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'It'd be cool to be a vampire. Vampires are the best beast you can ever be. Call me egotistical, but I love the whole idea of immortality.'

On the 9th of April 1977, Gerard Arthur Way was introduced to the world from Newark, New Jersey. This makes him the fire sign Aries, and as he admitted in the making of the Famous Last Words video; he used to be a little pyromaniac.

When in the fourth grade at a new school, he performed as Peter Pan in the school play; his grandmother Elena Lee Rush made his outfit for him. She was instrumental in his life, teaching him how to sing, draw and paint; allowing him to release his talents on an unsuspecting world when the time was right. Gerard graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999. He developed a series called The Breakfast Monkey, which was looked at by The Cartoon Network, but passed upon as it was too similar to something else they already had in production.

He’s the older brother of Michael Way (bassist) and the one that decided to form My Chemical Romance, after seeing the atrocities of September 11th first hand on his way to work. At this point in his life he was working as a cartoonist and felt that his job wasn’t really helping anyone. And that’s what he wanted to do. Help people. Deciding to call up old friends, My Chemical Romance was formed and Skylines and Turnstiles, a song about that fateful day, was the first one they produced. Prior to this he’d been in various bands, the first being Raygun Jones and had already written It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Deathwish; a song which did not surface until the second album: Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.

Being half Italian and half Scottish, he complains of tanning too easily. His looks (hazel eyes, dark hair) have been compared to Christina Ricci, someone he once admitted he 'stalked' when he found out she lived nearby. He’s terrified of needles, and therefore doesn’t have any piercings or tattoos. Gerard credits Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day as a huge influence on his musical self, having been the main reason he wanted to pick up a guitar and sing in the first place. He admits to trying to be like him when he first started; the two later toured together and Billie told him it was okay to be a rock star.

'I know the minute I touch a drink again is the minute I lose everything I've got.'

2004 came along and he battled his demons by overcoming a drug and alcohol addiction when he went to Japan to tour with the band. Thinking he wasn’t going to come back he didn’t pack any luggage and was clean within two weeks; for this he credits a counselor named Bruce and it’s been mentioned he went to a few Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, but never went into rehab or completed any programs; he simply chose to re-evaluate his life and live it to the fullest.

In the 2005 Kerrang! Readers Poll he won the Sexiest Male category, and followed it up in 2006 with: Sexiest Male, Hero of the year and Villain of the year. As well as fourth place in the Sexiest Female category! The RockSound Reader’s Poll of 2006 marked him as both Inspirational Male of the year and Gimp of the year, showcasing the fact that he is hated as much as he is adored. Also in that year's Kerrang! Icons issue, he ranked number 7 between Dimebag Darrell (8) and James Hetfield (6).

'Being blonde served a purpose but after a while I started to feel less and less like myself.'

Come The Black Parade... and a new hairstyle. Blonde Gerard emerged before the release of the album, sending fans into a craze over his locks. He felt it necessary to emulate the main character of the album, ‘The Patient’, but at the beginning of 2007 in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, it was back to black (a decision that yet again brought debate). During the recording of The Black Parade, he suffered nightmares which he refers to as 'terrors' and the result can be heard on the track Sleep, where his recordings of his dreams start off the song. For the track Cancer he wanted his voice to sound like a disease; and it’s one of his favourite songs from the album. Some of his photography appears in the Limited Edition of The Black Parade booklet. Also in 2007 came The Umbrella Academy, a comic book written by Gerard. A ten page preview was given out as part of Free Comic Book Day, a worldwide event held on Saturday the 5th of May and the release date for the comic proper is said to be the 19th September 2007.

'Be Yourself, don't take anyone's shit and never let them take you alive...'

Pictures taken from Joanne Vitale