Entertainment

Is Calum Leaving 5SOS? He Has Fans Worried

by Michelle McGahan

It was a roller coaster of a weekend for 5SOS fans. Just days after my little Aussie pop-punk babies took home the ARIA for Best Live Act, Calum Hood sent out a cryptic tweet that had the fandom worried AF that he was going to pull a Zayn Malik and quit the group. The tweet — which the bassist quickly deleted, only adding fuel to the fire — reportedly read, "One day I will leave and live a normal life," a sentence eerily similar to Malik's "bye guys, I'm leaving One Direction" statement, which talked about how he wanted to go live life as a "normal 22-year-old." Understandably, Hood's tweet-and-delete sent fans into a frenzy, with the supportive hashtag "#WeLoveYouCalum" immediately shooting to the top trend on Twitter. But before you weep silently in a dark room listening to "Invisible" on repeat ("I was already missing before the night I left," sorry in advance for this reference), it doesn't look like Hood is going anywhere just yet.

First of all, it's important to note that the singer was clearly touched by the tweets of love and support, sending a message to fans that all was good in the (Calum) hood with a super peppy tweet involving goats and a smiley emoji:

Though the bassist didn't directly reference the delete tweet (or fans' fears that he is quitting the band), the happy-go-lucky message certainly speaks volumes. He's currently "happy about everything" — aka "you don't have anything to worry about, guys." And to be fair, Hood, who also has a penchant for tweeting song lyrics, is totally allowed (lol, not that he needs my permission) to get all emo on Twitter sometimes. He's a 19-year-old kid at the height of fame and his career, and things can be rough. Those feelings of dealing with depression and anxiety not only reverberate throughout the masterpiece that is 5SOS' sophomore album Sounds Good Feels Good, but are also topics that the band has spoken about at length while doing press for the record, opening up about the difficulties of fame and the grueling schedule of being on the road.

"I told Luke 'I'm f*cking depressed, I f*cking hate this, we’ve been on tour for five months, I’m living out of this piece of sh*t suitcase with only three wheels on it," Ashton Irwin recalled to the Daily Telegraph in October, explaining that he channeled those feelings into songwriting for the album. The emotions are not only genuine, they're super understandable. Right now, 5SOS is gearing up to play a world tour from February to October, spanning 95 dates over, as of right now, four out of seven continents. That's intense. And just because it's a grueling schedule, it doesn't mean that the band doesn't love performing live and touring and seeing fans all over the world, as Luke Hemmings explained to one fan:

It's a sentiment he later echoed after the band's ARIA win, writing:

At the end of the day, 5 Seconds of Summer is a band made up of four young guys who are living out their dream thanks to their fans. While their career is probably more than anything they could have ever imagined while performing YouTube covers in their high school classrooms, dealing with the pressures of fame, intense fandom, and being away from their loved ones for months and months at a time while traveling from country to country is bound to be rough. And like how they channel their emotions into songs, they can also vent about those feelings on social media or in interviews. It doesn't mean that they're unhappy all the time or that this is the end or that Hood's cryptic tweet means he's quitting the band; they're just human beings, dealing with their issues like the rest of us. And isn't that what 5SOS is all about?