Pete Wentz

Pete Wentz in October 2014.

Pete Wentz (* 5. June 1979 in Wilmette , Cook County , Illinois , as Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz III ) is an American musician . He is the bassist and songwriter for the alternative rock band Fall Out Boy .

Early life

Wentz was born in 1979 in Wilmette , Illinois , a suburb of Chicago , Illinois. He is the son of Dale, a high school counselor, and Pete Wentz II, a lawyer. He attended New Trier High School and North Shore Country Day School , where he was a soccer player on a national team. He'd agreed to pursue a professional sports career, but decided that music was a more fulfilling choice. He said he “always had a magical relationship with the ball. It didn't feel like an adventure though. Music was a better challenge, and ultimately, more interesting. ”During his freshman high school, he began to skip school regularly. A school counselor convinced Pete's parents to send him to an education camp to get him back in order. During this time, Wentz began writing songs to take out his frustration. After graduating from high school in 1997, he attended DePaul University , where he studied political science . However, he broke off his studies a short time later in order to concentrate on his music career.

Career

Before Fall Out Boy, Wentz was in several bands including Arma Angelus, Extinction and Yellow Road Priest. He was active in the hardcore punk scene in Chicago. Together with Joe Trohman he decided to start a new band. Joe Trohman then introduced him to Patrick Stump , who originally wanted to join the band as a drummer. Andy Hurley took over this part and Stump became the singer of the band.

In 2002 Fall Out Boy released their first EP called Fall Out Boy / Project Rocket Split EP . In 2003 the band released their mini LP Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend on the label Uprising Records. After the success of the third album From Under the Cork Tree , the first album was reissued and digitized. In 2003 the band released their first full-length album, Take This to Your Grave, on the Fueled by Ramen label . The band later switched to Island Records . There an acoustic EP and DVD with the title My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue was released in 2004.

After the release of this EP in 2005, Fall Out Boy's third album, From Under the Cork Tree hit stores. Pete Wentz wrote the hit single Sugar We're Going Down with his father in Chicago . The song made it to # 8 on the Billboard Top 100 and went platinum twice.

The fourth album Infinity on High was released on February 6, 2007 and was a resounding success: No. 1 on the Billboard charts with sales of 260,000, followed by the second single This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race , which was just as successful was.

The fifth and, for the time being, last Fall Out Boy album, Folie á Deux , was released on December 13, 2008 and made it to number 8 on the Billboard charts.

On November 20, 2009, the band announced that they would be on hiatus indefinitely. The reason for this was the seven years on tour and especially Pete Wentz's desire for more time for his family. However, it was emphasized again and again that there would be no separation. Patrick Stump said in several interviews that the band would definitely work together again in the distant future.

Shortly afterwards and after some time to think about it, Wentz formed a new band called Black Cards . In July 2010, excerpts from the songs Club Called Heaven and Beating in My Chest were published for the first time on their website. The producer of the project was Sam Hollander .

Wentz said that while on vacation in Jamaica after his band's hiatus, he was inspired by Jamaican reggae songs like Two Seven Clash by Culture and Warriors by The Gladiators . Pete then contacted Sam Hollander and talked to him about his idea of ​​producing a new experimental sound that would be a mix of ska , dance , reggae and British rock and pop from the eighties. Wentz was looking for a female singer for his band in order to avoid comparisons with Fall Out Boy. By chance he met Bebe Rexha , who had never been a member of a well-known band until then. Also includes Nate Patterson and Spencer Peterson to BlackCards.

Non-musical projects

In addition to his music career, Pete Wentz is involved in numerous projects. Wentz 'company, Clandestine Industries, sells books, clothing and other goods. On August 2, 2007, the DKNY fashion factory entered into a partnership with Clandestine Industries. Wentz himself served as a model on the DKNY / Clandestine promotion website.

