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RIP FOB: “Thanks For The Memories”
Wentz was the first to begin leaking hints, hitting his blog on Monday to emote, “Every day for the past seven years of my life I woke up with a purpose. When I lost that, I lost part of me. I went off the deep end a bit. I guess maybe I was the biggest fan and just felt despair. I was self destructive. I was mean to the people around me. I was confused. I felt lost. I isolated myself. I gave up … Letting go of this giant part of my life has been hard, but I am convinced I will find something new that sparks me in a similar way.”
The recent father went on to talk about the influence his son, Bronx, has had on his life and say that he wants to be “back on tour having my son watch me from the side of stage” but isn’t sure when that will be.
A few hours later, Wentz was back to paint a clearer picture.
“I don’t know the future of Fall Out Boy,” he wrote. “It’s embarrassing to say one thing and then have future dictate another. As far as I know, Fall Out Boy is on break. (No one wants to say the ‘h’ word.).
“As much as I don’t have a solo project, I also can’t predict that I’d ever play in Fall Out Boy again.”
That seems pretty clear right? Wentz said the split happened because the members of the band “grew apart” and left open the possibility of the group continuing without him. He also said he might return “when everyone is on the same page.”
Later in the day, Hurley responded to posts on a fan message board by confessing that although “Pete loves FOB. I love FOB. Patrick loves FOB. And Joe [Trohman] loves FOB,” the band is apparently trapped in limbo.
“I really wish I could tell everyone if we were done or not,” the drummer said. “But I just don’t know … It’s just that we’re in different places right this very instant … The whole point of the break was to just get away, and not think about it, and in two years or so, come back and decide where to go from there.”
Frontman Stump didn’t bother to dance around the subject, bluntly telling Spin.com yesterday afternoon, “I’m not in Fall Out Boy right now.”
And there it is FOB fans. The singer did, however soften the blow just a little bit.
“One way or another, the band will always be around,” he offered. “Steven Tyler isn’t in Aerosmith anymore, but his gravestone will probably say something about Aerosmith. Whether we play again or not, I don’t know. If we do, it will be for the right reasons. If we don’t it will also be for the right reasons.
“I’m not really worried about Fall Out Boy. I’m so psyched about where I’m at right now, recording this solo album.”
Stump’s Spin.com admission prompted an immediate wave of missives from his FOB bandmates, with Hurley tweeting, “I quit too.” and guitarist Trohman quipping, “I just did interviews with Span Magazine, Rabbling Stone and Blunder about how much quitting I done.”
So it looks like FOB’s “Thanks for the Memories,” from 2007’s Infinity On High, was actually a prophesy:
“I’m looking forward to the future
But my eyesight is going bad
And this crystal ball
Is always cloudy except for (except for)
When you look into the past”
Read Pete Wentz’s complete musing on the fate of Fall Out Boy here.
Read Patrick Stump’s conversation with Spin.com here.