was like, yeah, I did Motorhead. Yeah.

Then he was like, yeah, I did Motorhead.

And we were like, oh. Yeah, I went to Brazil to set the tour.

It was like the first Pro Tools record ever that I did.

What also got us interested about him was the fact that he contacted us, and

that's like how we like to work.

I like the fact that Gerard was into comics. I know it sounds crazy again,

but... He had a vision. He was into comic books and the whole vision of

books. And I know he wanted to impart that whole vision to his music and his

band. I mean, lyrically, you know, we wanted to take music to a place that

hadn't been in a long time, which was to tell stories.

And use, you know, kind of these sweeping metaphors instead of just, you

my heart.

What inspires our songs is being a product of how we grew up, watching a

horror movies, reading a lot of comic books, and kind of tempering that with

real life.

Everything we write about is real.

It's just a metaphor that we choose in which to describe it. Yeah, it started

off as a concept, and then I found that my real life and the real life of the

band had a lot more to do with what the band wanted to talk about.

The best part about Revenge as a record, for all the concept record stuff that's

going on in it and all the fiction and everything, When you really break down

the record, it's a record that worldwide people love that's about two little

boys that lose their grandma.

In November, me and Mikey had lost our grandma, and that kind of changed the

the record went at that point.

When Gerard and Mikey lost their grandma, we're all family. She actually,

and his grandfather had a huge part in the band being where they are today. We

would never...

What's the story behind the title of the album? I wanted it to kind of be like

the title to a movie that wasn't really a movie.

An unfinished movie or a movie that was never made.

And as soon as we finished the first record, that was the title I had in my

for the second.

I have the title for the third in my head now.

It's usually about the time I finish, or a few months after we finish the first

record, that I get the title for the second.

This record is almost a rock opera in a bizarre way. Maybe it wasn't intended to

be like that, but it feels like that to me.

It was a really cool experience.

Howard's very important as far as teaching us the golden rules of song

structure.

It's spelled C -H -O -R -U -S.

I think my contribution to the songs was like, I wrote all the songs on this

record. No, I'm kidding.

It's a producer joke.

They wanted to be as good as they could be in the studio, so I think they worked

with Howard kind of like a coach.

He was like a coach. He was like a sports coach. Howard, he was the kind of

that'll challenge you and even make you doubt, you know? He made a lot of

references to, you know, what being in a band is like and even making a record

like, what is it, like a basketball team.

Yeah, like everybody has, you know, a specific role.

He would basically be like, you know, what are you doing?

We'd come in and we'd be like, nah, dude, it's got this part that's like...

he'd be like, what does that part mean?

Like, it doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the song. Like, you're

just confusing the shit out of me. We're like, that's the point. That's the

point. Remember how many times we said, that's the point.

None of this shit means anything. None of this stuff. Zero. Nothing.

It's garbage. It means what you write and your intense theme, what you have to

say, and the emotional thing that you put out, that means something.

Not, you know, oh, wow, look at all these guitars.

I can shred, you know.

cares nobody cares he would push you you know like you'd go to him and you know

we'd all play a song and we'd go you know you'd be like dude he's gonna

love this you know oh yeah and he'd just be like i don't get it or you sure you

want to do that part you know like you you'd go in thinking you know this is

shit dude you you kind of bring you back down a little bit i think that band's

work ethic was probably one of the best i've seen They're very, very easy to

work with in studio and very open -minded. It makes you have that self

And a lot of times when you doubt yourself, you end up creating something

better. We would go to rehearsal, I would say to them, I think we need to

this new part, you need to write this new part, you need to come up with

something. They would stay up all night and come back to rehearsal the next day

with it finished and done.

And the guitar players would come in. They were so excited to be in here. They

jumped around the room and played as hard as they could. They worked there. I

think it was incredible, actually.

The song, The Ghost in You, it was arranged a little differently.

From what I remember, the song has the bridge, it's like that quiet bridge, and

then it comes in with that heavy drum beat, heavy guitars coming full force.

And on the record, after that section, there's another chorus that comes up.

And the way that we had originally arranged it was just the bridge into

heavy section and then the song ends.

Howard pushed for having another chorus there. And we all hated having that

chorus in that song. We thought that the song was done, not into it at all.

So me and Gerard were listening to the version that Howard had suggested with

that chorus after that heavy part. And, you know, the bridge plays and that

heavy part comes in. And then that last chorus kicked in and we just both, like,

our eyes lit up. And we just said, fuck, he's right. Like, it had, like, such a

great, great impact.

After we figured out what he was trying to teach us, we learned it. He tried to

teach us song structure. And once we...

We learned that from him. We ran with it for a week and a half straight.

Yeah,

we wrote like five or six more songs. We were way psyched. We made the record,

and we were on tour literally the next day.

We had Warped Tour.

So, uh, this is your first time on the Warped Tour? Yes. You guys having fun so

far? Oh, it's been amazing.

That's when I started to really get heavily involved in taking pills and

drinking. What kind of pill? Uh, Xanax. I'm not drunk.

I'm on a new show. I'm, I'm, I'm fucking fine.

