Patrick Stump recently shared a message with fans reflecting on Fall Out Boy’s 25th anniversary, in a statement posted to the band’s Instagram account.
The note touched on the milestones that come with certain ages. It also addressed Stump’s disbelief that the band has reached its 25th year, and how the members still enjoy working together after so long.
“25 Years Later. A note from Patrick: When you’re young, particular ages tend to come with certain milestones. 15: You can get your learner’s permit. 18: You can buy cigarettes if you want. 21: You can break edge without breaking the law (Andy is still edge!). 25, I’d always heard was the age at which you could rent a car,” Stump said.
“There was a time when I literally couldn’t imagine a life past the age of 21 let alone filling out paperwork at the Hertz counter. 25 just seemed so big and far away…like a distant body in deep space so remote that scientists only speculated about its existence based on the way objects around it moved. That’s certainly how I felt floating out in the zero gravity that is age 17. That was the year Fall Out Boy started.”
He continued by reflecting on how the band’s own age caught up with him.
“Now somehow the band is itself car renting age. How?! How am I 42? How is my band 25? And even harder to believe is the fact that anyone still wants to listen to our silly little band 25 years on. Maybe the surreality of it all is part of those milestones. It feels simultaneously so recent and yet so intangibly distant thinking of the origins of the band. I say this in no way to disparage the contributions of the great people we had in early incarnations of Fall Out Boy (Especially Ben and Mike; Hope you guys are doing well) but I always felt like the band really started when Andy finally agreed to join a little band over a year into it.”
Stump also addressed the band’s timeline and the members’ continued partnership.
“So maybe depending on who you ask the ‘Ted’s Pants,’ band gets to celebrate the car-rental age again some time in the middle of 2028. But until then, I’ll remain shocked that the four of us continue to enjoy working together, continue to be the same four guys this whole time (the so-called ‘Hiatus,’ doesn’t count, we were very much still a band then no matter how exciting it is to imagine otherwise). Yet here we are.”
He closed by looking ahead to whatever milestones may come next.
“And if the world gives me another 25 years and perhaps another 25 after that, hopefully I will have spent as much of it as possible in the band from that one joke in the It’s Sunny/Abbott Elementary crossover. I couldn’t imagine a life past 21; Let’s see what milestones await the band beyond the cold orbit of social security collection eligibility age.”
Stump’s reflections point back to the band’s early days and the long road that led to this anniversary. The timeline he describes, from the first lineup to the hiatus, shapes how the group looks at its history today.
Fall Out Boy formed in 2001 in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Bassist Pete Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman started the group. Stump later became its lead vocalist and guitarist. He went on to define the band’s sound.
The lineup took its current shape in 2003, when Andy Hurley became the permanent drummer. That addition completed the group of Stump, Wentz, Trohman and Hurley. Stump describes that moment as the point when the band truly started. The four members have remained together since then.
The band’s most notable break came in 2009. Fall Out Boy played a last show at Madison Square Garden in October of that year. The band then went on hiatus while the members pursued separate projects. It is the period Stump insists should not count as time away from the band.
Fall Out Boy reunited in 2013 and returned with the album Save Rock and Roll. The comeback marked the start of the band’s current chapter. That chapter has now reached the 25-year mark. Further updates may follow.
