Fall Out Boy founding member and guitarist Joe Trohman announced that he’s stepping away from the band.
Just hours after announcing their upcoming recent album, titled “So Much (For) Stardust,” Trohman took to social media to say his mental health has “rapidly deteriorated” and compelled him to slam the brakes on his music profession.
“Without divulging all the small print, I have to disclose that my mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years,” Trohman wrote in a post on Fall Out Boy’s Instagram page.
“So, to avoid fading away and never returning, I might be taking a break from work which regrettably includes stepping away from Fall Out Boy for a spell.”
“Neil Young once howled that it’s higher to burn out than to fade away,” Trohman wrote within the message. “But I can inform you unequivocally that burning out is dreadful.”
Trohman founded the pop-punk band with vocalist Patrick Stump in 2001. The pair then added bassist Pete Wentz and drummer Andy Hurley into the fold in the following years.
In Trohman’s announcement, he referenced the band’s hotly anticipated upcoming album — the primary since 2018 — set for release on March 24.
“It pains me to make this decision, especially after we are releasing a recent album that fills me with great pride (the sin I’m most pleased with),” he wrote.
Trohman reassured fans that his break from the group is temporary.
“So, the query stays: Will I return to the fold? Absolutely, one-hundred percent,” he wrote. “Within the meantime, I have to get better which suggests putting myself and my mental health first.”
Trohman thanked his bandmates and family for “understanding and respecting this difficult, but vital, decision.”
“Smell you earlier than later, Joe Trohman,” he concluded.
