Some band break-ups can be as bad as romantic ones, and for dedicated fans they are often worse.

Rock band My Chemical Romance was formed in September 2001 and used the new influence of MySpace to propel itself to nearly instant stardom. Since that time, the band released four studio albums, most notably Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade.

The band announced its break-up on Friday, March 22 with a short message on the band’s blog:

Being in this band for the past 12 years has been a true blessing. We’ve gotten to go places we never knew we would. We’ve been able to see and experience things we never imagined possible. We’ve shared the stage with people we admire, people we look up to, and best of all, our friends. And now, like all great things, it has come time for it to end. Thanks for all of your support, and for being part of the adventure.
My Chemical Romance

The message bewildered fans, who wondered why Eleven years of music had ended with a terse message.

Today, My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way released his long, rambling take on why the band’s journey is over. He stated that the band had always had a “fail-safe” that “should certain events occur or ceace occurring, would detonate.” From Way’s message:

Personally, I embraced it because, again, it made us perfect. A perfect machine, beautiful, yet self aware of it’s system. Under directive to terminate before it becomes compromised. To protect the idea- at all costs. This probably sounds like something ripped from the pages of a four-color comic book, and that’s the point.
No compromise. No surrender. No fucking shit.

To me that’s rock and roll. And I believe in rock and roll.

He goes on to say that “when it’s time, we stop,” and that the band did not want to wait for its audience to to tell it that the music was getting old.

Many a band have waited for external confirmation that it is time to hang it up, via ticket sales, chart positioning, boos and bottles of urine- input that holds no sway for us, and often too late when it comes anyway.

Way states that, starting in May 2012, he began “acting” on-stage instead of performing and that he soon after stopped listening to music altogether. In closing, he thanks “every single” fan and refers to My Chemical Romance as an idea, rather than just a band.

My Chemical Romance is done. But it can never die.
It is alive in me, in the guys, and it is alive inside all of you.
I always knew that, and I think you did too.

Because it is not a band-
it is an idea.

Love,
Gerard