In 2007, Pete got an offer from Fender to create his own bass. His Squier Precision Bass hit the market a few months later. It has a black body with a red casing and a special emblem called "bat / heart", which was also made by Pete Wentz. Wentz's signature is also on the back of the bass. Wentz also owns a very similar Fender Bass with a purple outer shell and the "bat / heart" emblem. In 2008 Fender gave him a children's bass for the birth of his son. The case was light blue and the emblem was a pacifier.

Wentz also opened a nightclub in New York called Angels & Kings. The bar is on 11th Street off Avenue A in Manhattan . Many well-known guests, including Tommy Hilfiger , came for the opening of the club, which took place on April 20, 2007. In June 2007, Wentz celebrated the opening of Angels & King's second location in Chicago .

On December 13, 2008, with his friend Travis McCoy , Wentz designed various pieces for an art exhibition for the 1988 Gallery in Los Angeles called Without You, I'm Just Me . The exhibition closed on December 24, 2008.

Wentz worked with Mark Hoppus on the song In Transit for a soundtrack of the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland .

He also hosted a show called F'N MTV on MTV .

Write

He wrote the book The Boy with the Thorn in His Side , which is based on his childhood nightmares. His next book, which was supposed to appear in 2006 and was titled Rainy Day Kids , he withdrew himself because he was not satisfied with it himself.

On February 19, 2013, he published a novella called "Gray". His book is about a fictional rock star who tries to find out who he is, was and maybe will be.

Record label

Pete Wentz has his own record label called Decaydance Records. There are bands like Panic! at the Disco , Paramore , October Fall , Cobra Starship and The Hush Sound under contract. He also runs a film production company called Bartskull Films, which released the DVD Release the Bats .

Private life

In February 2005, Wentz tried to take his own life. He swallowed an overdose of the Ativan sedative . He then spent a week in the hospital. He told Rolling Stone : “I became more and more isolated, the more I did that, the more isolated I felt. I didn't sleep. I just wanted to silence my head, actually I just wanted to stop thinking about anything at all. ”Then he moved back in with his parents in Wilmette. Wentz so far denies that it was a suicide attempt.

In March 2006, nude photos of him appeared on the Internet and spread rapidly. He himself stated on the band's website that the pictures had been stolen from his T-Mobile sidekick and that after he had “felt bad about it for 24 hours”, he could already laugh about it again. The video for This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race covers this topic.

He has guest roles on the television series One Tree Hill , Californication and CSI: NY .

Between 2006 and 2011 he was in a relationship with Ashlee Simpson . The couple married on May 17, 2008 at Ashlee Simpson's parents' home in Encino. Their son was born on November 20, 2008. In February 2011, Simpson filed for divorce; since November 22, 2011, Wentz and Simpson have been divorced. The reason given for the divorce was "irreconcilable differences". In May 2013, Wentz said in an interview with Rolling Stone that his drug addiction was to blame for the breakup. He fell into a deep hole after his band Fall Out Boy temporarily split up. Only after therapy did he feel better.

Wentz had his second son in August 2014 and his daughter in May 2018. The mother is his girlfriend Meagan Camper.

Filmography

• 2006: One Tree Hill
• 2008: Californication
• 2008: Goodnight Moon
• 2009: CSI: NY
• 2011: Friends with Benefits
• 2018: Escape Plan 2: Hades

Guest appearances in music videos

• Paramore - The Only Exception
• A Day to Remember - All I Want
• Travie McCoy (Feat. Bruno Mars ) - Billionaire
• All Time Low - Weightless
• Tyga (Feat. Travis McCoy ) - Coconut Juice
• The Ready Set - Love Like Woe
• Cobra Starship - The City Is At War
• Gym Class Heroes (Feat. Patrick Stump ) - Clothes Off
• The Academy Is ... - We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands
• Cobra Starship - Bring It

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Boy With The Thorn In His Side. amazon.com , accessed February 10, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Natalie Finn: Pete Wentz Welcomes a Baby Boy With Girlfriend Meagan Camper: Find Out Their Son's Heavenly Name! . In: eonline.com . August 21, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Pete Wentz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pete Wentz in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• fall out Boy
• Clandestine Industries
• Decaydance Records
• Bartskull Films