My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero has shared an emotional and layered tribute to former bandmate Bob Bryar, who was found dead in his home in Tennessee last week. In a lengthy Instagram post, Iero said he had “spent the past few days” reflecting on Bryar as the “person I knew him to be” and shared his memories of the drummer’s commitment to the craft, dark sense of humor, and love for animals, as well as their eventual falling out.
Describing Bryar as an “enigma of sorts” who “often inhabited both ends of any spectrum at the same time,” Iero wrote that “he was my friend and my bandmate, but he was also a stranger to me for most of my life.” However, the two were in intermittent contact after their shared time in the band together, with Bryar checking in on Iero’s family or trading “a meme or photos of Lego builds” between leaving each other on read, followed by “an indeterminate radio silence.”
Iero added that Bryar was “incredibly talented” and “confident enough in his abilities to convince us that he was the right drummer for our band” without them ever hearing him play. At the same time, though, Bryar was “incredibly self conscious and introverted” outside of his comfort zone and was capable of “troll[ing] you so hard it could cut you in half.”
“Bob often got fixated on things to a point of obsession and he liked to make things difficult,” Iero continued. As an example, he shared an anecdote of how Bryar would “position all of his drums flat so that there were no angles pointing toward him” while on tour for The Black Parade, an uncomfortable position that led to wrist injuries.
Iero also wrote that Bryar was “at times the one I related to the most” in the band because his “humor was dark as fuck just like mine” and they could “laugh over our collective negativity without ever worrying we might offend one another.” There was even talk of getting “semi matching tattoos” reading “Bob/Frank Hates ___” with the idea of filling them each day “when we undoubtedly found a new thing that got on our nerves.”
Elsewhere in the tribute, Iero said Bryar “loved animals” and the tragic death of his dog “wrecked him emotionally.” Unfortunately, Bryar “just couldn’t keep it together anymore” after the incident and his “sadness, anger, and distrust were too much to handle and took over all aspects” of his life.
Though Iero told Bryar they could “come up with a way to either fix the situation or figure out a plan,” he was “too far gone” and the “damage was done.” Bryar then “isolated himself by design” after leaving My Chemical Romance in 2010, “politely [making] it impossible” for Iero to visit him.
“I do wish like hell I finished the text conversation we had back in September,” Iero concluded. “I hope you found some peace, BC. I’m glad the universe let me know you for a while.”
Iero’s remembrance of Bryar follows My Chemical Romance’s shared tribute to their former drummer, in which they described him as “an important part” of the band’s history.