Andy Hurley is best known as the main drummer of the Chicago-based band ‘Fall Out Boy.’ Andy has previously been a member of various other bands and has produced music that has received critical and commercial acclaim. No other band, however, could provide him with the same kind of notoriety as Fall Out Boy. Andy was a full-time member of the band until its hiatus in 2009. Andy has formerly been a member of the hardcore punk rock bands Race traitor, Kill the slave master, Project Rocket, and The Kill Pill. Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy has been a long-time buddy of Andy’s, and their musical friendship dates back to their adolescent years. They’ve both been in four different rock bands throughout the years. Following the breakup of Fall Out Boy in 2009, Andy joined ‘The Damned Thing,’ played briefly for another band, ‘Enabler,’ and was a member of a number of other big and small bands, producing numerous albums and singles. Fall Out Boy resurfaced in the music world in 2013 with the release of their album ‘Save Rock and Roll.’ The band went on tour and went on to achieve great success with their subsequent releases, and the band has been continuing strong ever since.
Childhood and Adolescence
Andy Hurley was born Andrew John Hurley on May 31, 1980, in Wisconsin, and lost his father when he was just five years old. His mother raised him throughout his youth and adolescence.
Andy’s first musical instrument was the saxophone, which he learned to play well, and he also played percussion in his school’s marching band.
In college, he studied anthropology and history because pursuing a professional career in music was not on his agenda. He had believed since he was a child that humans should live as they did thousands of years ago, in their most primitive state, but as he grew older, most of his views disappeared.
Andy’s first exposure to professional music was when he was in high school, and he was gradually developing an interest in playing the drums.
In 1996, Andy was looking for possibilities to play with large bands, so he joined numerous hardcore punk and heavy metal bands, including Killtheslavemaster, Racetraitor, Project Rocket, and The Kill Pill, to pursue his aspirations. During this time, he was unable to discover his true calling and continued to experiment with other bands.
In the late 1990s, hardcore metal was becoming popular, and Andy’s drumming skills landed him a few gigs here and there, but nothing substantial.
However, things changed for the better in 2003, when one of Andy’s best high school friends, Pete Wentz, offered him to join his band, Fall Out Boy, as they were in desperate need of an additional drummer owing to problems with their previous one, and Andy quickly became a regular with Fall Out Boy.
Despite the fact that this was Andy’s fourth band, he was able to attain a level of fame in such a short period of time that he had not been able to achieve in his prior tenure of more than five years.
Andy released the album ‘Take This To Your Grave’ with the band Fall Out Boy in 2003, which became a worldwide smash hit, propelling Andy to the top of the drumming world.
It was the band’s first album to be regarded as a true hit, and the band was dubbed “the next big thing” by the media.
The band’s popularity continued with their following album, ‘From Under the Cork Tree,’ which reached number 9 on the Billboard 200 chart, and they spent the year 2005 touring with their newfound fame. The CD was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
The band’s following two studio albums, ‘Infinity on High’ and ‘Folie a Deux,’ both achieved massive success in concert and as digital downloads. Wentz, on the other hand, was going through a lot of emotional turmoil at the time, which included a failed suicide attempt.
It was claimed that he was unable to handle the band’s newfound success, which, among other factors, caused the band to take a break for a period of time in 2009.
Andy became involved in a number of other projects and performed with many bands, including the heavy metal outfit The Damned Things. The band was largely a collaboration, including members from Fall Out Boy, Anthrax, and Every Time I Die, and they published their debut album, “Ironiclast.”
Enabler, another hardcore band, hired Andy, and in the summer of 2012, Enabler released ‘All Hail the Void,’ their debut album with Andy as a drummer.
Later in 2012, Andy joined FocusedXminds, a straight edge hard rock band. At the time, media speculation about Fall Out Boy making a comeback was rife, and it was speculated that Andy would depart FocusedXminds if that happened. In 2013, Fall Out Boy returned to the music scene, but Andy remained with FocusedXminds.
Fall Out Boy’s next studio album, ‘Save Rock and Roll,’ was released in 2013, and it was followed by ‘American Beauty/American Psycho,’ which reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart. The band went on a global tour to promote the records and continued their winning trend.
Andy’s Personal Experiences
Andy Hurley has been a devout vegan since the age of 16 and has always maintained the conviction that humans have damaged the planet and that we will one day live as our ancestors did 10,000 years ago.
When asked why he doesn’t live like a primitive human, he responded he has to make a livelihood one way or another.
He now has a home in Oregon, where he has kept his original drum set safe.
Estimated Net worth
Andy Hurley is a $14 million dollar musician and drummer from the United States. Andy Hurley was born in the town of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.