The All-American Rejects
The All-American Rejects are an American rock band formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1999. The band consists of lead vocalist and bassist Tyson Ritter, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Nick Wheeler, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Mike Kennerty, and drummer Chris Gaylor. Wheeler and Ritter serve as the band's songwriters; Wheeler is the primary composer and Ritter is the primary lyricist. Although Kennerty and Gaylor are not founding members, they have appeared in all of the band's music videos and on all studio releases except for the band's self-titled debut.
The group achieved mainstream success with their debut self-titled studio album The All-American Rejects, released in 2002 on the DreamWorks Records label. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and spawned the successful single "Swing, Swing". The band's second studio album Move Along brought the group further mainstream success in 2005, producing the hit singles "Dirty Little Secret", "Move Along", and "It Ends Tonight", all of which charted in the top fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while Move Along was certified triple platinum in 2024 by the RIAA. Their third studio album When the World Comes Down was released in 2008 and was later certified platinum in 2024 by the RIAA. Its lead single "Gives You Hell" became The All-American Rejects' most successful song to date, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the top 5 in many other countries. "Gives You Hell" was certified 9× multi-platinum for sales of over 9 million shipments in the United States by the RIAA in 2024. Kids in the Street, the band's fourth studio album, was released on March 26, 2012, and debuted at number 18 on the US Billboard 200. On October 30, 2015, the group released a new single named "There's a Place".
The All-American Rejects have sold over 12 million albums worldwide. They were ranked No. 73 on the "Hot 100 Artists of the 2000s" and No. 183 on the "Billboard 200 Artists of the Decade" list. The band has continued to tour, and released the singles "Sweat" on July 7, 2017, and "Send Her to Heaven" on their new label Epitaph on July 16, 2019. On March 22, 2025, their fifth studio album, Sandbox was announced. The lead single, the title track, was released April 24, 2025. The second single, "Easy Come, Easy Go", was released June 5, 2025.
History
1999–2004: Formation and ''The All-American Rejects''
The band formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1999 while members Nick Wheeler and Tyson Ritter were still in high school. It was here that Ritter offered himself for bass duties. Eventually Wheeler and Ritter decided to form the All-American Rejects. When asked where the name of the band came from, Mike Kennerty says, "It was a random name that sounded cool. I feel like we have grown into it over the years."In 2000, while still in high school, the group made a demo simply labeled The All-American Rejects, with Nick Wheeler, Tyson Ritter, and Jesse Tabish. The demo CD was engineered, mixed and mastered by Wheeler. It was also managed by Alisa Ben at Half-A-Cup Entertainment. The demo is now commonly referred to as The Blue Disc or The Blue Album. The CD consisted of twelve songs, a few of which would be included on the Same Girl, New Songs demo made in 2001. Jesse Tabish later split from the group and later became a member of the folk band Other Lives. Ritter and Wheeler put together the Same Girl, New Songs EP, which was soon sent to independent Doghouse Records, where an intern saved the disc from the trash, and revealed it to the label owner. The All-American Rejects were soon signed to a recording contract.
In 2001, with producer Tim O'Heir, the band recorded their self-titled debut studio album, The All-American Rejects. The album and its first single, "Swing, Swing," were released towards the end of 2002. The group began looking for additional members for a live act. Edmond, Oklahoma resident Mike Kennerty joined on as rhythm guitarist soon before the album was released. Soon after, the band was having problems with drummer Tim Campbell. Campbell was later replaced by drummer Chris Gaylor, who knew and played in another band with Kennerty.
The group was then signed by DreamWorks Records, a subsidiary of film company DreamWorks Pictures. The band hit the road for eight shows in January, and DreamWorks issued a broader-scale distribution of the debut LP. The album peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 Album chart. The single "Swing, Swing" was also re-issued, which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 60 as well as No. 8 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The single "The Last Song" was also released spring 2003, and climbed to No. 29 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Early in 2003, the band went on tour as an opening act for CKY. While several differing stories have occurred concerning the tour, they were kicked off the tour shortly after it began.
In Spring 2003, the All-American Rejects set out on their first headlining tour, called the Too Bad For Hell Tour. In later 2003, the All-American Rejects released, Live from Oklahoma... The Too Bad for Hell DVD!, their first live DVD – which was later certified Gold by the RIAA. During this time, they performed on the Vans Warped Tour. They would later be part of the lineup again in summer 2005. In November, the All-American Rejects joined the bands Motion City Soundtrack and Limbeck for six shows in the United Kingdom, the first date on the 16th, and the last on the 22nd.
In November 2003, Universal Music Group agreed to purchase DreamWorks Records from DreamWorks Pictures for roughly $100 million. The label was eventually shut down in January 2005, and during 2004, many DreamWorks artists were reassigned to different labels at UMG.
2005–06: ''Move Along''
In July 2005, the All-American Rejects released their second studio album, Move Along, produced by Howard Benson. It was released via UMG's Interscope Records, and the album's first single, "Dirty Little Secret," was released that summer to radio stations.At the end of 2005, the All-American Rejects embarked on The Rise of the Fall Tour along with The Academy Is... and Rooney. Then, on December 13, The Bite Back EP was released on the iTunes Music Store, and on New Year's Eve 2005, the band performed The Cars' "Good Times Roll" with Fall Out Boy on MTV.