What happened?

Gerard Way is an alcoholic.

It's just something that, unfortunately, I felt I had to do to be Gerard on

stage.

I want this song to go after this. It's very personal.

About me and Mikey's grandma.

And the motherfuckers called Elena. Do you know the words? Sing it with me.

What's the worst thing I've ever done?

It took

a long time

to get over that. And it was completely wasted. I think his pants fell down.

While I was tour managing the youth and managing my chemical romance at the same

time, Gerard drinking was just Gerard drinking. That was what he did.

Progressively got worse and worse. I need more beer.

I'm not even drunk.

Could you take the left beer? Well, you know, it's something I got here. I feel

amazing. You guys are so amazing. I'm overmedicated.

Drinking a few beers today, but only a few because it's so hot.

He would drink more and more and would get...

GS loaded.

We got this shit already, man.

Shit is easy peasy pumpkin peasy.

Pumpkin pie, motherfucker.

I've been down with kickballs since I was in third grade, man. My dick! My

My dick!

Simultaneously, the other members of the band were doing...

Similar things, except for whoever had to drive.

Basically, me and Frank drinking beer.

I think we're winning, but I'm really drunk. This is a kickball game.

This is the most fun I've had.

It was biblical, amazing, and dramatic.

And I fucked up a little, but you know what? I was good.

That was the beginning of this downward spiral.

Intervention wasn't working at that point. My discussions with him just

weren't... His band's discussions with him weren't... He wanted to be drunk.

Okay. You know, he was a growing boy with this weird position he was in where

was singing in this band that had grown up a little too fast.

a record release show, and it was sold out, and I remember there was, like,

about, like, 2 ,500 people, and just, like, seeing that many people just

in units that are singing along was so overwhelming.

Today is...

What day?

What is it, though?

Okay. I'm Joey Southside here to tell you about my friend in My Chemical

Romance's new record, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge!

The funniest thing about Three Cheers for Sweet

Revenge is that the label and I had agreed that if we could sell 300 ,000

copies, we would be happy.

The record just dropped.

That's why I feel pretty excited.

And then, you know, the first week of sales, I had predicted $3 ,000.

And we had no idea what was going to happen. And the very first day, we kept

getting phone calls about how great things were going.

And I think right about then is when we realized something weird was going to

happen. $11 ,000. No!

Holy shit!

Dude, I thank my mom.

And the fact that the very first day had sold twice as many as the entire

record, the previous record had sold in its whole lifespan at that point.

I think we realized that something big was about to happen. She bought about

$10 ,900.

You know, they just continued working through the summer.

And then

it was just a flood

of good news.

They sold like 120 ,000 records through that summer.

Enter the lives of My Chemical Romance. Kind of growing up with Mom and Dad, it

was a weird kind of household. All of our families were pretty strange. At the

time of 9 -11, Gerard was a recent art school grad who quit his job as a

cartoonist to pursue the band full -time.

His artwork raced the cover of their new CD, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, a

concept album inspired by the band's love of horror flicks. I watched a lot

bad movies that I read a lot of comic books.

Sometimes I think, Fiction is the best metaphor, and sometimes fiction's

actually more fat.

every other photo shoot we've ever done.

They're always boring. It's just stupid band shots on stairs.

Us trying to look tough.

A little bloody.

There was a point where, seriously, every single photo shoot that we were

had some form of blood in there. I can't think of one that hasn't. Are you into

that? Well, I don't have any problems with it. The only thing is we've done

shoots of blood.

Oh, really?

Yeah. The first one was we had bloody cheerleaders.

Okay.

So blood wasn't on us. The second one we did were karang.

It was blood, like, on our hands. Because that was, like, the main sort

like, idea, huh? Yeah.

Take that away from me, I'm screwed.

That's partially our fault.

It is, it really is. Because when we started doing the photo shoots, I know

of the first ones was, let's cover ourselves in blood. Whoa, that's so

Yeah. Ah, it's fucking amazing.

Let's start doing it.

One, two, three.

Perfect.

I'm sick of seeing my face. But I am allowed to be sick of seeing my face

because it's my fucking face.

You know what I'm saying? What happened?

I need liquor.

Hey,

Gerard. I filmed you

puking. I know. I saw you like way far over there.

It took about a little less than a year and you hit rock

bottom. So when you hit rock bottom, it was about a week worth of rock bottom

-ness in July of 2004.

In the Midwest, which was Central Time, and I was in Brooklyn, which is

Eastern Time, so a lot of 5 a .m. phone calls.

I didn't want the band to ever go through a VH1 behind -the -music

where it's like, then everything collapsed.

I didn't want that to happen.

The first couple times were him, I think, opening up a little bit

and saying, I have a problem.

The second couple times were him.

fighting, that he had a problem, and that time with him wanting to kill

It made me suicidal, which is, you know, I had been suicidal a couple times in

my life, and not this bad. To the point where you start thinking about it as an

escape route, that's when it gets serious, when you're like, well, if

really bad ever happens, I'll just do this, and I'll be fine, and I'll be able

to go away. So that was where booze and pills...

