Ex-Panic! At the Disco Members Will Embrace Beach Boys, Kinks

While Panic! At the Disco fans continue to mourn Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker's departure from the band, Ross talked to MTV to reiterate that creative differences over the direction of Panic!'s third album caused the split. In the past few months, tensions between members during the writing process split Panic! into two camps: Ross & Walker versus singer Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith. For a period, the two factions weren't talking at all, but Ross tells MTV that late last month, he met with Smith to discuss the future of the band. It was then that both parties agreed that a split would be the best move for everyone involved. "I guess it got to the point where there might have been too many cooks in the kitchen," Ross said.

"Brendon's more of a Peter Gabriel fan, and I'm more of a Ray Davies fan," Ross told MTV of the two songwriters' different styles, noting that Urie is more polished pop-leaning while Ross prefers the classic rock sound of bands like Davies' the Kinks. "Brendon has always been a fan of pop music, but that's such a broad term, because I guess I would say I would be too, but in a different way. Jon and I are still very much influenced by the Beatles and Beach Boys stuff and the Kinks and stuff like that," Ross said. "And so that's the stuff we were writing at my house ... that's the stuff we're going to make now.

While Ross and Walker are on good terms with their former bandmates, Ross says he still hasn't talked to his Decaydance Records boss and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, who has frequently Twittered about how the new Urie/Smith demos are a welcome return to Panic!'s A Fever You Can't Sweat Out sound. Ross adds that he and Walker are working hard on their own project, recording with Pretty. Odd. producer Rob Mathes. Urie and Smith, meanwhile, are currently demoing songs for the band's third album, and as Rock Daily reported have promised fans that their tour dates opening for No Doubt and Blink-182 won't be affected by the split. Panic! also resurrected their exclamation point after a brief hiatus.

Related Stories:
• Panic At the Disco Lose Members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker
• Panic At the Disco's Urie and Smith Tell Fans Band Is "Alive and Well"
• Panic at the Disco's Ryan Ross On Fame, Being Mistaken for Mick Jagger, New DVD

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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