Ron Welty Of The Offspring

When the Offspring were playing one of their first gigs in Provo, Utah, Ron Welty was busy reading behind his kit. No, it wasn't a punk 'zine he was trying to read as Dexter Holland and the boys ran through the set; it was the names of the beats he was supposed to play. As he laughs at the memory, Ron explains that he really didn't have the time to learn how to play the drums, let alone the songs the punk band from Orange County was belting out. "I sat there and stared down at the paper I had written the beats on," Ron remembers. "We named them things like 'the slippity beat.'"

But what's it really like going from playing in front of twenty-five people in Provo to thousands at festival shows around Europe? "Twenty-five? It wasn't that many," Welty answers. "But playing for so many people now is definitely a trip." Ron admits that the change has been a little difficult. "We're settling in and getting used to it all. It was scary going on stage with people actually expecting something out of you." Meaning no more reading during the show.

The band played 227 gigs in support of their multi-platinum album Smash, which prepared them well for the recording of Ixnay On The Hombre, their latest release. "It seems that we're growing as a band," Ron says, "and this album is definitely one of the best things we've ever done. The tempos are better and my timing is getting much better."

For his part, Ron has a simple approach to all of the band's music: "I just concentrate on the feel instead of putting in any tricky stuff. When I play, it's all about the emotion and putting a lot of balls behind it."

By David John Farinella, from Modern Drummer - August, 1997