Listen: Gerard Way reflects on My Chemical Romance's Welcome To The Black Parade on new podcast

With My Chemical Romance's unbeatable third album The Black Parade turning 15 this month, frontman Gerard Way has reflected on its huge standout single, Welcome To The Black Parade, on the 100th episode of Steve Baltin's My Turning Point podcast (October 12).

Clearly still incredibly proud of the ambitious emo classic, the vocalist remembers the undeniable influence of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody on the song – noting that "you can’t remake Bohemian Rhapsody. You could be a little inspired by it, but we can’t try to do that." (Via Variety)

He continues of Welcome To The Black Parade's overall meaning, "The triumph of the human spirit over darkness was something that was kind of built into the DNA of the band from the beginning. The self-actualisation, the triumph of the spirit and things like that, getting through really hard things. There’s darkness in the world. And I think overcoming that darkness, that darkness externally and internally is a beautiful thing. It’s a challenging thing, but it is beautiful if you can do that, if you can kind of triumph over that. So that’s a theme that’s definitely in Black Parade, the song, and it’s in my work.”

Read this: "A band with the potential to go deep and far": Our original 2004 review of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge

Going in to more detail about the writing process of Welcome To The Black Parade, Gerard explains that (transcribed by Kerrang!): "That song – like a lot of My Chem stuff – was really this collaborative experience. We were just in this haunted house together, kind of becoming slowly depressed, and withdrawn, and isolated from the world outside; I don’t remember us even leaving this house [the Paramour Mansion]. It became a dark place, and just being in there and kind of jamming this idea together, and playing it together, and getting the original bones of the song, that was really collaborative.

"We had heard stories about the Paramour; we had heard stories about someone at a party there being up in the tower and having a complete freakout, you know?" he continues. "There was this one room that was in a tower. You had to climb these stairs – it was a separate tower from the rest of the house, and that’s where Frank [Iero] stayed. And apparently at a party someone had lost their mind, and had to be brought out by an ambulance or something.”

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though, as Gerard remembers of the freedom the band felt while writing the LP at the Paramour: "It’s beautiful, and it was really nice to be able to write whenever you want, and just make noise. We worked so many hours every day – we’d just get up, drink coffee, just play together and keep going through songs, refining them, writing new ones. And then go to bed sometimes really late. We’d sometimes start at midnight, or take a break and come back at midnight – that was how Famous Last Words came about, it came about really late at night."

Listen to the full episode below:

And catch My Chemical Romance live at the following dates next year:

March 2022

12 Western Springs, NZ @ The Outerfields at Western Springs
14 Brisbane, AU @ Entertainment Centre
17 Melbourne, AU @ Rod Laver Arena
19 Sydney, AU @ Qudos Bank Arena

May 2022

17 St. Austell, UK @ Eden Sessions
19 Milton Keynes, UK @ Stadium MK
21 Milton Keynes, UK @ Stadium MK
22 Milton Keynes, UK @ Stadium MK
24 Dublin, IE @ Royal Hospital Kilmainham

June 2022

4 Bologna, IT @ Sonic Park Fest
16 St. Petersburg, RU @ Ice Palace
17 Moscow, RU @ Park Live Festival
19 Kiev, UA @ U Park Live
21 Bonn, DE @ Kunstrasen Bonn Gronau
22 Bonn, DE @ Kunstrasen Bonn Gronau

August 2022

29 Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center

September 2022

5 Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
7 Boston, MA @ TD Garden
11 Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
13 Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
15 St Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
20 Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
21 Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
24 Sunrise, FL @ BB&T Center
27 Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
28 Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
30 Denver, CO @ Ball Arena

October 2022

3 Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
5 Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
7 Las Vegas, NV @ T‑Mobile Arena
11 Inglewood, CA @ The Forum
12 Inglewood, CA @ The Forum
14 Inglewood, CA @ The Forum
15 Inglewood, CA @ The Forum

See full information at mychemicalromance.com/tour

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