My Role Model - Tyler Joseph

A huge role model in my life is the singer and musician Tyler Joseph. He is the singer in his two-man band, “Twenty One Pilots”, and writes all of the songs for the band. Their fans call themselves “the Clique”, or “Clikkies”, officially named the “Worldwide Skeleton Clique”. In this clique the fans are in a tightly knitted community, and are very close and personal with their music. There are over 10 million clique members/fans. The only thing that seperates a clique member from a normal fan is their own self-labeling. A fan will usually consider themselves a clique member if they go all out buying merchandise, are dedicated to the band and their music, or have liked them for a long time, but anyone can call themselves this, regardless of those things. Nobody, even deep web researchers, knows how Tyler and his other band member and drummer, Josh Dun, really met, because they make up a story every time the question comes around. This is the same for their logo, too.

Later in the band’s career, the other two members quit. One of them later went on to be one of Twenty One Pilots manager/ supervisors. When Tyler started writing his first official album, “Regional at Best”, Josh was introduced into the band. They went on to make more albums, and with that came more fans. Twenty One Pilots’ fan counts started growing and the band became more and more recognized, and even won a grammy for their album “Blurryface”, which they took in their underwear. Twenty one pilots now have their most recent album, “Trench”, which has a chance to be nominated for a grammy twice. Their single, “Jumpsuit” from the album Trench, is also nominated for song of the year. Prior, they have won about as many awards as there are students in 8th grade (including nominations.)

Growing up, Tyler was an athletic and smart student. He lived (and still does) in Columbus, Ohio. He played sports from a very young age, and started basketball when he was 6. His mother, Kelly Joseph, was the local basketball coach, and was very supportive of Tyler and his basketball career. One christmas, she bought Tyler a keyboard, which he never ended up using. It was stored away in a closet, and he had forgotten all about it. Tyler says that one day he was bored, and went rummaging through his closet. He found the keyboard and pulled it out, and started playing the pre-made tracks. He said that it occurred to him that at a time, those pieces of song didn't exist, and that someone just created it, because they wanted to. He thought to himself “I want to do that”, and started writing small rhythms on the keyboard. He continued doing this and went to a vocal coach (which he says his mother forced him to do).

When college rolled around, Tyler turned down the opportunity of a basketball scholarship to varsity so that he could pursue his music career. At the time, he was dealing with a lot of depression and anxiety, and wrote his songs as a way to escape it, as well as using it to base them off of. Josh and Tyler had probably known each other prior to Tyler’s music career, but there’s no information on it. This was about the time Josh was introduced into the band as a drummer, and for other background instruments he played. Since then, the two have been inseparable, and even travel together when they aren't on tour. Tyler married his wife, Jenna Joseph (formerly Jenna Black) on March 8th in 2015. The two support each other and Tyler says that Jenna is supportive and helps him when it comes to music. One of the songs on his new record called “Smithereens” is even specifically written for her. Jenna never misses out on his concerts and tours with him. Josh’s Girlfriend, Actress Debby Ryan, Also is frequently on tour with them, if she isn’t on tour herself.

Overall, Tyler Joseph is not just an amazing singer, but a caring and relatable person. He is also quite funny, and puts on entertaining shows. I was lucky enough to see them in concert on November 9th in Phoenix AZ at the Talking Stick Arena. They said it was the best show of the tour, and even ended up making a YouTube video completely dedicated to it. When it comes to Tyler Joseph being a good role model, I think he is a fantastic role model who is inspiring and selfless.