I don't think I got off the phone until 7 .30 in the morning or so.

And he had done a lot of drugs, and he had admitted to me that it wasn't just

the pills and the booze.

He had moved on to cocaine, and it's like a slap in the face. You kind of go,

oh, shit.

People need to live their lives the way they want, and that's fine. I don't want

to be preachy like if... People like to drink. That's awesome. It just doesn't

work for me.

And that last phone call where he was going to kill himself, I had to talk

him out of it. I talked him down, and I waited until some of the drugs had worn

off and told him to go wake up his tour manager, who was out sleeping.

And he went and woke up the tour manager, and they went for a walk.

Well, my band really believed in me in it.

And because of that, they had saved my life again.

Jerry and he had a little walk. And I called Jerry and explained to him what

happened. And Jerry's a straight edge guy and didn't pass judgment for a

Didn't, you know, wasn't upset because Gerard had done it behind his back.

Wasn't bummed out because it wasn't his lifestyle.

Jerry got him through the next two hours until Gerard finally passed out in his

bunk. I wanted us to win, and I wanted us to do some good, and fight the good

fight, keep fighting the good fight.

The only way I knew I could do that was just by quitting.

From that time until he was clean and sober was about 17 days.

Yep.

This band saved my life twice.

What do you mean twice?

Well, in the beginning, because I was so depressed, and then again when I was in

college. It saved my life. It gave me a purpose, which I was sorely lacking in

my life, and it was damaging who I was, and the point where I was going to be

nothing.

So it saved my life, and it's there to save other people's lives.

He's doing an amazing job cleaning up.

He's doing a really good job. Why were you late? Because we wanted to eat at a

diner. Not drinking.

Not partying. Just eating.

Just wanted to have a veggie burger.

I'm just glad I got over the fact that I felt like I needed it to be in this

band. Especially a band that's called Chemical Romance, right?

Isn't that ironic?

The face -to -face tour, a lot has changed.

We have a new drummer named Bob from Chicago we love very much.

I got clean and sober, basically, and that made the shows change pretty

dramatically because my singing got a lot better.

So, like, it was two huge changes for our band.

We've become a new band. Bob joined at a really integral point in my kind of

romance because nobody was really sure what was going to happen with us.

Troy was getting sober, and, you know, we had lost our drummer.

And when that decision was made and Gerard was wasted and the record was

starting to do what it was doing, which was make an impact and be, you know,

this thing, all I could keep thinking in my head was, well,

here it goes.

It's going to be just one of those legendary records that never was because

band's not going to make it through it. When I got Clean and Sober, which is

August 11th,

We had to go on tour six days, seven days later. Not only with a new drummer,

but literally a new singer.

Because I had never played a show sober. It was terrifying.

That first show was, I didn't know what was going to happen right now.

Like, I was really happy that Bob was around, but I remember the first couple

shows going, oh man.

Don't even worry about it, dude. These kids don't give a fuck. They just want

see a good fucking show.

You guys ready for my Kevin the Romance?

And then three shows in, though, he's in that old band again. Wow. Yeah. This is

what it always should have been.

It kind of was like the tornado was over.

and our label there gave us the record which comes with a dvd and it's got some

summer sonic concert on it and that was drug last year and i watched that and we

had our old drummer too which is the other half of the equation like i

that and i was like this isn't even us anymore like we're we don't look

like that we don't play anything like that and we don't act like that i mean

like i actually didn't watch it i turned it off after

a long time. He's actually the used sound guy. We met good old Bob on

tour with the used.

Oh dear.

What is this? It's a line.

Bob was still doing

sound and he was out with the used.

I know you begged Brian to have Bob come out and do something for us.

I used to beg and plead.

He's like, no, we can't afford it. He's like, I don't mean, he'll do it for

free, he said.

Bob loves My Chemical Romance. Bob went to Europe with us for free when he was

off tours one time just because, you know, that was another tour where it's

myself and the band and Bob. And Bob was doing sound.

He's definitely one of the best front of house sound guys in the business. Like,

he's mixed. Christ, they use so many great bands.

You know, he's made these bands sound phenomenal. He had a career. Like, he

like, a good -paying job.

Yeah,

I did. And he came out with us and went to death.

I see a brother and best friend in the whole world, Bob Breyer of the Trumps.

fucking songs we can rock you with.

I got a feeling that Bob is going to do all of them. And they found you on the

bathroom floor.

I missed you.

I missed you so bad.

I think I assumed we had just been going by what we had heard from people. We

didn't even know. We heard even the main drummer.

We'd never heard him play.

So definitely from faith, but...

We heard him and right away we knew he was going to be great for this band. I

think they did the record and then they went to Japan.

And while they were in Japan is when the decision was made.

They started kind of comments about being in the band and then the official

offer was put out. Do you want to be in the band? And I said, hell yeah.

And then they got back from Japan.

As soon as they got back, the day they got back from Japan, I flew out. I was

that Project Revolution tour.

I left that tour.

To go to Jersey But we didn't have much time. What do we have like two or three

days to actually rehearse?

And they were pretty mad at me for them not having more time, but we canceled a

few shows because of it all.

