Biography
Gerard Way
Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977 in Summit, New Jersey) is an American musician and comic book artist who has served as frontman, lead vocalist and co-founder of the band My Chemical Romance, since its formation in 2001.
Background
Gerard Way was born in Summit, New Jersey to Donald and Donna Lee Way. He was raised in Belleville, New Jersey and first began singing publicly in the fourth grade, when he played the role of Peter Pan in a school musical production. His maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, was a great creative influence who taught him to sing, paint, and perform from a young age. He has referred to her in interviews, quoting that "She has taught me everything I know".
At the age of 15, Gerard was held up at gun point, as stated in a recent Rolling Stone article: "I got held up with a .357 Magnum, [I] had a gun pointed to my head and [was] put on the floor, execution-style." The incident did not, however, impinge on his views of the world. He went on to say that "no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith."
Education
Gerard Way attended Belleville High School until he graduated in 1995. Deciding to pursue a career in the comic-book industry, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999.
Career and music
Way was working for Cartoon Network in New York City during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Seeing the effects of the attacks first-hand prompted Way to change his views on life in the following weeks. He told Spin magazine, "I literally said to myself, 'Fuck art. I’ve gotta get out of the basement. I’ve gotta see the world. I’ve gotta make a difference.'" To help deal with the emotional effects the attacks had on him, Way wrote the lyrics to the song "Skylines and Turnstiles", which has since been identified as "the first song by My Chemical Romance". Soon after, My Chemical Romance began to assemble as a band.
In many interviews Way has stated that music turned out to be an effective outlet to deal with his long-time battles against depression, alcoholism and prescription drug use. The use of music as a way to resolve personal battles has caused Way to create deeply personal songs such as "Helena," which was written in memory of his late grandmother mentioned above.
In 2007, Way began writing the comic-book miniseries, The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy was first released by Dark Horse Comics in their Free Comic Book Day issue on May 5, 2007. Since then, an eight-page story has been published on MySpace, entitled "Safe & Sound". The first official issue was released on September 19, 2007. Mass sales caused the first issue to sell out and consequently there was a second printing released on October 17, 2007. The next installment was released on November 26, 2008.
Personal life
On September 3, 2007 after a concert in Colorado, Gerard married Lyn-Z of Mindless Self Indulgence. The pair tied the knot following the final date of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour backstage. A member of Live Nation's touring staff who happened to be an ordained minister, performed the low-key ceremony. He currently lives with his wife in Los Angeles, California. On November 24, 2008 a representative for Gerard Way confirmed that he and wife Lindsey are expecting their first child together in the summer of 2009.
The Breakfast Monkey
In 2001 Way co-created a cartoon with Joe Boyle called The Breakfast Monkey. They pitched it to Cartoon Network, but the network declined to pick up the concept on the grounds that it was too similar to the existing property Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Credit
Text taken from Wikipedia. HTML by me.
