Fall Out Boy guitarist Joe Trohman announces break from band over ‘deteriorated’ mental health

Fall Out Boy founding member and guitarist Joe Trohman announced that he is stepping away from the band.

Just hours after announcing their upcoming new album, titled “So Much (For) Stardust,” Trohman took to social media to say his mental health has “rapidly deteriorated” and forced him to slam the brakes on his music career.

“Without divulging all the details, I must disclose that my mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years,” Trohman wrote in a post on Fall Out Boy’s Instagram page.

“So, to avoid fading away and never returning, I will be taking a break from work which regrettably includes stepping away from Fall Out Boy for a spell.”

“Neil Young once howled that it’s better to burn out than to fade away,” Trohman wrote in the message. “But I can tell you unequivocally that burning out is dreadful.”

Trohman founded the pop-punk band with vocalist Patrick Stump in 2001. The pair then added bassist Pete Wentz and drummer Andy Hurley into the fold in the ensuing years.

In Trohman’s announcement, he referenced the band’s hotly anticipated upcoming album — the first since 2018 — set for release on March 24.

“It pains me to make this decision, especially when we are releasing a new album that fills me with great pride (the sin I’m most proud of),” he wrote.

Trohman reassured fans that his break from the group is temporary.

“So, the question remains: Will I return to the fold? Absolutely, one-hundred percent,” he wrote. “In the meantime, I must recover which means putting myself and my mental health first.”

Trohman thanked his bandmates and family for “understanding and respecting this difficult, but necessary, decision.”

“Smell you sooner than later, Joe Trohman,” he concluded.