And my theory on it was it's your fault that you have to cancel shows because

you can't work out your problems internally, but it's not the band's

they shouldn't suffer because of it, so goodbye, go on tour.

And now you feel you're here today?

I hope so.

Unless your friends fire you.

Maybe, we'll see. Bob joined the band, and before Bob had ever played a show,

filmed a Not Okay video.

You like D &D, Audrey Hepburn, Fangoria, Harry Houdini, and croquet. You can't

swim, you can't dance, and you don't know karate.

Face it, you're never going to make it.

I don't want to make it.

I just want to. And then Not Okay came along, which was our first technically,

technically real video shoot because it involved a lot of money, a lot of

people. Bob had done a major rock music video before ever playing a single show

with Michael Maroon.

I haven't even had a show yet.

Are you serious?

Yeah. We did that before the face -to -face tour? Yes.

That was

the first time.

Well, I guess it would be the second time we played together.

We had the one rehearsal day and then went straight to the video.

And that was pretty sketchy because, you know, while I love Bob and while Bob's

a great drummer, we

still were never sure that Bob was going to be the drummer in My Chemical

Romance. I wasn't even in the band yet.

I was kind of just the dude that was just kind of playing. I've been to a lot

other video shoots, being on the other side.

And then being in front of the camera was extremely weird for me.

Don't hit the camera. People have told me that whenever there's a camera

I tend to go the other way.

Tend to go the other way or... Or I hit it or I kick it.

Or I smash it.

Fuck no, man.

Put the camera away from me.

Stop filming.

Come on.

Get off of me.

fucking piece of shit off of me. Let me see it. Hold it up.

Hold it up. The camera's on me, dog.

Stop.

Stop. Stop.

Stop. Stop.

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

I've always been a guy that's kind of been on the other side of the camera.

are you doing, bro? Just filming.

Yeah, you're a man of many talents. I know.

Sound, drumming. I got a steady hand here.

Whoa. Bob, Bob Cam.

Get out of here, Bob Cam. Okay.

There's Mikey.

There's Rock.

Yo,

party time.

And it all worked out for the better. Trust me.

Got through it.

Yeah, no, he pulled it off great.

Like, everybody, you know, in the band got their close -up shots where the

cameras just kind of focused on what they were doing, and we just had, you

we had a blast watching them play. And so it seems like all of the hardships of

that time period were almost past.

It was almost like, look, you have this special thing, you have this special

band. You have this great, amazing record.

Can you make it through it?

And if you do, you know, it's like Candyland. If you get past the bad

then all of a sudden you get the lollipop or something.

Hey, this is Gerard from My Chemical Romance. You're listening to our new

I'm Not Okay, on Mad Cow's Morning Madhouse on the Free Speech Radio

I love the video. The video's great. Very cool. It keeps you watching because

keeps building.

It was a lot of fun making it. It was really collaborative.

The guy did it. It was really good. He did a bunch of videos.

You know what, dude?

Don't give anyone else credit. If you're going to be a lead singer, it's all

about you.

You've got to dust these guys, take credit for everything. That's what you

We're at the very genesis of this young man's career. It all starts here, ladies

and gentlemen.

Where do we go from here, kid?

Where do we go?

I have no idea.

Did I see you guys in the paper this morning? I didn't.

Oh, I saw you.

Hey, guys. I was in the Friday section this morning speaking with a plane

dealer. And they actually wrote very highly of it. My chemical romance. He

spelled three cheers for sweet revenge right at the end of the story of the

year. Oh, man.

There it is. Oh, man.

It looks hot.

Yeah, it does. It looks awesome.

That's goodness.

Oh, shit, look.

Look, they're in the same cover as Kid Rock. Look at that. I mean, friends of

choice. Insane clown posse. And they're on the same cover.

How is that? See?

It's huge.

We lost that line. I think they can't find everything. Certainly, it's good

timing. It's good timing.

It's good timing. It's good timing.

It's good timing.

They don't have to be that way with us anyway.

All of a sudden it was like the My Chemical Romance explosion happening.

It's weird, like, you know, you're never sure if your band's going to get to

that point where you start playing a lot of TV, and then we did, and we really,

really felt like Martians at that point.

We're going to MTV Studios to record.

Live performance for, what is it?

Discover and Download.

Oh, there's something that's going to air on regular MTV.

Yeah, called Discover and Download. And we played this thing in their studio,

the TRL studio. Chad from New February hosted it. And it was a great time.

It felt like something really bizarre and new.

I think we're playing with the Libertines and some rappers.

It should be kind of one of 50 heads crew.

I'm very excited.

How white am I?

I know.

Oh, nice.

Pretty white.

It's really weird.

You know, it's one of those things that, like, you dream about, I guess, when

you're, you know, playing guitar in front of your mirror. It's kind of

I've never played, like, any of these, like, weird tapes or things, you know?

But it was great.

A lot of fun. After a couple songs, I kind of warm up.

Yeah!

I want to play all night!

