“Tbh I was just freaking out as fan of the music but also just the fact they even knew me, haha,” Taylor said. “And that they’ve most likely seen me doing some very slutty things.”
Although Taylor, who’s also a huge fan of Gerard Way’s comic book series turned Netflix hit The Umbrella Academy, tried to negotiate some signed merch, he agreed to a “cool deal” with the band and took the photos for them.
“Honestly the whole thing has been a pleasure,” Taylor said. “I had no idea when [the shirts] would drop or if, but it happened and I found out through Twitter which was WILD! The hilarious and also super friendly comments have been incredible and it’s made the whole situation even more bizzare and fever dream-ish haha. None of it feels quite real.”
Although one could be tempted to see both the Tiger Beat-esque and tramp stamp designs as cynical pandering to a very queer fanbase, it’s important to note that this band has pretty much always been like this. Gerard Way, famously, loved to talk about sucking dick on stage in the aughts, whether for cocaine or to distinguish himself from fellow New Jersey musician David Cassidy.
The band’s inclusion of Taylor, including identifying him by name at the merch table, instead seems to be a meaningful, if cheeky, tribute to the band’s queer past and to its fanbase — an assessment that Taylor, who identifies as panseuxal, agrees with.
He told me that to be “seen by a mainstream band is a huge level of respect from them,” and that he really appreciated being asked to do it, though he also said that it was “all still totally nuts.”
“I just think they could have hired anyone, like some hot woman smoking a cigarette as so many bands do and call it ‘edgy’ but they didn’t,” Taylor says. “They hired the mixed-raced, queer guy, ex-sex worker and were the ones who came up with it.”
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