The beginnings
Joe Trohman and Pete Wentz got to know each other through their activities in the Chicago hardcore punk scene. Already in their early youth they played on and off in different bands, which however never lasted long. So in 2001 they decided to form a band more in line with their youth idols such as Green Day, Descendents, The Smiths or The Offspring. When Trohman met Patrick Stump, he introduced him to Wentz. After their first contact, they talked about the band Neurosis, which they were both interested in. Stump was supposed to be the band's drummer, but quickly stepped in as the band's vocalist without any prior experience. Wentz also brought his friend Andy Hurley, with whom he had already played in various other bands, into the band as a drummer. Together the four quickly developed their own style. Wentz was the actual frontman of Fall Out Boy: although he was not the lead singer, he wrote most of the songs and also communicated with the audience at the band's gigs.
The name "Fall Out Boy" came about when the band asked the audience for a suitable name at a university party, their third concert. A fan suggested "Fall Out Boy", which the band quickly agreed on. Mainly, the name came from The Simpsons series, where Fall Out Boy is Radioactive Man's sidekick.
2002 until 2006
Due to the great enthusiasm they generated at their gigs, they were quickly motivated to record a first demo tape and send it to various record companies - and received immediate support. Backed by Uprising Records, they released their first album, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend, in 2003. Not long after, Fall Out Boy signed another record deal with Fueled by Ramen and released their second album, Take This to Your Grave, later that year. The singles Grand Theft Autumn (Where Is Your Boy) and Saturday marked the band's first successes, and the album reached gold status in the US. The song Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over was used in the Burnout 3: Takedown soundtrack.
In the summer of 2003, the band signed another record deal with Island Records. There they released the acoustic EP My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue on May 18, 2004.
In early summer 2005, she released the follow-up, From Under the Cork Tree. The album was given a huge boost by the headlines Wentz had hit a few weeks earlier when he nearly died due to an overdose of antidepressants. However, he later denied having attempted suicide with the medication. From Under the Cork Tree reached #9 on the American charts, with over 68,000 units sold in its first week. The album went double platinum in the United States for over 2.5 million units sold in the United States alone. The single Dance, Dance was used in the Burnout: Revenge soundtrack.
The single Sugar, We're Goin Down reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the accompanying music video won multiple awards. The band was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 in the Best New Artist category. However, the next single, A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More "Touch Me", failed to match the success of the first two singles.
The band performed on the Nintendo Fusion Tour in 2005 along with others such as The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack, Panic! at the Disco, and Boys Night Out. More performances followed on the Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour along with The All-American Rejects, Well-Known Secret, Hawthorne Heights and From First to Last.
2007: Infinity on High
Fall Out Boy's album Infinity on High was released in Germany on March 2, 2007. In the U.S., the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with over 260,000 units sold in the first week of sales after the album's release. The first single from the album This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race entered the German singles chart at number 54 in its first week. In the US, the single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest entry by a rock band since Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing in 1998. The video premiered on MTV US on December 19, 2006. On MTV TRL, it entered at #1 in its first week.
The album Infinity on High reached platinum status in the USA and gold status in Australia. The second single off the album was the track Thnks fr th Mmrs. The video had its world premiere on the band's official website on March 23, 2007. The third single from the album is "The Take Over, the Breaks Over".
Fall Out Boy participated in the Live Earth concerts on July 7, 2007 in New York City. Their songs 7 Minutes in Heaven and Snitches and Talkers Get Stitches and Walkers are part of the soundtrack of the computer game FlatOut 2. The band is also featured on Timbaland's album Shock Value. Fall Out Boy toured worldwide after the release with the Honda Civic Tour to further promote the album. Fall Out Boy has performed with +44, Cobra Starship, The Academy Is ... and Paul Wall, among others.
On March 18, 2008, Fall Out Boy performed in Antarctica. This made them the first band to perform on every continent to be included in the Guinness Book of Records.
On April 11, 2008, they released their first live DVD entitled Live in Phoenix. The DVD was recorded on June 22, 2007, during a performance at the Cricket Wireless Pavilion in Phoenix, Arizona. During the concert, the band covered Michael Jackson's Beat It, and John Mayer additionally served as guitarist on this one.
Fall Out Boy is featured on rapper T.I.'s album Paper Trail in the song Out in the Cold.
2008: Citizens for Our Betterment
Wentz launched a viral campaign on August 18, 2008, to promote his next album Folie à deux. The campaign started when Decaydance Records' website was hacked by the organization Citizens for Our Betterment (CFOB). However, the project failed when Wentz found out that it was not his organization that had hacked the website. The day after the campaign began, Ashlee Simpson circulated to the public that the site had been hacked. The band Copeland also started a campaign with the same background as Fall Out Boy.
2008: Folie à deux
Fall Out Boy released their fifth studio album, Folie à deux, on December 12, 2008, which was very different in sound from its predecessors. The album featured many artists such as Elvis Costello, Lil Wayne, Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco, Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, Doug, Alex DeLeon of The Cab, William Beckett of The Academy Is ..., Deborah Harry of Blondie, and Pharrell Williams. Included in this album are the singles I Don't Care, What a Catch, Donnie and America's Suitehearts.
