Wentz grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He attended New Trier Township High School and North Shore Country Day School where he was an all-state soccer player. After graduating from high school in 1997, he attended DePaul University, where he studied Political Science, dropping out one semester shy of graduation to focus on music. Wentz was primarily involved in the Chicago Hardcore Punk scene and was in several bands in the late 1990s, including xfirstbornx, Arma Angelus (with Tim McIlrath, frontman of Rise Against), 7 Angels of the Apocalypse / Culture of Violence, xBirthrightx, Extinction, Forever Ended Today, Yellow Road Priest, Racetraitor, and Project Rocket.[citation needed] In 2001, he co-founded the Pop-Punk band Fall Out Boy with Joe Trohman, and Patrick Stump, with Andy Hurley later joining the band. Arma Angelus, the band in which Wentz was the vocalist, played its last show in 2004. After releasing the latest album Infinity On High. Wentz has written a book entitled The Boy With the Thorn In His Side, which is a story based on nightmares he had as a child. The title was plagiarized from a track off of the Smiths’ critically-acclaimed record The Queen is Dead. He has another book titled “Rainy Day Kids,” which was scheduled to be released February 14, 2006, but has been postponed.[3] In addition, Wentz is currently co-writing another book with William Beckett of The Academy Is… Wentz has a company called Clandestine Industries, which distributes books and, more notably, clothing, among other things. Additionally, he owns his own imprint of Fueled by Ramen, Decaydance Records, which has signed several bands, including: Panic! at the Disco, October Fall, Gym Class Heroes, The Hush Sound, Cobra Starship, and Lifetime. He also has a film production company called Bartskull Films, which has released the DVD Release the Bats which stars Wentz, his fellow bandmates, and several of his personal friends. The sequel is currently in the works. Wentz has also tried his hand at modeling, and is featured in a GAP ad for the Fall 2006 season. Wentz has played a minor role as himself in the American teen television drama One Tree Hill . In February 2005, in what appeared to be a suicide attempt, Wentz took an overdose of the anxiety medication Ativan, and as a result, spent a week in the hospital. Commenting on the event to a magazine, he said “I was isolating myself further and further, and the more I isolated myself, the more isolated I’d feel. I wasn’t sleeping. I just wanted my head to shut off, like, I just wanted to completely stop thinking about anything at all.” After this event, Pete Wentz moved back in with his parents. In March of 2006, nude photos of Wentz were posted and spread quickly across the Internet. Wentz posted a response on Fall Out Boy’s website and blog asserting that the pictures were stolen from his T-Mobile Sidekick, and that after “feeling badly about this for about 24 hours, I am now ready to get back to laughing.” The video for the single This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race contains a scene that makes reference to the incident. |
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