Gerard Way - Gerard Way Warns Bands Off Michael Jackson Lifestyle

The My Chemical Romance star admits he and his bassist brother Mikey had a "really bad drug problem" during the band's early years, using medication to help "switch off" from the pressures of life on the road.

They both eventually quit after getting a "wake-up call" when several friends died - and they are adamant many current bands are dicing with death by adopting a Jackson-style dependency on painkillers.

Mikey tells Kerrang! magazine, "It was a means to an end: it was a way of getting from city to city. You had to build yourself up and then shut yourself off again. We got into a bad routine. I missed home and I was petrified to play, so I would get intoxicated. Then I had to find a way to wind down, so I'd take something to make that happen. Sometimes the drugs were like installing a shut-off switch in the back of my neck."

Gerard adds, "The crazy thing is that it's the same thing that killed Michael Jackson: he had to be put to sleep by one drug, then he had to be woken up by another. That's what everyone in bands is doing; they're just doing a cheaper, low-level version of it."