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Originally Posted by Didymus Much
It has been brought to my attention, that the flippancy I previously answered this question with, didn't really address the light and joy the MCR reunion announcement seems to give you, so here's a more reflective response: What we have here is a commonly recurring situation in the rock music world, where a band comes together again after an acrimonious split. This is called "cashing in on old glories". Bands, when they're starting out, are almost always quite young and rather poor (all their money goes back into building the band, or at least fixing the van so they can get to next gig and maybe eat tomorrow). They will tolerate any conditions or treatment, or insane behaviour from band mates, because [B][I]the dream[/I][/B]. Some day, they'll make it, and it'll all have been worth it. Let's jump forward a few years. Was MCR one of the lucky ones, to hit that sweet spot of juuuuust radio-friendly enough while maintaining that carefully controlled band image that had fourteen-year-olds everywhere thinking, "oh they're sooooo bad!!!! and deep!!!1" and "why do my panties feel so uncomfortable all a sudden"? Oh, hell, yeah, they nailed that. Richer than Croesus they were, more money than they'd ever considered existed, let alone possessing. When you've got all that (or can just escape to the other side of the globe when needed [non-extraditing territories preferred, natch]), those band mates of yours? The ones with the niggling little habits that have pissed you off for years? The one who'd sit in the passenger seat of the van while you're driving and would pick his toenails with bits flying fukking everywhere? The one who'd get ripped right high and wander off from every show you'd ever booked to the point you were paying his bodyguardbabysitter more than him? You don't need them. You've got it all. You've found the love of your life, cleaned your shit up (a bit), maybe had some oopsiesoffspring. So the band? It's toast. Whatever. You're tired, and tired of them, after all those years either on the road or grinding stuff out of the studio. The only thing you have left to say to most people in your life?[youtube]lsaTz5bf-7A?t=28[/youtube]So you leave. It's a bit of shock at first, but hubby and kids are there for your "new life". The other bandmates have enough money/access to do whatever they want for the rest of their lives (x 100), so you just do you. And it's... nice. Just, quiet. So quiet. Then, maybe, you get to missing having tens of thousands of screaming fans clawing at you (it is a bit of a rush and quite hard to walk away from, even if you fully realise that 90% of the ones you see aren't really fans, they just have enough connections to get floor tickets and enough drugs to get into the spirit of things). Or, maybe one or more of your bandmates made some bad investments ("Columbian Sugar Refining and Importing? Count me in!!"), and all that money they had is gone. They're broke, and on your doorstep looking for help. You could give them money, or you could get the band back together (it's been a decade, I'm sure you can all gather in one space without the knives coming out, just keep thinking about all that money a "reunion tour" would bring). Smile for the cameras!! :thumbsup: And there we have the game plan. It's money. If it was some "artistic endeavour" that Gerard felt needing finishing, that's what post-group solo careers are for. Now, I can hear you with all the "but.... muh Gerard"s, and frankly, no, I can't prove any of the above, but if ask yourself honestly, you'll realise you can't disprove any of it (from publicly available information) either. At that point you have to say, "If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's not a fukking eagle". Depends on how many "oooh, this'll piss off my Mom/Dad sooooooo much" sales they're counting on.
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