ANDY GREENWALD: Gerard and Bert, when they were touring together, it was like the Spider-Man pointing at a Spider-Man meme. And they just went for it.

BERT MCCRACKEN: I remember talking to Gerard about doing our “Under Pressure” cover on tour. And how cool it would be to live in those voices, to be Freddie Mercury and David Bowie.

ANDY GREENWALD: Gerard was an avenging angel from some comic book galaxy here to tear down the world.

JOHNNY MINARDI: They would talk about how heavily influenced they were lyrically by Third Eye Blind. In 2005, it was not cool to like Third Eye Blind. Scene bands were referencing Taking Back Sunday. They were not referencing Third Eye Blind. Panic! always marched to the beat of their own drum.

MAX BEMIS: I was always of the mentality to like people who were not too cool for emo, and the scene. I wasn’t one of these people who was like, “YEAH, STAY TRUE TO THE SCENE, MAN!” Like, I already knew it was kind of a joke. But just because it’s kind of a joke doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take responsibility and own what you like in life.

ANDY GREENWALD: And it’s almost perfect, isn’t it? That the band that was obsessed with dying at the end of things, the only band of that era I think people would have believed if they said they were never going to reform, emerges from the ashes like a glorious, black hair–dyed phoenix.