Pete: (explaining how girlfriend Ashlee Simpson looks after him while he has a broken ankle) When I'm being hard-headed and I don't want to elevate my leg, she says, 'No, put it on the pillow!' When I try to get in the shower by myself and am going to end up falling on the hotel room floor, she is good at stopping me.
Pete: (on making Maxim’s Unsexiest Men List in 2007) I'm just happy to be nominated. It's funny, I got on People's 'Most Beautiful' list because of eyeliner, and I got on AOL's 'Most Unsexy' because of eyeliner too. It was the reference in both of those. And I don't really view myself as a particularly attractive person. Like, I see myself looking like Stitch from "Lilo & Stitch.” So it doesn't really bum me out that much. I have a mullet. I don't care.
Pete: (on his relationship with Ashlee Simpson) People like to make our relationship seem different than to what it is. People will say, 'No one holds hands that much.' But I'm like, 'Why would you not want to touch the person that you're in love with?'
Pete: (on kissing girlfriend Ashlee Simpson) We're past the honeymoon period. The truth is, it's crazy to be able to kiss your best friend. It's just a really awesome thing.
Pete: (on when he got revenge on someone who threw a phone at him at a concert) Once I caught a cell phone that someone threw, and I was like, 'I caught this, now I'm calling somebody' and left it on for the whole set.
Pete: We were playing a show in Pennisylvania and ít was about 5-6 degrees celsius. To keep the stage from collapsing we have these vessels with water in them - probably also in case there should be a fire. Anyway, I start to climb up the side of the stage, when I was about 7 meters up it struck me, "Wait Mick Jagger and David Bowie wouldn't have just climbed back down, they would come down in wires or somthing like that, I have to jump!" and I did, and I landed right in one of the vessels with water. F***, it hurt, but I really couldn't feel it, 'cause the water was so cold, it was the coldest water I've ever felt!
Pete: Once when I was home for Christmas, and I went down the street and gave 100$ to every homeless guy I saw, until I didn't have any more money left. The coolest thing was, that they didn't realize I had given them $100 until some time after, and I could here a very loud "GOD BLESS YOU!!!" behind me on my way back to my house. It was awesome.
Pete: I always do really stupid things, like the day before yesterday, I tried to climb down a rock in Mexico to get to the beach faster. When I was half way down I realized exactly how long down there was. My friends went the long way around, but got down there first anyway, so they stood down there and laughed at me. I ended up climbing all the way up again, f*** I was exhausted!
Pete: I had a girlfriend once, and I wanted to give her a photo of my heart. Like a x-ray of my heart. So I went to my doctor and complained about pains in my chest and stuff like that. He listened to me and looked at me and said, "There's nothing wrong with you". So I told him about my plan, and he liked it, so he sent me to the hospital and got an x-ray, after some blood tests.
Pete: (on how visiting impoverished children in Uganda changed his life) It made my problems seem very small. If I'm being chased by paparazzi or b****ing about something on my blog online, that's such a small and trivial problem compared to the sort of thing that these people are having to go through. Before I went there I had been drained of any sense of real life. I wasn't living life like a normal person. Once I'd experienced what was going on there and while we were part of that, I feel like it gave me purpose and direction to my life again.
Pete: I have manic depression. I obsess over everything. When I am depressed, I can't get out of bed. But right now, it's sunny and 65 in my head, so it's OK! I turned my emotions off like a faucet.
Pete: (on what made him get involved in helping TAI... and Panic! reach fame) TAI... were like our younger brothers in Chicago. I saw something great in terms of potential, in what they were to become. With Panic!, it was one of those instant things where you first hears a chord, or a lyric, you’re jealous because because you wish you’d written it.
Pete: (on a clothing trend he would bring back) Oh I've got so many I'd like to bring back. Hyper-color t-shirts, I'd like to bring back Tevas, I'd try to bring back tight rolled jeans, I'm currently trying to bring back the mullet, accidently, which is not really a clothing thing but its considered effort.
