Chicago pop-punk staple Fall Out Boy has been in the scene since the turn of the century, and there’s visible maturity in their look now. What started out as a hardcore/punk project between lead guitarist Joe Trohman and bassist Pete Wentz transformed into something completely different after Trohman met the now-frontman, Patrick Stump, in a Borders bookstore. With Andy Hurley completing the unit as drummer, in 2005, Fall Out Boy cemented themselves as alternative pillars of MTV with From Under the Cork Tree, which features the classic pop-punk staple, and often lyrically misheard single “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down.”
In the decades to come, Fall Out Boy’s trials and tribulations would become the stuff of their lore, with relentless gossip of their internal issues and personal lives sometimes overshadowing their musical work. But having been a band that has endured everything from negative reviews to burnout, Fall Out Boy is no stranger to dealing with a multitude of issues, including Trohman’s most recent break from the band.
Lead Guitarist Joe Trohman Is Taking a Break for the Rest of the Year Due to a Injury
On July 7th, Trohman took to Instagram to share about the seriousness of a right-hand injury, which requires urgent medical attention. Although this means the guitarist will have to step back for the remainder of Fall Out Boy’s 2025 tour dates, Trohman insists that this break is necessary for a complete recovery.
“Hey everyone, after years of managing ongoing issues with my right hand, it’s become clear that I need surgery to avoid permanent damage. Unfortunately, this means I’ll have to take the rest of the year off from playing with the band. The silver lining is that I’m on track for a full recovery.”
Despite Trohman’s absence, Fall Out Boy is still set to play the rest of their 2025 shows. This summer, the band will perform on July 19 in Minnesota, followed by a two-day stop from August 16 to 17 for Summer Sonic Japan. They’ll spend the last week of August doing a three-show Brazil run in three different cities, and end their 2025 schedule with a headlining performance at Oceans Calling Festival on September 28 in Ocean City, Maryland.
This isn’t the first time Fall Out Boy has experienced serious injuries. Way back in 2007, bassist Pete Wentz broke his ankle after jumping off a stack of speakers at the Voodoo Music Experience festival in New Orleans. Like Trohman, Wentz personally shared the news of his injury online, telling fans that the jump caused him to “break[ing] the bone that connects his [my] shin to his [my] foot.”
Trohman Previously Left Fall Out Boy Momentarily, Citing Mental Health Issues
This isn’t the first time Trohman has taken some time off from Fall Out Boy. In January 2023 — in the months leading up to the release of their latest album So Much (for) Stardust, their first album since 2018 — Trohman took an indefinite hiatus due to focus on his mental health recovery. In a statement issued via the Fall Out Boy account, the guitarist of more than two decades shares that his “mental health has rapidly deteriorated over the past several years” and the indefinite break is much-needed to “avoid fading away and never returning.”
Before his mental health break, Trohman shared his mental health journey through his memoir “None of This Rocks,” which was published on September 13, 2022. In conjunction with the memoir release, the guitarist publicly shared about his inner struggles, saying that, “It was a big mistake to conflate my identity with the band, but ended up putting a lot of his [my] dark emotions that were connected to that, to the other guys.” Trohman returned to his band activities in May 2023, two months after the release of So Much (for) Stardust and the world tour that commenced on June 21, 2023.
Fall Out Boy Shocked the Pop-Punk Scene with Their 2009 Indefinite Hiatus
2009 wasn’t a good year for pop-punk fans. Amid Ryan Ross and Jon Walker leaving Panic! at the Disco, followed by Paramore’s internal strife between Hayley Williams and the Farro brothers, Fall Out Boy announced the indefinite hiatus in November. The break was announced a year after the release of their 2008 album Folie à Deux, which received less-than-substantial reviews (frontman Patrick Stump describes touring Folie à Deux as akin to “being the last act at the Vaudeville show: We were rotten vegetable targets in Clandestine hoodies.)
Although negative reviews of Folie à Deux weren’t the sole reason behind Fall Out Boy’s hiatus, it was the experience surrounding the album release that almost tore the band apart. Wentz recounted that by the album’s promotion cycle in 2009, they had racked up eight years of non-stop band activities without catching a single break, leading to a severe burnout to the point the members weren’t talking to each other. Trohman also shared his perspective on the hiatus, revealing that they were “being pushed too hard” and “were working too often.” Fortunately, their hiatus came to an end with their 2013 album Save Rock and Roll, marking the first album in five years since Folie à Deux.