The Drummer Situation

As well as Gerard’s drinking problem, My Chemical Romance was also having problems with their drummer, Matt “Otter” Pelissier. They didn’t feel comfortable with him on stage as his drumming was inconsistent, and they didn’t like not being able to play song the same way every night. Ray had asked him to play with a click-track, but he refused because it “takes away the whole live feeling”. Also, they hadn’t been getting along with him for some time – some sources suggest they were having problems while they were recording. The band wasn’t having fun with him or performing the was they wanted to, so Ray and Brian went to his house right after they got back from Japan to break the news to him.

Otter commented on the situation by saying, “It’s like your whole world comes down, after I gave everything I ever did, everything I ever owned to make sure that band would survive, and that’s the thanks I get.” Immediately after being kicked out by Ray and Brian, Otter posted on the band’s message boards, writing “They told me I’m out of the band because they are uncomfortable with me onstage and they're afraid I’ll mess up. I’ve had a few whoppers on occasion – I’ll never deny I’m human, but we all make mistakes… Do I think I’ve been shafted? Yeah. What happened to the five brothers that loved each other more than anything else on Earth? I gave up everything for each one of them.”

Immediately after Ray and Brian broke the news to Otter, Frank called him to say something along the lines of “I wanted to be there, but I understand why Ray wanted to talk to you alone. I hope that we can be mature about this after everything blows over. I hope you keep playing music, but I’m sorry it had to go down this way. Call me if you ever want to.” A few days later, Otter rang Frank at 3 o'clock in the morning because he couldn’t get into the band’s trailer to get his stuff out. Frank said that he would arrange to get the stuff out. Later, Frank went to the band’s practice space, only to find that Matt and a friend had locked him out and left nasty notes everywhere, so Frank had to break in. He called Otter afterwards and told him to call back when he had grown up.

My Chemical Romance did not make a formal statement regarding the situation with Otter because they didn’t want to get into a pissing match with him. Matt Pelissier is now a mechanic.

Around this time, My Chemical Romance was preparing to start shooting a music video for I’m Not Okay (I Promise). They needed a drummer urgently, and so decided to call in Bob Bryar.

Bob was born on December 31, 1979, in Chicago. He started playing drums when he was 3, and was the kind of kid who liked to take apart radios and other machines and try and put them back together. He is a jazz-trained drummer, and was in marching band and concert band in school. When he was at school in Florida he worked at Disneyland for extra money. He played on the Little Mermaid theme show and the Aladdin stage show, but quit after he was yelled at about his sideburns.

He worked his way into the music industry by getting involved at music stores and record shops. He started doing some drum tech work, then moved on to doing sound for The Used and Thrice. He discovered My Chemical Romance after they went on tour with The Used, and did sound for them on their Europe tour for free because he loved them so much. Once, after My Chem had finished playing a show with Finch and The Used in February 2003, Bob walked backstage and casually mentioned to Brian “I wish I could do that”. He said “I had been trying to play drums for so long and I couldn’t find anyone to be in a band with that cared about playing music and touring and was willing to devote their whole life to it”.

The band didn’t even know he could play the drums before their friends told them, so they had to take a huge leap of faith asking Bob to drum for them. Luckily, he was a good fit, as he was committed, had a good personality, and was very skilled. When they asked him to join he was doing sound tech for The Used on Projekt Revolution, so they flew him in from Virginia to go to Orlando, Florida, where My Chem were preparing to film the music video for I’m Not Okay. They had one practice together before going in to film the video. A few days later MCR played their first show with Bob on the drums in Pennsylvania in support of Face To Face.