The Divine Pipeline Between the My Chemical Romance and Ghost Fanbase: An Essay

It is the year 2023. What a time to be alive. 

If you have your fingers on the pulse of pop culture, you have an idea of what’s currently trending. On one hand, Ghost’s “Mary on a Cross” is being used as a background song to people’s favorite, heart-wrenching works of art. On the other, the MCRmy is alive and thriving as fans upload every moment of My Chemical Romance’s North American tour via memes, thirst trap edits and emotional montages. But what do these two topics have to do with each other? 

There is a pipeline between fans of My Chemical Romance and the band Ghost. That much is true. But why? From the outside, one might not be able to make too much of a connection save for the genre. However, a little bit of digging will show you the link between the two makes more sense than you think. 

Concept Albums

Let’s start with the concept album. A concept album is best described as a cinematic experience for the audiophile. An entire album is dedicated to a single storyline or theme. Some of the most acclaimed concept albums include (but are not limited to) “American Idiot” by Green Day, “Operation: Mindcrime” by Queensryche, “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, “The Resistance” by Muse and “Illinois” by Sufjan Stevens. 

My Chemical Romance is no stranger to the concept album. Starting with their 2002 debut I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, the band alluded to a loose theme in their lyricism. Cut to their sophomore effort, and they had fully fleshed out the characters introduced in Bullets’ final song “Demolition Lovers” and housed them in a full-blown album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.

In Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Gerard Way pens a tale of two lovers, perhaps a little too willing to go above and beyond for each other. They are alluded to as criminals. The story picks up where the debut album left off, in a gunfight in the desert. In the storyline, the groom awakens in hell, only to be informed that his beloved is alive. The devil offers him a deal; bring him the souls of 1,000 evil men, and he will be reunited with his love once more. The groom eagerly agrees. He fulfills his duties, losing himself to destruction. Upon killing his 999th man, he realizes that he himself has become as bad as those he hunted. It had been the devils plan all along to have him be the 1,000th soul. 

This trend of love and death would continue throughout the best of the band’s discography. They would go on to tell stories of Bonnie and Clyde-like lovers, a cancer patient flirting with the afterlife and a group of desert rebels brandishing rayguns against a dystopian government. The band would also incorporate these characters into their performances. Frontman Gerard Way in particular was notorious for dressing and acting the part all throughout an album cycle. 

Meanwhile, Ghost was not to be left behind. 

Each of Ghost’s records has a lofty theme. The plot, however, can best be followed through the extended Ghost Cinematic Universe. Through social media posts, online web series, on-stage theatrics and throwaway lines in interviews, the full story of Ghost begins to emerge. “Everything on the first record was about a coming darkness, an impending doom,” said Ghost frontman Tobias Forge. The second record was more about the literal presence of the antichrist, and the third was of  the absence of a deity altogether, and how the world reacts to that void. 

Ghost albums do not exactly carry a concept in the traditional sense. Sure, one album may center around medieval themes, another a little more like it came straight out of the 60s. However, there is no real plot to follow. All the information fans know about the papas, the ghouls and the clergy were gathered through music videos, web series, merch, concerts and cryptic online commentary. 

Ghost is a project forged by a Satanic sect in order to grow their following through the power of music. Each album cycle is led by a different ‘Papa.’ The first album toured under Papa Emeritus I, the second with Papa Emeritus II, and so on. 

More personality and elaboration bled into the papas during the “Meliora” album cycle with Papa Emeritus III. Terzo (a nickname bestowed by the fanbase meaning ‘third’ in Italian) is fondly remembered as a kazoo-playing casanova that was removed from his position due to elaborate spending and overindulgence in alcohol and women while on the clock.

Currently, Ghost is fronted by Papa Emeritus IV (lovingly nicknamed Popia). Following Terzo’s removal, Papa Nhil (the first Papa) returned to train a replacement, Cardinal Copia. He is the first not of the bloodline,” although certain music videos have led fans to speculate Copia is the bastard son of Papa Nhil and Sister Imperator (yet another character of the GCU). Copia fronted “Prequelle,” then “Imperia” as Papa Emeritus IV, becoming the first character to last more than one album cycle. 

