News
Former My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar has died aged 44
The late drummer was found at his home in Tennessee
Who's joining Gerard and Mikey Way, Frank Iero and Ray Toro for their reunion shows?
With a total of five dates announced so far for My Chemical Romance's big comeback, it's now been confirmed who will be joining Gerard and Mikey Way, Frank Iero and Ray Toro behind the kit at the highly-anticipated shows.
The New Jersey emo heroes haven't always had the most steady line-up in terms of a drummer, with Matt Pelissier working with the band between 2001 and 2004 (including on debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, and game-changing follow-up Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge), Bob Bryar during their 2004 to 2010 era (performing on The Black Parade and Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys), and since then it's mostly been friend and collaborator Jarrod Alexander, who was reportedly in the studio with the band during their scrapped fifth album.
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A My Chemical Romance representative has confirmed to Billboard that the latter sticksman, Jarrod, will be performing with the band at their upcoming comeback shows. There are no new quotes or interviews from Gerard, Mikey, Frank, Ray or Jarrod regarding the performing line-up, only an editor's note to say: "This article has been edited to note that Jarrod Alexander will be the drummer for My Chemical Romance's reunion show." Fair enough. Welcome back, sir!
As well as Jarrod's return, My Chemical Romance also recently confirmed that the mighty Thursday will be joining the band at their Los Angeles gig at the end of the year. It's gonna be a hell of a night…
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In the days following My Chem's highly-anticipated return, the band themselves revealed that they weren't expecting such an incredible response from the rock world.
“It is truly unbelievable to us the happiness we have experienced over the past two days," the band said in a statement. "From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for the warm welcome back. We truly did not expect this. See you soon. Xoxo, MCR.”
Even Ohio superstars twenty one pilots weighed in on the news, with frontman Tyler Joseph saying that they've been a "huge influence" on the duo.
“I hope they pull it off, you know what I mean?” he continued. “I think that some people are just gonna be interested to kind of see if it works – almost wondering if it’s not. And I’m pulling for it.”
“I think – especially what Tyler’s saying – if you go away hopefully on a good note and then you’re missed, you don’t wanna come back and ruin it, or make it underwhelming, because then you’ve ruined your chance to go out as a legend,” drummer Josh Dun added.
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