My Chemical Romance recently crossed paths with Tony Hawk at Australia's Big Day Out festival and offered the skateboarding legend a nod of thanks for inadvertently starting their career together.

In a video interview with Hawk for Dissent, guitarist Frank Iero recalled how exactly the skateboarder helped them become a band. He explained, "We started ten years ago and the reason we started was because in our practice studio we would have two bands going and I was in the other band. There was two rooms. One room would be the practice room and the other viewing room, so when my band would stop practicing, I would go in the other room and get high and play 'Tony Hawk Pro Skater,' and then they would start practicing."

Iero says however that that particular setup would change when his friend Hambone got hard up for money, so he took Iero's video games and sold them. The guitarist laughs, "He took my games so I had to join the band." Singer Gerard Way chipped in, "'Tony Hawk Pro Skater' has a lot to do with us existing."

A lot has changed for My Chemical Romance over the years and that includes how they're viewed in the world of rock. Way says, "I guess the emo thing was around for a while and we understood that so we only felt angry about it for a couple of years cause we were kind of waiting for it to go away and it did. So now you look back on it and it's like, well, Pearl Jam didn't want to be called 'grunge' but they still mention it when they mention their name so it's like, we're okay with it and we're even more okay with it now that it's gone now and we can just be a rock band like we always were."

Though they played Big Day Out and were a last minute substitution at Bamboozle earlier this year, My Chemical Romance are largely enjoying time off the road and starting to work toward their next album.

Watch My Chemical Romance Talk About Their Formation With Tony Hawk

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