When My Chemical Romance disbanded in 2013, Frank Iero quickly launched his solo career, continuing to perform and create music. Now balancing his time between the post-hardcore supergroup L.S. Dunes and the reunited MCR, Iero has kept touring, but he knows his days of extensive roadwork are numbered.
In a recent appearance on Kerrang!’s In Conversation podcast, Iero shared that he’s contemplating stepping back from “excessive” touring. “If I’m being honest, I feel like, at this age, with touring, I’m probably at my end,” he confessed. “It’s coming up soon.”
Iero acknowledged the physical strain that comes with constant touring and expressed a preference for the more relaxed studio environment. “The older I get, the more I enjoy the record-making process,” he said. “If it were up to me, I think I would probably do that more often than touring.”
This revelation seems at odds with Iero’s history of constant touring. Alongside his solo work (which has included three studio albums under different names), he’s rarely off the road. In fact, it sometimes seems as though he starts new projects just to have an excuse to tour. Even before My Chemical Romance’s split, Iero was involved in other music ventures, including his hardcore punk side-project Leathermouth, which toured in 2009, while he was working on MCR’s Danger Days. He also toured with the experimental duo Death Spells in 2016, while releasing new music under his own name.
Despite his love for the road, Iero is shifting his focus. “I think that with my kids coming to a certain age – my daughters are 14 now and my son’s about to turn 13 – I can see the end in sight,” he explained. “Soon they’ll be off to college and things like that. I’m at the point where I don’t need the stage as much as I need the time at home.”
Although he hints at a quieter future, it’s hard to picture Iero completely stepping away from the stage. “I floated that idea in front of people who know me quite well, and they were like, ‘Yeah, right…’” he laughed, acknowledging that the idea might be easier said than done.
Related Topics
- Peter Buck of R.E.M. Helped Define Alt-Rock Guitar
- Guitar Signed by Neil Young & Crazy Horse Featured in Gibson Gives Charity Auction
- Tony Iommi Almost Launched Black Sabbath’s Heavy Metal Legacy with a Fender Stratocaster — A Stroke of Bad Luck Changed Everything
