Frank Iero Explains How A Near Death Experience Affected 'Barriers'

Frank Iero and his band The Future Violents released their album Barriers today (May 31), but it almost didn't happen. In fact, there was a point in time where the former My Chemical Romance guitarist didn't think he'd ever make music again.

In 2016, while touring on his second solo album after MCR disbanded, he and his band got into a horrific, near-fatal bus accident in Sydney, Australia that changed his life. During a recent interview with Billboard, the songwriters explained how things changed, and what it meant for his music career.

"This is the first record that I made since I had an accident in Sydney. And that was a near-death experience and it changed me," he said. "I think when you have an experience like that it seeps into your DNA and you evolve. And you become a different person than you were. Your brain doesn't think the same way, you don't react the same way. Food doesn't taste the same. These are all just physical changes."

"And so going into it, it was hard for me to write this record," he continued. "I knew I had this giant elephant in the room that I needed to address, but everything that I was saying just didn't seem important enough or encompass all of the feelings and emotions that I had about it. So for the longest time I pushed it off and I thought to myself, 'well hey, maybe that's just what I did in a past life and I don't really know how to do that anymore?' And that was sad, but I decided that I would have to kind of move on."

But the universe wouldn't let that happen. Iero had the chance to form a band with members of Thursday and Murder By Death and knew he couldn't pass up the opportunity. "This amazing aligning of stars came about, and these people that I had wanted to start a band with for 20 years were all free. And I thought to myself, 'how s***ty to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because you can't deal with this thing that happened to you?'"

Once he decided to go for it, Iero knew he needed to write a personal album. "It became apparent to me that I needed to be as open and honest as humanly possible, and I think that's when doors started to open," he said. "When I took a song like 'Six Feet Down Under' and really just went for the jugular and talked like I was talking to a therapist and let it all out. And that was a huge breakdown of that barrier for me. And me realizing that, I think that gave me the strength to go off and tackle other things."

Frank Iero and The Future Violents are currently on tour supporting the new album. Check out a full list of dates here.

Photo: Getty Images