Most artists can recall the moment they decided they wanted to make a career out of playing music, and for My Chemical Romance's Mikey Way, it was seeing Smashing Pumpkins.

"I remember wanting to go to shows and never going to a big one, until the Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness tour," Way recalled to Rock Sound. "I started to think about almost everything a little differently after that night. I was like, 'Man, I don't think there's maybe anything else I'd rather do in life than maybe do what they're doing.'"

Way remembers the Pumpkins playing for over two hours the night he saw them live, and that their show was accompanied by big video screens and extravagant light shows. The whole crowd also sang along to every word, not just the band's most popular songs.

"I remember that and the energy in the room. I was so awestruck, that they were playing Madison Square Garden a day after or two days after, and I was like, 'I gotta go again,'" he continued, adding that he wanted to bring his brother Gerard Way — who was attending New York City's School of Visual Arts at the time — to the second show.

"I think my brother had that same kind of revelation I did that night when we saw the Madison Square Garden show. I remember nudging him and being like, 'This is what I want to do. This is what we're gonna do — and we're gonna play in this room.' And I remember him completely agreeing with me at the moment and being like, 'You're absolutely right.'"

When My Chemical Romance did eventually perform at Madison Square Garden in May of 2008, Gerard Way told the crowd the story about the Smashing Pumpkins concert they saw together, and how it ultimately foreshadowed their own success.

Watch the full clip below.

Top 90 Hard Rock + Metal Albums of the 1990s

More From 94.3 The X