Biography
Dexter Holland - Vocals, Guitar
Noodles - Guitar
Greg Kriesel - Bass Guitar
Ron Welty - Drums
At Pacifica High in Garden Grove, CA, there were many different cliques. There were Mod Scene cliques, and New Wave cliques. But one kid, Bryan Holland did not fit into any of them. He was one of the good kids. He was even the class valedictorian. Because of this, he came to be known as Dexter. The name stuck and he is still called by it to this day. Dexter met one of his future band mates Greg Kriesel on the cross - coutry team at thier highschool.
Dexter discovered punk on his senior year of high school. His older brother started giving him punk albums to listen to. Dexter's favorite punk bands were T.S.O.L., The Adolescents, and other Orange County punk bands.
Greg didn't discover punk untill even later. His father thought we would grow up to be a lawyer. Greg was a big sports fan in high school. He was on the cross-country team with Dexter, and he was on the baseball team. Greg didn't get into punk untill Dexter started playing his punk albums for him.
In 1984, Dexter and Greg formed their first band called Manic Subcidal with two other members of the cross country team. At the time neither Dexter or Greg knew how to play thier insturments. In fact, they didn't even own thier own insturments. It took a while but they both learned and were soon playing songs.
Manic Subcidal played thier gigs at Greg's house. Their gigs at the time were just 20 people dropping by Greg's house crammed into a room listening to them play. Greg's parents didn't seem to mind it too much.
That fall, Dexter began to study at USC university. Greg Started to attend Golden West Junior College. Later on Greg recieved a B.A. from Long Beach University in financing. Greg was still planning to become a lawyer. The only time the band could get together and rehearse was on weekends.
Pretty soon Manic Subcidal had written a couple songs. They began to record in a cheap studio. Around this time, one of thier guitarist quit. To fill in they got Kevin Wasserman (Noodles), to fill in. He was the janitor at Pacifica High (Dexter and Greg's school) Since he was over 21, he would help the band get most of thier beer.
I guess your wondering how Ron Welty joined the band. Well, this is how it happened. The drummer for Manic Subcidal had joined medical school and was missing a lot of the bands gigs. Ron's step sister introduced him to Dexter. Ron, only 16 at the time, begged Dexter to let him in the band. Ron soon became the permanent drummer of the band. They then changed thier name to The Offspring.
In 1987, The Offspring released thier first 7" single. They held a party, got a case of beer, a bunch of glue sticks, and a bunch of friends and glued the lables on teh sleaves of the 1,000 copies they printed. They sold all of the copies.
Two years later after many rejects, the band landed a deal with Nemisis Records. This was a smasll punk lable. They tracked down the producer Thom Wilson after he produced some of their favorite CDs bye The Vandals and Dead Kenedys. They released another 7" single called "Baghdad". Then they released thier debute album self titled "The Offspring."
A Year Later, The Offspring signed with Epitaph records, one of California's biggest punk lables. In 1992, The Offspring released their second album "Ignition".
The band's big break came in 1994, When they released "Smash". Thanks to thier first music video "Come Out and Play", Smash became the biggest selling Idie album of all time. It sold 4 million copies. The album's hype became even bigger when they made thier video to "Self Esteem". Since the band became so big, in 1995 they rereleased thier self titled debute album on Dexter's own record lable Nitro Records.
In 1996, The Offspring signed with Columbia Records after disputes with Epitaph. They recorded and in 1997 released "Ixnay on the Hombre". This album didn't even compete with the record sales of Smash. Many people see Ixnay as a failure but the ture fans saw it as just another great album.
In 1998, The Offspring got a huge break when they released Americana. The song "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy" became a huge hit all over the nation, played on radios all over. However, the band took a beating from their fans. They were accused of selling out, and becomming teenie boppers. Thier crows of fans changed from more hardcore punk fans to a younger crowd.
In the summer of 2000, The Offspring became very busy again. They played the KROQ Weenie Roast for thier 3rd time. The summer also saw the band's return to the studio. They went to the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien (Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, Smashing Pumpkins) to record thier sixth studio album. The band promised thier fastest and heaviest album yet.
The band planned to release the entire album on thier website before it was released in stores. Sony music quickly shut down this plan. They did, however allow them to release the first single "Original Prankster" to download before the album was released. When a fan downloaded the song they were automaticly entered in a contest to win a million dollars of The Offspring's own money.
On the November 14, 2000, the album Conspiracy of One was released. On the same day, the band announced the winner of the million dollar contest on MTV. They followed up the album by touring the US in November and December. In January and Febrary, the band invaded the UK for a tour. The band continues to tour and support Conspiracy of One, and plan to tour the US and Europe this summer. One of the dates even includes opening for legendary rock band AC/DC.
