powerhouse vocalist songwriter producer former guyliner connoisseur and pop
rocker brendon urie has left a lasting impression on the music industry with
his unique sound and larger-than-life persona
let's head back to the streets where it began for the panic at the disco frontman
this is the evolution of brendon urie
Brendon Boyd Urie was born in St.George Utah on April 12 1987 the youngest of five
Brendon moved to Las Vegas Nevada when he was two years old
with his siblings and his parents Grace and Boyd, growing up
Brendon often struggled to stay focused in school due to his undiagnosed ADHD
so basically from the time I was in school until I was about 13 teachers didn't know
what's wrong with me about every week
my teachers would call in my mom who is the sweetest person in the world and
always backed me
we call her and be like how much sugar do you give your child your child you
need to get something on him or get him on something to to calm him down
my mom takes me to a child psychologist and I'm just like what's that that's
cool oh great how are you and I was like bouncing around the room and then like
in little moments where i get really sad and then im just like haha just kidding
i'm really happy
it was like really really crazy and the guy ended up you know leaving the room
for 20 minutes comes back and he's like well you have a very strong case of ADHD
and was like cool what's that
and what they put me on medication I took that for about a year and it
freaked me out
I don't like who I've become because it's like for me this is what it was
that it's not the same for everybody but for me it was like I'm inside this body
and I'm watching myself behave a certain way and there's nothing I can do about
it and it was terrifying
despite these challenges Brendon was quite the ladies man
I think I was
12 years old we were playing seven minutes in heaven and kind of
force it on each other and was it awk seven minutes in heaven this seven yes
very awkward and you remember the girl's name do you remember her
yeah yeah I totally remember her name was brittany i will not give your last
name to save her embarrassment but now we we were friends for a little bit and
then I don't know what you know you're just kids and you're curious you just
want to make out any excuse
seven minutes in heaven names out of a hat whatever special rotate we were all
rotating a spin the bottle
talk about getting teen hearts beating faster that's some risque stuff for
someone with a religious upbringing
Brendon was raised within the Mormon faith but distanced himself from the
church once he found music
it's funny because you know it's not bad at all it's a you know Mormonism people
think you know they have all their impressions but it's really normal
you know everybody is all about you know friendship and companionship and that's
really what it's all about is love but I'm its kind of you know just wasn't for
me and I just kind of figured you know
music is my religion so it's the only thing that I have ever believed in as a
constant at seventeen Brendon audition to become the lead guitarist and panic a
blink 182 cover band back in two thousand four comprised a friend and
fellow classmate brent wilson along with ryan ross and Spencer Smith students
from a neighboring high school
the group would go on to catch the attention of some big names with their
original material as they began to write and find their sound
Brendon served up smoothies to pay for rehearsal space he'd often sing for
tips
yeah people would come in and I'd always be singing in the back
I can like some people ask what the hell like this this guy can kind of sing like
well he's singing for money like people I just became really good friends with
and I get to know what customers came in regulars and stuff and they would ask me
to sing whatever songs, like mostly eighties like rock anthems like
scorpions journey something that so yeah Id sing for tips yeah why not?
on a whim the band decided to send their early demos to pete wentz
of Fall Out Boy through livejournal - I posted a link in his Livejournal
to our pure volume page I just had a couple demos that we recorded on my
laptop and I told him like we'd met him before at a show in Vegas and I was like
you know you have time check out my band or whatever and you listen to it and
like contact me like a few days later and then called me and he's like we're
in la doing a record right now have to come down and see you guys and so I
he just drove down and hung out and we have band practice and stuff and then
he just came and hung out at band practice
yeah it was super weird like but that's what happened and then like after that
we like went to dinner or something and he's all "I'm going to sign you guys"
so. emo.
by the end of the year Pete officially signed Panic! to his new fueled by ramen
in print label decadence records
even though they had yet to play a single live show " I feel like I could
live inside of the world they create it's very rare that there's a contemporary
band where you can do that
it's an artist that you' ll be talking about years from now
after relocating to College Park, M aryland
the band went to work on writing and recording their debut album
a fever you can't sweat out was released on September 27th 2005 and their debut
single would become one of their most iconic tracks
he drove me to the show and he had kroc on
and sins just started playing, I write sins not tragedies started playing and it took me
a second to register because it didn't click immediately it really it like I
heard it and I was like oh that sounds familiar is it fall out bo- OOHHHHH
and I just like freaked out immediately oh my goodness
and I rolled the window down I turned his radio all the way up and I was like
this is me!
