Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz Has A Surprising Connection To Joe Biden
We all know Pete Wentz as the bassist and lyricist of the rock band Fall Out Boy — the 42-year-old has contributed to a number of iconic songs over the course of his music career, like "Sugar, We're Goin' Down," "I Don't Care," and "Uma Thurman." He's even expanded his professional pursuits. Today, Wentz is a minority owner of the Phoenix Rising soccer team. He also hosted the TV show "Best Ink" for three seasons and runs a film production company called Bartskull Films, along with dabbling in a number of philanthropic activities with organizations like Invisible Children and UNICEF.
But one thing fans may be surprised to learn is that the musician, who studied political science at DePaul University, has a deep connection to President Joe Biden. In fact, in 2008, Wentz went as far as to say that without Biden, he "would not exist as a human being." Wentz may have campaigned for Democratic candidates in the past, per Chicago Magazine, but what exactly is his connection to Biden, specifically? Let's dig in.
Pete Wentz's parents met working for Joe Biden
According to Insider, Pete Wentz's parents met in the 1970s while working for Joe Biden in the Senate. News of this connection wasn't shared until 2008, when Barack Obama and Biden were running for their first presidential term. In an interview with the Associated Press (via NME), Wentz shared, "I would not be standing here actually in reality at all because my parents met working for Biden. They met on the campaign, so they have this particular affection for Joe. He came to their wedding. If it weren't for Joe Biden, I would not exist as a human being."
In November 2020, Wentz uploaded an Instagram photo of Biden holding him as a baby. He captioned the pic, "My parents met working for Joe Biden in the Senate in the 70s. To me he is a beacon of empathy, compassion and kindness. The times we live in call for a leader with these specific traits. Proud to call Joe Biden my president."
Fall Out Boy played at Joe Biden's inauguration
Fall Out Boy played at Joe Biden's inauguration concert called the "We the People" fundraiser, according to Vulture. Other artists at the event included AJR singing "Bummerland," Carole King singing "You've Got a Friend," and James Taylor covering "America the Beautiful." Cher also performed Miley Cyrus' hit song, "I Hope You Find It." During the 2008 presidential election, Pete Wentz was quoted by NME as saying of his politics, "I don't usually go out of my way to indoctrinate people or tell people, 'you should do this because of me, or you shouldn't do this because of me,' but I think it's important for people to get out there."
Interestingly enough, Biden isn't the singer's only family connection to U.S. presidents. According to Discourse Blog, Wentz's grandfather, Arthur Winston Lewis, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan as U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone in 1983. That same grandfather was cousins with Colin Powell, making Wentz and Powell third cousins.