Pete: (On his favorite bands in high school) I was pretty geeky. I started off with Michael Jackson and moved to like Guns 'N' Roses and then punk rock bands like A Minor Thread and Gorilla Biscuits and New York Hardcore and Earth Crisis and weird heavy bands. I liked The Cure, I always liked Green Day and I don't know I listened to a wide array of kinds of music. I listened to a lot of Bob Marley in high school.
Pete: (on his lyrics) I actually think a lot of my words aren't eloquent. They're even kind of misogynistic, emotionally stunted. But Patrick's voice makes up for those things. That guy can sing the phone book and people would listen to it.
Pete: (On playing soccer and writing music) Soccer presented no challenge to me. Playing felt like breathing, I always had a magical connection to the ball, but it didn't feel like an adventure. Music was more of a challenge and, in the end, felt more interesting.
Pete: I don't consider myself a businessman. It's just that the music business is like the Wild West. No one knows what's going to happen. So it's just good to have all kinds of options out there.
Pete: The beauty of being the person behind the pen is that you get to rewrite history, but people who read my lyrics think they have me all figured out. I haven't even figured myself out yet so it blows my mind that other people think they have.
Pete: I think writing lyrics allows me to emote in a way I otherwise wouldn't. If I didn't have that outlet, I would explode. I'm a very poor conversationalist, but I feel completely comfortable talking in front of a microphone.
Pete: I can't remember the last time I cried. I know it's been a really long time since I cried over a relationship. I'm not really good at showing emotions. I go through life in a kind of robotic way. I don't show excitement about much, either.
Pete: I’ve been so candid in the past, and it’s burned me. I used to speak without a filter, but I end up in hot water. I barely remember those years. I was taking prescription medication; I was a drugstore cowboy, mixing this with this, seeing what the combinations did. I couldn’t picture myself in two years. People would ask, ‘What are you going to do in the next record?’ And I’d say, 'Dude, I can’t even see myself being alive.'
Pete: I picture myself having a family now. Before, my dreams were about being in a huge band. Now, my dreams are of back yards and hanging out. It's a progression for me, trying to figure out what's normal.
Pete: (on Ashlee Simpson) I have never met somebody who makes me feel the way she makes me feel.
Pete: I haven’t figured myself out at all or (figured) where I fit into this world and I think that I probably can be an intensely divided person. I don’t think that anyone really knows me. I don’t even know myself. If I were such a one-dimensional person, I wouldn’t have such a hard time figuring myself out. I would know my motivations for everything.
Pete: I want to create a culture people are interested in.
Pete: No one wants to see the little band that they had in their back pocket get gigantic.
Pete: Everybody I hang out with I get linked to. I’m going to have to hang out with someone crazy, like Will Smith.
Pete: It would be fraudulent for me to write piss-you-to-put-you-out lyrics anymore. I have better self-examination and I am in a better place. I know people hang onto that, but it’s not real. It’s not me anymore.
Pete: I love buying groceries in the middle of the night. It’s amazing to see who you share that time of night with. It’s never who you think that catches your eye in the aisles.
Pete: (When asked when he thought the moment was that the realized Fall Out Boy had made it big) Uh… We got pulled over by New york Police because we were driving with like ten people in an SUV, and they were like, “Roll down all your windows!’ and they came over to the car, and they were like ‘Where are you guys coming from?’ We were like ‘We just played a show,’ they were like “Oh, what band are you in?’ We were like ‘Fall Out Boy’, and they were like ‘Oh, seriously? F**k you guys!’ And they got back in their car and they pulled up singing Dance, Dance and drove away.
Pete: (About Panic! at the Disco's style) I love these dudes, but I don't know what they're doing with all that facial hair these days. There's a lot of peach fuss going on. They called me up to go to a Kanye West cancert, and I was like 'hold on I'll call Kanye.' So I called him and they got into the show, and I called Kanye later and said, 'Yo did you see my dudes from Panic! at the show?' and he was like 'Nah they must not have been dressed like they were from the 1700's'. But I back them. They have their own unique style, which is cool.