That’s a very condensed run-down of these two bands’ history with concept albums and world-building. Any fan that grew up wanting to run away from their own world and into another will definitely gravitate towards artists with such elaborate lore to immerse oneself with. And speaking of world-building…

A Thriving Fan-Fiction Community

Someone had to say it, and we might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. 

Namedrop “Unholyverse” around a My Chem fan, watch them melt. Then bring up “My Immortal” to watch them scream. 

Meanwhile, Ghost fans write smut with a plot. That, or very interesting narratives about the life and times of a Copia plushie… drenched in milk. Fans also take great liberty in telling stories using the ghouls as their players. 

In general, both fanbases are very good at separating their fictionalized versions of the people on stage from their real selves, with a few weird slip-ups now and again. 

Initially, MCR frontman Gerard Way expressed thinking fanfiction was “vile,” likely following the shock of stumbling across something uncomfortable or uncharacteristic written about himself. Years later, as fans learned a better sense of boundaries and Way grew into himself, his opinions changed a little.

He responded to a fan on Twitter on the topic, expressing that he understands the value of fans exercising their creativity using his on-stage characters in their writing. 

“I think fan fiction is great,” said Way. “The point is it is fiction (has is as part of the phrase in fact).”

People that gravitate towards bands with such extensive world-building will eventually be conditioned into craving more from their favorite characters in their fictional universes. When the artist doesn’t fulfill their insatiable need for information, they will go and create their own. And with such rich source material to take inspiration from, it’s no surprise these fanbases foster such a vibrant fanfiction community. 

Story-Driven Music Videos 

An extensive amount of lore would be lost to both fanbases without their respective music videos. 

My Chemical Romance’s storytelling is the strongest during their 4th album’s cycle, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.” In it, the band found themselves in a post-apocalyptic desert, formally California until it was wiped out in nuclear warfare. Bl/ind industries, a corporate conglomerate, seeks to rebuild society. They offer safety and stability,  in exchange for their citizens taking mood-suppressant, mind-altering pills, making their complete compliance easier. 

From the fray rise the Killjoys, a group of desert bandits unwilling to conform to mind control and homogeneity. The music videos from this era feature the band dressed as comic book characters, speaking around in fast cars and getting into raygun fights with Dracs, Bl/ind’s mindless minions. Fans get to follow these characters through multiple music videos, and the band members were known to wear partial or full costumes on stage. 

Meanwhile, Ghost’s story shines best through their music videos. Forge is a long term-planner. You can see the foreshadowing of Cardinal Copia in the music video for “Square Hammer” all the way back in 2016. Music videos revealed to the fanbase the true extent of Terzo’s wild and overindulgent nature, as well as the final rationale behind the Clergy’s decision to remove him.

In “Kiss the Go-Goat,” it is revealed that Papa Nhil was the first Papa to perform as the frontman of Ghost. His musical experiment was quickly cut short when the stage lights got him a little too riled up and he made out with an audience member right in front of his romantic interest, Sister Imperator, implied to be pregnant in the music video. The Ghost project is shelved until the Clergy decides to try again, this time with Papa Emeritus I, Nhil’s firstborn. 

Each new Ghost music video adds new info to the lore. They’re not always in chronological order, but they are always informative and entertaining. 

Music videos add to the song they serve. It’s very difficult to go back to videos of artists just singing in a room or in a concert setting in front of dancers after being treated to the cinematic experiences My Chemical Romance is known for. Is it any surprise MCR fans would catch a glimpse of a Ghost video and fall right into the rabbit hole? 

Religious Trauma 

Christianity in the Americas, am I right?**

One thing both bands have in common in an artistic exploration of Catholicism. Both frontmen are enamored by the architecture, the ritual and the imagery. However, the way they digested the actual content is varied. 

