YOUR FAVORITE MTV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Pete Wentz Talks 'Alpha Dog,' Fall Out Boy Greatest-Hits LP

Band has mixed feelings about releasing 'Believers Never Die' compilation.

When [artist id="1235716"]Fall Out Boy[/artist] began planning to release a greatest-hits album, there was one sticking point: They never thought they'd be the kind of band that would release a greatest hits album, because most greatest-hits albums are kind of lame.

So how did they finally reconcile those doubts? Well, for starters, they stopped referring to the project as a "greatest-hits album."

"I don't think about it those terms," FOB bassist Pete Wentz told MTV News on Tuesday (October 13). "Something I wanted to explain to people is that we put out a record that essentially is every song we ever made a video for, and certainly a song off our [2003] record Evening Out With Your Girlfriend isn't a greatest hit in terms of, like, a greatest hits [album]."

Instead, Wentz and Co. look at the album -- which is called Believers Never Die and hits stores on November 17 -- as a sort of scrapbook, a look back at their rise from scrappy Midwestern kids to platinum-selling, [article id="1587812"]celebrity-marrying[/article]

pop punks ... with a glimpse into the future, too. And, despite what you may have heard, they're not putting it out as a way of exiting their contract with Island Records, although the band is [article id="1618675"]taking a bit of a break[/article].

"A lot of people think it's just the label contract, pushing it out, but we're putting two new songs on there, one that a lot of people liked off the [CitizensFOB: Welcome to the New Administration] mixtape we made, then we're including two bonus tracks," Wentz said. "One is a remixed version of a song off Evening Out, and the other is 'You'll Shoot Your Eye Out,' which is a Christmas song that no one has had the chance to own a physical copy of. And there's DVD commentary on all our videos, then there's gonna be a lot of secret messages to our fans in the artwork. It's not just some straightforward thing."

And one of those new songs on Believers is "Alpha Dog," which appeared on the Citizens mixtape in demo form, and has since been fleshed out into a full, funky version. It premiered Monday on FOB's official site and quickly became a much-blogged sensation. And, as Wentz said, though it's been around for a while, the band felt it was too good to linger on as a lowly mixtape demo.

"We really like that one a lot. We worked on it a bunch," he said. "We're the kind of band that likes to believe that if the stuff we make is good enough, then fans will want to hear it."

Wentz went out of his way to assure everyone that FOB made the album with the best of intentions, and that there's something for everyone on it.

"To me, calling it a greatest hits [means] if you're not an avid Fall Out Boy fan, it's an easy way to get all the songs, to take a dip in the water," he laughed. "But if you are a Fall Out Boy fan, you can just go buy those two [new] songs off iTunes, or you can buy the package, because you will find some stuff in there that you'll think is cool."

Latest News