"LA Devotee" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Panic! at the Disco Panic! at the Disco was an American pop rock band formed in Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2004 by high school friends Ryan Ross (guitar) and Spencer Smith (musician), Spencer Smith (drums), who recruited classmates Brendon Urie (vocals and ...

. It was released as the first promotional single from the band's fifth studio album, ''

Death of a Bachelor Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose shor ...

'', on November 26, 2015 (Thanksgiving Day) through Fueled by Ramen and DCD2. The song was written by

Brendon Urie Brendon Boyd Urie (born April 12, 1987) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is best known as the former lead vocalist and frontman of Panic! at the Disco, the only constant member throughout the band's 19-year run. Many of his ...

, White Sea and

Jake Sinclair Jake Tony Sinclair (born 29 November 1994) is an English footballer who plays as a forward for Mangotsfield United. He has played professionally for Southampton and Hibernian. Career Sinclair joined Southampton at the academy level at the ...

and was produced by Sinclair.

Background

The song's inspiration derives from Urie's passion for Los Angeles and is about someone who has fallen in love with L.A. and will stop at nothing to survive and succeed in the city. A video of the audio for "LA Devotee" was uploaded to Fueled by Ramen's official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on the day of its release, November 26, 2015. It has been streamed over 55 million times on YouTube and over 262 million times on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

as of December 2022.

Music video

The song's official music video was released September 22, 2016, starring

Noah Schnapp Noah Cameron Schnapp (born October 3, 2004) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Will Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series ''Stranger Things''. In addition to his work in television, Schnapp had a supporting role in ...

, a child actor known for his role as

Will Byers William Byers is a fictional character from the American science fiction horror drama television series ''Stranger Things''. He is portrayed by Noah Schnapp. The character appeared in a recurring capacity in the first season before being pro ...

in the Netflix series ''

Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American television series created by the Duffer brothers, Duffer Brothers for Netflix. Produced by Monkey Massacre Productions and 21 Laps Entertainment, the Stranger Things season 1, first season was released on N ...

''. The video starts with a young girl played by Anna Sachtleben nervously trying to cross a field with a dog barking in the background. The girl falls down and gets kidnapped by an unknown cloaked figure as the camera shows a shot of the mysterious "Join Us" logo cropped into the field. The next scene shows a young boy (Schnapp) being strapped to a chair singing the song while experiencing bizarre things, with Brendon also singing the song on a screen. The young girl also makes an appearance forcing the boy to drink a Eucharist. The last scene shows four cloaked figures strapping two mechanisms to the boy, causing him to be electrocuted and then suffer a seizure. Afterwards, the video ends with Brendon walking up to him with rubber gloves in a menacing manner. It is unknown what Brendon is to do next. Between shots of Schnapp being tortured, several disturbing images can be seen, including men with animal heads, blood poured over a skull, children with black holes for their eyes, and a symbol of the

Church of Satan The Church of Satan (CoS) is a religious organization dedicated to the religion of LaVeyan Satanism, Satanism as defined by Anton Szandor LaVey. Founded in San Francisco in 1966, by Anton LaVey, LaVey, it is considered the "oldest satanic reli ...

(featuring

Baphomet Baphomet is a figure incorporated across various occult and Western esotericism, Western esoteric traditions. During Trials of the Knights Templar, trials starting in 1307, the Knights Templar were accused of heresy for worshipping Baphomet as ...

's head inside an inverted

pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

) projected over Urie's face.

Other references

The song references multiple places in the Great Los Angeles area, including: *

Mulholland Drive Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after pioneering Los Angeles civil engineer William Mulholland. The western rural portion in Los Angeles and Ventura counties is n ...

* Hollywood Shrine

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2015 songs 2015 singles American power pop songs Fueled by Ramen singles Panic! at the Disco songs Ska songs Songs about Los Angeles Songs written by Brendon Urie Songs written by Jake Sinclair (musician) Songs written by Morgan Kibby Baphomet