Gerard Way Unveils Reflective Carpenters’ ‘Superstar’ Cover
On Wednesday, former My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way unveiled an old recording of a song for fans. His reflective cover of the Carpenters’ “Superstar” was recorded while the band was working on 2006’s Black Parade, Way said in a series of tweets explaining his rendition.
“This specific recording was from the day I sang ‘Cancer’ for the album,” he tweeted. “This track was a warm up, as I used to warm up to The Carpenters.”
“It brings back a lot of memories,” he continued. “And in context of us making the album it’s kind of intense, when you think about how hard BP was to make.”
In a 2014 interview, Way confessed that he never thought the band would make it past Black Parade, which was their third album, though he contended he was proud of all their material. The band broke up in 2013.
“I plan things pretty far in advance, and before we’d even done the first record, I’d written out titles of things,” Way said in the interview. “I definitely knew I had the title of the second album before we’d even recorded the first… by the time I got to the third album, which didn’t have a name, I felt like that was the end. Basically the time spent after Black Parade was me fighting against that instinct, fighting against myself. The end of Black Parade felt like a very natural end. To go beyond that felt like betraying some sort of artistic command that I had within myself.”
On Twitter, he wrote that the group considered adding the melancholy tune to the album. “But we already had too many tracks,” he stated, and then he revealed that the album “almost was, a double album.”
“It’s just one of the saddest songs,” he concluded, before sharing the cover and accompanying artwork, and thanking fans for listening.
On Friday and Saturday, Way’s “Gerard and Worm’s first annual charity stream” will take place from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. PT. The live stream benefits the American Cancer Society.