Ever the private man, Way doesn’t wear faith (or the absence of it) on his sleeve. However, he has divulged a little on his thoughts on the matter. He and his brother Mikey (bassist for My Chemical Romance) were raised Roman Catholic. But a bad experience in the church and a death in the family led Way to distance himself from the church and to feel rage towards God. 

Today, he is more of a theist. 

“I had always acknowledged I received my artistic gifts from God. I even firmly believed in creating MCR, I was given a mission from God, not unlike the scene in The Blues Brothers. The mission involved helping people and battling the forces of evil, by using words and the purifying flames produced by Marshall Halfstack amplification….The anger inside of me went away years ago. The truth is, I always believed in God, I was just young and angry, and more angry with myself than anything. I stopped hating myself, and started to truly love the person I truly was, as long as I was being who I am, which is who I am now,” said Way. 

Catholic imagery can be found scattered throughout MCR’s lyrics, in their artwork, accessories and their music videos. Even if the rules and rites of the faith aren’t adopted or encouraged, they play a clear and important role in the band’s imagery. 

Tobias Forge, the mastermind behind Ghost, also leans heavily on Catholic imagery for his band. The lead character/singer is literally set up to be the Anti-pope of a Satanic musical project. However, he is certainly not religious. 

He was raised in a non-religious household, but his mother would often take him to religious sights, encouraging to take in the concepts as more of fictional art than factual truth. 

“My mom is very liberal. She has never been religious … spiritual but not religious. However, she worked in art and had a very avid interest in art and culture. So she presented the church to me as more of an archeological or more museum-like institution … more from a historic perspective,” said Forge. 

Growing up, it was common to meet Christians who represented the worst the world had to offer, sullying the name of the faith. When his new stepmother antagonized him, driving a wedge between a child-aged Forge and his father with Christianity as her weapon, it inspired him to look for goodness in the opposite; Satanism. 

He saw Satan as an expression of freedom and creativity, a horse that hasn’t been as beaten to death in the arts as its anthesis. The band takes apart theism in a satirical fashion, adopting Catholic aesthetics to add drama to their costumes. Fans can buy a ‘grucifix’ at merch tables, and often arrive at shows dressed as gothic nuns or priests. 

On-Stage Theatrics

Ah yes, theater. 

Out of all the mediums through which to tell a story, the stage is the most obvious choice for musical theater. The characters on and off Broadway are larger than life, the songs are narrative, and the costumes flamboyant. Sound familiar? 

Way had his first taste of the stage as a fourth-grader when he played Peter Pan in his school musical. The love of theater stayed with him, though it took a backseat in his later years.. My Chemical Romance’s career-defining album Welcome to the Black Parade” even featured musical legend Liza Minelli as Mother War at the end of “Mama.”

On the other hand, Forge’s mother exposed him to musical theater early on. She would take him to musicals like The Phantom of the Opera or Cats, where he would marvel at how much creativity went into each production. 

When forging Ghost, he wanted the project to be a similar type of production, much more than a band. 

“There was something very enthralling… you know that the show starts at a certain time, and then the story’s over at a certain time, and you don’t have to think too much about what happened before and after. It’s a snapshot, and there’s a beginning and an ending, and then it’s over. The only thing that you’re able to have insight into is [if] you buy a program. You can look — ‘Oh, who scored this?’ You can see who’s the understudy. There’s pictures — you can see everyone, and you can see who played the violin and designed the costumes. That was what I was trying to get to. That was what I was trying to create,” said Forge to Blabbermouth. 

Theater Kids are another breed of performer. Most never pursue theater, but all seem to carry a flare for the dramatic and an innate knowledge on how to put on a show. Is it any wonder that young thespians who originally gravitated towards MCR would go crazy at the sight of Ghost? 

Spooky Themes and Costumes Year-Round

There are people that start listening to Christmas music in September. And then there are people that purchase Halloween decorations in bluff to use as home decor year-round. My Chem and Ghost fans are the latter. 

