The Offspring

Smash, the Offspring’s 1994 breakthrough, became one of the best-selling albums ever released by an independent label, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide. Led by “Come Out and Play,” it helped carry punk rock back into mainstream American radio and MTV during the mid-1990s. The album followed the group’s move to Epitaph Records after they had built a local following with their self-titled 1989 debut and the 1991 seven-inch EP Baghdad.

Formed in Garden Grove, California, in 1984 under the name Manic Subsidal, the Offspring grew from Southern California punk into one of the genre’s biggest commercial acts. The band is often credited alongside Green Day, NOFX, Bad Religion, Rancid and Pennywise with reviving mainstream interest in punk rock during the 1990s. Across a 42-year career, the group has released eleven studio albums and sold more than 45 million records.

After Smash drew the interest of major labels, the Offspring signed with Columbia Records in 1996. Their first Columbia album, Ixnay on the Hombre, arrived in 1997 and earned favorable reviews as well as gold and platinum RIAA certifications. Americana followed in 1998 and became the band’s highest-charting release on the Billboard 200, reaching number two. Its singles “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),” “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright” became staples of mainstream radio and MTV, while the album sold more than five million units in the United States.

Conspiracy of One, released in 2000, went platinum, while 2003’s Splinter was certified gold. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace arrived in 2008, with “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” spending eleven weeks at the top of Billboard’s rock chart and later receiving platinum certification. The band continued touring after Days Go By in 2012 and released standalone songs before returning with Let the Bad Times Roll in 2021. Their latest studio album, Supercharged, was released on October 11, 2024.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Bryan “Dexter” Holland and lead guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman remain central members of the group. The present lineup also includes bassist Todd Morse, multi-instrumentalist Jonah Nimoy and drummer Brandon Pertzborn. Ron Welty, the band’s longest-serving drummer, joined in 1987 after replacing original drummer James Lilja; Adam “Atom” Willard succeeded him in 2003, followed by Pete Parada in 2007. Parada left in 2021 after refusing COVID-19 vaccination, and Pertzborn was officially named his replacement two years later. Founding bassist Greg K. Kriesel left in 2018, with Morse taking over after serving as the band’s touring guitarist since 2009.