Attention Reader!

Another influence on MCR’s early days was Frank Iero and his then-band, Pencey Prep.

Frank Anthony Iero Jr. was born on the 31^st of October 1981 in Belleville, New Jersey. His parents split up when he was young, leaving his mother to take care of pretty much everything. He remembers times when they couldn’t afford milk. Frank spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals when he was young because of recurring bronchitis and ear infections. He was sick almost constantly until he was about 10, and has suffered from other health problems for almost all of his life (he has Epstein-Barr Syndrome, poor thing). Because his birthday is on Halloween, his family would go all-out by getting dressed up, going trick-or-treating and watching horror movies. Frank’s parents used to hold him down on the bed and scare him with masks. This instilled a love for horror and gore in Frank, and for a time he wanted to do special effects for monster movies. His first tattoo was a Halloween pumpkin he got done on his back on his 18^th birthday. He also once had a pet snake, but he accidently dropped its heat rock on it and broke its neck. He felt really guilty about it, so he didn’t tell anyone what happened – “they probably thought it was suicide!” Frank wasn’t very popular at school, saying that he only had 3 real friends in high school. He spent his time smoking pot (he used to get bad stomach cramps and so would self-medicate) and playing guitar. Frank got a full ride to Rutgers to study Psychology.

Frank in high school.

Frank grew up in an extremely musical family. Both his grandfather (Frank Joseph Iero) and his father (Frank Anthony Iero) played the drums in jazz bands and as studio musicians. Frank’s father worked on records by John Lennon, KISS and Iggy Pop. Frank remembers “sitting at my grandmother's kitchen table looking through my Dad and my Grandfather's date books, seeing all their gigs penciled in”. As soon as he was old enough, his father started taking him to his weekend gigs to help him load gear and watch him play. These early experiences made him realize that when he grew up he wanted to be in a band and play music full-time.

Frank’s family tried to get him to play the drums, but he wasn’t interested, as he wanted to be able to write melodies. His mother wanted him to play the piano, but he didn’t like that either. Frank also tried playing the saxophone (he liked it because “it was shiny!”). However, he soon discovered punk bands like Sonic Youth and Black Flag, and realized that “you didn’t have to be a guitar virtuoso to start a band and change someone’s life”. His father bought him a guitar, a Fernandes Strat copy he got from his band’s guitarist. The first time he played in front of people was at his grammar school graduation ceremony. Frank had been boasting to his friends that he had a guitar, even though he couldn’t play it yet. When his music teacher asked for someone to play guitar at the ceremony, one of Frank’s friends volunteered him, so he had to get his dad to teach him some chords.

He has been playing in bands since he was 11, when he met a kid in his Peanut League baseball team that had a similar taste of music to him. Frank had to play the drums because the other guy’s hair was longer and Frank hadn’t been in a band before. In high school he met John “Hambone” McGuire (apparently he used to wear a bow tie…) who would give him punk mix tapes and go with him to local shows. He started a band called Steve Weil and the Disco Kings, and their first show was the junior class school dance. Frank was a freshman at the time so he had to leave after they had finished playing. Frank has always been a dedicated band member, once spending all of his hard-earned money on the 100 tickets his band needed to play a battle of the bands (they lost to a ska band).

In 1998, Frank and some of the ex-members of Stick Figure Suicide and Sector 12 started a new band called Pencey Prep (named after the school Holden Caulfield gets expelled from in The Catcher In The Rye). Pencey’s lineup consisted of Frank (lead vocals and guitar), Shaun Simon (keyboards and moog), John “Hambone” McGuire (bass and vocals), and Tim Hagevik (drums and percussion). Mikey Way tried out for guitar, but didn’t get in. Pencey was signed to Eyeball Records, and released an EP (Long Walk To Forever) and a full-length album (Heartbreak In Stereo). They heard My Chemical Romance’s demo and loved it, listening to it to get psyched up for shows. The two bands quickly became best friends. When My Chemical Romance needed a practice space, Pencey let them share with them. Frank helped MCR become a real band by getting them to develop a work ethic. MCR’s first show was opening a VHF hall for Pencey. They were terrified, and so got drunk in Pencey’s van while Frank and his band mates gave them a pep talk. Gerard later described My Chemical Romance’s first show as like being in a car accident, in the best possible way.

Pencey Prep at Coney Island.

All of My Chemical Romance’s first songs had complicated guitar parts, making it impossible for Ray to play all the parts live. Frank was a ‘fly on the wall’ in the studio while My Chem were recording a rough demo of Vampires Will Never Hurt You. At this time he was still a heavy pot smoker, and was high all through the recording of Vampires. Once they had finished recording, they would play the song back over and over again, high-fiving each other after every play. Someone in the studio commented to the band that “If you add another guitarist, you could play this live”, to which they replied “The only guy we’ve considered is too high to get off the couch”. This was the first time Frank had considered the possibility of joining his favourite band.

Shortly after the release of Heartbreak In Stereo, Pencey Prep broke up. Frank played in a couple of other bands, including I Am A Graveyard, before being asked to join My Chemical Romance as a rhythm guitarist. He said yes straight away.

Here is a video of Frank performing Attention Reader in I Am A Graveyard, featuring Shaun Simon on keyboard, Hambone on bass, Otter on drums, and Ray on guitar.

You can buy Heartbreak In Stereo on iTunes by clicking the album cover below:

Dreams About Stabbing And/Or Being Stabbed

To download the Dreams About Stabbing And/Or Being Stabbed EP click the picture below:

This folder includes:

Turnstiles (Skylines and Turnstiles demo)

Bring More Knives (Our Lady Of Sorrows demo)

Cubicles (demo)

Early Sunsets Over Monroeville (demo)

The original Stabbing/Being Stabbed EP also included a Vampires Will Never Hurt You demo, but unfortunately this hasn't shown up on the internet.

The Early Sunsets demo wasn't included on the EP, but I'm a nice person and I think you should download it anyway. This demo only has lead guitar, no rhythm.

btw, the album cover also isn't the original, since I have no idea what the original looked like. The cover I'm using is the cover of Like Phantoms, Forever, the summer sampler that was released around the time of Bullets.