My Chemical Romance: "We Truly Did Not Expect This…"

Following the incredible news of their reunion, My Chemical Romance have posted a short statement thanking fans for the "warm welcome back".

Taking to the Instagram account that first started teasing the reunion on Halloween, the band have said:

"It is truly unbelievable to us the happiness we have experienced over the past two days. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for the warm welcome back. We truly did not expect this. See you soon. Xoxo, MCR."

The comments follow the instant selling out of their comeback show at The Shrine in Los Angeles this coming December. The gig will be the band's first live performance together since May 2012, when My Chem played their native New Jersey's Bamboozle – not knowing it would be their final date at that point.

Read this next: Why My Chemical Romance's return is the good news that rock music in 2019 needed

Following My Chem's split in 2013, Gerard wrote a lengthy blog post detailing the band's final show at the time, and his mindset before, during and after it.

"I am backstage in Asbury Park, New Jersey," he wrote. "It is Saturday, May 19th, 2012 and I am pacing behind a massive black curtain that leads to the stage. I feel the breeze from the ocean find its way around me and I look down at my arms, which are covered in fresh gauze due to a losing battle with a heat rash, which had been a mysterious problem in recent months. I am normally not nervous before a show but I am certainly filled with angry butterflies most of the time. This is different – a strange anxiety jetting through me that I can only imagine is the sixth sense one feels before their last moments alive. My pupils have zeroed-out and I have ceased blinking. My body temperature is icy.

"We get the cue to hit the stage.

"The show is… good. Not great, not bad, just good. The first thing I notice take me by surprise is not the enormous amount of people in front of us but off to my left – the shore and the vastness of the ocean. Much more blue than I remembered as a boy. The sky is just as vibrant. I perform, semi-automatically, and something is wrong.

Read this next: My Chemical Romance's best songs, picked by your favourite bands

"I am acting. I never act on stage, even when it appears that I am, even when I’m hamming it up or delivering a soliloquy. Suddenly, I have become highly self-aware, almost as if waking from a dream. I began to move faster, more frantic, reckless – trying to shake it off – but all it began to create was silence. The amps, the cheers, all began to fade.

"All that what left was the voice inside, and I could hear it clearly. It didn’t have to yell – it whispered, and said to me briefly, plainly, and kindly – what it had to say.

"What it said is between me and the voice.

"I ignored it, and the following months were full of suffering for me – I hollowed out, stopped listening to music, never picked up a pencil, started slipping into old habits. All of the vibrancy I used to see became de-saturated. Lost. I used to see art or magic in everything, especially the mundane – the ability was buried under wreckage."

You can see the full, 2,200-word statement right here.

Missed our In Conversation episode with Frank Iero? Watch it below!