Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman ‘stepping away’ from band to focus on mental health

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman has announced he is “stepping away” from the band for the sake of his mental health.

A statement from Trohman was posted to the band’s Twitter page late Wednesday night, along with a black and white picture of him playing the guitar.

The news came less than 24 hours after the band announced its new album “So Much (For) Stardust,” which will be released on March 24.

Expressing his hope that the break would only be temporary, Trohman said: “Neil Young once howled that it’s better to burn out than to fade away.

“But I can tell you unequivocally that burning out is dreadful. Without divulging all the details, I must disclose that my mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years. So, to avoid fading away and never returning, I will be taking a break from work which regrettably includes stepping away from Fall Out Boy for a spell.”

He said that it “pains me to make this decision, especially when we are releasing a new album that fills me with great pride,” but added that he would 100% be returning “to the fold.”

“In the meantime, I must recover which means putting myself and my mental health first.”

The group’s co-founder thanked his bandmates, family and fans for “understanding and respecting this difficult, but necessary, decision.”

Last year Trohman released his memoir called “None of This Rocks.” Published by Headline, the book covers, among other things, his struggles with depression and his mother’s mental illness.

Fall Out Boy, also made up of Andy Hurley, Peter Wentz and Patrick Stump, formed in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Illinois, in 2001. Influenced by the city’s punk scene, they created a punkish pop music sound heard on their 2003 debut album “Take This to Your Grave.” Grammy-nominated for Best New Artist in 2006, their next album, “Infinity on High,” topped the Billboard chart at No. 1. Their song “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2007.

The group went on an “indefinite hiatus” in 2009 but in 2013 released a secretly recorded album called “Save Rock and Roll.”

In an interview that year with CNN, Trohman said that the four of them had “needed a little time away from the band.”

He added: “Guys are notoriously bad at emoting and communicating, and I think we had to learn how to do that. But also taking that time apart to be with our families, do other projects, work with different people and experience different things allowed us to come back and realize that maybe we did this thing not so well; maybe we should have talked more; maybe we shouldn’t have been so passive-aggressive; maybe this guy should have voiced his opinion more. I think we are better at that, and it has been very healthy for the band.”

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