Why AJR Changed Their Last Name
Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met are the artists behind AJR, releasing their album OK Orchestra in 2021. In “Joe,” the performers mentioned their last name change — going by “Met” when they release original music. Here’s what we know about AJR’s actual surname.
The AJR brothers mentioned their changed last name in the ‘OK Orchestra’ song ‘Joe’
AJR is comprised of Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met, releasing songs like “Would’s Smallest Violin,” “Burn the House Down,” and “Way Less Sad.” For OK Orchestra, these artists reflected on their school days with the song “Joe.” There was one student, named Joe, who they were constantly trying to impress.
“I believed in god back in eighth grade,” Jack Met sings in the first verse. “He could smoke an eighth on a school day / Remember when you laughed at my last name? Now I go by Met, is that less lame / Of a last name?”
Although the AJR brothers encouraged fans not to learn who this song is actually about, it holds truths regarding their last name when performing. On Spotify, AJR often credits themselves under the last name “Met.”
As noted on Reddit, these musicians appropriately credit themselves by their full last name instead of “Met” for this OK Orchestra track — Adam Brett Metzger, Jack Evan Metzger, Ryan Joshua Metzger.
What is the AJR brother’s last name?
The AJR brothers are actually related — with Jack as the youngest brother and Adam as the oldest. Although they perform with Met as their last name, the AJR brother’s actual last name is Metzger.
First rising in popularity thanks to creative YouTube covers, the AJR brothers are now known for their original music. In 2022, they released their single “I Won’t.” Recently, their song “World’s Smallest Violin” earned attention on the social media platform TikTok.
Are the AJR brothers Jewish?
The AJR brothers sometimes mention their Jewish roots, referring to themselves as “culturally Jewish.” In 2015, they even shared a “classic Jewish feast” picture on Instagram. Additionally, AJR details their New York City roots with music, including “Growing Old on Bleecker Street.”
“My younger self, especially age 8-12 plays a really big part in who I am as a person, and therefore what kind of things I try to write about,” Ryan Met said during an interview with Euphoria. “I think we try to chronicle each chapter of growing up, I suppose.”
“Neotheater talks a lot about trying to hold on to your youth and not grow up and not learn the lessons that you often have to learn in your 20s,” he continued. “We made the whole album about that and we realized that in this fantasy world called Neotheater, which is this place where you could go where you didn’t need to learn any lesson. So we kind of created that world.”
