<P> On February 12, 2017, Twenty One Pilots won a Grammy Award for "Stressed Out" in the Best Pop Duo / Group Performance category . The band stripped to their underwear before taking the stage, with Joseph claiming in their acceptance speech that this was a fulfillment of a promise the duo had made each other in their early days as a local Columbus band . </P> <P> On March 27, 2017, the band began selling tickets for what they called a "Tour De Columbus", a five - date hometown tour taking place in June 2017 . The duo performed at several small venues they first played as a local band including The Basement, Newport Music Hall, and Express Live!, before ending their tour cycle with arena shows at Nationwide Arena and Value City Arena . </P> <P> In an interview with Alternative Press in November 2016, Twenty One Pilots stated that after their last show, they will be "going dark" to focus on new music . Joseph stated that he would like to focus on lyrical content of the music, and bring the music back to the "authenticity, lyrics, delivery, and fearlessness of songwriting" similar to that of the self - titled album . The band's last activity came in July 2017 in the form of posts on social media depicting an eye closing over lyrics from several of their songs . </P> <P> In March 2018, their song "Hometown" received a Gold certification from the RIAA, making Blurryface the first full - length album to have every track achieve at least gold status . </P>

When did twenty one pilots start the hiatus