40 Fun Facts About Brendon Urie

Brendon Urie spent the summer of 2017 on Broadway playing Charlie Price in which Cyndi Lauper musical?

Kinky Boots cast Urie as the heir who saves his family's shoe factory by teaming up with a drag queen called Lola. He played the part from late May to early August 2017.

Which pop star picked Brendon Urie as duet partner and co-writer for her 2019 single 'Me!'?

Taylor Swift opened the 2019 Billboard Music Awards with Urie at her side, and their duet reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, higher than any single by his own band.

At which English rock festival in 2006 was Brendon Urie knocked unconscious on stage by a thrown bottle?

Reading greeted the band with a hail of bottles, and one caught Urie in the face. Once he came round, he got back up and the band carried on with the set.

Brendon Urie earned a 2018 Tony nomination by writing a song for which family Broadway musical?

SpongeBob SquarePants earned Urie a nomination for Best Original Score, shared with the show's other songwriters. The musical tied with Mean Girls for the most nominations that year.

Brendon Urie's version of 'Into the Unknown' plays over the end credits of which Disney animated sequel?

Frozen II gives the song to Idina Menzel and the Norwegian singer Aurora inside the film, then hands it to Urie's band as the credits roll.

In which song's video does Brendon Urie play a ringmaster who disrupts a circus-themed wedding?

I Write Sins Not Tragedies won Video of the Year at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, and it was the first video the band ever made.

Brendon Urie, raised in Las Vegas from the age of two, was born in which neighboring state?

Utah was home only briefly: Urie was born in St. George, the fifth and youngest child in his family, and they left for Nevada while he was a toddler.

Brendon Urie sang 'Big Shot' at the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors as a tribute to which songwriter?

Billy Joel, one of that night's honorees, was watching from the audience with President Obama, so Urie, then 26, had to belt the songwriter's own hit back at him.

Which single gave Brendon Urie's band its biggest US hit, peaking at No. 4 on the Hot 100?

High Hopes climbed three places higher than the band's 2006 breakout ever managed, then spent 65 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart.

Brendon Urie joined CeeLo Green and Janelle Monáe on a 2009 all-star single made for which brand?

Coca-Cola commissioned the song for a worldwide ad campaign, and Urie, who sings its chorus, also turns up in the video as an overjoyed news reporter.

Which crooner, whose 100th birthday fell in 2015, did Brendon Urie salute with the song Death of a Bachelor?

Frank Sinatra's records ran through Urie's childhood, from Christmas mornings to his grandparents teaching the family to swing dance. The song sets that old-fashioned croon to a modern beat.

Brendon Urie joined Panic! at the Disco as a guitarist, then took over lead vocals from which bandmate?

Ryan Ross was the band's singer until Urie filled in for him at a rehearsal. The others were so impressed by the newcomer's voice that he kept the microphone.

Brendon Urie worked at which chain as a teenager to pay the rent on Panic! at the Disco's practice space?

Tropical Smoothie Cafe got more than a counter hand: Urie has said he sang for customers' tips while working there, in the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin.

Which instrument does frontman Brendon Urie play on every track of Mike Viola's 2023 album Paul McCarthy?

Drums put the famous singer at the back of the stage: Urie joined his friend's trio in 2022 and is pictured on the album's cover.

Which bassist signed Brendon Urie's band to his own label after receiving a demo through LiveJournal?

Pete Wentz drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to hear the teenagers rehearse and made them the first act on his new label. He then plugged them by wearing a T-shirt punning on their name on stage.

Brendon Urie sang uncredited guest vocals on two tracks of Folie à Deux, a 2008 album by which band?

Fall Out Boy put Urie in the closing medley of a piano ballad, where a line of guests, Elvis Costello among them, each sing a snatch of the group's older songs.

On which platform did Brendon Urie raise over $134,000 for charity during a single 24-hour stream in 2019?

Twitch hosted the marathon in November 2019, and with the help of guest appearances and giveaways it sailed past its original goal of $100,000.

Brendon Urie pledged $1 million in 2018 to which group, to start gay–straight alliance clubs in US schools?

GLSEN received the pledge as the first gift from the human-rights foundation Urie had just set up, and the group gave him its Inspiration Award the following year.

Brendon Urie was raised in which faith, which he has said he left at around the age of 17?

Latter-day Saint teaching shaped Urie's childhood, but he has said he gave up the faith in his teens because he was unhappy with the church and no longer believed in it.

Brendon Urie's cover of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' appeared on the soundtrack of which 2016 film?

Suicide Squad placed the six-minute cover on a soundtrack album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and went on to win a Kids' Choice Award.

