Saw this photo floating around and it is…SENDING ME. In multiple ways. So I’m going to ramble.
Ok first off - this is like, quintessential mid-00s teen heart throb photo shoot. Literally erase Pete’s tattoos and photoshop on a head of any popular male celebrity at the time and it would honestly work. This was The Template.
I think it’s easy to either forget (or just not realize) how TRULY big the FOB/“emo” hype train was back then. Cosmo Girl, Tiger Beat, and countless other magazines that solely focused on HUGE celebrities like Beyonce and Justin Timberlake and Lindsay Lohan were suddenly putting FOB, MCR, and Panic on their covers (although, let’s be real, usually just one or two members - i.e. Pete, Gerard, Brendon, Ryan).
There are…slightly less boundaries now with stuff like this because of the saturation of social media making “normal people” famous, but, back then, that was almost unheard of. You’d only see pictures of these bands in like, ALT Press or Kerrang. For them to get lumped into the same category as these A listers was absolutely bonkers.
So to see this picture of Pete…it kinda makes me laugh tbh, but it also makes me sad. Because that didn’t…FIT him. It looks ridiculous. It’s not an authentic picture of him- it’s him being placed into a mold. Him accepting “The Template” because that’s where he was expected to go. Which makes it…not at all surprising that he was only able to keep that up for so long before it fell apart.
It reminds me of that part in the Zane Lowe interview where they’re talking about this time of their career. Like, just go watch from min 35-42 because it’s fantastic but some highlights:
Zane acknowledging how easy it is to fall down the rabbit hole, especially when you’re thrust into it so quickly - it’s not really a choice. Patrick seconds this later by saying that once that fame light is on, it’s on, and you don’t really have a way to turn it off
Pete acknowledging how it kept him from being a “real person,” how little he liked it, and how much he had to grow during the hiatus to get away from that
Patrick saying how you really can’t win - you either accept the attention and you’re hated for it or you reject the attention and you’re hated for it. And this was ESPECIALLY true then. The media is still brutal but it was absolutely HORRENDOUS at that time. You really had to be “on” 24/7 and that’s…impossible.
Talking about how that level of fame creates a wall around you that is not only difficult for others to penetrate, but also yourself. And if Pete can’t access himself, he can’t access what he can give Patrick to create around, which then makes everything crumble like a house of cards.
I give FOB so much credit for realizing that, if they didn’t take a break, they would’ve ended VERY poorly and likely forever. Look how a lot of careers ended from that time. Either not well or a fade into irrelevance because of just trying to “keep up” and failing. Because, at that point, you’ve lost a lot of your “real person-ness” and, if you’ve lost that, what authenticity can you bring to your work? And if you’re BUILT on authenticity (which FOB is), then what is there to put out that is meaningful and relevant to your art?
Part of FOB’s magic has always been their authenticity and that they really are just “some guys.” That is what has allowed them to be so innovative and grow as artists and as people because there is a constant striving to push themselves and still remain grounded in who they are at their core. Pre-h, they didn’t know how to do that yet, and it was hell.
Pictures like this honestly just remind me of how deep in the hole the pressures of fame at that time did to not only them as a band, but Pete himself. Like, look at this picture. Does he look…genuine? Happy? Does this look like the Pete Wentz you know and love? Of course it may on the surface, but if you really look at it…to me it looks more like a caricature. The clothes, the pose, the styled hair and eyeliner…it just looks off. It’s Pete Wentz through a lens meant to appeal to the masses.
These lyrics from So Good Right Now feel extremely relevant to this time:
I am endlessly grateful that…regardless of the other reasons and intense drama around it…they recognized that need to step back from…all of this. That they didn’t let themselves just get covered by the weeds. Chewed up and spit back out like so many others. And so many years later we are still getting incredible, meaningful music from them. Like, it truly just keeps getting better. You can’t say that about…A LOT of people/bands who have been making music for this long.
I think I’ll end this here for now. LOL at a thirst pic of Pete Wentz making me wax poetic….
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ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD ALWAYS AN ANGEL NEVER A GOD
me 24/7 since that song came out
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Shuffle your playlist. List the first 10 songs then tag 10 people.
I was tagged by @auxiliarydetective thank you Evie <3 finally getting around to this. Also, I started a new post.
Here are 10 songs:
Doomtree twice? How is this possible??
I am tagging @mistyecliipse @peppsta @natthemess @miyanouta @cursednb @tryxxster @polyphemusmoths @nykvist @guitarsarefun @winter-skye and anyone who wants to share their favorite music 👀
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