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Panic! At The Disco and blink-182 set to headline When We Were Young 2025
Yes, and the rest of the Las Vegas mega-fest’s line-up is absolutely stacked, as ever, including the return of letlive.
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Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie: “We’ve Never Cared About Labels”
“Any artist wants to just create music without having to line up with a certain category…”
In this week's issue of Kerrang!, Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie talks about the importance of embracing his differences, reinventing the rock-star rules, and – most crucially of all – not being a dick…
As we plot the 31-year-old's incredible history and career to date in our extensive cover feature with the musician, the frontman takes us inside his all-inclusive attitude to music – having hopped between every genre from emo (2005 debut A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out), psychedelia (2008’s Pretty. Odd.), jazz and swing (2016’s Death Of A Bachelor), and now the musical melting pot that is this year's Pray For The Wicked.
“We’ve never cared about labels that people threw at us: whether it was ‘emo’, or ‘pop-punk’, or ‘whiney rock’, or whatever the hell it was,” Brendon says. “I feel like any artist wants to just create music without having to line up with a certain category, and it’s very cool to not have to hold to one genre.”
Embracing musical freedom, Brendon emphasises, is the most ‘rock star’ move an artist can make.
“That’s the better definition of a rock star: you do what you want, but you don’t step on people to do what you want,” he encourages. “Creatively you do what you want, and I think there is a very big difference. Donald Trump does what he wants, but he’s a fucking asshole – he’s encroaching on people’s rights. So if you’re not doing that, and you’re not doing any harm to people, and you’re just creating for you, then definitely do what you want – why not? I think ‘rock star’ has that stigma of: ‘You’re just crazy, and you party hard, and you’re with different women every night, and you’re trashing hotel rooms, and treating interviewers like shit, and you just don’t care!’ That seems like it was the ‘rock star’ thing that came from ’60s and ’70s rock.”
Pick up this week's issue of Kerrang! to read all eight pages of our Brendon interview!
The band headline Reading & Leeds next weekend – see the full line-up below.
Brendon Urie photo: Andy Ford
