Frontman Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance said he’s glad he turned his back on his drug-fuelled lifestyle.

The rock star said he feared he would have suffered the same fate as Michael Jackson if he continued down that path.

Way admitted that he and his bassist Mikey had a "really bad drug problem" during the band's early years, using medication to help "switch off" from the pressures of life on the road. After several close friends died, the brothers and bandmates eventually kicked their habit.

Mikey told Kerrang! magazine, "It was a means to an end: it was a way of getting from city to city...We got into a bad routine. I missed home and I was petrified to play, so I would get intoxicated. Then I had to find a way to wind down, so I'd take something to make that happen. Sometimes the drugs were like installing a shut-off switch in the back of my neck."

Way added, "The crazy thing is that it's the same thing that killed Michael Jackson: he had to be put to sleep by one drug, then he had to be woken up by another. That's what everyone in bands is doing; they're just doing a cheaper, low-level version of it."

The band will be headling Reading and Leeds Festivals next month and you can watch My Chemical Romance perform their Glee-approved hit, 'SING', at the House Of Blues in Hollywood below: