Twenty One Pilots are flying high
TWO-singles — “Stressed Out” and “Ride” — from alt-rock duo Twenty One Pilots’ fourth album, “Blurryface,” hit the Billboard Top 10 this year, sending singerkeyboardist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun from the obscurity of Columbus, Ohio, onto the music world’s main stage — they’re playing Madison Square Garden on Wednesday and Thursday. Here are five things to know about them.
They could have been ballers
Joseph was on course to be the next Carmelo Anthony. A childhood basketball prodigy, he turned down a scholarship from Otterbein University to do music instead.
They both know the word of God
The pair hail from strict Christian households. Dun was allowed to watch only films produced by a compa- ny that heavily edits for sex and profanity. “Watching those movies was an absolutely awful experience,” he told Rolling Stone this year.
They bring the house down live, literally
Manhattanites near MSG, beware. Fans jumping up and down at a recent show in Ottawa, Ontario, caused damage similar to “a low-magnitude earthquake,” a structural contractor reported.
They don’t like hoverboards . . . anymore
When Joseph let his mom give his a try, she fell on her first go, breaking her wrist. “It was hilarious when it happened, but the result sucked,” he told a Boston radio station. “I sat in the ER waiting room with her all day.”
They inspire some pervy stories
The duo’s biggest fans write some pretty sexually hardcore fan-fiction dubbed “Joshler,” centered on the two consummating their musical relationship. “Some of the stories are a little twisted and odd, but it’s still art,” argued Dun to Winnipeg, Manitoba, station 99.1 Fresh Radio.