As a band, My Chemical Romance is generally rich in lore and story, but there’s one tale that takes the cake. It involves guitarist Frank Iero, the FBI, and a pretty explicitly threatening song title. In a 2009 interview with Alternative Press, Iero went into detail about the time his side project, Leathermouth, got him put on the FBI watch list.
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Leathermouth put out one album, XO from 2009, and it was basically a project for Iero to get out his more angry, thrashy lyrics and sound. It’s definitely on the more hardcore side, in comparison to My Chemical Romance. The tracks have titles like “5th Period Massacre” and “Your Friends Are Full of S–t.” However, one song that Leathermouth played on tour in 2008 caught the attention of the federal government. The title was “I Am Going to [explicit] the President of the United States.” Understandably, the government was concerned.
“The government comes to your house, searches everything and talks to your wife for hours,” Iero said in 2009. “Then you have to get a real expensive attorney to keep you out of prison for five years. I had a long talk with the gentlemen of the Secret Service. [It was the] straight-up dark suits, sunglasses, Men In Black-vibe–I thought they were going to do the mind-erase thing [like in the movie].”
Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance Once Explained the Meaning Behind the Song That Put Him on the FBI Watch List
Iero continued, “They said, ‘Why did you write the song?’ And I told them the truth. I was on tour [overseas] with [My Chemical Romance] at the time, and every time I turned around, there were Anti-American rallies. I wrote a song from the standpoint of the rest of the world. It wasn’t from my personal point of view–it was just from someone who sees warmongering going on. I wrote the song, and the title is as blatant as humanly possible, because I wanted it to be that way.”
That explanation wasn’t enough for the Secret Service to allow Frank Iero to perform the song again. If he performed or re-released it in any capacity, he would serve time in federal prison. According to his interview, he put the song behind him instead of engaging with it further. He alleged at the time that a writer could have contacted Homeland Security about the song looking for a comment, which put the track on their radar. However, he had a straight answer for why he didn’t turn the situation into more of a fight at the time.
“I’m married and I want to have kids,” he said. “I don’t want to go to jail for five years.” Seeing that My Chemical Romance is going back on tour next year, Iero among them, he likely put all thoughts of the song out of his mind and moved on.
Featured Image by Carrie Davenport/Redferns
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