Listen: Fall Out Boy have updated Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire with new cover

Fall Out Boy have been busy of late: while out on their highly-anticipated So Much For (Tour) Dust, the Chicago heroes have also somehow found the time to update a Billy Joel classic.

The quartet have unveiled their own rendition of We Didn’t Start The Fire from 1989 – only they’ve given things a big update, and their new version features notable events since the original’s release up ’til now (when they announced it the artwork explained: A Fall Out Boy cover of the Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start The Fire covering newsworthy items from 1989 – 2023).

A statement released alongside the track reads: “I thought about this song a lot when I was younger. All these important people and events – some that disappeared into the sands of time – others that changed the world forever. So much has happened in the span of the last 34 years – we felt like a little system update might be fun. Hope you like our take on it.”

So if you want to hear Patrick Stump sing about everything from Harry Potter and Twilight to Cambridge Analytica and Kim Jong Un, here you go:

Read the lyrics below:

Captain Planet
Arab Spring
LA Riots Rodney King
Deep fakes
Earthquakes
Iceland volcano
Oklahoma City bomb
Kurt Cobain
Pokémon
Tiger Woods
MySpace
Monsanto GMOs

Harry Potter
Twilight
Michael Jackson dies
Nuclear accident Fukushima Japan
Crimean peninsula
Cambridge analytica
Kim Jong Un
Robert Downey Jr Iron Man

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it but we’re trying to fight it

More war in Afghanistan
Cubs go all the way again
Obama
Spielberg
Explosion Lebanon
Unabomber
Bobbit, John
Bombing Boston marathon
Balloon Boy
War on terror
Qanon

Trump gets impeached twice
Polar bears got no ice
Fyre fest
Black Parade
Michael Phelps
Y2K
Boris Johnson
Brexit
Kanye West
Taylor Swift
Stranger Things
Tiger King
Ever given suez

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it but we’re trying to fight it

Sandy Hook
Columbine
Sandra Bland and Tamir Rice
ISIS
Lebron James
Shinzo Abe blown away
Meghan Markle
George Floyd
Burj Khalifa
Metroid
Fermi paradox
Venus and Serena

Michael Jordan 23
YouTube killed MTV
Spongebob
Golden State Killer caught
Michael Jordan 45
Woodstock ‘99
Keaton Batman
Bush v Gore
I can’t take it anymore

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it but we’re trying to fight it

Elon Musk
Kaepernick
Texas failed electric grid
Jeff Bezos
Climate change
White rhino goes extinct
Great pacific garbage patch
Tom DeLonge and aliens
Mars rover
Avatar
Self-driving electric cars
S-S-S-R-Is
Prince and the Queen die
World Trade
Second plane
What else do I have to say?

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on
And on, and on, and on, and on, and on

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning

Catch FOB at the following UK dates later this year:

October

27 Leeds First Direct Arena
28 Glasgow OVO Hydro
29 Manchester AO Arena
31 Birmingham Utilita Arena

November

2 London The O2
3 London The O2
4 Cardiff International Arena

Read this: Fall Out Boy: “So often people are comparing eras, but this is the start of a new thing”