While Paramore and Fall Out Boy have new albums dropping soon and My Chemical Romance has been out touring, the last band in the emo "Big 4" – Panic! at the Disco – is coming to an end.
Yesterday (January 24), lead singer Brendon Urie announced bittersweet news over social media. The singer revealed his wife is expecting a child, and that he’s turning his attention towards personal matters. “I am going to bring this chapter of my life to an end and put my focus and energy on my family, and with that Panic! At The Disco will be no more,” he wrote.
The Panic! at the Disco name has been around for 19 years. Urie joined Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith, and then-bassist Brent Wilson in Panic! at the Disco as a high schooler. After attracting the attention of Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz with demos online, the Las Vegas teenagers issued their debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, in 2005. It spawned a massive hit with “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” Wilson left the group the following year, and bassist Jon Walker stepped in as his replacement.
Panic! at the Disco released their second LP, Pretty. Odd., in 2008. Ross and Walker left the group over “creative differences” a year later. Founding drummer Spencer Smith then left in 2015, leaving Urie as the only remaining original member.
Urie led the band for five more records, from 2011’s Vices & Virtues through last year’s Viva Las Vengeance. Outside of Panic! at the Disco, Urie has collaborated with Taylor Swift, Juice WRLD, Benny Blanco, and Gym Class Heroes’ Travie McCoy. He also had a stint on Broadway in a production of the musical Kinky Boots.
Panic! at the Disco is set to begin what will presumably be its final tour next month. Urie will be taking the band across Europe, with stops in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Scotland, and the UK. Tickets can be found here.
Read Urie's statement about Panic! at the Disco below.
Check out our selection of free stations streaming Panic! at the Disco music at Live365.com.
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Article Image: With blue light and camera lens flare, Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco sings on a darkened stage in 2009. (Silvio Tanaka [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons.)