Pete: (About Patrick Stump's style) The man Patrick Stump, rocking the hardcore Chicago street style forever! Man, he rocks hats harder than any other person on the planet. He owns more hats than I own hoodies. And his other essential item is his footwear, it's always something that can give your eyes cancer, but he always looks good all the time. A perfect front man.
Pete: (When asked what he would be if he wasn't a musician)I don’t know. A guy in a record store trying to be a writer.
Pete: Lady and the Tramp is a huge lyrical inspiration for the band. One of our new songs is called Jim Dear and Darling.
Pete: The first song... Let me think, that Fall Out Boy ever wrote was a song called Growing Up, and it goes like (hums tune) and we play it on tour sometimes. Not a lot, but sometimes so so. We wrote it, uh, because 6 years ago we were crappier writers than we are now. I don't know it's about... There's a line in it about peeing on a girls door step and listening to the misfits. Honestly!
Pete: I gave myself my first tattoo at age 14. I did it in class with a needle and ink. I was like, ‘Man, I suck at high school, so I should probably just, uh, give myself a tattoo right now.'
Pete: (When asked what the worst things about being in a band are) Never being home ever, never sleep ever, never eat good food ever, never seeing your friends outside of the band. There are a lot of bad things, but there are a lot more good things.
Pete: I’ve know my friend Nic for six or seven years. We met back home during a snowball fight!
Pete: (When asked what the best thing about being in a band is) Being able to go see the world with my friends.
Pete: (said at a Fall Out Boy concert in Indianapolis as he introduced the band's cover of Akon's "Don't Matter") We can't talk about where we were last night for obvious reasons, but we thought we'd play this song and send it out to my future cell mate.
Pete: I'm attracted to creative people and train wrecks, and there's no shortage of that in Los Angeles.
Pete: I was wearing the same hoodie and sneakers everywhere, and people would be like, ‘There’s hoodie boy again!’ My stylist, Nate, is cool because he knows what I like to wear but tries to push the limit.
Pete: I love Starbucks – I usually get a Caramel Macchiato. I drink two sips of it and put it down, then someone puts it in the fridge.
Pete: I use my MacBook all the time to write. I IM a lot too – ninety percent of the time, I’m talking to Ryan Ross from Panic! At the Disco.
Pete: My fave band would have to be *Nsync ‘cause they’re pretty dec’ and have a short name, that’s easy to say. Lmao.
Pete: My ex and I broke up right after I moved to California. I was super depressed and just hung with my dog, Hemingway. He's the best!
Pete: (on Sprinkles Cupcakes) I'll order a bunch of these cupcakes and take a bite out of each one. I'm a big jerk!
Pete: (on his tight girl jeans) I am the kind of guy who can't ever find anything that fits him quite right. I wear the same pair (of jeans) every day. It's not fun if you zip them up without lying down.
Pete: We've got these fans who are really loyal and really dedicated to us, and it's important for us to keep them that way. We like seeing them there. We like feeling the heat off the crowd. We like seeing the sweated-out eyes in the front row. It's something that is indescribable, that we thought would be cool and fun to do and to do it with the bands that we're doing it with, like New Found Glory, who we looked up to and we wanted to play with for a long time. Early November are old friends, and Permanent Me and Lifetime are just cool bands.
Pete: I think it's arrogant for us to go out there and to assume that everybody loves our band and we're God's gift and that we don't have to go back out and earn it to some extent all over again. To me, that's us sending a message to other bands--both bands we're friends with and bands that look up to us. You can't just sit there and let someone else do the work. You're going to have to go out and do that.
Pete: After the band? You can just keep the stick I have in my a** up there, put me horizontally in a grave and let me spin.
Pete:(talking about the fact that he brings peanut butter to Europe) The only thing I bring from home with me is peanut butter because well, your chocolate kicks the s**t out of chocolate anywhere else on the entire planet, but you don’t know how to make peanut butter to save your life.
Pete: (Pete trying to find common ground with people in Tokyo, Japan) I just like it over there. We have a lot in common, you know. Like they’re really into toys, I’m really into toys. They’re really into cartoons I’m really into cartoons. They’re short, I’m short. I don’t know, It’s good.