It's good, though. I really like it. You know, your parents get to watch you on

TV, and that's the best part. Yeah. And they call you up, and they go, I'm so

proud of you. It's awesome, because our parents are so supportive of us. Hey!

Hey! Mr.

Cameraman. Going on.

Oh, right.

Look at this.

Look at the camera.

Look at the camera. Look at the camera.

That is my mom.

How are you? Hi. This is my great uncle. This is my grandfather.

That's my dad. I am very proud of you. I really am. I'm a musician, and I never,

ever dreamed of having the success that he's having now.

And I just, I didn't want him to get into it because I knew what a tough life

was. So he really took the ball and ran with it. So cool. You have your dad,

your grandfather, and your uncle, like all kind of little, you know, family fan

club almost. Oh, yeah. That's great.

Oh, they'll come with, like, stickers and stuff.

That's my friend's son.

Oh,

yeah.

And my father's a musician.

I'm surprised. I think he has more energy than anybody I've ever seen.

It's unbelievable.

are really big, you know, and we're like, oh man, it's so weird.

It's such a magnificent job. That's the entire crew.

Our flight's at 6 .30 in the morning.

Not 7 .30.

We have to be there at 4 .30?

So we have to be there at 4 .30.

So we might as well, if you guys want, we can just go there. You have to leave

MTV, go to your hotel, and get on a plane to fly to your venue where they're

debunked. that you can go to sleep on.

Wait till you fly from here to the UK and the UK to Japan and Japan to Hawaii

and then Hawaii back to the US.

Yeah. All in one day. It's early and I'm tired.

Fucking plane. Fuck off.

is being on the Nintendo's. Does your tour have lots of Nintendo benefits?

Yeah, we got, um, first day they gave us a GameCube. Free Nintendo.

Where? That's the sponsor of the tour is Nintendo.

They just recently gave us Donkey Konga, the Bongo game.

Oh! Yo!

Okay.

All right.

Ready? Uh -huh. Keep watching this shit.

It's already open. What is it?

I know what it is.

Awesome. Oh, dude.

Huge. Thank you. Come back some more.

Hold it up. Hold it up, bro.

Fuck yeah!

Only Mr. Bean I don't have.

Oh!

For the hamsters, it'll be fine.

I told you I wasn't kidding.

This was the tough

one.

This was the big one. This was the video where we're like...

This is going to be a touchy one. Helena is probably one of the favorite songs

off the record for everybody because it has so much meaning behind it. We wanted

the videos to be a homage to my grandmother, but we also didn't want it

that much of a super downer.

She wouldn't have liked it to be a super downer.

The song is celebrating someone's life, and when someone passes, you should

focus on all the good that that person has done and try not to really

think about the fact that they're not going to be on this earth any longer,

that they had an effect on you and your lives, and that's what you should take

out of it.

When I watched Tracy do the dance.

on the little screen while they were filming. I got so emotional I had to

It was really hard for me to watch.

Carrying that coffin in the rain was really, really tough on everybody.

It was a miserable, miserable video shoot, but it had to be.

And it was most representative of the

band visually and artistically.

I mean, they did the Helena shoot, and they walked away from that video shoot

with those outfits.

We had just gotten our Helena costumes, so we decided to start

wearing them because we really liked the way we looked. We kind of started to

feel like a gang. That kind of kicked it off. They kind of became this band that

was going to have a uniform.

Not as in, like, we're all going to look the same. We're going to look sweet.

So they started developing it.

When I first started talking to My Chemical Romance, when I first started

talking to Gerard, they never had any money.

They never had any means.

So they had to hodgepodge it together. I think I'm just going to wear maybe my

new mummy t -shirt.

Oh, what did you get? Is it red? Yeah. What size?

It's a good ball, I think.

Mummy, you know.

I'm wearing a leather jacket.

Leather jacket, um, destroyed.

So far, I'm doing a sweat.

Wait until your friends see this. They're going to call you a girl. Man,

and they did the Helena shoot.

And it was all over.

You need to wear your white suit with that.

Huh? Yeah, you need to wear your white loper.

Fuck!

I forgot to get hand sanitizer.

Fuck you.

How do I look?

Dead as fuck.

How do you feel

about this?

Getting all parodied up.

Do you have glitter in there?

Yeah. What are you doing?

What are you doing?

Taping you getting ready for the show. Why not?

I tried my hair straight and then it just didn't work.

I like it straight.

I'm just weird with the way I look.

I don't think I look good in the waist. You look good. Who takes the longest in

the mask? Get ready for show.

It's probably me. I mean, I get... I get... It takes two hours.

Don't let your eyes get freaky. Come on. I can't help it.

Stop. I can't help it. There at one point. Deal with it. There... Let's look

down. Yeah, there you go. Purple.

Do you wear a similar style for an entire tour and then change it the next

or is it all just spontaneous?

It's all very spontaneous, but just by the way...

I change things constantly.

No, they're just going to keep going.

I want to get, like, the run of their fucking eyeshadows.

If I could get some white, too, from them, that would wake me.

Are those new pants?

Yeah, these new tight pants.

Oh, that's sharp.

Get this. Scope that, man.

What is that? Oh, God!