In 2006, the second single and title track from Move Along was released. Within the first weeks after premiering their video, it had been on the Total Request Live countdown, hitting number-one four days in a row. The single did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 until almost six months after its release, in June. On March 15, 2006, the All-American Rejects began a tour of the United States that wrapped up on May 13, 2006. On May 25, the All-American Rejects performed at the first ever VH1 Rock Honors, covering "Photograph" by Def Leppard. In July the band sent a promotional single from Move Along, "Top of the World," to modern rock radio. A music video was created for it from clips of the All-American Rejects on tour and in concert.
"Move Along" was also used to help promote the Lego Bionicle Inika toy sets in the summer of 2006. The group also participated in a promotion for the sets called "Free the Band". The overall priority of the promotion was that the Rejects got kidnapped by the villainous Piraka whilst sailing on a yacht and people had to assist the Inika on finding and rescuing the band via the website 'freetheband.com.' A competition could also be entered where the winners would receive Bionicle and All-American Rejects merchandise alike. That same year, "Move Along" was featured in the film She's the Man, which was released by former DreamWorks Records owner DreamWorks Pictures.
In September 2006, a third headlining single, "It Ends Tonight," was released from Move Along. The video debuted at No. 10 on the VH1 Top 20 countdown. The video also peaked at No. 2 on TRL. Later in the year the All-American Rejects launched the Tournado tour in support of Move Along. The tour kicked off at Hartford, Connecticut on October 27, and wrapped up at Champaign, Illinois on December 20.
That New Year's Eve, the All-American Rejects performed on a special on Las Vegas' Fremont Street, which also included the bands OK Go, Five for Fighting, Rock Star Supernova, and Chicago.
On December 21, 2024, the album hit 1 Billion streams on Spotify.
2007–09: ''When the World Comes Down''
The All-American Rejects began writing material for their third studio album in December 2006. The band also collaborated with composer Danny Elfman on "The Future Has Arrived," which was included on the soundtrack of Disney film Meet the Robinsons. The song was created in conjunction with the film's musical score.On July 17, 2007, the All-American Rejects released their second live DVD, titled Tournado, with content from the 2006 headlining tour of the same name. Also during the summer, they covered "Jack's Lament" from The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was featured on Nightmare Revisited. The finished album version of the song "I Wanna" appeared in the movie, The House Bunny, which was released to theaters on August 22, 2008. Vocalist/bassist Tyson Ritter played a role in the film, and offered up "I Wanna" for the soundtrack.
On September 30, 2008, the first single from When the World Comes Down, "Gives You Hell" was released. The All-American Rejects were inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, and were awarded with "Rising Star." "Gives You Hell" peaked at No. 1 on Pop charts on billboard.com and also peaked No. 1 on iTunes charts and No. 5 most downloaded song of the 2009 year, and the No. 1 most played song of the year 2009.
The music video for "Gives You Hell" was released November fifth and reached number one on VH1's Top 20 Countdown. On the sixth, in support of "Gives You Hell," the band started the Gives You Hell Tour, which hit many small venues and clubs. Then, on the eighteenth "Mona Lisa," another song from the band's upcoming album, was released digitally on iTunes. In the first week of December, the album version of "Real World" was made available for download on Rock Band for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
Three years after the Move Along album was issued, the group released their third studio album, When the World Comes Down, on December 16, 2008. After the Gives You Hell Tour wrapped up, the band embarked on a world tour until coming back to the states to start the I Wanna Rock Tour, which hit many major venues in the United States.
In May 2009, the All-American Rejects released a second single in the United States, entitled "The Wind Blows," which achieved moderate success. "I Wanna" was released internationally on July 8 to Australia and the United Kingdom. Another song from When the World Comes Down, In July, "Real World" was released as a promotional single in the United States, followed by "I Wanna" as a headliner. In late summer the All-American Rejects joined Weezer, Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday for the second half of the Blink-182 Reunion Tour. On August 15, the All-American Rejects made history, performing alongside Hoobastank, Raygun, Boys Like Girls, Pixie Lott and Kasabian as one of the live acts at Asia's very first MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia concert. This performance gained them recognition in Malaysia. When the World Comes Down soon sold over 15,000 digital and physical copies in the country. On August 21 the "I Wanna" single was issued to Austria and Germany.
In October 2009, the All-American Rejects were forced to cancel shows due to an injury to frontman Tyson Ritter. He performed from a wheelchair with his leg in a brace on September 27 during a show in Tampa, Florida, amid reports suggesting the singer had undergone knee surgery to remove a tumor that had been there for many months. Ritter's leg became infected, and he remained hospitalized for five days. Ritter made a full recovery in time to return to kick off the Battle Of The Bands Tour with Taking Back Sunday, with the first date at MSU in Michigan. At the end of 2009, Ritter suffered from alcohol abuse after ending a six-year relationship. Ritter's way of coping with this issue was to write and record music for the band's next album, Kids In The Street.
The All-American Rejects announced that they would be performing their last show in support of When the World Comes Down in Hollywood, California on December 14. Since the date soon sold out, the band added a second date at the venue for the next day. However, the group played one more show at the "Jingle Bell Bash" in Seattle, Washington on December 19.