50 free Fall Out Boy trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Fall Out Boy came out of the Chicago hardcore scene as a side project that was meant to be easy and escapist, got its name shouted at it from a crowd, and ended up with four number-one albums, a stadium show at Wrigley Field and a place in every 2000s playlist. Along the way there was a tabloid-era frontman who didn't sing, a painful hiatus, and a comeback announced with a bonfire of their own records. These 50 questions run from the Borders bookstore where Patrick Stump corrected a stranger about Neurosis to So Much (for) Stardust and the Billy Joel rewrite. They cover Take This to Your Grave and Smart Studios, the Cork Tree singles, Infinity on High's chart debut, the Folie à Deux backlash, Mark Hoppus shaving Pete Wentz's head at Madison Square Garden, Soul Punk, Black Cards, The Damned Things, the Young Blood Chronicles, the Big Hero 6 song, Uma Thurman, the llama puppet lawsuit and the Hella Mega Tour. Easy questions stick to the lineup and the big hits; the hardest ask about the first drummer, the producer of the demo, the author behind a viral campaign and who shaved whose head. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for an emo night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Illinois suburb was Fall Out Boy formed?
Wilmette
Wentz and Trohman started it there in 2001 as a pop-punk escape from the hardcore scene.
Q 02Who sang lead vocals and played guitar on Fall Out Boy's 2003 debut album?
Patrick Stump
Stump originally tried out as a drummer before Trohman urged him to bring his acoustic guitar.
Q 03Which member wrote the lyrics on Fall Out Boy's 2003 debut Take This to Your Grave?
Pete Wentz
Stump composes the music; the split was settled during arguments while recording the debut.
Q 04Who played drums on Fall Out Boy's 2003 debut Take This to Your Grave?
Andy Hurley
Wentz wanted him from the start, but he only joined after a string of fill-in drummers.
Q 05In which year was Fall Out Boy formed?
2001
Stump joined shortly after Wentz and Trohman started the project.
Q 06The band's name comes from a character in which animated show?
The Simpsons
Fallout Boy is Radioactive Man's sidekick; Trohman and Stump were die-hard fans.
Q 07Under what name did the band introduce themselves at their first show?
Forget Me Not
The gig was in a DePaul University cafeteria alongside a band playing Black Sabbath's debut in full.
Q 08Which Rise Against frontman credited them as Fall Out Boy at their second show?
Tim McIlrath
He was fronting the Killing Tree at the time; an audience member had yelled the name out.
Q 09Stump met Trohman in what kind of shop, correcting him about the band Neurosis?
A Borders bookstore
Stump then pointed Trohman to his MP3.com page of acoustic recordings.
Q 10Stump won over Wentz and Trohman at his tryout with songs from which band's Through Being Cool?
Saves the Day
He had intended to audition as a drummer.
Q 11What was the band's debut album, released in May 2003?
Take This to Your Grave
Rolling Stone later ranked it the fifth-greatest pop-punk album of all time.
Q 12Which independent label released the band's debut album?
Fueled by Ramen
Island Records funded the deal as an incubator, planning to upstream the band for its second record.
Q 13Which early recording did the band disown as a "giant piece of garbage" made before Hurley joined?
Evening Out with Your Girlfriend
Uprising Records released it in March 2003, two months before the real debut.
Q 21How many copies did the band's 2007 album sell in its first week?
260,000
Folie à Deux managed 150,000 a year later and was treated as a disappointment.
Q 22Which 2007 single peaked at No. 2 in both the US and the UK?
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race
Wentz said other songs might have been bigger radio hits but this one had the right message.
Q 23Which R&B producer worked on two tracks of the band's 2007 album?
Babyface
The album also dabbled in funk and flamenco as the band drifted from its punk roots.
Q 14The debut album was recorded with engineer Sean O'Keefe at Smart Studios in which city?
Madison, Wisconsin
They tracked seven new songs in nine days and slept on a friend's floor a few hours at a time.
Q 15What was the band's 2005 major-label breakthrough album?
From Under the Cork Tree
It went double platinum and has sold over 2.7 million copies in the US, the band's best seller.
Q 16Which breakthrough single reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 2005?
Sugar, We're Goin Down
Stump has said the song changed his life and that his career is largely due to it.
Q 17In which California city was the band's 2005 album recorded?
Burbank
It was the first time the band had stayed in California for any length of time; they lived in corporate housing.
Q 18How many songs did the band scrap two weeks before recording Cork Tree?
10
One of the eight replacements was "Sugar, We're Goin Down".
Q 19For which Grammy category was Fall Out Boy nominated in 2006?
Best New Artist
Their only other Grammy nod came for Best Rock Album with Mania in 2019.
Q 20Which album gave the band its first Billboard 200 number one in 2007?
Infinity on High
It sold 260,000 copies in its first week, still the band's biggest sales week.
Q 24The 2007 arena tour with Gym Class Heroes took its stage design from which children's book?
Where the Wild Things Are
Artist Rob Dobi designed the sets with images from Maurice Sendak's book.
Q 25Which guitarist played the solo on the band's 2008 cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It"?
John Mayer
The studio cover appeared on the Live in Phoenix album and became an iTunes top-ten mainstay.
Q 26Which George Orwell novel inspired Wentz's viral campaign for Folie à Deux?
Nineteen Eighty-Four
The campaign played on the novel's overbearing Big Brother organisation.
Q 27Which Who song's chord sequence is borrowed by "Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes"?
Baba O'Riley
Folie à Deux leaned harder on piano and synths than the band's earlier pop-punk.
Q 28Where did the band play its final show before the hiatus, on October 4, 2009?
Madison Square Garden
The Believers Never Die greatest hits compilation followed the next month.
Q 29Which Blink-182 member shaved Wentz's head at the band's last pre-hiatus show?
Mark Hoppus
Rolling Stone called it a symbolic cleansing and the start of a very dark chapter.
Q 30What was the title of Stump's solo album, on which he played every instrument?
Soul Punk
He burned through his savings touring it and later wrote a blog post titled "We Liked You Better Fat".