100 Fun Facts About My Chemical Romance

Which channel turned down The Breakfast Monkey, a TV show Gerard Way pitched before forming My Chemical Romance?

Cartoon Network passed on the cartoon, and after watching the September 11 attacks from across the Hudson, Way gave up on an art career and started a band.

Mikey Way worked at which store when an Irvine Welsh title gave him the name My Chemical Romance?

Barnes & Noble was Mikey Way's job when the Welsh book caught his eye; he suggested the name, then dropped out of college to join his brother's band.

My Chemical Romance took its name from the subtitle of which Irvine Welsh book?

Ecstasy is subtitled Three Tales of Chemical Romance; the singer's younger brother was struck by the phrase and offered it to the new band.

Which Thursday frontman produced the debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love?

The band befriended him while playing New Jersey shows; the record was cut at Nada Recording Studio in New Windsor, New York.

Which band did Frank Iero front before joining My Chemical Romance in 2002?

Pencey Prep, named after Holden Caulfield's school in The Catcher in the Rye, split in 2002, and Iero joined his friends' band just days before its debut album was recorded.

Which song did Gerard Way write to express his feelings about 9/11?

Skylines and Turnstiles was the first song Way ever wrote, and the first one the band played at its debut show a month later.

Who produced My Chemical Romance's major-label debut, their 2004 second album?

Howard Benson gave the band a far more polished sound than its week-long debut sessions had allowed, and the album became its worldwide breakthrough.

Which album's liner notes describe 'a man, a woman, and the corpses of a thousand evil men'?

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge loosely follows a dead man who can rejoin his lover only by harvesting the souls of a thousand evil men.

'Helena' was written after the death of which relative of Gerard and Mikey Way?

Their grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, had taught Gerard to sing, paint and perform, and touring kept him from seeing her one last time before she died.

Which future (500) Days of Summer director made the videos for all three singles from the band's 2004 album?

He also returned to shoot the 'Teenagers' clip in 2007.

Which Wes Anderson film inspired the mock-trailer second video for My Chemical Romance's 'I'm Not Okay (I Promise)'?

Rushmore was the look the band wanted for a school pep-rally clip; the director turned the idea into a fake trailer about nerds getting even with jocks.

The video for 'The Ghost of You' cuts between a USO dance and the band charging into which battle?

The D-Day landings scene followed a picture Gerard Way had long carried in his head for the video, a war film in the style of Saving Private Ryan.

In the World War II video for 'The Ghost of You', which band member's character is shot and killed?

Mikey Way's soldier is shot during the battle scene, leaving his real-life brother Gerard wild with grief.

Which singer guests on 'You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison'?

Bert McCracken was one of the few people Way said he truly connected with on the road, and the two bands later cut a charity cover of 'Under Pressure' together.

Bob Bryar met My Chemical Romance while working as a sound technician for which group?

The Used were on tour with My Chemical Romance when Bryar, a trained sound engineer on their crew, got to know the band he would join as drummer in 2004.

Which original My Chemical Romance drummer did Bob Bryar replace soon after the second album's release?

Matt Pelissier started the band with Gerard Way, and its first demos were recorded in his attic.

My Chemical Romance shut themselves away in which reputedly haunted location while making The Black Parade?

The Paramour Mansion's isolation wore the band down so badly that the bassist left for a time to get help before the album was finished.

Who produced The Black Parade alongside My Chemical Romance?

Rob Cavallo, best known for his work with Green Day, got the call again when the band scrapped a whole album's worth of sessions for the follow-up and started over.

The Black Parade's protagonist, known as 'The Patient', is dying of what?

Cancer is killing the Patient, and death comes for him in the shape of his fondest memory: the day his father took him to see a marching band.

Which album kept The Black Parade at number two in its first week on the Billboard 200?

Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel soundtrack, came out the same week and outsold The Black Parade by about 41,000 copies to take number one.

Which actor plays The Patient in the 'Welcome to the Black Parade' video?

Lukas Haas lies in a hospital gown as the dying Patient until the band's parade arrives to lead him towards the afterlife.

What was the working title of 'Welcome to the Black Parade'?