I'm singning! and I was just like on Santa Monica Boulevard going up to troubadour
and like that was that was crazy
while the song has become a fan favorite it actually wasn't a huge hit right
off the bat, but the song gained some serious traction once the creepy circus
themed music video hit the small screen it even won video of the year at the
2006 mtv video music awards where Brendon got Kanye'd kinda
2006 was a big year for Brendon and the boys after parting ways with their
original bassist Panic! At The Disco embarked on their first headlining tour
of north america by August their debut record was certified platinum but the
success was overwhelming for Urie who relied on his ADHD medication to get him through
I took them again for like six months when the band started getting really a
lot bigger started touring and I remember just being in the hotel room
one night and taking all the pills i have like 60 count of each he soldiered
on making a couple of trips around the world including the band's extremely
theatrical nothing rhymes with circus tour
their sophomore album pretty odd dropped on march 21st 2008 featuring a much
softer sound
this time around the band opted to focus on lyrical imagery and acoustic
instrumentation
although the record was critically acclaimed sales were less than
impressive stateside and Brendon wasn't a huge fan of the retro rock direction either
in July of 2009 co-founder ryan Ross left panic a t the disco due to
creative differences
giving Urie new perspective literally and figuratively
the split ended up shaping the band's next record 2011 vices and virtues which
showcased Urie's love of modern more pop influence rock - just with the band split and everything
is just happening so we had some stuff to talk about i mean we knew we wanted
to talk about the split because that would just be an elephant the room and
we don't want an elephant in the room we just we want to let it be known
The dynamic kept changing between us, with the writing and we just kept getting better
we felt like we were just improving and getting better during the record though
the past couple years I mean we definitely have gone through certain
things with relationships with other people that's kind of I guess where the
title came from
it seems sort of like a through line with a lot of the lyrics - following the
release of too weird to live and too rare to die in October 2013
Brendan was selected to perform a Billy Joel tribute at the kennedy center
honors with the music legend and President Obama looking on
speaking of big shots Brendan totally slayed
it only made sense that he'd be honored for his own talents winning vocalist of
the year at the 2014 Alternative Press awards
this is uh they're already playing me off this is awesome
this is really crazy that like the first Scully this is so insane right
wow i just have to thank my fans of panic at the disco that's crazy you guys
are beautiful
this what I mean I couldn't be holding this without you guys so thank you very
much
Brendan also tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend Sarah orzechowski
however Urie has been candid about his sexual experimentation and love for well
everyone - if I classify myself as straight, bi, whatever I was like you can
classify me as I really don't care
I just don't really care i don't know if it matters because I like
people - if a person is good i'm into that person if a dude hot dudes hot
you know me I don't know it's a good-looking dudes a look at Ryan
Gosling bro id totally make out with his face - would you invite, ok question
Ryan Gosling happen to appear in the studio
yeah is there an invitation that goes hey Ryan you know who
wednesday night that's the night that Sarah and I we have a good time yeah
what are you doing around 8 30 tonight you know , pop open some rose? sit by
the fire watch some Netflix and chill bro? the three of you is that a thing
yeah I mean listen dude like i want to have discussions
yeah I want to have a talk I don't want to decide this right now I can't decide
on Ryan Gosling behalf i love it but I want to get to know you first and then
you get the invite - so what's your favorite smells you know what I mean?
marriage and their new life together
ultimately inspired his solo comeback record the death of a bachelor
Panic! at the Disco is first ever number one album yeah there's a few I mean
death of a bachelor is one where I never thought I was able to let go of the past
like what part of your past it's just I mean everywhere from touring to just
personal life to every I mean there's so many things that are involved
it's just been a shmorgisbord of just craziness for 10 years kind of talking
about me is just as a single single guy and now I'm married and it's just really
cool to look back and be like wow that's so weird like who I was who I i never
thought i would be where I'm at today
a fearless leader creative genius as well as an extremely talented vocalist
and musician brendon urie has never let adversity get in the way of pursuing his
dreams he has always stayed true to himself and to his art constantly
experimenting and pushing the boundaries in all aspects of his career and his
life
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