{"id":935129,"date":"2026-05-03T14:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T14:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/935129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T14:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T14:18:15","slug":"us-band-jimmy-eat-world-look-back-i-would-play-the-middle-five-times-in-a-row-if-the-other-guys-would-let-me-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/935129\/","title":{"rendered":"US band Jimmy Eat World look back: \u2018I would play The Middle five times in a row if the other guys would let me\u2019 | Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Composite of Jimmy Eat World in 2001 and 202\u200b6<\/a>Jimmy Eat World in \u200b2001 and 202\u200b6. Later photograph: \u200bSteve Craft\/The Guardian. Styling: Abby Ripes. \u200bGrooming: Lillian Fogel. Archive image: Christopher Wray-McCann<\/p>\n

Jimmy Eat World<\/a> are an alternative rock band from Mesa, east of Phoenix, Arizona. Formed by vocalist and guitarist Jim\u00a0Adkins, guitarist Tom\u00a0Linton, bassist Rick Burch and drummer Zach Lind in 1993, they have released 10 albums \u2013 including their 2001 breakthrough record, Bleed American. Its hit single, The Middle, peaked at No 5 in the US Hot 100 chart; it has now had more than 1bn streams. The\u00a0band mark the 25th anniversary of the album with a series of shows this summer including UK appearances in August in Halifax, Cardiff and Gunnersbury Park, London.<\/p>\n

Jim (centre)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was taken right before Bleed American was released. The photographer wanted to capture the\u00a0sprawl of Phoenix, so the idea was to go to the outskirts where construction was happening. Beyond\u00a0that, there was no pre-planned concept or specific pose. We\u00a0probably\u00a0would have called each other that morning and asked, \u201cHey,\u00a0are you wearing blue?\u201d \u201cI think I\u2019m going to wear red.\u201d \u201cOK, cool. I\u2019m not wearing\u00a0red.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known Zach since preschool \u2013 his mother was our teacher; I got to know the other guys in our high school years. We were all in different bands before we started playing together. Back then, if you were into punk rock in a town like ours, you quickly got to know everyone else who was, too. Mesa wasn\u2019t exactly a hotbed of arts and culture.<\/p>\n

Being in Jimmy Eat World has been consistently fulfilling, though I still look back at the early days fondly \u2013 the weeks of being in a van with no GPS, no phones, playing the same basements to nobody. It was cool \u2013 but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d be as into sleeping on the floor now.<\/p>\n

When Bleed American took off, I\u00a0didn\u2019t know how to deal with it. I\u00a0didn\u2019t want to become an asshole and\u00a0let it change me \u2013 thankfully, the\u00a0music world is fickle, and I\u00a0knew\u00a0that. Every week there was going to be a new band people would\u00a0call the new Nirvana or whatever, and we just happened to be the one in 2001. As\u00a0for being considered a \u201cfrontperson\u201d \u2013 I\u00a0never sought it out, it\u00a0just came with being\u00a0the singer. I\u00a0was never chasing a rock star persona, and I\u00a0was never going to\u00a0host\u00a0an award show, or become a\u00a0judge on a\u00a0singing\u00a0competition.<\/p>\n

How come we\u2019ve stayed together after all these years? It really comes down to two things: being in a band should be fun, and we should feel proud of the work we are doing. If\u00a0we\u00a0all feel that, then we can do this\u00a0for ever.<\/p>\n

Rick (on far left)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not surprised we took this photo in\u00a0front of a wall. It\u2019s kind of desolate in central Arizona \u2013 very little interesting scenery. Tom and Zach were smart, as they sat very comfortably whereas I chose to hover\u00a0awkwardly.<\/p>\n

I wish I knew back then that the good moments are fleeting and few \u2013 so if something amazing comes our way, I should take a\u00a0moment to acknowledge it, and show gratitude for\u00a0the hard work that we put in. Instead, throughout all of our commercial success, we remained in\u00a0our own bubble and focused on the\u00a0day\u2019s work at hand. Subconsciously, we were hearing stuff\u00a0like, \u201cYou guys are getting some really good radio play!\u201d but we stayed\u00a0insular.<\/p>\n