The Five of Us Are Dying dated from the band's earliest sessions and was reworked for years before a new piano opening finally made it click.

What position did 'Welcome to the Black Parade' reach on the Billboard Hot 100?

It also topped the UK Singles Chart, the band's only number one there.

Which showbiz legend performs on 'Mama' from The Black Parade?

Liza Minnelli voices Mother War; Way suggested her almost as a joke, the producer rang her publicist, and she sang her lines from New York.

How was Gerard Way injured while filming the 'Famous Last Words' video?

Frank Iero tackled him on set; with the drummer badly burned by the blazing float as well, the band had to pull out of a festival appearance days later.

What is the hidden track after 'Famous Last Words' on The Black Parade called?

Blood only starts after about a minute and a half of silence, catching out anyone who thought the album had already ended.

Which Black Parade song, the album's fourth single, sits outside the story of the dying Patient?

Teenagers grew out of Way's unease about how society treats the young, and he admitted the song almost didn't fit on the record.

Which 2008 My Chemical Romance live release pairs a 2007 Mexico City show with a Maxwell's club gig?

The Black Parade Is Dead! captures the Mexico City night when the band killed off its marching-band alter ego, with Way telling the crowd it was the last such show.

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is set in a post-apocalyptic version of which US state?

California in the year 2019 is the album's wasteland, and 2019 turned out to be the very year the real band announced its reunion.

On Danger Days, the Killjoys fight which evil corporation?

Better Living Industries, BL/ind for short, runs Battery City and sends masked Draculoids out to hunt the outlaw Killjoys.

What is Gerard Way's Killjoy persona on Danger Days?

Party Poison leads the four Killjoys into the corporation's headquarters in the 'Sing' video, where they free a captured girl but die in the shootout.

Which celebrated comic-book writer plays the villain Korse in the Danger Days music videos?

Grant Morrison's Korse beats the Killjoys in a final standoff in the 'Na Na Na' video and carries off the young girl they were protecting.

The Danger Days single 'Sing' was covered as the closing number of an episode of which TV series?

Glee's cast version reached number 49 on the Hot 100, beating the band's own single, which never climbed past 58.

Who produced the shelved 2009 sessions that were eventually released as Conventional Weapons?

Brendan O'Brien oversaw a stripped-back rock record with no story or characters; the band shelved it, started again, and later issued ten of its songs as five singles.

Two days after My Chemical Romance announced their 2013 split, Gerard Way confirmed it in a long post on which platform?

Twitter carried Way's long farewell note, in which he confirmed the March 2013 split and denied that any falling-out between the members had caused it.

Which song, salvaged from My Chemical Romance's abandoned fifth album, was the one new track on their 2014 greatest-hits set?

Fake Your Death was written in 2012 as just another album track; after the split, Way said it had turned out to be a eulogy for the band.

My Chemical Romance's reunion show on December 20, 2019 took place in which city?

Los Angeles got the one-night comeback, announced on Halloween; tickets went within minutes, and the band answered by booking shows around the world.

After pandemic postponements, My Chemical Romance's reunion tour finally opened in May 2022 at which venue?

The Eden Project in Cornwall heard the comeback begin with a brand-new song that the band had released only four days earlier.

Which surprise single did My Chemical Romance release in May 2022, their first new song in eight years?

The Foundations of Decay arrived with no warning, a six-minute epic released just four days before the reunion tour finally began.

The 2025 Long Live The Black Parade stadium tour opened on July 11 in which city?

Seattle's baseball stadium saw the first night, with the band playing The Black Parade in full as its old alter ego, revived to entertain a fictional dictator.

What is the fictional authoritarian country at the centre of My Chemical Romance's Long Live The Black Parade show?

Draag is ruled by the Grand Immortal Dictator, and the show casts the band as its old alter ego, brought back to perform for his pleasure.

Which artist drew Gerard Way's comic series The Umbrella Academy?

Gabriel Bá, the Brazilian twin of fellow cartoonist Fábio Moon, drew the series that Netflix turned into a popular show from 2019.

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite won which prize for Best Limited Series?

The Eisner Award went to the first Umbrella Academy story, which Netflix later adapted as the opening season of its series.