Pete: (On his new bar, Angels and Kings, that he opened in New York) It will be a bit of a dive, which we need. We finally have a place where all our loser friends can hang out! We'd had enough of all the pretentious clubs with strict door policies which feel uptight when you finally get in. We really just want someplace where we can hang out and be ourselves. I want to be like any other regular and drink umbrella cocktails.
Pete: Tokyo is the most insane place on the planet. It's like you land and the only thing you have in common with people, is that you breathe oxygen.
Pete: (When compared to attention seeking bassists like Paul McCartney and Sting, and when asked if his popularity is eclpising the band.) I'm probably less Paul McCartney and Sting and more Nikki Sixx and Sid Vicious. I'm the bad boy, the screw-up, the guy who wears eye shadow and crazy clothes. That said, I don't go out of my way to be a destructive personality, but things do happen sometimes.
Pete: (When asked if he ever took guitar lessons.) Yeah, but not for long. I learned scales, but I wasn't very good because I wasn't interested in practicing. It's funny - now I'll go back and grab my old scale books. I want to learn that stuff. I want to learn the fretboard. I'm a professional musician, but there's so much I don't know.
Pete: (On being a bassist.) Believe me I'm not keeping Flea up nights, I doubt if I ever will. For me, the bass is a tool, a means to an end. Maybe if I started listening to jazz players when I was younger I would've forced myself to become a better player, but I was always interested in stuff that rocks. The force of sound that a bass makes is what always got me. Still does.
Pete: (When asked if he wanted to be president.) Kind of, but it's the same sort of interest I have in spicy food - a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Actually, I don't really have much inerest.
Pete: (When asked when he started wearing eyeliner.) In fourth grade - I wanted to look like I was beaten up. I liked to be a victim.
Pete: Musicians often have aspirations outside music, it's good to take a leap. I wouldn't mind going up into space, like that guy from *NSYNC. It just seems like the next thing to do. It would be cool.
Pete: I'm a comfort-food guy. If you make me mac and cheese or PB&J, I will be in love with you.
Pete: I get a ton of under-eye circles because I don't sleep. Usually I'll just put on more eye makeup and let it blur in.
Pete: (Pete’s guide to putting on guyliner) The guide to putting on guyliner. The first step is; you take your sharpened pencil and apply it around your eye. The second step to putting on guyliner is; to smear it because when you’re a guy, you don’t really want your makeup to look perfect, which usually isn’t a problem. And the third step is; to smudge the eye shadow on. So the forth and final step is; to go to sleep and you wake up with perfect eyes ‘cause day old eye makeup looks way better.
Pete: A lot of bands in music history have had titles that were easy for radio DJs. We wanted to have titles that were true to the songs. That sets us apart.
Pete: (While on a nature tour in the Mall Of America in Minnesota.) I'm thinking about making a Happy Feet type movie about sturgeon, so I wanted to get all the research that I could right now.
Pete: (On his friendship with Patrick Stump.) We're like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.
Pete: (On one of the many bands he was in.) I remember one band i was in, Human Head, where we would go to shows and the deal was you couldn't play the instrument you knew how to play and we would keep going until they physically kicked us off stage.
Pete: (When asked what celebrity he would kiss if he had the chance.) Hmmm... maybe Johnny Depp? Am I aiming a little too high?
Pete: (When asked whether he would rather play to a bunch of frat boys or to a bunch of 13 year old girls.) Trick question same people. 13 year old girls don't tend to call me f*gg*t.
Pete: (When asked what he thinks will happen when people die.) I think maybe I'm going to be eaten by worms, and that scares me. I just want to be frozen and woken up in the year 3000 when it's not so s**tty.
Pete: (On his experience at boot camp.) It was terrible. Every kid there was so much more f***ed up than me, demented satanic kids. I got beat up a couple times. I’d call my parents every day crying and saying I wanted to go home. I would beg. I felt isolated. It created these dependency and attachment issues.
