Emos worldwide still wonder what happened between My Chemical Romance and The Used in the early 2000s. We break down the highs and lows of the potential beef.
The year was 2005 and your favourite emo bands The Used and My Chemical Romance teamed up to do a cover of Queen and David Bowie’s hit song ‘Under Pressure’. Bert McCracken, lead singer of The Used, and Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance walk onto a MTV2 stage, hand in hand, before hugging and breaking out in song, their energy levels unmatched as they pumped up the crowd together.
From first playing together in 2002, to touring Europe in 2003, and Bert doing guest vocals on a track on My Chemical Romance’s second album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, the bond between the emo brothers seemed unbreakable.
Gerard once called Bert “one of the few people he connected with” while on the road, while Bert praised My Chemical Romance and Gerard saying, “I can’t say enough good things about those guys. Gerard Way has been such a huge support for me in so many ways.”
After the 2004 Warped Tour, Bert and Gerard were dubbed the ‘Toxic Twins’ due to their hard-partying ways. Fans got used to seeing the two giggling in interviews, hugging on stage, or generally having what appeared to be the time of their lives.
But then, after the two bands collaborated on ‘Under Pressure’, releasing it in April 2005, things took a turn. But what actually happened?
My Chemical Romance V The Used: The Initial Fallout
By November 2005, it appeared like the tight friendship between the bands and the ‘Toxic Twins’ was all but over, with Bert telling Kerrang! in an interview that the pair were no longer talking.
At the end of 2005, Blunt interviewed Gerard while he and the band were touring Australia with Green Day, and asked about the Bert feud rumours. Gerard shrugged it all off.
“The thing about Bert is that he likes to joke,” Gerard said. “He’s a joker. He makes up a lot of stuff. I read that thing. It’s not true, so…”
“I feel like anybody who would engineer a feud is money-driven,” Gerard then said. “All it takes [between bands] is to pick up a phone and settle something. You don’t need somebody to find out on a website that they’re not your friend, you know what I mean? That’s just clearly a press situation, to draw attention. There’s nothing wrong with him and me.”
Bert v Gerard: What Was Said
Let’s fast-forward to 2006. Fans started to piece together more parts of the puzzle as the two referenced each other again in various interviews.
Notably, Gerard confirmed that he and Bert hadn’t spoken since the 2005 Warped tour in late-June. It had been heavily rumoured post-tour that Bert had allegedly used a megaphone to heckle My Chemical Romance’s performance, leading to the initial fallout.
Chatting with Blender in late 2006, Gerard said the friendship began to deteriorate after he got sober in 2004 and when The Used started trash-talking My Chemical Romance in 2005. “It was really unfortunate,” he lamented about the friendship.
When Bert was asked about things in 2006, he confirmed the bands were no longer speaking. “I’d prefer not to say anything about My Chemical Romance, except that we did have a falling out,” he said. “We don’t speak at all anymore. We used to be very close, but no more.”
Fan theories: Gerard’s sobriety, a romance gone wrong, clashes about fame
While the men in question kept things pretty vague over the years, fan theories ran wild online. While Swifities may be the ultimate detectives now using Instagram and TikTok to deduce clues, back in the ‘00s all you needed was some sad emo kids, a livejournal or MySpace account, or an emo forum to theorise what the hell was going on.
It’s heavily rumoured that Bert wrote the 2007 song ‘Pretty Handsome Awkward’ as a diss track for Gerard, with lyrics like, “Your market value, Your resurrection (your resurrection), Your shallow concept help yourself, I hope you choke and you die.”
Meanwhile, fans also theorise Gerard penned 2006’s ‘The Sharpest Lives’ about his friendship with Bert and their time as the ‘Toxic Twins’. Lyrics to the song explore notions like dangerous benders and tour toxicity, with lyrics like: ‘Give me a shot to remember, And you can take all the pain away from me. Your kiss and I will surrender, The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead.”
Bert has since denied ‘Pretty Handsome Awkward’ being about Gerard.
Did My Chemical Romance get too big for their boots?
A blogspot called Unleash The Bats quoted a 2006 Kerrang! interview with Bert, though the original article cannot now be found. The widely circulated quote however suggests that Bert accused My Chemical Romance of letting fame get to their heads.
“What happened was, it was maybe a year and half ago, I saw all their heads blow up and after their heads blew up, their heads kinda went up their arses as well. And I just thought, ‘Fuck that, I don’t need friends like that and I don’t even need acquaintances like that,” Bert allegedly said.
The death of the Toxic Twins through sobriety
The most heavily reported cause for the end of Gerard and Bert’s friendship however is the fact Gerard decided to get sober before Bert. To this day, on TikTok and Reddit forums, this is the most talked about reason for the friendship fallout.
With Gerard first getting sober in 2004, it created a natural divergence in lifestyle and priorities, with Bert’s public remarks and continued partying then reported to exacerbate the tension between the bands.
While Gerard has never publicly said whether it was his decision to get sober that caused the biggest rift with Bert, he has reflected in past interviews that his sobriety saved his life. “I hit a point where I realised I was going to destroy myself if I didn’t make a change. It was either that or die,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun in 2012.
20 years on: Where do The Used and My Chemical Romance stand now?
With both bands back on the touring circuit, there’s no indication if there’s still any bad blood – but we wouldn’t expect a co-headlining tour anytime soon.
When My Chemical Romance surprised fans after announcing their return to touring in late 2019 after breaking up in 2013, Bert allegedly made some comments while on the tour circuit himself. During a performance in Colorado, it’s alleged that Bert told the crowd, “I feel like I’m in My Chemical Romance! And you might catch us on tour with My Chemical Romance in the fall.”
While obviously that never happened, at The Used’s recent Sydney show on August 20 where they performed 2006’s Lies for the Liars in full, Bert had this to say when thanking fans for their attendance.
“We never broke up, we never took a break, we’ve been here the whole time,” he yelled towards the end of the set.
A thinly-veiled diss at My Chemical Romance’s return or just a general thanks to the fans? We’ll let you decide.
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