What is the title of Gerard Way's 2014 solo album?

Hesitant Alien traded his old band's theatrics for fuzzy guitars, because Way wanted to bring the energy of the Britpop records he loved to America.

Frank Iero plays guitar in which supergroup with Anthony Green and members of Thursday and Coheed and Cambria?

L.S. Dunes grew out of jam sessions at rehearsals for a Thursday livestream during the pandemic, when none of them knew if the songs would ever be played live.

What is the title of Ray Toro's 2016 debut solo album?

Remember the Laughter was more than three years in the making, with Toro writing every song, singing lead and playing nearly all the instruments himself.

Lyn-Z, whom Gerard Way married backstage in 2007, is the bassist of which band?

Mindless Self Indulgence shared the Projekt Revolution tour with Way's band, and the pair wed backstage after its final date in Colorado.

A 2008 Grammy nomination for The Black Parade recognised which part of the release?

Its packaging, a limited-edition boxed set, earned the nod, so the album reached the Grammys for its design rather than its music.

My Chemical Romance covered which Bob Dylan song for the 2009 film Watchmen?

Desolation Row was a pointed choice: the first chapter of the Watchmen comic takes its title from a line in the song, and the cover plays over the film's end credits.

In 2008, British My Chemical Romance fans planned a protest march on which newspaper over its 'sinister cult of emo' coverage?

Daily Mail articles had tied the band's fans to a teenager's death; fans protested in London, and the band replied that it had always been anti-violence and anti-suicide.

My Chemical Romance's 'Welcome to the Black Parade' opens with one famous note on which instrument?

Piano carries that lone G, an intro the band's producer had written earlier and bolted onto a song they could not finish. Fans say one note is enough to name the tune.

The Black Parade's dying hero meets death as his fondest memory: his father taking him to see what?

A marching band is the form death takes, because Gerard Way imagined it coming for each person as their happiest memory. The group then toured the album in parade uniforms.

On which holiday did My Chemical Romance announce their reunion, six years after the band split up?

Halloween suited a band steeped in horror imagery, and the date is also guitarist Frank Iero's birthday. Tickets for the comeback show sold out almost immediately.

Samuel Bayer, who directed 'Welcome to the Black Parade', made his name with which Nirvana video?

Smells Like Teen Spirit was Bayer's breakthrough, fifteen years before he built parade floats for My Chemical Romance. He shot the album's first two videos back to back.

'Vampire Money' was My Chemical Romance's answer to being asked for a song by which film series?

Twilight wanted a song and people around the band begged them to say yes, but Gerard Way said they had moved on. The track sneers at acts chasing a soundtrack payday.

My Chemical Romance re-recorded 'Na Na Na' in a made-up language for which video game?

The Sims 3 got the song in Simlish, the gibberish its characters speak, for the Late Night expansion. The original recording later turned up in Guitar Hero Live.

Gerard Way rejects which genre label, the one critics most often pin on My Chemical Romance?

Emo is the tag the singer once dismissed as garbage, even as his band became one of the genre's defining names. Kerrang! later called their third album the greatest of its kind.

My Chemical Romance sang about snowflakes in 2011 as guests on which children's television show?

Yo Gabba Gabba! booked the band for its Christmas special, where they played an original called 'Every Snowflake Is Different (Just Like You)'. Skateboarder Tony Hawk guested on the same episode.

My Chemical Romance's Black Parade World Tour shows began with Gerard Way wheeled on stage on what?

A hospital gurney brought him out dressed as the album's dying Patient, before he sang the first lines of the opening track. Only then did he introduce the band's alter ego.

My Chemical Romance formed in which US state, where singer Gerard Way grew up in Belleville?

New Jersey is the birthplace of all four members of the reunited line-up, and guitarist Frank Iero comes from Belleville too. Their first shows were in the state's hardcore punk scene.

My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way's younger brother plays which instrument in the band?

Bass guitar became his job after he heard the first demos, and he had under a week to get good enough to play it. He also came up with the band's name.

My Chemical Romance re-recorded 'Sing' with an orchestra as a 2011 charity single for which country?

Japan had just been hit by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and a fan hashtag urging the band to help gave the new version its title. Proceeds went to the Red Cross.

