Ryan Ross left Panic At The Disco because singer Brendon Urie is a Peter Gabriel fan.

The guitarist-and-songwriter and bassist Jon Walker announced they were leaving the group last week and the musician says the main reason he quit was due to musical differences with the frontman, who wanted to take the band in a more pop direction.

Ryan explained: "Brendon's more of a Peter Gabriel fan, and I'm more of a Ray Davies fan. Brendon has always been a fan of pop music, but that's such a broad term, because I guess I would say I would be too, but in a different way. Jon and I are still very much influenced by the Beatles and Beach Boys stuff and The Kinks and stuff like that.

"And so that's the stuff we were writing at my house - that's the stuff we're going to make now. I haven't heard any of Brendon and Spencer Smith's stuff, to be honest."

While his departure may have came as a shock to fans, Ryan admits it has been a long time coming.

He added to MTV News: "It's been a little while, a few months since we started thinking that this might be the best thing to do. Jon and I had been writing a bunch of stuff on the road, and it just got to a point when we were off tour, when we were talking about getting together and working on this stuff, that it became pretty apparent that we all weren't wanting to go in the same direction.

"There was a period where we weren't really talking to each other all that much, and Jon and I were just living at my house and continuing to write. And we kind of realised we needed to get over not speaking and figure out what was actually going on. So we all sat down and pretty much came to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone was to do what we did."