Pete Wentz: Snapshot

Pete Wentz: Five Fun Facts

1. Pete Wentz's parents met while working on a campaign for Joe Biden. "If it weren't for Joe Biden, I would not exist as a human being," the rocker told PEOPLE. Wentz also posted a photo of Biden carrying him as a child on his blog.
2. Fall Out Boy played their first show nameless and secured their band name (a reference to an obscure character on The Simpsons) by telling a live audience they'd take the first name shouted out.
3. In 2005, Pete Wentz wrote a book based on his childhood nightmares called The Boy With the Thorn in His Side.
4. Bend it like...Pete Wentz? The emo rocker was a budding soccer star before tackling the tougher task of playing music. "Soccer presented no challenge to me," he said in 2007. "Playing felt like breathing, I always had a magical connection to the ball. But it didn't feel like an adventure. Music was more of a challenge and, in the end, felt more interesting."
5. When it comes to women, Pete Wentz sometimes follows his nose. "I like individual scents on a girl, so you always recognize her and you keep her separate from other people in your head," he tells Seventeen. "I really love Egyptian musk. I've even gone to the mall and sprayed perfumes and just smelled them. I'm creepy. So creepy."

Pete Wentz: Biography

1993

Pete's First Bass

Wentz steals a bass guitar from the brother of a friend and forms his first band, First Born. "It seemed like it was an interesting instrument to play, where you would only stand out if you wanted to stand out," Wentz tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "And when you weren't, you could definitely not be standing out."

2000-2002

Forming Fall Out

After playing in a handful of local bands, Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman hook up with vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump to form Fall Out Boy. "We were all playing in different hardcore bands on the same scene with each other," Wentz later tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Within a year, they're signed by California indie label Uprising Records. In 2002, they release their first album, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend.

2003

May 06

The Pen is Mightier…

Fall Out Boy releases Take This To Your Grave. Many of the album's lyrics center on Wentz's ex-girlfriend cheating on him with two of his friends the same weekend while Wentz was on tour. Wentz later tells the Pittburgh Post-Gazette, "It was very, very cathartic. When somebody hangs up on the phone when you're 2,000 miles away from them, you have no recourse. The only reaction there is, is a pen. There's nothing else that you can do." The album becomes one of the best-selling indie records of 2003.

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