Which classic duet did My Chemical Romance cover in 2005 as a benefit single for tsunami relief?

Under Pressure, the Queen and David Bowie hit, became a charity download recorded with a band they had just toured beside on Taste of Chaos.

My Chemical Romance won early fans by giving away songs on PureVolume and which social network?

MySpace is where guitarist Frank Iero says the group posted 'Vampires Will Never Hurt You', the first song they ever put online. Free downloads built a following before any label push.

My Chemical Romance opened shows in October 2007 for which veteran arena-rock band?

Bon Jovi picked the younger band as openers a year after The Black Parade came out. Gerard Way had got married backstage on the previous tour only weeks before.

My Chemical Romance joined Projekt Revolution in 2007, a travelling festival headlined by which band?

Linkin Park ran Projekt Revolution as their own festival, and that year gave a dollar from every ticket to the charity American Forests.

My Chemical Romance co-headlined the 2011 Honda Civic Tour with which pop-punk band?

Blink-182 shared top billing, and the two bands announced the tour side by side at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in West Hollywood.

Gerard Way's 'dream show', the last night of the Black Parade World Tour, was at which New York venue?

Madison Square Garden hosted the finale on May 9, 2008, months after the band had 'killed off' its Black Parade alter ego. The group then stayed off stage for over a year.

'Welcome to the Black Parade' gave My Chemical Romance a first number one single in which country?

The United Kingdom sent it to number one in October 2006, the band's only chart-topper there. The parent album stalled one place short on the British album chart.

Gerard Way sang on 'Professional Griefers', a 2012 single by which Canadian dance producer?

Deadmau5 and Way recorded it side by side in a studio, and its million-dollar video has the pair fighting with remote-controlled robots.

Gerard Way co-created which Spider-Verse hero, a schoolgirl who pilots a spider-powered mech suit?

Peni Parker first appeared in a comic Way wrote in 2014, drawing on mecha anime such as Neon Genesis Evangelion. She reached cinemas in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Which musical-theatre composer praised My Chemical Romance for making a single opening note iconic?

Andrew Lloyd Webber said it is one thing to write an iconic set of chords and another to make one note iconic. The note in question opens 'Welcome to the Black Parade'.

Which conservative broadcaster called My Chemical Romance's 'Sing' propaganda after a TV cast covered it?

Glenn Beck told viewers the song was an anthem urging people to join a cause against their values. Gerard Way replied that the word he wanted was 'subversion'.

At the 2006 Reading Festival, My Chemical Romance were pelted with bottles by fans of which metal band?

Slayer had played just before them, and the thrash crowd stayed to throw things. Gerard Way later called the set the band's greatest victory as a live act.

A 2007 food-poisoning outbreak forced My Chemical Romance to cancel shows on a US tour with which British band?

Muse were sharing the bill on that leg of the Black Parade World Tour, and the illness ran through both bands' camps, forcing cancelled dates.

At which Las Vegas festival did My Chemical Romance play The Black Parade in full in October 2024?

When We Were Young is built on 2000s nostalgia, and weeks after the full-album set the band announced a stadium tour built around the record.

Which publisher released Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy and his Killjoys comic sequel to Danger Days?

Dark Horse Comics first put The Umbrella Academy in a Free Comic Book Day giveaway in 2007, then published the Killjoys series drawn by Becky Cloonan.

Gerard Way first sang in public in fourth grade, playing which title role in a school musical?

Peter Pan was his stage debut, yet he first hoped to be a guitarist and was thrown out of one early band for not playing well enough.

My Chemical Romance's first demos are named after which part of their original drummer's house?

The attic of the drummer's home is where the band taped 'Our Lady of Sorrows' and 'Cubicles'. Three of those rough recordings were later included on their greatest-hits album.

Ray Toro joined My Chemical Romance in 2001 because Gerard Way could not manage which two tasks at once?

Sing and play guitar at once was beyond Way back then, so a friend from his teenage bands took over the six-string. Toro has been the lead guitarist ever since.

In 2003 My Chemical Romance left their tiny indie label to sign with which Warner-owned major label?

