Frank Iero Quotations

If you don't listen, you're never gonna learn.

Publishing the lyric books, poetry or comics of other musicians I know. That's the thing I really want to break into!

I have no want or desire to solo. I'd rather create melodies and accompanying parts.

These days, all we hear about is that the industry is in trouble. Everybody is so scared, but our mission statement is having no fear.

The best music happens when you have a personal connection to it. That same philosophy can extend to the instrument you hold in your hands: if a guitar means something special, you're bound to do great things with it.

We've always wanted to do it, something you could dance to, and deep down we always thought we could bring something to the table if we could do it, but the live shows always made us pull back and be a rock band.

When you break it all down, my punk rock is my dad's blues. It's music from the underground, and it's real, and it's written for the downtrodden in uncertain times.

I also remember the second band I was in ever. We were called Hybrid. We got a show at this local street fair, and we were playing on the back of a flatbed truck. There was an ad in the paper, and it said that 'Hybird' is playing. I was so mad.

About six years ago my family was affected by multiple sclerosis.

Anytime you put yourself in a creative box, it's going to stifle you; it's not conducive to the writing or recording process.

The relationship between 'My Chemical Romance' and Michael Pedicone is over. He was caught red-handed stealing from the band and confessed to police after our show last night in Auburn, Washington. We are heartbroken and sick to our stomachs over this entire situation.

I love players like Thurston Moore. I mean, you can put notes down on a sheet of paper, and if you practice and get your chops up, you can play like an Eddie Van Halen or a Steve Vai. But nobody can do what Thurston Moore does; he's his own guy. He talks through his instrument in a language that's all his own.

My first show was when I was a high school freshman, but it was at the junior class dance. My older friend and bandmate booked it.

People don't always realize that a record is forever. It'll always be there under your name. You've got to be certain that it's right.

Popsicles should be the new black, that way everyone would have one!

I can't imagine any other bands having better kids than ours, and if they do at least I know our kids can beat up their kids.

Frankie: Eww is that a bug? Fan 1: No, I think it's a sharpie mark. Frankie: It is a bug. Fan 2: No, actually it is a bug. I sorta smushed it by accident and it stayed on the picture. Frankie: That's gross (circles bug and write eww on paper).

When the water touched my balls, that's when I got scared.

We actually wanted to do this in OUR church...but uh... we don't GO there anymore....

Yeah, I have fired a gun and I loved it.

We just have to watch Mikey and make sure he doesn't put anymore forks in the toaster.

It's about a girl and a guy and they both die....no wait...she doesn't die....he just THINKS she's dead.....

My biggest addictions have been chocolate cake, mashed potatoes, and butter sandwiches.

It could be anything, give a homeless guy a sandwich, help an old lady across the street like anything to make this world a better place. If everybody just did one good thing for another person like a selfless good deed just think about how much a better place this would be.

People never cease to amaze us.

I don't understand how people can make such a fuss about people that are happy and in love, when there's people dying of hunger and war and they don't even notice that. I really don't understand that. That makes me so angry!

I've always been a fan of the band setting. I've always been a believer in bands, and I've always been in bands. That's where my comfort zone is. So to stand outside of that, that was never my intention or goal. I never had the dream of, 'I'm gonna go into all these bands as a spring board for my solo work.' But life takes you on different journeys sometimes. I ended up playing a bunch of songs and some of them I really liked.

I feel like the personal me and the artistic me are separate, but connected. It's almost like a Jekyll and Hyde thing. As much as you try to keep them apart, they end up together. I'm very much aware that when I'm miserable on the creative side - if I can't make things work a certain way - it really detracts from being the father I want to be. So in order to ultimately be a good father and the man I want to be I know I need to keep my creative side in check, or at least a little bit happy. It's weird how it's intertwined that way.

There's lots of bands where somebody will write lyrics and somebody else will sing them. It works for a lot of people, but that feels weird to me. I don't mean this in a bad way at all but it just feels fake.. I guess in my heart of hearts, whether the person has a good voice or not I want [the songs] to come from them. I don't know why.

When my creative side isn't being fulfilled, I see it affect me in a negative way and I'm not able to become that father/husband/man that I want to be. So it's almost like this dark half that you have to satiate in order to become full, in order to become a good person.

Even as a kid- do all kids think about this? I hope they don't, I hope my kids don't think about this- I was always thinking about, "Well, what are we doing? What is this all about?"

