On this day · 49 years ago · 1977
49 Years Ago Today: Ray Toro, the Guitarist Who Brought Brian May's Harmonies to My Chemical Romance, Was Born
Ray Toro grew up on Randy Rhoads and Metallica in Kearny, New Jersey, then spent two decades as My Chemical Romance's lead guitarist, building the harmonized, Brian-May-indebted lead lines that carried The Black Parade.
By Jaxon, Metal rhythm desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Ray Toro, lead guitarist and backing vocalist for My Chemical Romance, was born July 15, 1977, in Kearny, New Jersey. He met Gerard Way in the late 1990s and became a founding guitarist when My Chemical Romance formed. Known for a shred-influenced, orchestral lead style compared to Queen's Brian May, Toro cites May and Randy Rhoads as his two biggest influences, and MCR played part of their 2011 Reading and Leeds headline set with May himself.
From guitar lessons in Kearny to Gerard Way's attic
Raymond Toro was born July 15, 1977, in Kearny, New Jersey, per Wikipedia's account of his career, and grew up in a small house on the Kearny-Harrison border with his parents and two brothers. He got interested in music by Kearny High School, enrolling in guitar lessons and, by his own account, typing lessons to build the manual dexterity his playing would eventually demand. The Rodneys, a local band Toro played in through the mid-1990s, is where the My Chemical Romance story actually starts: frontman Shawn Dillon introduced Toro to Gerard Way in the late 1990s, and practice sessions in drummer Matt Pelissier's attic followed. Once Gerard's younger brother Mikey Way joined on bass, My Chemical Romance had its founding lineup.
The Brian May comparison, and where it came from
Toro's playing on The Black Parade (2006) is what cemented his reputation. Per Wikipedia's citation of Loudwire writer Jake Richardson, Toro is "not your average pop-punk player," someone who "attacks his leads with gusto, guts and a real sense of the dramatic." Since that album, critics have repeatedly compared his double-tracked, harmony-stacked leads to Queen's Brian May, and Toro has confirmed the comparison isn't a stretch: the same Wikipedia entry notes he's named May and Ozzy-era guitarist Randy Rhoads as his two biggest influences, telling interviewers Rhoads's classical-into-metal fusion was "really inspiring" when he first heard it as a teenager. The connection got a literal payoff in 2011, when, per that same account, My Chemical Romance performed part of their Reading and Leeds Festivals headline set with May joining them onstage.
Beyond the riffs
Toro isn't the only guitarist with a July 15 birthday: .38 Special's Jeff Carlisi was born on the same date, 25 years earlier. Toro's guitar interests didn't stop at hard rock. Wikipedia's biography notes he later became absorbed in classical guitarists Andres Segovia and Christopher Parkening, drawn to how they arranged full orchestral pieces for a single instrument. Per the same source, he's stayed musically active outside MCR too, releasing a solo album, Remember the Laughter, in 2016, and contributing production and mixing work for other artists during the band's mid-2010s hiatus. My Chemical Romance itself reunited in 2019, returned to headline the When We Were Young festival in 2024, and toured through 2025 behind the Long Live The Black Parade run.
A hybrid gauge for a hybrid style
Gear-tracking sites that catalog Toro's rig, including UberProAudio's rig breakdown, report he's used .011-.052 S.I.T. strings alongside Dunlop Nickel Plated Steel Medium Heavy sets, a heavier low end paired with a workable top for both riffing and lead work. Neither is confirmed in an on-record interview quote, so treat it as commonly reported rather than certain. The closest widely available equivalent to that skinny-top, heavy-bottom concept is a gauge up from Toro's reported low string, and a set that also suits Drop D for players who want more low-end punch:
Skinny Top Heavy Bottom (.010–.052)
Why this one: The same skinny-top, heavy-bottom concept gear-tracking sites report for Toro's own .011-.052 S.I.T. set, in a widely available nickel-wound version.
Related