For some reason, they don't wash their clothes, or they won't get them dry

cleaned, and I don't know why.

And I keep telling them to buy new outfits or doubles or duplicates, and

just don't do it. It smells awful!

You're a hot motherfucker, but you know what I'm saying. It's that hot also

brings things.

Like pigs in the mud?

Do you see anything wrong down there?

Eating,

normally, showering, and sleeping all aren't worked out into your day when

you're in a van. Everything on this bus stinks.

You do find out, though, that, like, a hot shower kind of makes you feel like a

human being again. Life on the Warped Tour, taking a shower outside.

I have a shower, and it's going to be seven

days tomorrow.

Hey, D -Pain.

Oh, my God. Oh, jeez. You've got to love somebody to smell them at their worst

for a week on end.

You ever thought about washing it?

I did. I did wash it.

And I wore it once.

There's something wrong. It shouldn't smell like that after one wear.

I love, like, the shit in there.

That's it.

Not us.

We had a huge meeting. The bus is always dirty. Doug has just given up trying to

clean the bus. And he's laughing, but he knows it's true because there's no room

for anyone.

And because we fucking live like animals.

We live with each other.

We're in each other's faces.

We sleep 24 -7. With each other. Yeah, I mean, that's it. It's been us versus

the world.

Bob, ow.

My head.

Are you going to get out?

Oh, you got a little reading material there, right, Toro? That's not mine.

Sleeping in the bunk area is not that bad because we were in a van for two and

half years sleeping on each other.

Bunks rule.

Peeing on yourselves.

Wasted.

Covered in dirt, grime, shit, piss, everything.

So the first time we got our bunks, we were like, hell yeah.

And we still feel that way about them. We've been on them a long time now.

Some people choose to live by coffee.

Mikey chooses to live by coffee. Gotta choose your poisons.

I like Starbucks. I know people are gonna hate me for saying it, but no,

you can't.

So damn good.

Coffee's one of those things that my body is now physically and mentally

addicted to.

How do you get this fucking filter thing? Oh, here it is.

It's my only voice left. You know, I don't drink or anything. I don't do

Are you going to tape us a little of that coffee?

Hell yes.

We send runners for, like, lattes.

That's what we do.

Are you guys avid readers?

Yeah. Well, we're all pretty big readers.

That's neat.

All right, how are we doing?

Reading about video games.

I like reading comic books. Do you read a lot of comic books? At the end of the

world, on the last thing I see, you are... Finding a good book?

No. Any good magazines?

No, you want to go look at me? Yeah.

What do you got here?

Cracked magazine.

Have you ever read it?

I used to read it all the time as a kid. It was one of the worst magazines in

the world.

It was like, we're not as funny as mad.

This is for you right here. Oh, thank you.

Do you like comics?

Whoa, badass.

Thanks, man. This is going to rip.

What are you doing, John?

Fucking drawing Hellboy. Yeah, this is Hellboy. I'm actually a huge fan of

Hellboy. What are you doing?

Doing a little French art.

Rocks out France.

Fuck that. I don't want that there.

Scary vampire framing mummy.

What are you drawing this for, John?

Bam.

Bam.

Kids at Woodcott, then?

I'm working on a comic. You know what it's all about?

Superhero. Because I never did superheroes before.

What is this?

That's my superhero comic I'm working on.

It's kind of like the X -Men.

You were mentioning a couple of their names and stuff. Yeah, there's one I'm

working on called The Seance, and he's a guy who uses a Ouija board.

to contact dead superheroes, and he gets their powers when they possess him. And

I got this guy called, I think I'm going to call him

the Darwinist or something, or Dr.

Darwin. And he's a guy that got in an accident, and they had to put his head

the body of a gorilla.

And he has to wear this kind of apparatus to keep himself alive.

Kind of like an iron lung.

But he gets all the abilities of like a superhuman gorilla.

If you could have any other job besides design, what would it be and why?

I'm proud to illustrate stuff.

Do you have an outlet to get your stuff published?

No, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard now.

I know I kind of got shit on for years in the comic industry. I'm pretty sure I

haven't used time. Oh, wow.

Getting one out now.

Are you amazed and surprised that, like, people have picked up on you

guys the way they have and things have really steamrolled?

I think...

What's cool about us, too, is I think... I mean, me and Gerard are, like, 27.

We're... We've gotten past the point.

Look at it. I just put my hand in a cupcake.

We've gotten past that point, you know? And that's not a concern for us. The

main concern, I think, for us is just being successful and making good music

and...

And just making this thing last as long as it needs to last.

One minute, guys. One minute.

Get it going on.

And then came TRL. That was so weird.

Terrifying. Because it's live TV.

Yeah! Some people may question why we played it, but we kind of wanted to do

as kind of like a fuck you.

And to show that.

Fans like us could do things like that and make it fun and make it cool.

It all gets real weird, especially when you stand on top of a drum, fall off

like an idiot, and ruin the backbone of the song.

We got about halfway through that song, which is live on TV.

And Frank ended up on top of my kick drum.

And then chomped off and pulled half of my drum set off the riser.