Pete: (About his nude pictures circulating on the internet.) I thought it was the end of the world. I had dreams that it didn’t happen, that it was all a joke, and then you wake up and you have that sick feeling in your stomach, because it did.
Pete: And at some point, you decide that you are going to do something that's detrimental or you are going to be someone who's detrimental not only to yourself but to the future of the thing that you're trying to keep going, and it's better to just go out and clean out the skeletons in your closet rather than to keep going and doing that.
Pete: On this last tour we set it up like a play: We did act one and act two with an intermission and costume change, and that's hilarious 'cause we just exaggerated everything everyone would ever say about a band like us. And I think that we'll try to do something different on the next tour, step it up.
Pete: The past five months have been really crazy for us. It's kind of cool because we're hidden on a bus in, like, Omaha, Nebraska, or wherever, so we've never actually seen our video on MTV. So it's kind of bizarre to think that it gets played on MTV and is on 'TRL' all the time.
Pete: It's something we've always wanted to do as a band, just a quick jaunt through VFW halls and venues like that. We'd announce the show the night before or maybe play under some secret names. And we thought it would be cool because we don't feel like any band has gotten to a certain size and still gone on a VFW hall tour. So we'd like to play a couple of dates on the East Coast. Watch out for it.
Pete: I totally miss all that stuff. Touring in a van, playing small shows — those end up being the coolest times. Sure, they were terrible at the time, and we slept on a lot of floors next to a lot of cat poop. But when you think about them, they were what brought everybody together. They were like adventures.
Pete: They're way different, the songs are way more soulful. They open up Patrick's voice a lot more. On the last record, the lyrics were about 'This is where we're going to be a year from now, and this is what you're going to be saying about us.' But this time, we realized that a lot of bands should spend less time running their mouths and more time writing their songs.
Pete: I think that when you spend all of your time focusing on what everybody else wants and what everybody else needs and what is good for the band, sometimes you neglect what's the best for you.
Pete: Sometimes, I'll be walking down the street, and people will be like, 'You're the guy from the antlers video!' And you can't go certain places. We have two buses now. Jay-Z has called me on the phone. But a lot of things probably will never change - like our friendships and our working relationships. As far as me and Patrick and all of Fall Out Boy, it's in a vacuum.
Pete: I think the problem is that bands start feeling the heat and then they try and rub sticks together and start a fire of their own, whereas Fall Out Boy, we're completely happy to go out and blaze a path. If people are following us down it, that's cool - otherwise, it will be fun for us to go out and hang by ourselves.
Pete: When you're playing hard-core music and you're screaming every night, it just grates on your ears, and at some point, the grass is always greener. You want to be doing something different.
Pete: A lot of bands in music history have had titles that were easy for radio DJs. We wanted to have titles that were true to the songs. That sets us apart.
Pete: I want to be the biggest band on the planet.
Pete: I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) as far as dating goes. I've ended up having good friendships with all these people, but we haven't really had relationships.
Pete: Being the focus of the band can get too much for me at times. Sometimes I enjoy it like when everyone's patting you on the back. But when they're not it feels like you're carrying the world on your shoulders.
Pete: I obsessively wanted to be in bands. I was probably fourteen when I got my first bass it was my friend's brother's, and we stole it. I was really into the idea that we could just play basement shows. The name of the first band was First Born, and it was terrible. We played this hair-metal place in Iowa they gave you 150 tickets to sell, and you give them the money. We gave the tickets away, said we lost the money, and this old Italian guy almost beat the f**k out of us. But to me it was awesome.
Pete: I was isolating myself further and further, and the more I isolated myself, the more isolated I'd feel. I wasn't sleeping. I just wanted my head to shut off, like, I just wanted to completely stop thinking about anything at all. (
Pete: We're sick of hearing people say "that band is so gay" or "those guys are fags". Gay is not a synonym for sh*tty. If you want to say something's sh*tty, say it's sh*tty. Stop being such homophobic *ssholes!
Pete: See, there's the bands that you say you like to sound smart, and there's the bands you say you like to get laid. And then there's the bands you really listen to.
