Read This: How Gerard Way getting punched helped propel My Chemical Romance to stardom

My Chemical Romance’s rise as the kings of Myspace emo came at a rapid pace—and nearly two decades later, they’re still selling out arena shows. In his upcoming book Sellout: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007), Dan Ozzi details the band’s rise to fame, in part thanks to Thursday’s Geoff Rickly (who produced their first record) and Jimmy Eat World.

In the excerpt published exclusively on Rolling Stone, it’s explained that bassist Mikey Way sent his ex-girlfriend Sarah Lewitinn (a.k.a. Ultragrrrl) two songs: “Skylines And Turnstiles” and “Cubicles.” He told her he enlisted Thursday frontman Rickly to produce My Chemical Romance’s debut record—a huge deal at the time, since Thursday was one of the biggest emo bands, who, according to Lewitinn were “poised to be the next Nirvana.”

Impressed with what she heard, Lewitinn begged Way to let her manage the band, despite having zero prior experience. Ozzi writes that the band’s first show was opening for Pencey Prep, guitarist Frank Iero’s first band. The crowd was very into the fresh group, and Iero immediately became a fan.

At one point, the band realized they needed an additional musician; someone to “beef up their tone.” Rickly, thankfully, suggested asking Iero to join.

“He was a fucking star, and I was glad he was in the band, because all eyes were on Gerard, but someone needed to alleviate him at some point. It wasn’t gonna be Mikey, because he was scared shitless to be onstage,” said Lewitinn. “Their drummer, Otter, was fine, but he was like a bro, not really commanding any presence. Ray was technically wonderful, but he wasn’t commanding the audience in the same way that Frankie could.”

The band only had the budget to record their debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love for two weeks. But there were issues: Gerard Way was struggling with vocals.

“[Eyeball Records owner] Alex [Saavedra] was like, ‘We can’t get Gerard to record. There’s something wrong with his ears and he’s not feeling well. We need every day we can get, because we don’t have a lot of money,’” she recalled. “I’m fretting because I have zero dollars. I can’t pay for more studio time.”

Multiple trips to the ER were fruitless; ultimately, Lewitinn’s mom decided to take Way to the hospital, where he got some dental work. But now they had a lead singer with a swollen jaw. “As the singer’s pain grew stronger after the procedure, vocal takes started coming out flat and lacking in emotion,” wrote Ozzi.

So Saavedra took an unorthodox approach: “I punched him in the face.” He claims that Way “slayed that vocal take right after that,” allowing Way to perfect his shrieks on the LP.

Though Lewitinn didn’t have managerial experience, she did have connections. She sent the demos to writers at SPIN and NME and spread word about the band on the Thursday message board. “All these label people were calling me all of a sudden,” she said. “I suddenly had people flying in to New York to see the band play at the Loop Lounge. Rob Stevenson, at Island Def Jam, was interested in signing them because his rival at Island had signed Thursday, so he wanted to have My Chem. It was moving super fast. It went from zero to 120 overnight.”

The band also did their part to use social media to their advantage, particularly on pre-Myspace sites like Friendster and LiveJournal. Lewitinn was ultimately fired as the band’s manager for being too good at creating hype, but she continued supporting the band by covering them when she got hired as a writer at SPIN.

The (great) “damage” was already done; My Chemical Romance were destined for stardom. The band got a gig opening for Jimmy Eat World in the Bleed American era at the height of the Arizona band’s career. From there, the band got a taste of the life-changing fame that was about to come.

Read the story of My Chemical Romance’s early days on Rolling Stone. Ozzi’s book arrives on October 26.