And I finished the song.

I just made up shit. You did the kick parts on the top. Yeah, I was just

up stuff.

Bob thankfully used his tom as a bass drum and we made it through that song.

And it was our first experience with having to get escorted by police to our

van.

It was just like New York City police officers having to keep fans back.

And you look out the window, you just saw people lining the streets and

cheering. Jumbotrons with Gerard's face on there.

There was a taxi cab with a Michael Gromans ad on top. Yeah, it was fun.

I felt like I was a Ghostbuster.

That's famous.

Ghostbuster famous. Yeah, Ghostbuster.

What was after that?

There's a chaos in the next one. All right. You're on the stage of chaos

now. It's going to be us to use.

Look it out.

Kill Swish Engage. Kill Swish Engage.

A static lullaby.

A static lullaby.

I'm going to switch it to sentence fail.

This is the most fun film we've been on, I think.

What's your most memorable moment on Face of Chaos?

This moment right now. Right now. Because it's fresh in my memory.

Getting my Chemical Romance tattoo.

We're going to check it out, dawg. So how do you feel about what's going on

there with Danny Payne's tattoo?

Sick tats, brah.

See what he's getting?

A grenade with a banner that says Revenge.

And on top of the grenade it says NCR.

That looks fucking hot.

How you doing?

Frank,

how do you feel about that? I feel awesome, but I love this Playgirl pose

got going on, too. That's the best part, right?

I don't think the Taste of Chaos tour was as important to the band as that

period was important to the band, because that was really where everything

crescendoed and kind of hit this point.

They really did go out there and kind of just show everybody why My Chemical

Romance was going to be here to stay.

How does that even feel? Is that strange?

I saw you guys on TRL. It was so weird. It's weird. We don't really see how

successful stuff is. We just care about it.

Do you know how many people are here tonight?

How many?

7 ,500.

A lot of people.

Come on, Bob, you're ready.

Ten minutes.

All right, let's all go.

So what you had was My Chemical Romance. Having commercial success happening and

needing to go on stage every single night and show people why success was

happening.

I can tell this band learned a lot because when they came in and did the

thing with them under pressure, Gerard, just the singing was so amazing. It was,

holy cow, I mean.

Totally different singer. The guitar player, Ray and Frank and everybody.

The drummer is a new drummer.

Tremendous drummer. They were so confident in here. They were just

And I could feel it coming out of them that they had grabbed it by the teeth.

Okay, I'm going to read your mind right now about what your favorite band is.

My Chemical Romance.

What about the chicks and the drugs?

No, we're not. We're not into chicks and drugs.

Some of us may have been into a little bit of drugs beforehand. You know,

there's this thing that's rock and roll, and we're just so anti -rock and roll.

We've given some European interviews where we're like, so you guys get lots

groupies? And we're like, fuck you, man.

Yeah, there's no show us your tits. Sign it. Sign it.

Oh,

Matt. Yeah.

Oh, I love Matt.

Well, something had happened on Take the Chaos where there was like a local band

and they were going, I think their record label pushed them to go around

with a video camera.

and get girls to show their tits for backstage pass. And not only that, but

video was going to also be seen by Mike Helga Romance.

I shit.

I lost my fucking cool.

And decided that that's what I was going to say on stage that night. If you ever

see shitty -ass rock dudes in shitty -ass rock bands asking you to show

them your tits, For a backstage pass, I want you to spit right in their fucking

face. And yeah, fuck you.

Women being objectified and just so many bad things that are just inherent and

ingrained in it that don't have to be that way. I just wanted to say hi. Hi.

really excited to see you. How long have you been listening to Mike and the

little old man?

For like ever. I've seen him 11 times.

My eyes.

A small one, because all I wanted for my birthday was a picture with Driveway.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

So you go to a MyCamp show and, like, there's not a groupie thing. Get off of

me! No groupies, you know what I mean?

That's the best part about My Chemical Romance fans.

What's your name?

Let me see the sign of it.

Have you read the new Ellen DeGeneres book yet? Mm -hmm. Yeah. How is it? Made

me a lesbian.

I only take girls now.

I can't handle that. I need to have an open mind, my friend.

All right, now, for this song, I want to see your lighters and your cell phones

up in the fucking air, please.

All right, you guys do better than that. It's fucking New York.

Everybody's got a cell phone.

Now, when the song starts, we're going to slam back and forth. This song is

called The Good Street.

Yeah, I'm into lighters because that's tradition.

Yeah, that's more... It's modernizing it with these cell phones. That's more big

hair rock. You like the cell phone thing? It's brighter.

Oh, that's true. It does look damn cool. I prefer lighters, but cell phones are

the new lighter.

Today is the last day

of Taste of Chaos.

I'm very upset.

It's been the best tour of my life.

Don't miss it, man. I love touring with my friends.

It's probably my favorite band in the whole world to tour with.

I like family.

I'm actually, I don't want to go to Europe. I'd rather stay here.

And then they went to the UK.

It's a great way to celebrate my birthday. I think that's one of the main

reasons I wanted to do two shows in one day. I thought it was the perfect day to

do it in London on my birthday. It's kind of exciting, you know.

