“My dream as a kid wasn’t necessarily to be on the cover of Rolling Stone and to win a Grammy. My dream was to be on the cover of AP and be on the other side of the fence at Warped Tour. When I was 14, 15 years old, I don’t think there could’ve been anything more great than waking up one day and being told, ‘You’re on one of those buses and you’re going to play on that stage.’ Every part of me that was shaped into the modern element of rock music came from that, whether it was standing watching the Phenomenauts play on egg crates in front of 10 people or the Groovy Ghoulies or any of those bands that I watched. It felt like it was this thing that was coming to Cincinnati every year, and it was my Christmas. I would walk around and feel like I was at home. Seeing the faces of people I didn’t know living in my hometown and thinking, ‘All these people that are like me live here.’ This is before social media and the ability to connect with these people in your hometown—or around the world.”
About losing Vans Warped Tour, Andy Biersack shared some intense thoughts, saying losing the festival he loved growing up and the festival that had such an impact on him all his adult life, is like losing a friend. Here’s what he shared in that same interview with Alternative Press:
“To know that [Warped is] coming to an end is like losing a friend,” Biersack resigns. “Like losing the place that meant the most to you when you were a kid. Or watching your church get knocked down and you wonder what is going to be built in the ash and the rubble where it once stood. I’ve seen both sides of the fence now, and [Warped] means just as much to me as it did when I was 15. And I’m going to mourn it, because it’s a sad day for all of us.”
