“People are gonna be really sick about the next deal I make,” said Wentz, who is also the head of Decaydance Records. “If people felt weird about the last one, people are gonna feel real weird about the next one.”
I asked Wentz to elaborate on his “On To The Next One” reference, and well… he at least continued.
“It’s got nothing to do with Fall Out Boy or Island Def Jam,” Wentz admitted. “It’s gonna be different, and it’s gonna make people feel sick, or happy.”
The only timeline Wentz gave to the big announcement is that it will not happen on Thanksgiving or Christmas, but will happen before the end of the year. He said that everyone is a little lost on what’s happening, but that he’s going through with it – whatever it is – anyways.
Interestingly enough, shortly after our conversation, he posted this Twitter update, "I kinda lost my mind for real. Not really looking for it either".
Wentz called in to The Ralphie Radio Show to promote Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits. The FOB compilation hit stores and iTunes on Tuesday, and features two new tracks.
“Ahh man… funny question, yunno?” Wentz responded when I asked why the band released a “best of” album at this particular moment in time. “Fourth quarter. Labels like to put out greatest hits in the fourth quarter, don’t they? And ‘why now?’ because it’s like, the band doesn’t have enough hits to have a greatest hits. And ‘why now?’ because maybe it’s like, you have a contract you want to get out of. We asked ourselves all those questions, and then decided to put it out as something for the fans.”
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Part 1: Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits, "Alpha Dog"
Part 2: Hair Cut, Future Plans, Angels & Kings (Wentz's NYC Bar)
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The timing is also curious given that Fall Out Boy as a band is currently on a hiatus, or as Wentz told MTV News the night before – a “decompressing.” So, while supporters may not have new material in the immediate future, they will have two new songs from the release, including the first single, “Alpha Dog.”
“We felt like (“Alpha Dog”) didn’t fit in,” Wentz reasoned as to why the track didn’t appear on Folie A Deux. The song did pop up on a mixtape the label head released prior to Fall Out Boy’s last LP. “It felt too electronic. At the time it felt futuristic, now it feels it is the right time for it.”
And oh how the times have changed. Wentz is 30, with a child and a wife, and will be living in New York for at least the next 13 weeks. His spouse, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, makes her Broadway debut on November 30 in the musical, “Chicago.” For Wentz, this will translate to more time with his son. Bronx Mowgli Wentz turns 1 on Friday. This will probably also find the entrepreneur with more opportunities to manage and appear at his New York bar, Angels and Kings. The drinking establishment might be to blame for the slow, sometimes rambling responses I received from Wentz throughout our chat.
“I was there, in my head, last night,” Wentz said. “But I don’t think I was there, in reality.”