From their first music video in 2002, “My Chemical Romance” came on the scene with “Vampires Will Never Hurt You”, the themes were spooky from the start. The music video featured the band, ghostly pale and dressed in black, playing in a shadowy room. The footage was intercut with clips from (insert movie here), which was cross-promoting with the band. 

The rest of MCR’s debut album was filled with eerie themes. Zombies, star-crossed killers and crippling depression from within 3 cubicle walls are just some of the topics explored on the 11 disk. And that’s not even taking into consideration the fact that the band was directly formed as a result of 9/11. Yeah, dark. And the fanbase ate it all up. 

To this day, fans jump at the opportunity to collect an original pressing of “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” from Eyeball Records, featuring a  message printed on the CD threatening the listener with Gerard Way coming to their house and sucking their blood if they pirated the music. 

MCR continued to build their aesthetic around spooky themes, scratching an itch for blossoming baby bats all over the world. Fans love dressing up as blooded vampires or deceased members of the Black Parade, making every 6 shows look like a Halloween party. 

Meanwhile, Ghost is a full aesthetic all on their own. All of the papas wear ornate papel robes, but with a satanic flair. Their album covers are elaborate and dark, instantly invoking thoughts of Iron Maiden. 

According to canon Ghost lore, the Clergy live in a dark, intricate abbey, similar to a European church. The Ghouls and Ghoulettes have worn a plethora of different uniforms racing from monk’s robes to all-black steampunk get-ups. Their live concerts are not called concerts, but Rituals, and all fans are encouraged to dress you in anything from nuns to an amalgamation of your own creation. 

If you want more bands with fun dress codes to go see in a town near you, an MCR fan is likely to want to reuse their fancy black costumes at their local Ghost show. 

A Loving Fanbase 

The recent pandemic only made things worse for those that already felt isolated. One thing fans of My Chemical Romance can universally agree on is that the fanbase, the content, the music and the band had offered them a sense of community and comfort they hadn’t expected elsewhere. 

Even as a teenager, I remember introducing myself to people with My Chem shirts, quickly jumping into a friendship as if we’d known each other for years. 

One thing I’ve seen with other bands that I haven’t seen with MCR is gatekeeping. People are kind to new fans, welcoming them into the folds, and answering questions that are common knowledge among the base. 

Currently, Ghost is seeing an influx of new fans due to their single “Mary on a Cross” from 2019 LP “Seven Inches of Satanic Panic” reaching viral fame thanks to an inconspicuous TikTok art trend. The sudden surge is a bit jarring, and some older fans had some trouble accepting the new young people asking a lot of questions and stomping into a space they considered sacred. However, older and wiser fans are quick to calm any discord. 

There is a new wave of fan-made Ghost content explaining the band and the lore. The algorithm is only helping to make the fanbase even larger. Undeniably, the great internet Gods have looked upon the habit of My Chemical Romance fans and decided they are prime targets for Ghost content. Once it passes in front of a Killjoy’s eyes, they are likely to become a fellow Ghoul, especially with how warm the fanbase can be. 

Fans of both bands love to dress up in elaborate costumes before shows. They show up to venues early, eager to befriend other fans and bond over mutual love. 

People that gravitate towards bands like My Chemical Romance or Ghost are often a little different to those around them. That’s not to say they are sad or lonely, but they do crave more of a community of people similar to them. They find these communities through music. The fact that you’re STILL reading this now likely shows both fandoms continue to grow. Only good can come from more positive, creative people joining the same community. Whether you are a new or old fan of either, welcome!

If you’re a Killjoy eager to see Ghost (or just a casual fan), you’re in luck! Ghost is coming to a city near you! Tickets on sale now. 

Sat, SEP 2: The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX

Sun, SEP 3: Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin, TX

Tue, SEP 5: The Pavilion At Toyota Music Factory in Irving, TX

**DISCLAIMER: I’m not here to attack or disparage any faith, contrary to what you might have been hoping for. But as a cradle Catholic, I feel like I can criticize with a bit more nuance and empathy than those looking in from the outside.