It's a great city with a lot of history, great kids.

I feel like, I don't know, I'm not even tired. I definitely can do another.

The band was playing two sold -out shows in London at the Astoria, and the

record company wanted to do this funeral procession.

And I have no idea why. I think they wanted to see if they could pull it off.

And it was just insanity.

We've always said we wanted to be more theatrical.

So it's actually less of a stunt, more of an expression of what's going on in

the band, what's happening live, how we want to become a more theatrical band.

There's this huge funeral procession that looks like it's from 1918.

moving down the streets in London in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

And then the hearse died, and they had to physically push the hearse the rest

the way. I think in the fall, when we find our headliner, we'll really be able

to bring a lot more of those elements into it. Gerard said, let's look into

we can do to make sure that as we're growing as a band, that our fans are

getting their money's worth.

We decided that we were going to reenact Elena in a live show.

Yeah!

Gerard wanted to see what it would be like to involve dancers because rock and

roll, has for the past five years in our humbled opinions

become very boring and non -risky

and

then um hopefully we'll have production that we can bring with us and make it

more theatrical i think that's the goal the great thing

about my chemical romance is is that they're They continually are pushing

themselves to not do the same thing again. They're just really creative

And I just have total faith that, like any great artist that has a long career,

you see, you know, change occur over time.

The Ghost of You video.

Ghost of You. I had this idea where, like, fucking World War II.

I don't know. I feel like it has to be something and nobody's going to expect.

He was like, it's going to be World War II. We're going to be soldiers.

And he said, in the shit. He's like, we're going to be in the shit. And I was

like, man, that's so weird.

Random thoughts pop out of his head all the time.

That was one of them that was just genius, you know?

And I was like, I'll even chop all my goddamn hair off. I don't care.

And they started to get excited about it. I kind of suckered Mark into this,

too. I was like, well, I'm thinking the next video is more like a movie and less

like a video.

You think you could do World War II? And he kind of sat there, and I was like,

you know, and I'm like, I mean, like, Saving Private Ryan. Can you recreate

that? And he was like, yeah, I think I can.

And he did.

He fucking did it real well, too. He did.

Yeah. So he got roped into it.

You got everything down.

Like, everything. The way it looked, like, the depression of it.

Oh, here's a little story.

So we're on tour with Green Day. So I'm talking to Trey, I think, and he's like,

yeah, we shot this video, and we recreated the conflict in Iraq. It's

war in Iraq, you know?

It's like, you know, it's just all war footage and stuff.

And we're just like, oh, man, fuck, you know?

So I went to Billy a week later, and I had the treatment. A couple days later,

said, look, I heard about your video, but we were going to make this video. He

goes, why don't you sit with me and watch our video? So he sat me down, and

showed me the video, and I actually almost cried because it's really

It's a phenomenal video.

But I was relieved because the videos are nothing alike.

And the beauty of it, though, is they were making the same statement, this

-war statement.

And it was cool because he kind of gave us his blessing and was very happy that

we were making a statement.

When the band was on tour with Green Day, we started discussing the next

And I said, okay, let's get another bus and rip the back half out

of it. And you can put a studio in. And so what they do is spend most of their

days back there writing new material.

The bass.

Yeah, yeah, why did you...

All right, so that's throwing you off? Way.

I think it's throwing everything off. I think it's throwing stuff off.

How about I just do this?

Yeah, you can mute it. Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll just do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you just want it so you can just record to the, like, completely erase

program drums?

Yes.

I'm just afraid that it's not going to be able to record.

You know what I'm saying? Chorus is certain ones don't have vocals. We're

to rock out, dude, big time.

All right. Very excited guy.

Ready?

Production's great.

The sound is great.

Okay. Fucking amazing.

That's supposed to be a double chorus.

Okay. A singing?

Yeah, not yet.

Not yet. No vocals yet. Okay.

Oh, my God. That's fucking amazing, you guys. That's amazing.

And the production.

Ray, that's amazing production. This feels like a record. Thank you so much

that.

at Maxwell's in Hoboken, there's not a fucking chance in the world that any of

us would have ever thought that they would be playing at Long Beach Arena and

round the corner to receive gold records.

Thank you for fucking believing in us more than anybody else in the whole

Thank you for making us the most dangerous band in Rocky Road.

We're going to make your label the most dangerous band in the world.

It's a dream at that point. You really live the dream.

I wouldn't change anything for the world.

Probably the greatest experience that anyone could ever have. I know I do

Because I love playing music with the people that I get to play music with.

There's no feeling in the world, no better feeling in the world, I think,

being able to play on stage with these guys. If there are movies made about

band, about your life, what would the story be like, about the ending?

I think the ending would be really good.

And I think in the end, everybody would kind of go back to normal, doing what

they do before the band, or maybe something new.

like living in the woods or like writing children's books.

Or Bob would be probably an airline pilot.

I'd like to think that when this band is very low, everybody's lives would go

back to normal.

And not that we're not happy right now, but like, you know, I'd like to think

that everybody's been having a really good life when the band is done.