The Singer and musician Gerard Way we all know from "My Chemical Romance"
(Photo: Courtesy Warner Brothers)
1. He was born in New Jersey on April 9, 1977 as "Gerard Arthur Way".
2. He has Scottish roots on his father's side and Italian roots on his mother's side.
3. When he was two years old, his brother Mikey Way was born, who would later join him in the band "My Chemical Romance" (refer as "MCR").
4. He started singing when he was in fourth grade, it was in the musical "Peter Pan" that was staged at his school.
5. The one who pushed him to sing was his grandmother Helena.
6. In his youth he loved "Bon Jovi" - also a band that grew out of New Jersey, however one of the bands that influenced him the most was "Iron Maiden".
7. But Gerard did not focus only on hard rock and metal, the musical influences on him were varied and also included bands like "The Smiths", "Blur", and "Pulp".
8. He originally wanted to be a guitarist. His grandmother bought him his first guitar when he was 8 years old.
9. He even played guitar on several bands like "Nancy Drew" where he met his future MCR friend - Ray Toro, but he was so bad at playing that he quit soon after.
10. One of the deepest traumatic events he experienced in his youth was a Magnum 357 pistol aimed at his head.
11. He loved comic books and after graduating from high school he went to art school to pursue it. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1999.
12. After graduating, he worked in an animation company of the Warner Bros Company located in New York. He was in the city at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and experienced firsthand the traumatic events.
13. It was one of the events that influenced him to move from art to music. The song "Skylines and Turnstiles" - Was MCR's first song he wrote, and it was about the disaster.
14. He noted that his involvement in music helped him go through quite a few crises, including depression, alcoholism, drugs, and more.
15. Immediately after the traumatic event of 9/11 he formed together with the drummer Matt Pelissier the band MCR.
16. Soon the guitarist Ray Toro was added to the band, since Gerard could not sing and play at the same time.
17. The name "My Chemical Romance" was suggested by Gerard's brother - bassist Mikey Way. He got the idea from a book he read - "Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance".
(Photo: Alternative Press Magazine)
18. Only three months after the band was formed they released their debut album
"I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love".
19. In 2003 the band signed with a major record label "Reprise Records" and released their second album
"Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge".
20. In the song "Helena" Gerard wrote about his grandmother who pushed him to music and also bought him his first guitar.
21. The band's huge breakthrough came on the third album "The Black Parade" which was released in 2006.
22. The album was originally intended to be called "The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance" inspired from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album which Gerard admired.
23. The album was written in the house known as ghost hunted which is called "The Paramour".
24. Gerard changed his look towards the release of the album. He dyed his hair blonde and white and shortened it to a sick look. He literally got into a new character.
25. The EMO and goth culture that surrounded the band provoked strong opposition against them especially in the UK, following an article published in the Daily Mirror called Suicide of Hannah, the Secret Emo. An article tells the story of a girl's suicide case allegedly caused by the emo culture and a band.
26. It was supposed to be the band's last album that Gerard felt at the end.
27. Although the band announced that they were going on a final tour, Gerard and friends released in 2010 their latest studio album to date "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys".
28. Gerard sees MCR as a kind of gang.
29. He tends to dress in black and red because it reminds him of a funeral. These are also the colors of the "gang".
30. He designed a shirt for the band "By Thursday".
31. He was also a guest on their 2002 song "Jet Black New Year".
32. Gerard had also other collaborations. He has contributed to bands such as Every Time I Die, Head Automatica, Say Anything, The Oval Portrait, and more.
33. On March 22, 2013 MCR officially announced its disbanding.
34. In May 2014 Gerard announced that he was starting a solo career and a few months later in September he released the first solo album of "Hesitant Alien".
35. He created the comic book "The Umbrella Academy" published by Dark Horse Comics. Later the comic became a TV series on Netflix.
36. To our delight in October 2019 the band announced a reunion, it turns out that the band has been working together since 2017 but did not reveal this to the general public.
37. In 2020 the band was supposed to have three shows at Milton Keynes that were sold out within minutes and to set for a North America tour which was sold out in 6 hours but them came COVID and changed all plans. Instead the plans were postponed and the band went on the tour in 2022
38. In May 2022 the band released a new single "The Foundations of Decay", their first release since 2014.
Listen to his first and last album to date: Spotify, Apple Music