In the 'Me!' video, which gift from Brendon Urie finally wins his co-star over after flowers and a ring fail?

A cat does the trick, and the animal got a real home out of it: the pop star adopted him after the shoot and named him Benjamin Button.

Brendon Urie's band covered the opening number of which movie musical for a 2018 'Reimagined' album?

The Greatest Showman had its whole soundtrack re-recorded by pop acts in 2018. Urie's band took the first track, and Pink and her daughter Willow both sang on the album too.

In the 'Hey Look Ma, I Made It' video, Brendon Urie's rise to fame and fall are acted out by what?

A puppet version of Urie signs with a shady manager, slides into addiction and slowly recovers. When the real singer finishes the song, his audience turns out to be puppets too.

Which late rapper shared the 2018 single 'Roses' with producer Benny Blanco and guest singer Brendon Urie?

Juice Wrld, Blanco and Urie made such an unlikely trio that Rock Sound compared the announcement to an ambitious crossover event. The song appears on Blanco's album Friends Keep Secrets.

Brendon Urie revived Panic! at the Disco in 2025 to play the debut album in full at which Las Vegas festival?

When We Were Young booked the reunion to mark 20 years of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, two years after the band had been wound up, with Blink-182 as the other headliner.

Which fellow singer reintroduced Brendon Urie to his future wife, eight months after they first met?

Hayley Williams of Paramore brought the pair back together. When they first met, at one of Urie's concerts in Detroit in 2009, his future wife had been seeing someone else.

Which Vices & Virtues song did Brendon Urie write to impress the woman he went on to marry in 2013?

Sarah Smiles dates from the start of the romance: Urie told Spin he was infatuated, wrote the song to impress her, played it for her, and they had been together ever since.

Brendon Urie told Rolling Stone in 2016 that which trait shapes how he connects ideas when writing songs?

Synesthesia means Urie sometimes sees a song as colors or as words circling him. He said the album he had just finished looked like bright yellows and reds.

Brendon Urie wrote 'New Perspective', his band's first single as a duo, for which 2009 horror comedy?

Jennifer's Body came along just after half the band had walked out, so its soundtrack single became the first release by Urie and Spencer Smith on their own.

In which English city did Brendon Urie play the last show of his band's farewell tour in March 2023?

Manchester's AO Arena hosted the finale on March 10, 2023, about six weeks after Urie announced that the band would end so he could concentrate on his family.

Which 2018 album did Brendon Urie make after his Broadway run, with a theatrical streak critics noted?

Pray for the Wicked grew out of a year off that Urie could not sit through: his label told him to rest, he kept writing anyway, and the album debuted at No. 1 in the US.

In which Panic! at the Disco video does Brendon Urie fall through a trap door into Hell and become a devil?

Emperor's New Clothes ends with a grey-skinned Urie grinning as red light closes in around him. Rock Sound's readers voted it their Video of the Year for 2015.

Which opening track of a 2013 album is Brendon Urie's song about bandmate Spencer Smith's drug addiction?

This Is Gospel sat as a demo on Urie's laptop for months before he felt able to share it with the rest of the band. Smith stepped away from touring shortly before the album came out.

Brendon Urie's one-shot, unclothed 'Girls / Girls / Boys' video pays homage to a clip by which R&B singer?

D'Angelo's video for Untitled (How Does It Feel) supplied the template, a slow single shot against a plain black background, and Urie named it as his inspiration.

Brendon Urie was named Best Vocalist in 2014 at the first awards show staged by which music magazine?

Alternative Press held its first awards night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, where Urie also performed in front of a crowd of 6,000.

Which EDM producer featured Brendon Urie as the singer of 'Love in the Middle of a Firefight' in 2014?

Dillon Francis put the song on his debut album, Money Sucks, Friends Rule, and called it his favorite track on the record.

Brendon Urie sings on 'Molly', a track from Professional Rapper, the 2015 debut album by which rapper?

Lil Dicky plays a dejected guest at his lost love's wedding in the song's video. The album's other guests ranged from Snoop Dogg to T-Pain.

Brendon Urie is the guest vocalist on 'It Remembers', from the 2016 album Low Teens by which metalcore band?

Every Time I Die were heavier company than Urie usually kept. Low Teens was the group's eighth album, and he is one of only two guest singers on it.

Brendon Urie was recruited to his band by classmate Brent Wilson at which Las Vegas high school?

Palo Verde was no easy ride for him: Urie has said that one student there would always bully him.

Brendon Urie co-wrote 'Neon', a track on the 2022 album Luxury Disease, with which Japanese band?

One Ok Rock built the song around Tokyo's Shibuya nightlife district, and it later turned up in the film Sonic the Hedgehog 3.