Thanks For The Memories: Fall Out Boy Meets Kyrgios In Atlanta
Nick Kyrgios has a talent for drawing crowds and engaging with fans from all over the world. On Monday night, he got a chance to mingle with one of his more famous fans after getting a visit from Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz at the Truist Atlanta Open.
Wentz and his band were in town touring with the likes of Green Day and Weezer on the Hella Mega Tour, which had its Atlanta stop on Monday. After the concert, Wentz, a lifelong tennis fan, was keen to take in the action at the ATP 250 event and see his favourite player Kyrgios hit the doubles court with Jack Sock.
“I love Nick a lot, I think he’s really rad. He’s got a rad personality and he brings a dynamic energy to tennis,” Wentz told ATPTour.com. “My kids are interested in him too, they like watching him play basketball and talk about basketball.
“My favourite players are also [Aryna] Sabalenka [from the WTA Tour] and Denis Shapovalov. With Denis, the first time I saw him he was playing in a backwards hat, just ripping forehands, and I was like, ‘Whoa this is really cool to watch.’”
Unfortunately, Wentz only got to watch a few points of tennis before rain halted play, delaying the start of Kyrgios and Sock’s match for several hours. But the musician still got the chance to meet with the Aussie and chat during the rain delay.
Wentz plays bass guitar for the Grammy nominated band Fall Out Boy, whose hits include ‘Sugar, We’re Goin Down’, ‘Thnks Fr Th Mmrs’ and ‘Centuries’. He told ATPTour.com that he grew up playing tennis at local courts near his home in Chicago. He got back into the sport recently and became ‘addicted’ to tennis about five years ago.
“Fans of tennis are very passionate and fans of music are very passionate – our fans live and die with the band the same way tennis fans live and die with their favourite player, which I think is really cool,” he said. “The live environment is also really cool, and also there’s the idea of the ‘tour’ which is very similar: living out of a bag and going to different places, playing different venues.”