Pete: (On being voted worst band of 2005 by Spin magazine.) I guess we’re just one of those bands that just polarizes people. Some people worship the ground we walk on, and some people say we’re ruining music and should just shut our mouths. If you want to keep either of those opinions, you should try not to engage us in a real conversation.
Pete: I can be unhappy and I can be happy, I am just one human being that thinks about my life and tries to figure myself out. When I write about feeling s***ty it's not because I want to put on black nail varnish and when I write songs about being happy it's not because I sold a million records. It's because I am going through my life and figuring it out as I go along.
Pete: You wake up but not really. In the bedroom you grew up in. It's the only place on this entire planet that is yours. The only place on the planet that understands you. It understands the way your nerves flare everytime you think about talking to anyone, scared into shyness at the thought of opening your mouth but the way you are the best hypocrite around when you're in front of a microphone. It knows what turns that switch on and off and on again. It understands the way when you don't have a smile on your face everyone only spits: "what's wrong"s and "you look tired"s. So the way you keep it on your face just wide enough to avoid questions. It understands how neurotic you have become, the way you treat your flaws like old friends. The way you look in the mirror and think of yourself as "Mr. Misery".
Pete: The only reason you even start a band is so you can hang out with your friends all the time, but somewhere along the line, it just ends up becoming a job. You were doing it because you were like, 'I never want to have to get a job,' then all of a sudden it becomes the biggest job you could ever imagine.
Pete: People meeting on MySpace, I think it’s just the most terrible way to get to know somebody.
Pete: (On his "feud" with The Killers lead singer.) I don't think there is any beef between us. Their drummer is really nice.
Pete: OK, I can say some more about the video. I got a new analogy for you about it. It's like R. Kelly's 'Trapped in the Closet,' meets Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' ... But with the prologue and epilogue still taking place on the Internet. And I'm being completely serious. Wrap your mind around that.
Pete: Of course, we haven't spoke to anybody at Island Records about this yet, but you should go ahead and print this, because it'll just make them sweat.
Pete: I feel like we've figured out how to write Fall Out Boy music, but I don't really feel like we've written the definitive Fall Out Boy song yet, where I'm like, 'Wow, that is Fall Out Boy.' So I guess it is continually evolving. But at the same time, it's not growth just for the sake of growth. As you get older and you see the world, your tastes change and hopefully your mind kind of opens.
Pete: Underwear. It's like a goddamned leash. It also constantly reminds me of how funny I look naked.
Pete: Nature shows suck ass, though cobras are pretty sweet. Pretty much any animal that has a gang named after it is pretty bad ass. I would go for an animal combo, like a bear that carried a cobra -- total unstoppable force. Give that thing wings and humanity is f***ed.
Pete: If you aren't just a little bit depressed, then you aren't paying very much attention to what's going on in the world.
Pete: The day after tomorrow could be the best day ever.
Pete: One time I fell in love with a cat, then I realized it wasn't a human being. It was not as sexy as we thought.
Pete: I want people to know that who you are in highschool, isn't who you are going to be for the rest of your life. We were all geeks in highschool, and now look at us, now we're on TR ******L! YEAH!
Pete: Why are you making cupcakes when your just gonna poop them out anyway?
Pete: It was an A-Team van, and because it had no windows it was as hot as crap. It had a big flower spray-painted on the side. The brakes went out on it when we were driving down this alley, and I go to our guitar tech- there was a fence and there was this other van- So I go, 'Fence or van? Cause I'm crashing into one of them,' and he said 'Fence,' so I hit the fence and it bounced into the van.
Pete: We’re probably four of the most ordinary people you’ll ever meet, just placed in an extraordinary position.
Pete: My parents treat me like I'm 14. They make me clean my room and stuff like that. They're always like "I don't care what MTV says you are."
Pete: You can live with me in this house I've built out of writers blocks.
Pete: If you know me you know how uncool I am. I stutter, wear bad clothes, make bad jokes, make conversation uncomfortable, the list goes on. Thank you for making me feel okay.
