Jimmy Eat World mark Bleed American 25th anniversary with full-album tour
Jim Adkins told Rolling Stone how The Middle survived a label drop, a bedroom demo and a very memorable underwear video.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Jimmy Eat World are turning the Bleed American 25th anniversary into a victory lap, playing the 2001 album in full on tour, including all five dates of the revived Warped Tour, according to Rolling Stone.
The run revisits the record that changed the Tempe, Arizona band’s path after Capitol Records dropped them. Frontman Jim Adkins told Rolling Stone that the group made its fourth album without a new record deal lined up, only for the finished songs to draw a major-label bidding fight before the band signed with DreamWorks Records.
Bleed American is the album that gave Jimmy Eat World “The Middle,” the bright, blunt pep talk that became their best-known song. Adkins told Rolling Stone the track was shaped in part by an email from a fan who had been put down at school, though he said he does not remember exactly how much time passed between reading it and writing the song.
Why is Bleed American back in the news?
Bleed American is back because Jimmy Eat World are marking its 25th anniversary by performing the album front to back. The record is a key piece of early-2000s rock history because it took a band without a label and turned them into a major mainstream act.
Adkins said the band’s approach on the album was built around tighter limits than on earlier records. He told Rolling Stone he was interested in making more restrained choices, pointing to Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen as influences from that period.
Springsteen’s presence even reached into “The Middle.” Adkins said he had a promotional standup for Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love in his bedroom, a gift he believed came from a seventh-grade girlfriend, and that it helped point him toward one lyric choice.
The song began far from its polished radio form. Adkins told Rolling Stone he recorded an early version in a Tempe bedroom near the college area, using an eight-track digital recorder and an old drum kit he bought from Jimmy Eat World drummer Zach Lind.
The album’s biggest song also arrived with one of the era’s most remembered videos. Adkins said director Paul Fedor had the idea for the “The Middle” clip, which features a party full of people in underwear, and the band chose to trust him with it. Asked whether the band was ever expected to strip down too, Adkins said their role in the video was more like narrators, so they stayed dressed.
What did Jim Adkins say about The Middle?
Adkins told Rolling Stone he has grown more surprised by “The Middle” over time. He connected its message to the album’s title track, saying both songs deal with self-worth and the emptiness of chasing approval, though in different moods.
He also discussed the song’s guitar solo, which Rolling Stone recently included on a list of great guitar solos. Adkins said relatives sent him the list, and he described the solo as something built with a beginning, development and ending rather than a showy shred break.
The interview also touched on what came after Bleed American. Adkins said the band did not try to remake that album with Futures, adding that the group tends to look for a different place to go after finishing and touring a record.
As for new music, Adkins told Rolling Stone Jimmy Eat World are working on another album and said he hopes it could arrive next year. He added that the band will not release it until it feels right, but said they are not done making music.
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.