Very rarely I create things and feel like I don't want to recreate them in a live setting. It's a completely different world, but at the same time that's where I've always come from. Enjoying that give-and-take from a live audience, there's a large part of me that's looking forward to it, and creating that relationship again.

The messenger is not as important as the message.

It's always awkward to pretend to play. I feel like Ashlee Simpson. Oooh, zing.

If I couldn’t play, I wouldn’t be alive.

Really I don't know anything other than Jersey. I like the dirtiness of it. Now I'm getting to see the world, and it's great, but it's not better than Jersey.

Where my heart lies is in the real-life, but at the same time part of it lies in this creative realm where I need to go in and put out that fire, scratch that itch, in order to be all rounded.

I made songs really for myself - I didn't ever expect to put it out there.

At times, it could be a bit difficult to understand everything that's being said when just listening, but I wanted the lyrics to be the first impression.

I've always been in bands writing songs with friends in order to play shows or record a future record.

Every time I felt the pain coming on I'd go downstairs and hammer out an idea. After a few months I started to take a look at what I was making, I had for the first time in my life written a large grip of songs completely alone and without any expectations or plans of what they would be for.

I've always been a fan of vinyl. There's something about the ritual of it. Something about it holds its gravity, for some reason. Sometimes you'll put on music and the music fades into the background. But when you take that vinyl out and put it down, the music becomes the conversation as opposed to being the soundtrack to it.

I was feeling miserable physically, in a lot of pain to the point where it was almost crippling me, especially creatively. I decided to take that and use it as an inspiration for getting out of bed and making something again.

You can only hold on to something for so long and enjoy it just by yourself, what's the point? It's very selfish. For better or for worse, I feel like the point of all of this is to make someone feel something.

Having kids had a big effect on me, but nothing more than when they started to get older- that really made me realize how fleeting each moment is.

This is a dream come true. I have wanted to tour with Green Day since I was 15.

To kill the misconception, I don’t think the songs we wrote before ‘Danger Days’ are bad songs by any means. In fact, I kinda think some of them are among my favorites we have ever written. A lot of them are kinda f—ing rad… they just so happened to have been created in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and we as their parents were not ready to raise them just yet… and so they sat and waited.

I have a split - of my real home-life side that's real-life, and then the creative side that is not necessarily real-life, but it intersects my real-life so much.

Normally you'll have a structure to a song. You'll have an intro to a verse to a pre-chorus to a chorus, kinda repeat that, maybe there's a bridge, then you'll go out on a chorus - that's the quintessential song structure - sometimes you might do a fake-out, re-do a pre-chorus but the chorus doesn't come until later, but for the most part you follow these tried and true structures.

Popsicles should be the new black and then everyone would have one.

I feel like you have to make art because you have to make it. But the end result of it- that last stage- you have to show it to somebody else to hopefully get a rise or reaction out of them- [to see] if it'll affect someone else.

If you lose count of how many cookies you ate, the calorie intake ceases to exist. True story.

I made songs really for myself - I didn't ever expect to put it out there and make this a record for mass consumption, this was really just a way for me to get out of my own situation and reclaim that part of myself - so when making the songs, I wanted a testament to what I'd gone through, I wanted a snapshot of those moments.

These are dangerous days we live in and you, the artists, are our last defense.

I would rather be trampled by thousands of children than touch a spider.

Everything I've ever dreamed of, everything in my wildest dreams, is coming true.

No one is born with hate in their heart...

Every time somebody ever told you that you weren't gonna amount to anything, you know, that's your time to shine, you know? You can show everybody and prove to yourself what you're doing is real and that it counts and that it makes a difference.

The future’s too bright to dwell on the past. Life moves fast, run faster.

My name is Frank Iero and I hate mushrooms. All mushrooms. No matter how they're prepared, I feel like they're all slimy and they taste like dirt.

Emo always meant emotional. Any kind of art or music should be emotional. If its not, than it's pretty much just a jingle selling bleach or pizza.

My tattoos are like a scrapbook of my life. Sometimes you don't feel comfortable in your own skin, so covering it up with pictures helps

No one is born with hate in their heart. Hate is something that has been taught. It is not an innate survival skill that we need; It is a form of stupidity that penetrates our minds and will eventually destroy us.

Love what you do and who you truly are. Be willing to die for it. If you are true to yourself, you can never go wrong