The Middle was inescapable, but even after all these years, I never get bored of hearing it. I still love to see how the audience lights up, and would happily play it five times in a row if the other guys would let me.<\/p>\n

These days we all have our own families and lives, so the times we come together are for the studio, rehearsals and tours. There\u2019s not often\u00a0a lot of verbal communication between us \u2013 a byproduct of playing on\u00a0stage together for so many years. We rely on subtle cues, and we know\u00a0each other\u2019s buttons and can\u00a0sense when not to press them. My\u00a0button? I\u2019m easy-going but when\u00a0it\u00a0comes to personal space, I\u00a0do\u00a0need 10 minutes alone on tour. If\u00a0someone were to challenge that, I\u00a0might become irritated, like, \u201cOK,\u00a0back off!\u201d<\/p>\n

Our chemistry with each other has always been about our shared dedication to music. That\u2019s never changed and never will.<\/p>\n

Zach (second left)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This whole era felt pregnant with possibilities. We had just signed our\u00a0deal with DreamWorks after having no label, we felt like we\u2019d made\u00a0a really good album, and we knew that a lot of other people were\u00a0excited about it, too. There was optimism in the air.<\/p>\n

After three albums and a\u00a0decade of being together, we were suddenly being put up for incredible opportunities \u2013 we opened up for Weezer in the UK, and got to play Saturday Night Live. But having been in a band for so long, there\u2019s a\u00a0scarcity mentality that protects you from enjoying things too much. The music industry is pretty humbling and expectations can get dashed quickly. During this whole period, we were just putting one foot in front of the other. I\u00a0do regret that slightly. When I get on stage to play drums these days, I try to take it all in.<\/p>\n

In terms of our relationship to one another, there\u2019s not a lot of opening up, emotionally. We\u2019re not dudes that are extroverted \u2013 Rick and Tom and Jim are a little bit more guarded than I\u00a0am, but that\u2019s OK. We\u2019ve also never properly fallen out. Maybe because we know each other\u2019s strengths and weaknesses, we\u2019re all on the same page and we\u2019re all looking to push the bar forward. We respect and trust each other. Now that I\u2019m older, I know not to take that for granted.<\/p>\n

Tom (right)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember much about this time, other than I was 23 and feeling\u00a0quite immature. We\u2019d been\u00a0dropped by Capitol in 1999, but\u00a0we were largely relieved \u2013 aside from a van they\u2019d bought us for touring, the split gave us the freedom\u00a0to do whatever we wanted as a band. We self-funded Bleed American with no real expectations, having already put out a couple of records that went nowhere. When we\u00a0got signed again and the album did\u00a0well, it came as a genuine surprise.\u00a0The dynamic never changed: we were friends before the band started \u2013 I\u2019ve known Rick since we were 12 and Zach and Jim have known each other since they were five years old. We\u2019ve all grown up together and we still had the same goals for Jimmy\u00a0Eat World.<\/p>\n

Being in a band means living with the band, but thankfully nobody has bad habits. Although when we\u2019re on tour, Jim likes to wake us all up on the bus. At around eight in the morning, when we\u2019re still asleep, he\u2019ll start shouting, as loud as he can, \u201cGood\u00a0morning, good morning, good\u00a0morning!\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s never been any threat of us splitting up, but we sometimes have our little fights. Every tour, some stupid thing will come up, like someone not playing well enough, and\u00a0it\u2019s always resolved. We\u2019ll sit down\u00a0and say, \u201cListen, if there is something wrong, just come up to me and tell me.\u201d When we were younger, that kind of confrontation wouldn\u2019t have been so measured. The feelings would have festered, nobody would say anything, and eventually someone would explode.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years on, they are still all great guys \u2013 good fathers and husbands and brilliant musicians. I\u00a0don\u2019t have anything bad to say about any of them. Although I am probably still quite immature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Composite of Jimmy Eat World in 2001 and 202\u200b6Jimmy Eat World in \u200b2001 and 202\u200b6. Later photograph: \u200bSteve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-935129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116511081194564948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}