You know you're big when a kid buys your CD for a girl he doesn't know on MTV's "My Sweet Sixteen." You know you're even bigger when the producers of "The Ashlee Simpson Show" choose your song to play in an episode's background.
Senior Hilary Wentz's brother, Peter, has experienced all of these rock-star milestones. The 24-year-old dabbled in hard metal and punk before starting the band Fall Out Boy [FOB] in his hometown of Chicago. Since then, the group of four that began as a joke has grown from a small Chicago band into one of Rolling Stone's "Bands to Watch" for this year.
Fall Out Boy has been on an upward trajectory over the past year, from being featured at Chicago's Tower Records store, to having their video aired on MTV, to headlining this year's Warped Tour. This little band from Chicago - now signed to Island Def Jam Records - is on the rise, and Hilary's been in the front row for it all.
"He started playing with Fall Out Boy as kind of a joke," Hilary said. "None of us really expected it to get where it is. 'Take This to Your Grave,' their first album, became huge underground in Chicago and spread from there."
"My friends from different colleges around the country would call me to tell me they saw different FOB shirts or heard it on the radio," she continued. "The first time they were on MTV, I realized that it was becoming a big thing."
As the calls began trickling in from 12 and 13-year-old girls in the suburbs of Chicago, Hilary realized her brother's success would affect her life as well. At first, friends would brag at bars that, "Hilary's the sister of a rock star." Then her friends from home started driving up to her house at home blasting FOB and shouting, "Where's the rock star? We want to see the rock star!"
Hilary has learned it's not always easy being the sister of a rock star. When Island Records features your brother's band on its website alongside Mariah Carey and the Bravery, it follows that the time you are allotted in his already tight schedule will diminish greatly.
"Peter's on the road over 300 days a year," Hilary said. "I see him once for Christmas and whenever he's touring any of the cities that I'm living in. It's really hard to get in touch with him. Normally, he's always busy running off to have interviews; [he] always has something going on."
Hilary has been able to gauge the success of the band by the inability of her brother's voice mail box to accept any more messages. "I haven't been able to call and leave a message any time in the past four months," Hilary said. "The mailbox is always full."
Her brother's burgeoning fame also means that Hilary has to call him from only her cell phone if she wants to get in touch with him: due to the number of fans who are able to get a hold of Peter's number, he doesn't pick up calls he does not recognize.
The adjustment to reading about a loved one in publications was also a strange transition for Hilary. "Sometimes it's hard to read certain things like newspaper articles in which rumors are being said," she said. "It's hard for me to read them and not be upset by them and want to defend him."
But the sibling status does have its benefits. Besides $500 credits at Hollister (where FOB performed a clandestine concert) and free concert tickets, Hilary earns $100 a month from her dad (the band's pro bono lawyer) to respond to their fan mail. She also gets to use terms like "their album's dropping" and "merch."
In addition, Hilary takes solace in the fact that her brother still borrows money from her (which he rarely pays back). "I'm his personal assistant, sending his video camera, counting books for him in the basement when he's not home," Hilary said. "He always calls me at home to get me to do things."
Those favors include getting Peter chai lattes at Starbucks, as well as blackmail material like letting him borrow her jeans. "He tried to borrow a pair of my Sevens, but he tends to lean more towards Hollister women's jeans," Hilary laughed.
Being "with the band" also has its perks, like backstage passes and prime concert seating. But sometimes it takes the underlings a little while to appreciate Hilary's presence.
"One time, I was trying to get backstage to see him and a security guard made me cry because he didn't believe that I was his sister," she said. "Peter got his manager and laid the smack down for me."
Hilary's brother shows his appreciation for her support in other ways. When he played at the House of Blues in Boston last year, she took all of her friends to the show, where, as a thank-you for her attendance, Peter asked the crowd to say hi to his sister "and her sorority friends."
Hilary's stories range from her brother declining to sign a fan's breasts because she and her mother, Dale, were standing by watching, to overzealous fans bombarding their house in Wilmette, Ill. because her father shares the same first name as her brother.
In one instance, a woman rang the doorbell with her 'tween daughter, both decked out in FOB apparel, and asked Hilary, "Are you Fall Out Boy's sister?" She then asked for a photo with "FOB's sister" and then remained there for another 15 minutes, photographing the Wentz's dogs, house and neighbors.
Despite all of the outside fanfare, Hilary's life remains normal at home. "No one in my family idolizes Peter the way he's idolized by his fans, which is why it's interesting for us to read the fan mail and all the stories," she said. "It's easy to think of him as a rock star, but my parents still yell at him to clean up his room or for us to stop bickering with each other at the dinner table."
As far as sibling rivalry is concerned, Hilary feels secure. "[My parents' involvement] is just them wearing Fall Out Boy T-shirts and buttons and bringing all of their friends to the concerts, but it's not like I have any concerts," she said. "So he definitely doesn't get any special treatment, besides being the first born."
Fall Out Boy's next album, From Under the Cork Tree, drops May 3 nationwide. For more information on the band, visit www.falloutboyrock.com.