Reprise Records, the label Frank Sinatra founded, signed the band in 2003 and has released every studio album since their debut.

My Chemical Romance's 'Early Sunsets Over Monroeville' was inspired by which George A. Romero zombie film?

Dawn of the Dead was shot in the Monroeville Mall near Pittsburgh, which gives the song its title. The track imagines lovers trying to survive the outbreak.

Gerard Way was in agony from what while recording My Chemical Romance's 'Vampires Will Never Hurt You'?

A tooth abscess sent him out mid-session for emergency dental work, and the label boss then punched him in the mouth to get a rawer vocal take.

Gerard Way's cover art for My Chemical Romance's second album was inspired by The Lovers, a painting by whom?

René Magritte's surrealist couple was the model, and Way's version began as a reference sketch for a photographer until the label asked to use the drawing itself.

Which 2006 My Chemical Romance release packed a live CD with two DVDs, one a documentary of the band's rise?

Life on the Murder Scene told the story so far through video diaries, just before The Black Parade made the group arena headliners. It also held the unreleased 'Desert Song'.

My Chemical Romance's greatest-hits album, released a year after the split, has which title?

May Death Never Stop You gathered 19 songs from across their career, with cover art by Gerard Way himself. Its one new track was the last song the band finished before parting.

Drummer Bob Bryar suffered what injury on the set of My Chemical Romance's 'Famous Last Words' video?

Third-degree burns to his leg came from drumming too close to a blazing parade float, and the wound later became infected. The band had to cancel tour dates.

On My Chemical Romance's Danger Days, lead guitarist Ray Toro plays which member of the Killjoys?

Jet Star was Toro's code name in the videos, where the Killjoys protect a young girl in a post-apocalyptic world. Every band member took an alias for the story.

Who directed the video for My Chemical Romance's 2012 single 'The Kids from Yesterday'?

A fan of the band, Emily Eisemann, had cut together a montage of live clips and interviews that matched what the group had in mind, so they made it official.

Which small indie label, also an early home of the band Thursday, released My Chemical Romance's debut album?

Eyeball Records began in a New York City apartment, and the band's bassist had a job at the label before it put out their first record.

The video for My Chemical Romance's 'Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us' retells which horror film?

Audition, Takashi Miike's 1999 shocker, ends with a woman torturing the man who interviewed her as a possible wife. The clip first screened at the album's release party.

Which Oscar-winning costume designer, a Tim Burton regular, made My Chemical Romance's Black Parade uniforms?

Colleen Atwood, whose film work includes Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd, designed the uniforms the band wore as its alter ego.

The 'Welcome to the Black Parade' video was filmed in what kind of rented building near Downey, California?

A space shuttle hangar gave the director room to build parade floats and a city backdrop. A second video was filmed there straight afterwards.

My Chemical Romance's 'Planetary (Go!)' was the opening song of which 2010 racing video game?

Gran Turismo 5 opened with the track, and guitarist Ray Toro, a fan of the series, said the song makes you want to drive faster.

Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance fronted which hardcore punk band, whose debut album XO came out in 2009?

Leathermouth let Iero scream as lead vocalist, a long way from his rhythm-guitar role in his main band. The quintet put its album out on the punk label Epitaph.

After retiring from music in 2014, former My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar took up which profession?

Real estate agent was his new trade, and he auctioned his old drum gear and a stage outfit to raise money for dog rescue charities.

Gerard Way planned a career in comics and graduated in 1999 from which New York City college?

School of Visual Arts gave him a fine arts degree. He had written his first comic series, On Raven's Wings, at sixteen.

After My Chemical Romance split, their bassist formed which duo with Sleep Station singer David Debiak?

Electric Century took over a year to emerge after the break-up, and Alternative Press soon listed the duo among 100 bands to know.

Keyboardist James Dewees, who toured with My Chemical Romance from 2007, was the frontman of which band?

Reggie and the Full Effect had opened for the band on their first headline tour, two years before Dewees began playing keyboards on stage with them.

Gerard Way says My Chemical Romance patterned their career after which 1990s alternative rock band?

The Smashing Pumpkins were also the band the Way brothers copied when first learning to play, along with Weezer, before hardcore shows toughened their sound.