In January 2009, the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux kicked off with Cobra Starship, Metro Station, All Time Low and Hey Monday. Fall Out Boy also performed with Kanye West and Kid Rock at the Youth Ball for the inauguration of US President Barack Obama.
On April 27, 2009, the EP America's Suitehearts: Remixed, Retouched, Rehabbed and Retoxed was released. It features a remix by blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus. Fall Out Boy, along with Weezer, opened for blink-182's 2009 Summer Reunion Tour.
2009: Greatest Hits - Believers Never Die
On October 9, 2009, Fall Out Boy announced on their homepage the release of a best-of album, which was released worldwide on November 16 and 17. The album contains all of the band's singles and the new song Alpha Dog. Additionally, three bonus tracks are included, one of which was previously unreleased.
2010-2012: Side projects
In 2010, the band announced an indefinite hiatus. During this time, the band members devoted themselves to other projects: Stump released his solo album SoulPunk on October 18, 2011, but retired from the spotlight a few months later to work more as a producer. Trohman and Hurley, along with other musicians, formed the band The Damned Things and released their debut album called Ironiclast in 2010. In 2012, Trohman also toured with the band With Knives, whose first album Schadenfreude was released on April 17, 2012. Hurley, meanwhile, was active in the band Enabler: the band released their debut album All Hail the Void in the summer of 2012. Wentz formed the band Black Cards with Bebe Rexha and two other musicians. After the departure of Rexha and guitarist Spencer Peterson, the style of this band changed drastically. Black Cards now performed as a duo of two (Wentz and Peterson) as an electronic pop DJ duo and released a mixtape in early 2012 and the EP Use Your Disillusion in July 2012.
2013: Reunion and Save Rock and Roll
On February 4, 2013, the band announced that a reunion was imminent after a three-year hiatus and that an album release titled Save Rock and Roll was planned for May 2013. At the same time, a first single, My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up), was released online. The album was released on April 12, 2013, after the exact release date had already been announced on February 13.
The Youngblood Chronicles
On the day of the official reunion, the band released a music video for the first single My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up). There was to be a music video for every song on the album. All of these music videos are connected by a cohesive storyline. In the first video, old CDs, instruments, and records are burned. At the end of the video, the band is seen tied up and sitting in the back of a van with bags on their heads. The second video for the song The Phoenix tells the back story to the first video. Stump is carrying a mysterious suitcase and one by one all the band members are kidnapped by mysterious women. Stump is shown having a hand amputated by the kidnappers. The third video for Young Volcanoes shows singer Stump sitting at a richly laid table. The other band members are brought in and seated at the table as well. Shortly after, everyone is drugged and celebrates with the kidnappers, wearing pig masks. It is also seen that Stump has a large scar on his abdomen and has obviously had organs removed and later unknowingly eaten by the band. In the fourth video for Alone Together, all of the band members are held down and tortured one by one. At the beginning, the mysterious suitcase is seen being handed over to a woman sitting in a limousine with the license plate "Ratatat." During the course of the video, Wentz is able to free himself as well as rapper Big Sean, who was also being held captive, during his escape. Wentz finds Stump and puts a pirate hook on his bloody stump. As a result, Stump's eyes glow yellowish. Wentz is then drugged again and all the band members are taken back to the van. As they do so, they are observed by Big Sean, who seems to have escaped the building unnoticed.
Afterwards, in The Mighty Fall video, which follows on from the story in the first video, the band is seen in the van on fire. However, the band is able to escape from the burning van. However, children armed with daggers, baseball bats and various weapons try to stop the band members. The band splits up and runs away. Stump is pursued by a boy with a tape recorder. When he turns it on, a melody plays, to which Stump goes into a sort of trance or hypnosis. As he does so, his eyes glow yellowish. However, the rapper Big Sean kills the boy and turns off the tape recorder. Stump's eyes stop glowing and he runs away. However, Big Sean is killed by the women with the help of an axe.
In the following video, all the band members wake up and look for help: Stump finds it with a woman, played by Foxes, and gets into her pick-up truck. One by one, they collect all the band members. Foxes takes everyone to a hospital. As a result, her eyes turn black. She presses a button on the radio and it plays the tune from the tape recorder. Stump's eyes turn yellow again and he chases the other band members to kill them.
In the video Where Did The Party Go, Stump wanders around the hospital trying to kill the band members who have been hiding from him. Meanwhile, he imagines he is at a party. However, he finds guitarist Trohman hiding in the closet and kills him. Wentz and Hurley then enter and see the dead Trohman. Stump wakes up from his trance and sees what he has done and is distraught.
2015: American Beauty/American Psycho
On November 24, 2014, Fall Out Boy announced that their sixth studio album called American Beauty/American Psycho would be released on January 20, 2015. The first single was already released on September 8, 2014.
2016
A new version of the theme song was recorded for the Ghostbusters remake in 2016 with Missy Elliott. Time magazine found it "nightmare-inducing" and the Los Angeles Times "hauntingly bad." (hauntingly bad.)
Since 2017: Mania
In April 2017, the band announced the album Mania for September 15, 2017. At the same time, the first single Young and Menace was released. The release date for Mania was later pushed back to January 19, 2018. In addition, the singles Champions and The Last of the Real Ones were released. The latter featured the band for the first time in a television appearance as guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
