SPIN

Since forming in 2001 in New Jersey, My Chemical Romance have evolved from emo-punk upstarts to arena rockin' renegades. And over the course of their comic book-esque rock'n'roll journey, SPIN was there to document the definitive moments.

Here, we look back at the band -- lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way -- as they prepare to release their new album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, on November 22.

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This photo, which appeared in SPIN's January '07 issue, shows brothers Gerard (right) and Mikey Way rocking out in Los Angeles on Halloween night in support of their blockbuster third album, The Black Parade. "Halloween is a real special time for the band," Gerard told SPIN. "Since we wear costumes every day, we opted for the skeleton makeup. We'd never felt such an immediacy to the songs like we did that night."

My Chem's first appearance in SPIN came in July 2003, when Gerard Way wasfeatured in a photo package shot by Terry Richardson featuring the hottestnew frontmen in rock.

"I just got off the plane, and I didn't shower a lot back then, I used todrink a lot back then," Way told SPIN earlier this year. "They were callingme Speed Stick because I smelled so bad. [Richardson] comes down, wearing aVietnam t-shirt, and he's like, 'Get up here,' and we just started shooting.Then he sent me over to his CD rack and told me to pick anything out Iwanted to hear, and we'd put it on, and I'd sing to it. So I grabbed BlackFlag, and started singing 'Nervous Breakdown' and then this guy with a beardcomes over and just started spraying me with water. And it's normally notsomething I'd let someone do, but I was so into it, just headbanging andshit. It's one of my favorite photos."

My Chem's first appearance as a full band in the pages of SPIN in February 2004, just before the release of their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Gerard talked about his impetus for starting the band -- a dead-end career as an animation artist hustling his work to the Cartoon Network: "I had no direction. I thought, 'I need to make a difference in my life,' and music was my answer."

Photo: (From left: Ray Toro, Frank Iero, Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Matt Pelissier)

My Chem nabbed their first SPIN cover in June 2005. SPIN contributor Andy Greenwald focused on the early days of rock's new superheroes, including Gerard's rise from comic store clerk to fledging rocker with a drug and alcohol addiction that nearly broke up the band. "I took my first Xanax. After that, it snowballed," said Gerard. "I would get wasted for a show, then need to shut my brain off at night -- because my brain is always moving a million miles a minute. The pills allowed me to relax and sleep. But then the cocaine came into play, and everything went out of whack."

Photo: (From left: Mikey Way, Gerard Way, Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Ray Toro)

Also in the June 2005 issue, Way spoke of his drug addiction and ultimate recovery. It was only after snorting three grams of coke at a Killers concert and then vomiting in the street, then recklessly drinking and downing pills on tour in Japan, that he decide to get clean. "I was terrified to be sober onstage...," he said. "I felt like Spiderman without the mask. Now I feel more dangerous and sharp than ever. I've got a memory again, and I've got a future. I feel like we're undefeatable."

Photo: (Clockwise from top left: Frank Iero, Bob Bryar, Gerard Way, Mikey Way)

Photos of the band from SPIN's June '05 issue. Clockwise from top left: Gerard, 8, and Mikey Way, 5; former drummer Bob Bryar, 5; guitarist Ray Toro, 9; guitarist Frank Iero, 6.

In SPIN's September 2004 issue, My Chem scored a Breaking Out feature -- a launching point for many of rock's biggest stars.

Photo: (From left: Ray Toro, Matt Pelissier, Gerard Way, Frank Iero, Mikey Way)

With 2006's The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance broke emo wide open, indulging their influences -- '70s glam rockers Queen, Broadway musicals, etc. -- in a concept album about a cancer patient in a hospital. "On their third album, My Chemical Romance give in completely to their inner theater geeks: It's a savage, heartfelt, at times hilarious goth-mosh emopera featuring strings, horns, a marching band, snarling obscenities, tender reflections on mortality," read SPIN's review (from the November 2006 issue). "On the album's multipart centerpiece and first single, 'Welcome to the Black Parade,' Way is still gleefully fetishizing death and vampires, but traveling the world and getting sober have given him a new sense of mission -- and hope."

Photo: (From left: Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Ray Toro)

MCR landed again on the cover of SPIN in February 2007. Writer Timothy Gunatilaka examined how the band's adventurous music, probing lyrics, and overall aesthetic encourages a rapturous response from their audience, resulting in one of rock's most intense band-to-fan relationships. "The My Chemical Romance phenomenon bridges two of the new millennium's most significant, if far-flung, cultural convulsions: the tragedy of 9/11 and the launch of MySpace," wrote Gunatilaka. "With every online post crediting them with rescuing another soul, devotion to the band approaches religious fervor. 'I'd meet these kids that were outsiders,' said Gerard. 'And I'd realize they're looking to use for the answer.'"

Photo: (From left: Ray Toro, Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Mikey Way, Gerard Way)

After a four-year absence, during which the band recorded their fourth album twice, MRC return with Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys on November 22 -- and score another cover of SPIN with our December 2010 issue. Writer Josh Ells examines the band's expansive, searing, and conceptual new album. "It's exactly as over-the-top as that title would lead you to expect," writes Ells. "The premise? The year is 2019, and some unspecified environmental catastrophe has befallen America. The survivors are ruled by a nefarious corporation called Better Living Industries, which employs an army of masked vampires called Draculoids. It's up to our heroes, a motorcycle-riding gang of 'rogue artists' called the Killjoys -- a.k.a. My Chem -- to save the day."

Photo: (From left: Frank Iero, Ray Toro, Gerard Way, Mikey Way)

While MCR was still in the studio working on Danger Days, SPIN picked Gerard as one of three cover subjects -- along with Spoon's Britt Daniel and Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong -- for our special May 2010 anniversary issue, in which our favorite young rockers met their veteran idols. In Way's case, it was squirmy punk legend Iggy Pop. And in our interview, Way proved to be a true Stooges disciple: "I didn’t want the girls to want to fuck me, I wanted the straight guys to want to fuck me. I got that from Iggy."

My Chem led the magazine's readers poll, winning the prized Band of the Year honor. "I'd like to thank the fans," said Gerard. "We have the best fans in the world, actually. They're a newer, unafraid, more dangerous model. But dangerous in a positive way."

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