Panic! At the Disco Founder Brendon Urie Announces Band’s Split: ‘I Look Forward to This Next Adventure’

24 January, 2023

Panic! At the Disco are shutting down the party. On Tuesday (Jan. 24), the band’s founder and sole original member, singer Brendon Urie, 35, announced that as he and his wife await the birth of their first child he is calling and end to the band’s two-decade run.

“Well, it’s been a hell of a journey…” Urie wrote in a note to fans thanking them for 20 years of dedication and loyalty. “Growing up in Vegas I could’ve never imagined where this life would take me. So many places all over the world, and all the friends we’ve made along the way. But sometimes a journey must end for a new one to begin.”

Though they’ve been trying to keep it to themselves, Urie acknowledged that some fans may have heard that he and his wife, Sarah, are expecting a baby soon and “the prospect of being a father and getting to watch my wife become a mother is both humbling and exciting. I look forward to this next adventure.”

Essentially a solo project for Urie, the band originally formed in Las Vegas in 2004 with Urie on vocals and his childhood friends Ryan Ross on guitar, bassist Brent Wilson and drummer Spencer Smith. Thanks to a demo tape Urie sent to Fall Out Boy bassist/songwriter Pete Wentz, the former Blink-182 cover band got a deal with Wentz’s Decaydance Records imprint through Fueled by Ramen.

The band’s debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, dropped in Sept. 2005 and featured the breakthrough hit “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” In a sign of things to come, bassist Wilson left the band the next year (replaced by Jon Walker) with the new lineup dropping the psychedelic pop collection Pretty. Odd. in early 2008, followed by 2011’s Vices & Virtues, which was recorded by just Urie and drummer Smith following the departures of Ryan and Walker. The band’s fourth effort, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! dropped in Oct. 2013 and featured short-lived bassist Dallon Weekes and the final collaboration with drummer Smith, who left the fold in April 2015.

2016’s Death of a Bachelor was essentially a Urie solo album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, the first of the group’s efforts to hit the top of the tally. After taking time off to perform on Broadway in Kinky Boots, Urie was back in 2018 with Pray For the Wicked, followed by last year’s Viva Las Vengeance, which will seemingly serve as the group’s studio swan song.

Given his impending fatherhood, Urie said in his note that he was going to “bring this chapter of my life to an end and put my focus and energy on my family, and with that Panic! At The Disco will be no more.”

The singer thanked his fans for their “immense support” over the years, admitting that he was struggling to find the perfect way to say his goodbyes and explain how much his fans have meant to the group. “Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or are just finding us, it has been a pleasure to not only share the stage with so many talented people but also share our time with you,” he wrote. “I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Europe and the UK for one last run together. I love you. I appreciate you. Thank you for existing.”

The band will hit the road in Europe for a run of Vengeance dates slated to kick off on Feb. 20 in Vienna, Austria and wrap up on March 10 with a show at the AO Arena in Manchester, England.

See Urie’s post below.