Gerard Way Says My Chemical Romance Became His 'Therapy' After 9/11

Over the weekend Gerard Way spoke at Los Angeles Comic Con during a spotlight panel. Though the rockstar was mainly there to talk comics, he also opened up about the origin story of his old band My Chemical Romance, and revealed that he was kicked out of his first band because he couldn't play "Sweet Home Alabama" on guitar.

The 42-year-old recalled meeting MCR bandmate Ray Toro through a friend in art school and thinking "this is the greatest guitar player ever." As far as the band's beginnings, one of the country's largest tragedies was the catalyst. "So 9/11 happens, and I pick up the guitar again and I write ‘Skylines And Turnstiles,’ and then I called Otter [Matt Pellissier, drummer] and then I called Ray, and we got Mikey [Way, bassist] in — and we just started building this momentum," he said. "It became my therapy from the PTSD that everyone had experienced from 9/11, and processing that."

"There was always a momentum in My Chemical Romance," he continued. "We’d have our first practice and it’d work. We’d have our second practice and we’d have a new song. Third practice we’d have Mikey on bass. Every week there was a new thing that happened, and then eventually Frank [Iero] joined the band, and we never stopped. It was like ‘oh, we have a show’, ‘oh we have another show’, ‘oh, we’re opening up for Jimmy Eat World.’ It all happened really fast - there was a real momentum to it."

Watch the full 30-minute panel below.

Photo: Getty Images


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