Fall Out Boy tell us about headlining Download 2024: “We want people to excel in their weirdness”
nme.comFall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz has spoken to NME about the band stepping up to headlining Download Festival 2024 for the first time – as well as celebrating “weirdness” on their current tour.The band were announced to be topping the bill at the legendary rock festival last night, alongside Queens Of The Stone Age and Avenged Sevenfold.
Speaking backstage in Germany, Wentz told NME that he wasn’t feeling pressured about the slot.“So many of the bands who have headlined Download before have been such a big influence on us,” he explained. “We grew up watching videos of Metallica playing Donington and most of our band was informed by that era of the band.He continued: “Headlining a festival for the first time is always a new thing though.
We’re not stressed about it, but we want to honour the festival and honour the bands that have played before us.”The band have only played Download once before, in 2014 as part of their comeback ‘Save Rock And Roll’ tour. “There was some stress because we just didn’t know what to expect and UK festivals are always such a different vibe,” remembered Wentz. “We were welcomed more warmly than we’d expected though.
I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because we are just unabashedly who we are. We’re not worried about coming back.”Talking to NME last year, Download booker Andy Copping named Fall Out Boy as one of the first-time headliners he wanted to book, alongside the likes of Green Day, Blink-182, Paramore, Panic!
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