Panic! at the Disco ends; Brendon Urie to focus on family
By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — First there were four, then they became three and finally just one. Now it’s time to say a final farewell to art pop-rock Panic! at the Disco.
Brendon Urie, the only musician left from the original group, announced on the band’s Instagram page Tuesday that Panic! at the Disco “will be no more.”
Urie, 35, shared that he and his wife, Sarah, are expecting a baby and that he plans to focus on his family. “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,” he wrote.
The band had 15 songs in the Billboard Hot 100, with two Top 10 hits in “High Hopes” in 2019 and “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” in 2006. They scored two No. 1 albums with “Death of a Bachelor” in 2016 — also earning a Grammy nomination for best rock album — and “Pray For the Wicked” in 2018.
“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,” Urie wrote.
The band was formed in 2004 by Urie and childhood friends guitarist Ryan Ross, drummer Spencer Smith and bassist Brent Wilson while they were still teenagers. Other members have been bassist Jon Walker and multi-instrumentalist Dallon Weekes.
Even as he carried the banner of the band alone in latter years, Urie found other creative outlets, like dueting with Taylor Swift on “ME!” and making his Broadway stage debut in “Kinky Boots” in 2017, later writing music for the show “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
