Yesterday, Fall Out Boy announced the band’s first album in five years, So Much (for) Stardust. And hours later, the news came that they’ll release the record without a longtime member of the band. Joe Trohman, the guitarist who founded Fall Out Boy alongside Pete Wentz, wrote on the band’s Instagram that he will be “stepping away from Fall Out Boy for a spell” due to his mental health. “Neil Young once howled that it’s better to burn out than to fade away. But I can tell you unequivocally that burning out is dreadful,” Trohman wrote. “Without divulging all the details, I must disclose that my mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years.” The news comes after Trohman touched on depression in his memoir, None of This Rocks, published in November 2022.
Trohman’s departure marks the first change in Fall Out Boy’s membership since they settled on their lineup — Trohman, Wentz, singer Patrick Stump, and drummer Andy Hurley — for their debut album Take This to Your Grave in 2003. Coincidentally, Stardust (out March 24) is the band’s first album since Grave to be released on influential pop-punk label Fueled by Ramen, and first since 2008’s Folie à Deux to reunite them with early producer Neal Avron. Fall Out Boy debuted as a trio last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing new single “Love From the Other Side.” “It pains me to make this decision, especially when we are releasing a new album that fills me with great pride,” Trohman wrote. He added he “absolutely, one-hundred percent” plans to return to the band when he feels able.
