Frank Iero Explains What Happened To My Chemical Romance's 'Stay'

6 December 2016 | 8:39 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Frank Iero, the former guitarist of My Chemical Romance, tells us what exactly happened to one of that band's rarest yet most loved gems - 'Stay'.

If you were ever a My Chemical Romance uber fan, and we know there are a lot of you out there, you may have wondered just what the hell ever happened to the untitled track the band played on the second disc of their 'The Black Parade Is Dead' DVD. You wouldn't be too far off point to expect the track to have been released somehow, somewhere since then, considering the fact that many of the other tracks MCR debuted live that disappeared into the ether eventually ended up surfacing on 2012/2013's 'Conventional Weapons' or on the 10th Anniversary Edition of 2006's iconic 'The Black Parade'.

This untitled song was lovingly appointed 'Stay' by fans after frontman Gerard Way refused to share its title when it was played live In Hoboken all those years ago. Remember the time he was like, "I'm not gonna tell you the title because then like a year later when we re-title it you guys will bitch about it", and then everyone bitched about it not having a title instead? Yeah, us too! And then 'Stay' never got an official album release anyway!

So, what happened to this fabled unofficial track? Well, it's actually a pretty sad, underwhelming story, to be honest.

When speaking with me earlier this year during press for Frank Iero's Australian tour (before which the tour sadly came to an abrupt end in Sydney) the guitarist says that it was recorded - "it was demoed" - and it was even considered for the anniversary re-release of 'The Black Parade'Unfortunately, it didn't make the cut… again!

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"When we listened back for the ten year anniversary, there were still some problems with it", Iero stated. "We didn't feel we were ready to put it out there". According to Iero, "it had lyrical reservations" that prevented its unveiling to the die-hards across the world.

Well, now that your curiosity has been satisfied and you're most likely disappointed but you're still kinda okay on the inside, be sure to re-visit the live rendition of this terrific, lost untitled tune below and think about what could have been...

Frank Iero And The Patience's latest album, 'Parachutes', is out now via Vagrant Records & Cooking Vinyl Australia. You can also read our review of the album here, as well as our interview with Iero himself right over here.