An alt-rock favorite, Jimmy Eat World has made a career out of crafting polished, teen movie soundtrack-ready emo pop hits. With reliable tunes, rife with angst and adolescence, the band climbed the charts in the early aughts as tracks like “The Middle” and “Pain” became anthems to millennial youth.
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Despite the band’s enduring success, still, one question remains: Who is Jimmy and what is he eating?
Behind the Name
The Mesa, Arizona-formed band—consisting of frontman Jim Adkins, guitarist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch, and drummer Zach Lind—came together in 1993. Their early sound was more punk leaning back then as they spent their days rehearsing in Lind’s garage.
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According to a post on the group’s Twitter, the young band got a gig to play at a party before they even had a name, so they gathered around to decide on a moniker. “Tom and Rick (who wasn’t in the band quite yet) played in a band together that would change their name for every show,” the tweet read. “Me, Zach, would go to a lot of those shows and I was there when they called themselves Jimmy Eat World and it stuck with me.” So they adopted the throw-away name as their own.
While there is a Jim in the band, Adkins is not the “Jimmy” in “Jimmy Eat World.” That name instead came from Linton, who has a brother named Jim. The guitarist shared in a 1999 interview that the name came from “a picture that my little brother drew … probably five years ago.
“My brother Jim beat up my younger brother Ed,” he continued to explain, “and Jim ran into his room and locked his door, and Ed drew this picture that said ‘Jimmy Eat World,’ and it was a picture of him eating the world.” From a picture scrawled in crayon, Jimmy Eat World was born.
But the band has admitted over the years, that the name hasn’t always served them well. In the same tweet thread, the group offers some advice for new bands deciding on a name: “When coming up with a band name, make sure its acronym, displayed really large on your artwork or t-shirts, won’t be complicating matters. You’re welcome.”
See the post below.
Jimmy Eat World Today
For three decades, Jimmy Eat World has been making music. Their most recent album, Surviving, released in 2019, was their tenth. They have been touring voraciously in recent years, making up for lost time from the pandemic.
The group will soon embark on a co-headlining tour with Manchester Orchestra, playing North American shows from July through August. See a full list of their co-headlining dates below.
Upcoming Tour Dates
Jul. 11 – Missoula, MT – Big Sky Brewing Company Amphitheater +
Jul. 14 – Spokane, WA – The Podium +
Jul. 15 – Seattle, WA – WAMU Theater +
Jul. 16 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater +
Jul. 18 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic ^
Jul. 19 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre +
Jul. 21 – San Diego, CA – Gallagher Square at Petco Park +
Jul. 22 – Las Vegas, NV – The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan ^
Jul. 23 – Salt Lake City, UT – Complex Outdoors +
Jul. 25 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater +
Jul. 27 – St. Louis, MO – Saint Louis Music Park ^
Jul. 28 – Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater ^
Jul. 29 – Asheville, NC – Rabbit Rabbit ^
Jul. 30 – Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre ^
Aug. 7 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall +
Aug. 8 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater ^
Aug. 9 – Dallas, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory ^
Aug. 11 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Criterion +
Aug. 12 – Bellevue, NE – Outlandia
Aug. 13 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory ^
Aug. 15 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave/Eagles Club +
Aug. 16 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed ^
Aug. 18 – Indianapolis, IN – TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park +
Aug. 19 – Columbus, OH – KEMBA Live! Outdoors ^
Aug. 20 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill ^
Aug. 21 – Toronto, ON – RBC Echo Beach ^
Aug. 23 – New York, NY – SummerStage In Central Park ^
Aug. 24 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway +
Aug. 25 – Buffalo, NY – Outer Harbor Buffalo +
Aug. 26 – Philadelphia, PA – Skyline Stage at the Mann ^
+Jimmy Eat World Closing
^Manchester Orchestra Closing
Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
